Peanuts® Gallery

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich - Composer

As the twenty-first century dawns and the musical offerings of the world are more varied than ever before, few composers have emerged with the unique personality of Ellen Zwilich. Her music is widely known because it is performed, recorded, broadcast, and above all, listened to and liked by all sorts of audiences the world over. Like the great masters of bygone times, Zwilich produces music "with fingerprints," music that is immediately recognized as the product of a particular American composer who combines craft and inspiration in reflecting her optimistic and humanistic spirit in her compositions.

Ellen Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award), the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnanyi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, 4 Grammy nominations, and, among other distinctions, she has been elected to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, she was named to the first Composer's Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America's Composer of the Year for 1999. She holds the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professorship at Florida State University.

A prolific composer in virtually all media, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's works have been performed by most of the leading American orchestras and by major ensembles abroad. Her music first came to public attention when Pierre Boulez conducted her Symposium for Orchestra at Juilliard (1975), but it was the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for the Symphony No. 1 that brought her instantly into international focus. Commissions and major performances and recordings soon followed: the Symphony No. 2 (Cello Symphony), premiered by Edo de Waart and the San Francisco Symphony; the Symphony No. 3, written for the New York Philharmonic's 150th anniversary; and the Symphony No. 4 ("The Gardens") (with chorus), commissioned by Michigan State University; the string of concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, commissioned and performed by toporchestras -- for piano (Detroit Symphony, Gunther Herbig [1986]), trombone (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti [1989]), flute (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa [1990]), oboe (Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi [1991]), violin and cello (Louisville Orchestra, Lawrence Leighton Smith [1991]), bass trombone (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim [1991]), French horn (Rochester Philharmonic, Lawrence Leighton Smith [1993]), bassoon (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel [1993]), trumpet (San Diego Symphony, JoAnn Falletta [1994]), Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello (Minnesota Orchestra, Zdenek Macal [1996]), violin (Orchestra of St. Luke's, Hugh Wolff [1998], and percussion ensemble (Rituals, IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern [2004]).

Her orchestral essay Symbolon was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic expressly to receive its world premiere in what was then Leningrad. Zubin Mehta subsequently performed it in Europe and America and recorded it on the New World label; and Carnegie Hall's 1997 family concert series featured Peanuts Gallery for piano and orchestra, based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters.

Her chamber works have been commissioned by the Boston Musica Viva (Chamber Symphony, Passages), the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 92nd Street Y and San Francisco Performances (Piano Trio), the New York State Music Teachers Association (Divertimento), the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress (Romance for violin), the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest (Clarinet Quintet), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Double Quartet), and Carnegie Hall (String Quartet No. 2).

Many of her works have been issued on recordings, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians [8th edition] states: "There are not many composers in the modern world who possess the lucky combination of writing music of substance and at the same time exercising an immediate appeal to mixed audiences. Zwilich offers this happy combination of purely technical excellence and a distinct power of communication."

 

Alexander Jimenez - Conductor, The Florida State University Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Alexander Jimenez is Director of Orchestral Activities at Florida State University. He conducts both the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Philharmonia. He has made numerous guest conducting appearances and has worked with such artists as John Harbinger, Denyce Graves, the Canadian Brass, and the Alexander String Quartet. As a solo and chamber music performer, he has premiered numerous percussion works. He has given master classes at the National Conservatory of Music of the Dominican Republic.

 

The Florida State University Orchestras

The Florida State University Orchestral Studies Program has enjoyed a long and illustrious history. Formed in 1925, the University Orchestra has been host to many of the world's illustrious artists. Among them have been singers Lauritz Melchoir, Lawrence Tibbett, and Denyce Graves; composers and conductors Ernst von Dohnayi, Aaron Copland, Krystof Penderecki, Robert Shaw, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Pablo Casals; and instrumentalists Joshua Bell, Andre Watts, the Kalichstein-Robinson-Laredo Trio, Billy Taylor, NEXUS, and the Canadian Brass. The University Orchestra has appeared at Avery Fischer Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and has recorded for the Koch International Classics Label.

 

Eric Schultz - Producer-Director, Peanuts® Gallery

Eric Schultz is an award-winning producer and director of arts and cultural programming, with a specific interest in musical subjects. He was trained as a cellist and during the 1980s performed with orchestras and chamber groups in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Michigan. He is a graduate of the New School of Music in Philadelphia. In graduate school at Michigan State University, he studied with members of the Juilliard String Quartet during their chamber music residencies. Mr. Schultz developed an interest in television production after winning a competition which led to a performance on Michigan Public Television of the Elegie for Cello and Piano, by Gabriel Faure. As the producer for Cultural Affairs at Michigan State University Public TV, Mr. Schultz received numerous regional Emmy nominations and awards, including one for Outstanding Cultural Affairs programming for a PBS distributed documentary called Gil Shaham: Violin. He produced a number of other nationally distributed programs for PBS,
including: The Chenille Sisters: Making Rhythm; Marcus Roberts: Among Giants; Richard Stoltzman: Coming Together; and The Gardens: Birth of a Symphony.

In 2002, Mr. Schultz received a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award for "My Two Dads," a segment for the PBS national project American Family Portraits. In 2003, he received an Emmy for "Young at Heart," a feature about Ocean Grove, New Jersey resident Dorothy Young, Harry Houdini's last assistant on Broadway in the 1920s. In 2005, Mr. Schultz received a New York Emmy for a program featuring legendary choral conductor Joseph Flummerfelt. Eric Schultz joined NJN's State of the Arts in October 2001.

 

Mike Dunn - Producer, Peanuts® Gallery

Mike Dunn is the Director of Production for WFSU-TV/Tallahassee, the public television station serving the Big Bend area of Florida. A 1976 graduate of the University of Florida, he served two years' active duty with the US Army before continuing his TV career with South Carolina Educational Television at its regional station in Beaufort.

In 1981, he moved to WFSU-TV as a producer-director for its evening magazine program, PRIME TIME. Numerous other projects followed and he was promoted to Production Manager in 1984. In 1991, he left the station to freelance for most of the major sports networks. Mike returned to WFSU-TV in 1997 as the Director of Production; he also teaches classes at Florida State University.

Major projects he has directed or managed include the startup of the Florida Lottery.

 

Amy MacFarland- Editor/ Associate Producer, Peanuts® Gallery

Amy MacFarland is a Producer/ Editor for WFSU-TV. Amy started her television career in the Promotions department of WFSU-TV/ The Florida Channel. Upon Graduating from Florida State University in 2002 she moved over to the Public Broadcast Center to work with WFSU-TV/ 4fsu. She currently produces and edits 4fsu's coverage of FSU College of Music concerts and co-produces outloud, the Tallahassee area's own local music show.

 

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