Osvaldo Noé Golijov (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡolixof]) (born December 5, 1960)^[1] is an Argentine composer of classical music.

Life and career [edit]

Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina,^[1] in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.^[2][3]

Golijov's mother was a piano teacher, his father, a physician. He was raised "surrounded by chamber classical music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Ástor Piazzolla," according to his official website. He studied piano at the local conservatory in La Plata and studied composition with Gerardo Gandini.

In 1983, Golijov moved to Israel, where he studied with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy. Three years later, he moved to the United States. There he studied with composer George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania before receiving his doctorate.^[1]

Golijov is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship^[1] and the Vilcek Prize, among other awards and commissions.^[1] He collaborates closely with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya; vocalists Luciana Souza and Biella de Costa; cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Alisa Weilerstein, Maya Beiser and Matt Haimovitz; the kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor and percussionist Jamey Haddad; ensembles including the Atlanta Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, Silk Road Ensemble and eighth blackbird; the artist Gronk, playwright David Henry Hwang, and directors Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Sellars. He has been composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Merkin Hall in New York, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Alive series, Marlboro Music School and Festival, Ravinia Festival, and several other festivals. In 2010, he composed a commissioned work for 35 American orchestras titled Sidereus, honoring the seventeenth century Italian astronomer Galileo.^[4] and dedicated to an orchestra industry official, Henry Fogel. For the 2012-13 season, Golijov holds the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall in New York.^[5]

Golijov is Loyola Professor of Music at the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has taught since 1991.^[6]

He married architect and designer Neri Oxman in 2011. He has three children from a previous marriage.^[7]

Golijov's music [edit]

Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of a lifetime of experience with various types of music. His Romanian Jewish parents exposed him to the traditional Klezmer music and liturgical music of their faith. Growing up and going to public school in Argentina showed him the many musical styles of his family's adopted country, including the tango. Once Golijov traveled abroad to continue his studies, the influences of other people and other styles became part of him. What is considered^{[by whom?]} so remarkable about his musical language is that, rather than a pastiche of styles, it is wholly cohesive. It is thought of^{[by whom?]} as vibrant and alive, growing and changing as he does.^[8]

Golijov and composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Tan Dun, and Wolfgang Rihm were commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart to write pieces for the Passion 2000 project in commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach. Golijov's contribution was La Pasión según San Marcos (The Passion according to St. Mark).

He has also composed and arranged works for the Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.^[1] He frequently works with Venezuelan conductor Maria Guinand, who conducted the world premieres of Oceana (commissioned by the Oregon Bach Festival, 1996) and La Pasión según San Marcos (Stuttgart's European Music Festival, 2000); classical and Klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer; and American soprano Dawn Upshaw, who performed premieres of his new opera, Ainadamar (and Arias and Ensembles derived from it) at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (which commissioned the opera) in 2003, the Santa Fe Opera Festival in 2005, London's Barbican Arts Centre in 2006 and Opera Boston in 2007. Upshaw also performed the premiere of Golijov's song cycle Ayre in 2004 at New York's Zankel Hall. Azul, a work for cello and orchestra, was written for Yo-Yo Ma, who premiered the work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2006.^[9] The same work, performed by Ma, will open the 2013-14 season of the New York Philharmonic.^[10] Golijov's first movie soundtrack experience was for Sally Potter's 2000 film The Man Who Cried. More recently he composed for Francis Ford Coppola's movie Youth Without Youth,^[11] and original music for Coppola's films Tetro^[12] and Twixt.^[13] His music has been played during a performance of the New Jersey-based Lydia Johnson Dance company.^[14]

Golijov received two awards in the Grammy Awards of 2007—the Best Opera Recording for Ainadamar: Fountain of Tears and Best Classical Contemporary Composition for the same opera.^[15] Golijov also received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for Yiddishbbuk.^[16]

Deadline and plagiarism controversy [edit]

Golijov has been the nexus of several controversies around his work, including missed deadlines and accusations of plagiarism.

Golijov came under scrutiny in 2011 for a series of high-profile commissions that were either delayed or cancelled. A violin concerto written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic was not completed in time,^[17] and had to be replaced on the program. A second deadline was missed the following year in Berlin.^[18] The piece was delayed a third time in November 2012, and missed its January 2013 premiere at Disney Hall.^[19]

This followed a similar cancellation in 2010, when a scheduled song cycle had to be removed from the program when it was not complete in time.^[20] The March 2011 premiere of a new string quartet for the St. Lawrence Quartet was also delayed due to a missed deadline,^[21] though the work, Qohelet, was completed later that year and premiered by the quartet in October 2011.^[22]

Questions of musical plagiarism were leveled at Golijov after Tom Manoff, a composer and critic, and Brian McWhorter, a trumpeter, alleged that Sidereus consists mainly of music from the Michael Ward-Bergeman composition Barbeich. Alex Ross of The New Yorker reviewed both scores and wrote, "To put it bluntly, 'Sidereus' is 'Barbeich' with additional material attached."^[23] A consortium of thirty-five orchestras paid Golijov $75,000 to write a 20-minute work; a fee supplemented by a $50,000 grant approved by the then board of the League of American Orchestras.^[24] The final work that Golijov produced and gave to the consortium of orchestras is a 9-minute work. Golijov also used that same musical material in his 2009 composition Radio. Golijov responded to these questions by explaining that he composed the original musical material jointly with Ward-Bergeman, and used it with permission. He also cited Claudio Monteverdi, Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler as other composers who have shared existing musical material to create new music.^[25]

