ABOUT

WordSong is a Boston-based nonprofit musical organization presenting concerts of newly-commissioned art songs all set to the same text.  In concert and conversation, we connect musicians and listeners through a shared, active, and artistic experience.

DIRECTORS

Howard Frazin, composer
Tom Schnauber, composer

NEWS

Pianist Kate Boyd's recording of Howard Frazin's Music for the End of Winter reviewed by Gramophone Magazine. Click here for full review.

CONTACT

WordSong, Inc.
50 Alpine St.
Somerville, MA 02144
Composers‎ > ‎

Howard Frazin, composer

Howard Frazin, composer
Composer Howard Frazin lives in Cambridge where he taught Composition at the Longy School of Music from 1991-2009, was a former president and member of Composers in Red Sneakers for many years, and is the cofounder and codirector of WordSong, a new concert format that creates public conversation about intuitive musical experience. His music has been performed throughout the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Venezuela, and Russia, including festivals at Tanglewood, Aspen, Banff, Rockport, Monadnock, Bowdoin, the Rivers Conservatory, and Yellow Barn.

Recent commissions include from Triple Helix, A Far Cry, the Claremont Trio, the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Fromm Foundation, World-wide Concurrent Premieres, the PALS Children’s Chorus, Andover Chamber Players, the Longy School of Music, the Wellesley Symphony, the Rivers School Conservatory, and Snappy Dance among others. His oratorio, The Voice of Isaac, a retelling the Abraham and Isaac story from Isaac’s perspective, was premiered at Jordan Hall by PALS in March 2003 and hailed by the Boston Globe as "clear in design and Brittenesque in texture ... ingeniously scored ... (having an) almost unbearable poignancy." Last fall’s premiere of Frazin’s commissioned overture for the Boston Classical Orchestra in celebration of their 30th anniversary was described by the Boston Intelligencer as "accessible and familiar, yet filled with emotional tension and dramatic complexity…pensive and original," and his new piano trio recently premiered by the Claremont Trio on the Dallas Chamber Music concert series this past February was praised by the Dallas Morning News as "[a] genuinely touching triptych, which wastes not a note."

Current projects include a new work for string orchestra for A Far Cry to be premiered at Jordan Hall April 2010, a new work for the piano trio Triple Helix with soprano Sarah Pelletier [based on a Joan of Arc text (via Mark Twain)] to be premiered at Wellesley College in April 2010, a scena for tenor Frank Kelly and violinist Daniel Stepner [based on an Edward Lear text] to be premiered at Brandeis University Fall 2010, a new work for cellist Sebastian Baverstam, and a flute concerto for Robert Stallman. Mr. Frazin’s work is published by Peters Editions.