UNT Musicians with Arturo Ortega, conductor
Richard Brooks (R) with Arnold Greissle-Schnberg and Nancy BogenRichard Brooks recently returned from the University of North Texas where he attended a performance
of his arrangement of Georg Schoenberg's cantata, Mein Lebenslauf.
The composer explains: "This is only the second performance of this work by Arnold Schoenberg's
eldest son. The original score was written for Baritone solo, SATB chorus and orchestra, but exists
only in a piano-vocal form; he indicated some instrumentation but a full score has
never been found. My arrangement uses a Pierrot ensemble. I am also
working with Georg Schoenberg's heirs to prepare a complete edition of his music."
Brooks' American Elegy for string orchestra will be performed during the SCI
Region III Conference at Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA, in March, and then on June 2, his Four Miniatures for guitar and viola will be presented at a New
York Composers Circle concert at Symphony Space Thalia.
Happy Birthday Richard Brooks!
RICHARD
BROOKS (b. 1942) is a native of upstate New
York and holds a B.S. degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music,
Potsdam College, an M.A. in Composition from Binghamton University and a Ph. D.
in Composition from New York University.
From 1975-2004 he was on the music faculty of Nassau Community College
where he was Professor and Department Chair for 22 years.
From 1977 to 1982 he was Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the American Society of University Composers (now the
Society of Composers, Inc.) on which he continues to serve as the Producer of
the SCI Compact Disk Series. In 1981 he
was elected to the Board of Governors of the American Composers Alliance. After serving two terms as Secretary and
three terms as Vice-President he was elected President in the Fall of 1993 and
served until 2002; he served as the Chair of the Board of Governors until 2011. Brooks also served
as a member of the Junior/Community College Commission on Accreditation of the
National Association of Schools of Music for ten years.