Spies, Claudio

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Spies, Claudio

Spies, Claudio, Chilean-born American teacher, conductor, and composer; b. Santiago, March 26, 1925. He settled in the U.S. in 1942 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1966; in 1942 he entered the New England Cons. of Music in Boston and in 1943 became a pupil of Boulanger at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.; received private instruction from Shapero (1944–45) and attended the conducting class at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood (summer, 1946); pursued his musical training with Fine, Hindemith, Tillman Merritt, Piston, and Thompson at Harvard Univ. (A.B., 1950), completing his graduate studies there under Piston and Gombosi (M.A., 1954). He was an instructor at Harvard Univ. (1954–57) and a lecturer at Vassar Coll. (1957–58); was asst. prof. (1958–64), assoc. prof. (1964–69), and prof. (1969) at Swarthmore Coll., where he also conducted its orch. (1958–69); was visiting assoc. prof. at Princeton Univ. (1966–67), returning there as prof. in 1970. In 1950–51 he held a John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship and in 1956 received the Lui Boulanger Memorial Fund Award; also received the Brandeis Univ. Creative Arts Award (1967) and an NEA fellowship (1975).

Works

ORCH.: Music for a Ballet (1955); Tempi for 14 Instrumentalists (1962); LXXXV, Eights and Fives for Strings and Clarinets (1967). CHAMBER : Canon for 4 Flutes (1959); Canon for Violas (1961); Viopiacem, duo for Viola and Keyboard Instruments (1965); Times 2 for Horns (1968); Half-time for Clarinet and Trumpet (1981); Dreimal Sieben… for Oboe and Piano (1991); Insieme for Flute and Violin (1994); Beisammen for 2 Oboes or English Horns (1994). Piano: Impromptu (1963); Bagatelle (1970); A Between-Birthdays Bagatelle for Roger Sessions’s 80th-81st (1977); Ein Aggregats- Walzer (1978); Bagatelle (1979); Verschieden (1980); Jahrhundertwalzer (1981). VOCAL: II cantico de frate solo for Bass and Orch. (1958); Proverbs on Wisdom for Men’s Voices, Organ, and Piano (1964); 7 Enzensberger-Lieder for Baritone, Clarinet, Horn, Cello, and Percussion (1972); Rilke: Ruhmen for Soprano, Clarinet, Trumpet, and Piano (1981); 7 Sonnets for Soprano, Bass, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and String Trio (1989).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire