Composer Spotlight-Paul Salerni

Get to Know...Paul Salerni

This weekend, I had the pleasure of listening to a delightful CD of Paul Salerni’s chamber music entitled “Touched.” His works are charming and the performances (by the groups who commissioned the works) are lovely. If you're a NFA member, I recommend you take advantage of the Naxos subscription and check it out!

His newest work featuring the flute, U-Turn for woodwind quintet, was premiered March 6, 2016 by the East Winds wind quintet at Lehigh University where he is a Professor of Music. Salerni teaches theory and composition, and conducts the Lehigh University Very Modern Ensemble (LUVME).

Paul was a finalist in 2014 for Bad Pets for Baritone, alto flute, and guitar.

Q&A with Paul….   
           
Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about?
 A performance of two movements of my woodwind quintet entitled "U-Turn" will be given by the East Winds quintet at the International Flute Convention on August 13 in San Diego. (Saturday at 2:30)
 
What pieces do you have with prominent flute parts and where can we find recordings:
 I would suggest the following pieces that appear on my Albany CD entitled "Touched."
1) Turns, flute, guitar, and string quartet (you can hear a movement of this piece on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_vEc1RPaew
2) Two Partita, flute and guitar (you can hear a movement of this piece on YouTube):
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmU-p_jL964
3) Bad Pets, baritone, alto flute and guitar. Bad Pets is one of my most popular pieces and there is an alternative version for mezzo soprano, alto flute, and guitar. If you'd like to see a charming performance of this piece please visit the following video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/NK5WmycKAEY
 
Where can performance materials for your pieces be obtained?
 Contact me directly at [email protected].
 
More About Paul….

Paul Salerni’s music “pulses with life, witty musical ideas and instrumental color” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), and has been described by the New York Times as “impressive” and “playful.” His one-act opera Tony Caruso’s Final Broadcast won the National Opera Association’s Chamber Opera competition in 2007, and a definitive recording of the opera was released on Naxos in 2010. His second one-act, The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, an adaptation of a Dick Van Dyke TV Show episode, had its premiere in September 2010. Both one-acts are published by Theodore Presser. Salerni’s latest large-scale project was a ballet (FABLES) commissioned and premiered by RIOULT New York. Other recent commissions include Philadelphia Brass, Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, Cape Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, and SATORI. ACD of Salerni’s chamber music (“Touched) was released by Albany Records in January 2015.
 
Salerni is the NEH Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Music at Lehigh University. He received his Ph.D. in composition from Harvard University, where he studied with Earl Kim. Salerni has performed and lectured about Kim’s music in Korea, at the Kennedy Center, the 92nd St. Y, and the Aspen Music Festival. A dedicated educator, Salerni was the recipient of the Stabler Award, Lehigh University’s most valued acknowledgement of excellence in teaching. He served for seven years on the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, including two years as its Chair.
 
For more about Paul, visit his website www.paulsalerni.com
 
Salerni’s Other Works for Flute
 
Chamber Works
 
Toddler Riffs
Instrumentation: flute, violin, cello
Commission: Animè
Year: 1990
Duration:  20 minutes
 
Turns
Instrumentation: flute, guitar, and string quartet
Commission: SATORI
Year: 2006
Duration: 13 minutes
 
Two Partita
Instrumentation: flute and guitar
Commission: Two-Part Invention
Year: 2008
Duration: 10 minutes
 
U-Turn
Instrumentation: wind quintet
Year: 2016
 
Witches and Rappings
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin & piano
Commission: SATORI
Year: 2010
Duration: 10 minutes
 
Song Cycles
 
Bad Pets (song cycle on poems by Doty, Frost, and Gioia)
Instrumentation: for baritone, alto flute, and guitar (also version for soprano, alto flute, and guitar)
Commission: Two-Part Invention
Year: 2007
Duration:  10 minutes
 
Family Letters (song cycle on a poem by Dana Gioia)
Instrumentation: mezzo, flute, clarinet in A, violin, and violoncello
Commission: the family of Eileen Wavrek Wescoe
Year: 2015
Duration: 10 minutes
 
Sad Stories (song cycle on poems found in the New Yorker)
Instrumentation: mezzo-soprano, alto flute, mallet percussion, violin, cello
Year: 1991
Duration: 13 minutes
 
Speaking of Love (song cycle on poems by Dana Gioia)
Instrumentation: soprano, viola, piano/mallet percussion (also version for soprano, flute, and guitar)
Year:1993
Duration:  10 minutes

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