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Neely Bruce
(Frank) Neely Bruce (born January 21, 1944) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and scholar of American music. He is the composer of over 800 works including three full-length operas. Currently, he is John Spencer Camp Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University, where he has taught since 1974.
Bruce's undergraduate degree is from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. His DMA is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bruce also received an MAA from Wesleyan University and an MMU from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1] His principal teachers were Ben Johnston, Hubert Kessler, J. F. Goossen, Lara Hoggard, Charles Hamm, Byrnell Figler, Roy McAllister, Soulima Stravinsky and Sophia Rosoff. Bruce was one of the seven keyboard players in the 1969 premiere of John Cage's HPSCHD.
He has been visiting professor and artist-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bucknell University, the University of Michigan, and at Brooklyn College. He was the founder and director of the American Music/Theatre Group, chorus director for the Connecticut Opera, and was director of music at South Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut.
He is the first pianist ever to play the entire song oeuvre of Charles Ives. He performed with several singers as part of the Ives Vocal Marathon.
Bruce has written more than 800 works, including three full-length operas, choral works in all major genres, orchestral works, chamber music, a voluminous quantity of piano music, and music for mixed media, including seven documentary scores for public television. He has also written a variety of music for young people, including a new adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, which uses American popular music, such as rock and roll, pop, and rap.
Flora is an opera in two acts and six scenes based on the libretto and surviving tunes of what is thought to be the first piece of musical theater performed in colonial North America. The historical work premiered in Charleston, South Carolina in 1735, and played again at the newly built Dock Street Theatre in 1736.
The modern score was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA and premiered by the company on May 29, 2010, to celebrate the reopening of the new Dock Street Theatre. Writing for the New York Times, James R. Oestreich praised the work and performance, stating: Bruce "did a remarkable job . . . evoking the musical world of the 18th century . . . the rest of the production is of similarly high quality." "Mr. Bruce conducted, from the harpsichord, members of the festival orchestra and a strong cast." (A complete live recording of the work can be found online at NPR's World of Opera.)
Hansel and Gretel, an opera in two acts and nine scenes, based on a libretto adapted by the composer from the Brothers Grimm, was commissioned by Connecticut Opera and premiered by the company on March 20, 1998, in Hartford, Connecticut. The company toured a condensed version for children in 1997. In an enthusiastic review of the full premiere, Hartford Courant music critic Steve Metcalf commented on Bruce's creating a new operatic Hansel and Gretel:
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Neely Bruce
(Frank) Neely Bruce (born January 21, 1944) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and scholar of American music. He is the composer of over 800 works including three full-length operas. Currently, he is John Spencer Camp Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University, where he has taught since 1974.
Bruce's undergraduate degree is from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. His DMA is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bruce also received an MAA from Wesleyan University and an MMU from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1] His principal teachers were Ben Johnston, Hubert Kessler, J. F. Goossen, Lara Hoggard, Charles Hamm, Byrnell Figler, Roy McAllister, Soulima Stravinsky and Sophia Rosoff. Bruce was one of the seven keyboard players in the 1969 premiere of John Cage's HPSCHD.
He has been visiting professor and artist-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bucknell University, the University of Michigan, and at Brooklyn College. He was the founder and director of the American Music/Theatre Group, chorus director for the Connecticut Opera, and was director of music at South Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut.
He is the first pianist ever to play the entire song oeuvre of Charles Ives. He performed with several singers as part of the Ives Vocal Marathon.
Bruce has written more than 800 works, including three full-length operas, choral works in all major genres, orchestral works, chamber music, a voluminous quantity of piano music, and music for mixed media, including seven documentary scores for public television. He has also written a variety of music for young people, including a new adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, which uses American popular music, such as rock and roll, pop, and rap.
Flora is an opera in two acts and six scenes based on the libretto and surviving tunes of what is thought to be the first piece of musical theater performed in colonial North America. The historical work premiered in Charleston, South Carolina in 1735, and played again at the newly built Dock Street Theatre in 1736.
The modern score was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA and premiered by the company on May 29, 2010, to celebrate the reopening of the new Dock Street Theatre. Writing for the New York Times, James R. Oestreich praised the work and performance, stating: Bruce "did a remarkable job . . . evoking the musical world of the 18th century . . . the rest of the production is of similarly high quality." "Mr. Bruce conducted, from the harpsichord, members of the festival orchestra and a strong cast." (A complete live recording of the work can be found online at NPR's World of Opera.)
Hansel and Gretel, an opera in two acts and nine scenes, based on a libretto adapted by the composer from the Brothers Grimm, was commissioned by Connecticut Opera and premiered by the company on March 20, 1998, in Hartford, Connecticut. The company toured a condensed version for children in 1997. In an enthusiastic review of the full premiere, Hartford Courant music critic Steve Metcalf commented on Bruce's creating a new operatic Hansel and Gretel: