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GEOFFREY KIDDE - Biography |
Composer and Flutist Geoffrey Kidde (born 1963) has written music for a wide variety of media: an opera; an orchestral song cycle; an electronic tape mime theater work based on Kafka’s Metamorphosis; film scores; works for instruments with electronic tape; and orchestral, vocal, choral and chamber music. Mr. Kidde was commissioned by the National Flute Association to compose a work for the final round of the 2002 National Flute Association Convention’s High School Soloist Competition in Washington, D.C in August 2002. Another recent commission came from the Hofstra University New Music Ensemble (Pat Spencer, Director), which resulted in The Spirit of Liberty (2002) for Soprano, Flute, Alto Saxophone, Violin, 'Cello, Piano and Two Percussionists. Ongoing musical projects include an opera based on Joseph Conrad's novel Victory. As a flutist, he is known for innovative programming and vibrant musicianship. The Electric Expressions Concert at the 1999 Bar Harbor Music Festival featured Kidde performing George Crumb’s Vox Balanae (Voice of the Whale) (1972) for electric flute, electric ‘cello and electric piano, and Thea Musgrave’s Narcissus (1986) for flute and digital delay. This concert also included Kidde’s own Waves (1999) for ‘cello and computer generated sounds. Nan Lincoln, in The Bar Harbor Times, wrote that “Mr. Kidde’s flute was an absolute joy to hear with its distinct yet liquid phrasing.” In 2000, the Bar Harbor Music Festival commissioned and presented the premiere of Geoffrey Kidde’s Shooting Star, written for the Stuart Marrs Percussion Ensemble. Kidde’s music has received much recognition. His orchestral
prelude Quest (1992), recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
and conducted by the late Robert Black (MMC Recordings 2015), was
praised by Robert Carl in Fanfare Magazine. Island (1992) won NACUSA’s
1993 Competition’s Second Prize. The premiere performance of Bagatelle
(1993) for piano and electronic tape by Joan Rowland in London’s St.
John’s Smith Square received a rave review by Barry Millington in
Musical Opinion: “the tape [part] was one of the most attractive and
ingeniously assembled I have encountered.” Kidde’s East Coast/West
Coast (1989-90) for piano four-hand was performed by the Schnabel Duo
throughout North America and Europe. Kidde’s music score for the
award-winning feature film Habit (1997)* by film maker Larry Fessenden--was
“beautifully scored” wrote Amy Biancolli in the Albany Times Union. Geoffrey Kidde is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Manhattanville College, where he teaches Music Theory and Music Technology. He has presented solo flute recitals at the North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Bridgeport, and the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York. He has also taught music at Hofstra and St. John’s Universities, Queensborough Community College (CUNY), the Third Street Music School Settlement, the University of Bridgeport, and Columbia University’s Electronic Music Center. From 1991 to 1993 he served as Executive Director, and from 1993-95 as President of the League of Composers/ISCM, U.S. Section. In 1995 he received his D.M.A. from Columbia University, where he studied with Mario Davidovsky, Chou Wen-chung, and George Edwards, and in 1988 a M.M. from New England Conservatory, studying there with John Heiss and Malcolm Peyton. His flute teachers include Robert Dick, Jayn Rosenfeld, Patricia Spencer, and Robert Stallman. (August 2002)
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