1. Eric Salzman was an American composer, scholar, author, impresario, music critic, and record producer.
27 Facts About Eric Salzman
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Eric Salzman is best known for his contributions to 'New Music Theater,' a concept he advanced through both his compositions and writings.
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Eric Salzman established it as an independent art form, distinct from grand opera and popular musicals, both aesthetically and economically.
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Eric Salzman co-founded the American Music Theater Festival and was, at the time of his death in 2017, Composer-in-Residence at the Center for Contemporary Opera.
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Eric Salzman was born September 8,1933, in New York City and attended Forest Hills High School.
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Eric Salzman pursued postgraduate work at Princeton University with Milton Babbitt, Roger Sessions, Earl Kim, Edward T Cone, Arthur Mendel, Oliver Strunk, and Nino Pirrotta.
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Eric Salzman won the Elsie O and Philip D Sang Prize for Critics of the Fine Arts in 1969, an award previously given to Harold Clurman and subsequently to Hilton Kramer.
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Eric Salzman worked as contributing editor and critic for Opera News, Opera, Neue Zeitschrift der Musik, New York Magazine, and other publications in Germany, France, and England.
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Eric Salzman founded and ran The Electric Ear at the Electric Circus from 1967 until 1968.
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Eric Salzman served as music director of WBAI-FM from 1962 until 1964, and again from 1968 until 1972, winning a Major Armstrong Award for broadcasting.
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Eric Salzman interviewed numerous artists, including Stefan Wolpe and Edgard Varese, and was himself interviewed by Virgil Thomson as the special guest on Thomson's radio program for WNCN-FM in 1970.
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Eric Salzman left the Free Music Store in 1972, though the Free Music Store continued operating in various locations under the leadership of Ira Weitzman.
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From 1975 to 1990, Eric Salzman produced and directed over two dozen recordings, mainly for Nonesuch Records, including two Grammy Award-nominated records: the Hal Prince production of Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake with the New York City Opera conducted by Julius Rudel and The Unknown Kurt Weill, featuring Teresa Stratas.
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Eric Salzman produced the Nonesuch album The Tango Project and the two follow-up Tango Project albums, Two to Tango and The Palm Court.
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Eric Salzman produced several recordings featuring the music of Harry Partch and William Bolcom, as well as his own music.
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In 1967, Eric Salzman founded the "New Image of Sound" series at Hunter College, where his theatrical composition Verses and Cantos was performed for the inaugural concert conducted by Dennis Russell Davies alongside the New York premiere of Berio's Laborintus II.
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In 1970, Eric Salzman founded the Quog Music Theater, a mixed-media performing group, which included accordionist William Schimmel and percussionist David Van Tieghem.
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The ensemble performed many of Eric Salzman's works, including Ecolog, a music theater piece for television, which received its live premiere at the New York Philharmonic's "Prospective Encounters" series in 1972, as conducted by Boulez.
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Eric Salzman created numerous theatrical works with the musician Michael Sahl, with both artists generally serving as co-composer and co-librettist.
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In 1984, Salzman founded the American Music Theater Festival with Marjorie Samoff and Ron Kaiserman.
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From 2000 until 2012, Eric Salzman was Artistic Director of the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City and served as Composer-in-Residence for the company.
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In 1980, Eric Salzman composed and conducted instrumental music and song for Yuri Rasovsky's Peabody Award-winning audio dramatization of Homer's Odyssey for the National Radio Theater.
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Eric Salzman was editor of The Musical Quarterly from 1984 to 1991.
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Eric Salzman wrote The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body with Thomas Desi and Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction, which has become a widely used textbook in university courses on modern music.
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Eric Salzman was married to environmental activist, writer, and Green Party founding member Lorna Eric Salzman from 1955 until his death.
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Eric Salzman was an avid birdwatcher and an expert in bird calls of Eastern Long Island.
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Eric Salzman died on November 12,2017, from a heart attack, aged 84.