Yehudi Wyner

Yehudi Wyner (born June 1, 1929 in Calgary, Alberta) is an American composer, pianist, conductor and music educator.

Wyner, who grew up in New York City, was raised in a musical family. His father, Lazar Weiner, was an eminent composer of Yiddish art songs. Wyner attended Juilliard, Yale and Harvard. He has written music in a variety of genres, including compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voice and solo instruments, as well as theatrical music and settings of the Jewish liturgy. Among his best-known works are the Friday Evening Service (1963) for cantor and chorus, and On This Most Voluptuous Night (1982) for soprano and chamber ensemble.

Wyner taught for 14 years at Yale, where he was the head of the composition faculty. He also taught at SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard.

In 2006, Wyner won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his piano concerto Chiavi in Mano.

Personal Life

Wyner married soprano Susan Davenny-Wyner in 1967.

Selected works

• Partita – for piano, 1952
• Concert duo for violin and piano (1956)
• Serenade for flute, horn, trumpet, trombone, viola, cello, piano (1958)
• The Mirror (1972–73)
• Intermedio – Lyric ballet for soprano and strings – October 1974
• The Grass is High – for voice and piano (1979)
• String quartet (1984–85)
• Composition for viola and piano (1987)
• Trapunto Junction for trumpet, French horn, trombone and percussion
• Amadeus’ billiard: for violin, viola, bass, bassoon and two horns (cf. Mozart—Divertimento no. 7, K. 205) (1991)
• Prologue and narrative: for cello and orchestra (1994)
• Horntrio (1997)
• The second madrigal: Voices of women (1999)
• Quartet for oboe and stringtrio (1999) ([1])
• Commedia: for clarinet in B-flat and piano (2003)
• Chiavi in Mano for piano and orchestra (2004)
• Give Thanks for All Things for orchestra and chorus (2010)

Degrees

• Yale University, M.Mus. (1953)
• Harvard University, M.A. (1952)
• Yale University, B.Mus. (1951)
• Yale University, B.A. (1950)
• Juilliard School, Diploma (1946)

Notable students

• Chester Biscardi
• Craig Walsh
• Michael H. Weinstein

Partial discography

• YEHUDI WYNER: ‘CHIAVI IN MANO,’ OTHER WORKS. Robert Levin, pianist; Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano; other performers. Bridge 9282; CD

References

• Composer's homepage
• Biography from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music
• Biography from Schirmer Inc. Associated Music Publishers
• Faculty profile from Brandeis University

External links

• Hear Yehudi Wyner in concert from WGBH Boston
• Interview with Yehudi Wyner by Bruce Duffie, December 19, 1994