American Masterpieces: Chamber Music
An ongoing series spotlighting performances supported by the
National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Chamber Music initiative

The program has awarded a total of 158 grants for the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011 seasons.

 Read about American Masterpieces Programs in Chamber Music Magazine

September/October
How American Is it?
by Kyle Gann
In the last essay of our three-year American Masterpieces series, Kyle Gann looks at some traits American composers share.

July/August
William Bolcom Mixes It Up
by Fred Cohn
The composer regularly incorporates our country's vernacular styles.
July/August calendar of American Masterpieces-supported events

American Composer: Frederic Rzewski
by Kyle Gann
It is all but impossible to generalize about the music of this brilliant American expatriate.

May/June 2011
A Jazz Clarinetist's Legacy
By John McDonough
Benny Goodman renewed interest in the small ensemble during the big-band era. And he was the first big name to have a dual-genre career.
May/June calendar of American Masterpieces-supported events
Kyle Gann
by Frank J. Oteri

March/April 2011
The Bostonians
by Edward Reichel
The Atlanta Chamber Players pay tribute to Beantown composers
March/April calendar of American Masterpieces-supported events
Ezra Sims
by Kyle Gann
The 72-tone octave in chamber music

January/February 2011
The Otherworldly Music of Elvis’s Astrologer
by Frank J. Oteri
Dane Rudhyar composed intensely--but only during a few widely separated periods of his long and varied life.
January/February calendar of American Masterpieces-supported events
David First
by Kyle Gann
Austere, but not puritanical, First’s music is full of sonic surprises.

November/December 2010
MacPhail on the Mysteries of Charles Mingus
by John  McDonough
Evan Ziporyn
An American composer whose work deeply absorbed Indonesian influences  
by Kyle Gann
The Commissioners
The American Brass Quintet continues to expend the repertoire
by Chester Lane

July/August 2010
New and Newer
By John Stege
The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival features new ensemble works by Steven Stucky, Chinary Ung, and Cynthia Lee Wong.
July/August national calendar of American Masterpieces events

May/June 2010
Converting a Reluctant Composer: Christopher Rouse  
By Frank J. Oteri
The Calder Quartet has elicited another string quartet from the composer—his first in 20 years.
May/June Performance Calendar

March/April 2010
Father of Invention
By Fred Cohn
In Michigan, Fontana Chamber Arts decided to present works by Frank Zappa on its mainstage series.
March/April 2010 national calendar of American Masterpieces events

January/February 2010
Americans from Around the World
By Fred Cohn
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players features American works by Tan Dun, born in China, and Brian Ferneyhough, born in the U.K.
January/February 2010 national calendar of American Masterpieces events

November/December 2009
A Labor of Love
By Fred Cohn
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich discusses her new Septet, commissioned by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Miami String Quartet.
November/December 2009 national calendar of American Masterpieces events

September/October 2009
The Chamber Music of Samuel Barber
by Barbara Heyman
The Newness of David Lang
by Steven Schick
America Singing
by Marcia Young 
Americans in Paris
by James M. Keller
Postclassical America: A Theory of Musical Relativity
by Kyle Gann
Personal Bests
Ensemble musicians, composers--and a few other interested parties--laud some of their favorite American works.
by Julia Bruskin (Ellen Taaffe Zwilich), Trudy Chan (Paul Creston), Stephanie Crease (Duke Ellington), Gregory Evans (Roberto Sierra, Stefan Wolpe), John Fitz Rogers (Ben Johnston), Yehuda Hanani (Lukas Foss), Trevor Hunter (Lois V. Vierk), David Harrington (Morton Feldman, George Crumb, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Aleksandra Vrebalov),  Bayla Keyes (Joan Tower), John Largess (Charles Ives, John Zorn), George E. Lewis (Benjamin Patterson), Tod Machover (Morton Subotnick) , Anne-Marie McDermott (Amy Beach), Larry Ochs (Miles Davis), Frank J. Oteri (John Cage, John Corigliano, Eric Dolphy, Irving Fine), Steven Ovitsky (Alec Wilder), Daniel Phillips (John Harbison), Jeffrey Sackmann (Charles Wuorinen), A.B. Spellman (John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk),  and Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate (Louis Ballard)
Performance Calendar American Masterpieces:Chamber Music

July/August 2009
Text Messenger
By Fred Cohn
Virgil Thomson’s sensitivity to language in setting poetry to music is the focus of composer workshops and performances at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Yale School of Music’s summer home.  
July/August 2009 national calendar of American Masterpieces events

May/June 2009
A Living Context
By Fred Cohn
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival presents an American Composers Residency program, featuring Gunther Schuller, George Tsontakis, and Jerod Impichchaaha' Tate.
May/June national calendar of American Masterpieces events

March/April 2009
Different Drums
Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts' Drums Along the Pacific tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of what was probably America's first all-percussion concert, staged by John Cage and Lou Harrison (with contributions from Henry Cowell and others).
March/April national calendar of American Masterpieces events

January/February 2009
Answering the 'What Is American?' Question
Bargemusic's January program featured the American String Quartet performing works by Louis Gruenberg, George Whitefield Chadwick, Tobias Picker, and Roger Sessions.  Friends of Chamber Music (Kansas City) presented Chen Yi's From the Path of Beauty, for String Quartet and Mixed Choir (a joint commission of the Shanghai Quartet and Chanticleer).
January/February national calendar of American Masterpieces events

November/December 2008
Made in the USA
Music of Remembrance's December program included For a Look or a Touch (2007) by Jake Heggie; Cantus began a series of five day-long school-based programs American choral music, and the American Brass Quintet toured works by Gordon Beeferman, David Sampson, Joan Tower and Shafer Mahoney.
November/December national calendar of American Masterpieces events

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