Yannatos, James

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Yannatos, James

Yannatos, James, American composer, conductor, and teacher; b. N.Y., March 13,1929. He was a student of Hindemith and Porter at Yale Univ. (B.M., 1951; M.M., 1952) and of Bezanson at the Univ. of Iowa (Ph.D., 1960). He also studied with Bernstein, Steinberg, Boulanger, Milhaud, and Dallapiccola. From 1964 he taught at Yale Univ. He also was active as a conductor of youth orchs. and choral groups, and conducted various chamber orchs. He was the author of Explorations in Musical Materials (1978).

Works

dramatic: Theater pieces. ORCH.: Ritual Images for Orch. and Tape (1974); 4 syms.: No. 1 (1984), No. 2, Touch the Earth, for Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, and Orch. (1986), No. 3, Prisms (1988), and No. 4, Tiananmen Square (1989-90); Contrabass Concerto (1986); Piano Concerto (1992-93); Concerto for String Quartet and Orch. (1997); Concerto for Percussion Ensemble (1997). CHAMBER: Rites for Horn (1987); Quo Übet for Brass Trio and Percussion (1987); Bagatelles for Violin and Cello (1989). VOCAL: Trinity Mass for Narrator, Voices, Chorus, and Orch. (1983-84); choruses.

Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn /Dennis McIntire