Score Salon:
Christopher Shainin on Hans Werner Henze's 4th Symphony

October 8, 2002 at Bad Animals

Composer and Washington Composer's Forum director Christopher Shainin led a discussion of German composer Hans Werner Henze's 4th Symphony.

While attending a concert last year celebrating Henze's 75th birthday, Duane Harper Grant of SEQUENZA/21magazine noted: "Perhaps more than any living composer, Henze reflects the diversity and complexity of the twentieth century. Henze's career is marked by different and unique periods of exploration and discovery; musically, politically, and socially. He seems to be constantly willing to subject himself to the winds of change and to absorb those changes via the very real world as it is at that moment. He brings sensitivity and an openness of mind and heart to that quest and the search for a realization of just what is going on."

Moderating the discussion was composer Christopher Shainin (born 1968 in Manchester, Connecticut). Christopher has been writing for ensembles with trans-ethnic instrumentation, including such instruments as shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), koto (Japanese zither), ja-khay (Thai zither), yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), and instruments of the Javanese gamelan. A Brechemin Scholar and winner of a Boeing Award, Shainin has conducted the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra and the Frohsinn Männerchor, is Director of the Washington Composers Forum, manager of the Contemporary Chamber Composers and Players and the ensemble Sorelle, and is co-founder and manager of the Seattle Creative Orchestra.

The Seattle Weekly described his music as "a multiple stroking of pleasure centers." 21st Century Music says "Shainin's music combines dark and forboding harmonies, thick textures and lots of forward momentum to create an unbelievable tension."

His work has been performed at the Seattle Symphony's Fusion Festival and the University of Washington Summer Arts Festival.

Christopher recommends the 1996 recording of Henze's Symphonies Nos. 1-6 performed by Berliner Philharmoniker and the London Symphony Orchestra, on the Deutsche Grammaphon label.

Capitol Music Center is the official sponsor of the SCA Monthly Score Salon.

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