Role

:

Composer Conductor  

Country

:

United States of America

Birth

:

April 22, 1944 in New York City, NY

Period

:

Contemporary

 

 

Modern

Genre

:

Orchestral

 

 

Symphony

 

Joshua Rifkin is an American classical music artist who is best known for his work as a conductor, pianist, and musicologist. He was born on April 22, 1944, in New York City, and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the arts. His father was a painter, and his mother was a writer, and they both encouraged Rifkin's interest in music from an early age. Rifkin began his formal musical training at the age of six, when he started taking piano lessons. He showed a natural talent for the instrument, and by the time he was a teenager, he was already performing in public. He attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne and composition with Vincent Persichetti. After graduating from Juilliard, Rifkin began his career as a concert pianist, performing in recitals and with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. He quickly gained a reputation as a virtuoso performer, known for his technical skill and musical sensitivity. In the early 1970s, Rifkin began to shift his focus from performance to musicology. He earned a Ph.D. in musicology from Princeton University in 1976, with a dissertation on the music of Scott Joplin. This work would later lead to one of Rifkin's most significant contributions to the world of classical music. In 1970, Rifkin made a groundbreaking recording of Joplin's piano rags, which he played on an upright piano rather than a grand piano. This recording, which was released on the Nonesuch label, was the first to present Joplin's music in its original form, as it would have been heard in the saloons and dance halls of the late 19th century. The recording was a critical and commercial success, and it helped to spark a revival of interest in Joplin's music. Rifkin's work on Joplin's music also led to his discovery of a new way of performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In the early 1980s, Rifkin began to experiment with performing Bach's choral works with one voice per part, rather than with a full choir. This approach, which Rifkin called "the Bach Ensemble," was based on his research into the performance practices of Bach's time. Rifkin's recordings of Bach's choral works with the Bach Ensemble were controversial at first, but they quickly gained a following among musicians and music lovers. The recordings were praised for their clarity and transparency, and for their ability to bring out the individual voices and instrumental parts in Bach's complex music. Rifkin's work on Bach's music earned him numerous awards and honors, including a Grammy nomination for his recording of Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Bach Ensemble. He also received the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society in 1991, in recognition of his contributions to the performance of early music. In addition to his work as a performer and musicologist, Rifkin has also been active as a conductor. He has conducted orchestras and choirs throughout the United States and Europe, and he has been a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra, among others. Rifkin's recordings and performances have had a significant impact on the world of classical music, and his work continues to be studied and admired by musicians and music lovers around the world.

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