Discography [edit]

• Tetro (soundtrack) (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009)
• Youth Without Youth (soundtrack) (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007)
• Oceana (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007)
• Ainadamar (Deutsche Grammophon, Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)
• Ayre (Deutsche Grammophon CD 00289 477 5414)
• La Pasión según San Marcos The Passion according to St. Mark (Hänssler Classic 98404, 2001)
• La Pasión según San Marcos The Passion according to St. Mark (two versions: live performance on DVD, Holland Festival, Amsterdam, 22 June 2008 and studio CD, Caracas, both performances are on Deutsche Grammophon B0014008-00)
• Yiddishbbuk (EMI Classics 57356-2)
• The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind performed by the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79444)
• Nuevo arrangements for the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79649)
• The Man Who Cried (soundtrack) (Sony Classical SK 61870)^[26]
• Caravan arrangements for the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79490)
• Voices of Light Golijov's composition Lúa Descolorida sung by soprano Dawn Upshaw (Nonesuch 79812)
• Night Prayers Golijov's composition K'vakarat on recording of the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79346)
• World to Come Golijov's composition Mariel played by cellist Maya Beiser (Koch Int'l Classics B0000CABC4)
• Goulash composition Oración Lucumí on recording by the cellist Matt Haimovitz (Oxingale)
• Anthem Golijov's composition Omaramor on recording by cellist Matt Haimovitz (Oxingale 1238)
• Klezmer Concertos and Encores composition Rocketekya on recording of klezmer music (Naxos B0000C508L)
• Borromeo String Quartet Living Archive February 29, 2004 (CD/DVD/VHS) Golijov's compositions Yiddishbbuk and Tenebrae
• Voices of Our Time – Dawn Upshaw (DVD) Golijov's composition Lúa Descolorida (TDK VTDU)

Film composer [edit]

• The Man Who Cried (2000)
• 11'09"01 September 11 (2002)
• Youth Without Youth (2007)
• Tetro (2009)
• The Oath (2010)
• Twixt (2011, with Dan Deacon)

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Osvaldo Golijov: Biography". Retrieved 2011-07-28. 
2. ^ Terauds, John (2010-02-25). "Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov follows his intuition". Toronto: thestar.com. Retrieved 2010-02-25. 
3. ^ "Osvaldo Golijov: La Pásion según San Marcos". laphil.com. Retrieved 2010-03-15. 
4. ^ Horsley, Paul. "HOMAGE TO HENRY: Orchestras, League commission top composer to honor visionary leader". Kansas City Independent. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
5. ^ "Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair: Osvaldo Golijov". Retrieved 4 March 2013. 
6. ^ "Osvaldo Golijov Named Loyola Professor of Music at Holy Cross". Retrieved 2008-05-27. 
7. ^ Beggy, Carol; Shanahan, Mark (2006-10-27). "Newton composer bowls over Bowie". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2006-12-03. 
8. ^ "Official website of Osvaldo Golijov". osvaldogolijov.com. Retrieved 2010-07-09. 
9. ^ "Azul". Retrieved 5 March 2013. 
10. ^ "Philharmonic Steals a Page From the Art World With a New-Music Biennial". Retrieved 5 March 2013. 
11. ^ Youth without Youth at the Internet Movie Database
12. ^ Tetro at the Internet Movie Database
13. ^ Twixt at the Internet Movie Database
14. ^ Roslyn Sulcas. "Lydia Johnson Dance". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-12-17. "Lydia Johnson, who tends to infuse ballet with a contemporary sensibility, ..." 
15. ^ "Yahoo! Music 49th GRAMMY Awards Winners in the Classical Category". Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
16. ^ "YIDDISHBBUK NOMINATED FOR TWO GRAMMY AWARDS". St. Lawrence String Quartet. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
17. ^ http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/03/golly_flunks_on_the_dude.html
18. ^ http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/03/exclusive-golijov-withdraws-his-violin-concerto-from-berlin.html
19. ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-osvaldo-golijov-misses-deadline-violin-concerto-20121129,0,7070695.story
20. ^ "Los Angeles Philharmonic hit by Wave of Cancellations by Artists". Los Angeles Times. 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2011-03-15. 
21. ^ Kozinn, Allan (2011-03-09). "St. Lawrence String Quartet At Zankel Hall Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-03-15. 
22. ^ "St. Lawrence Program Notes". Retrieved 2013-03-03. 
23. ^ |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/02/osvaldo-golijov-sidereus.html%7C
24. ^ |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/arts/music/osvaldo-golijov-fracas-over-sidereus-overture.html%7C
25. ^ Weininger, David (2012-03-16). "Longwood gets its turn with ‘Sidereus’". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2012-11-09. 
26. ^ Crebo, Anna (2002-11-01). "Osvaldo Golijov: A busy composer finds it all a little 'scary.'". American Record Guide. Retrieved 2009-02-10. 

External links [edit]

• Official website of Osvaldo Golijov
• Interview with Osvaldo Golijov, 2008, from Habitus: A Diaspora Journal
• Osvaldo Golijov discusses his opera, Aidanamar from WGBH Radio Boston
• Osvaldo Golijov at the Internet Movie Database
• NPR's Tom Huizenga names La Pasión Según San Marcos one of the classical recordings of the decade
• The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov
• Osvaldo Golijov @ Boosey & Hawkes