Stanley Wolfe
Stanley Wolfe was born on 7 February 1924 in New York (USA). He studied music at the Juilliard School of Music under William Bergsma,Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin and graduated with a master's degree in composition in 1955. Stanley Wolfe joined the faculty that same year, teaching theory, contemporary music, and composition. In 1956, he became director of Juilliard’s Extension Division (now the Evening Division), a post he held for 33 years until he retired from administrative duties in 1989. He remained on the School’s faculty until 2005. Wolfe was also a professor of music at Fordham University at Lincoln Center from 1969 through 1973 and a lecturer in the New York Philharmonic’s preconcert series, in 1985.
Wolfe received a number of high-profile awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957 and the Alice M. Ditson-American Symphony Orchestra prize in 1961. He was the recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1969, 1970, and 1977. In 1990, he received a citation and recording award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Stanley Wolfe died on 29 May 2009 in Yonkers, N.Y. (USA).
Wolfe, who described himself as primarily a symphonist, composed 7 symphonies, a Canticle for strings, Lincoln Square Overture for orchestra, Variations for orchestra, a Violin concerto, an Adagio for woodwind quartet, a string quartet and the dance piece "King's Heart".
The Violin concerto by Stanley Wolfe was composed in 1989 and premiered on 9 February 1989 by Mark Peskanov (violin) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin (conductor). It received four subsequent performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the same soloist and conductor.
The work is one of the finest and most brilliant violin concertos of the 20th century and part of my selected recommendation list. Unfortunately it is woefully overlooked by soloists and music directors these days.
I am pleased to have the permission to publish the score of the violin concerto by Stanley Wolfe which can be downloaded below. I also included a complete recording of the world premiere performance.
