Pierre Jalbert

American composer PIERRE JALBERT has been recognized for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores and “music of fierce and delicate inventiveness [with] kaleidoscope of moods and effects.”(Cleveland Plain Dealer) Painting vibrant and picturesque sonic portraits for the listener, he has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, BBC Masterprize, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Stoeger Award, given biennially “in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory,” and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jalbert’s work has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena, and his French-Canadian heritage, hearing English folk songs and Catholic liturgical music growing up. He has earned a reputation for his mastery of color, in both his chamber and orchestral scores, creating timbres that are vivid yet refined and tonally centered, combining modal, tonal, and dissonant sonorities as it travels new and unusual paths, while retaining a sense of harmonic motion culminating in a completed journey.

His music has been commissioned and performed worldwide, including the St. Paul and Los Angeles Chamber orchestras, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Symphonies of Houston, Vermont, Albany, Budapest, London, Boston and Milwaukee, the National Symphony, Cabrillo and Eastern Festival Orchestras. He received two Meet the Composer grants, including one for its “Magnum Opus Project.” Jalbert served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony and Chicago’s Music in the Loft.

Hailed as “an acknowledged chamber-music master” by The New Yorker, his chamber music has been performed by Midori, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Emerson, Escher, Ying, Borromeo, and Chiara String Quartets, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Music from Copland House, and at the Caramoor Festival. Recent and upcoming are his third commission for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, with co-commissioners La Jolla Summerfest, and Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth; a violin concerto for a consortium of the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras and Milwaukee Symphony; a new work for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic; and a new work for the Cincinnati Symphony.

Jalbert’s orchestral work In Aeternam, which has been performed internationally by the Seattle and London Symphony Orchestras among others, garnered the highly prestigious BBC Masterprize. His discography features recordings by David Finckel and Wu Han, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ying Quartet, the Pro Arte Quartet and most recently, a disc of his chamber music with the Music from Copland House ensemble. His recordings can be heard on the ArtistLed, Cedille, Albany, New Dynamic, Gasparo, Helicon, Summit Records labels, and most recently an album of his chamber music by the Music from Copland House ensemble on its label Copland House Blend.

Born in Manchester, NH into a family with roots in Quebec, Jalbert grew up in northern Vermont. At age 5, he began piano lessons and immersed himself in the classical repertoire.  Following undergraduate studies in piano and composition at Oberlin Conservatory, Jalbert earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George Crumb. Jalbert is Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, where he has taught since 1996, and currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of Musiqa, a locally based contemporary chamber ensemble. His music is published by Schott Helicon Music Corporation (BMI), New York. http://www.schott-music.com/

Hailed for his music of “considerable elegance… breathtaking beauty, lyricism and intricacy” (San Francisco Chronicle), composer PIERRE JALBERT’ is highly acclaimed for his richly colored, superbly crafted scores and intense, expressive musical language. His French-Canadian heritage has been highly influential in his work, having heard French and English folk songs and Catholic liturgical music growing up, and gaining a deep respect for music which communicates powerfully with an economy of means. His music has been performed worldwide by the London, Budapest, Boston, Houston, Seattle, Colorado, Vermont, and National Symphonies; the Cabrillo, Eastern Music Festival, and American Composers Orchestras; the Borromeo, Emerson, Chiara, Enso, Jasper, Escher, and Ying Quartets; Music from Copland House ensemble; Arizona Friends of Chamber Music; Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras; Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble; cellist David Finckel; violinist Midori; and countless others. His many honors include the BBC Masterprize, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Stoeger Award, given biennially “in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory,” two Copland House Residency Awards, Rome Prize, and Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and California Symphony, and is Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. His music is published by Schott Helicon Music Corporation (BMI).