The 12/11 edition of Final Note Magazine includes an interview with composer/conductor José Serebrier. He describes his early training in violin and composition in his native Uruguay, and relates his “discovery” by Leopold Stokowski, while a seventeen-year-old student at the Curtis Institute, as a “last-minute replacement” for the world premiere of Charles Ives’s 4th Symphony (which was led by Stokowski but required two conductors); Serebrier was subsequently selected by Stokowski as associate conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, and by George Szell as composer-in-residence with the Cleveland Orchestra. Serebrier talks about his rehearsal style and his work as a composer and prolific recording artist with multiple orchestras. Serebrier recently recorded music by American composers Robert Beaser, Samuel Adler, and John Powell; by Xiaogang Ye (whom he calls “China’s most important composer”); and by the Spanish composer Tomas Marco and the Cuban-American composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia. Serebrier says, “For me, it’s a special mission to promote the works of my peers and friends, which is why I almost never conduct my own music.” He hopes to record symphonies by Schubert, Brahms, and Beethoven, and to “complete the Tchaikovsky cycle I started with the BIS label.”
Posted December 18, 2015
