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Carson Kievman

Birth Place: Los Angeles

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Carson Kievman BIO

Posting by Lynn Holst, former Associate Play Development for the New York Shakespeare Festival: Public Theater, New York City. Writing THE LIST, a compendium of artists produced and distributed by Independent Curators Inc. (ICI) (Susan Sollins, Founder & Founding Director)
“Through a departure from traditional forms of ‘serious’ new music and a need to better express his eclectic American Sensibility, Carson Kievman has created a controversial form of music experience especially exciting to a contemporary audience. His Soundtheater works integrate striking visual and sonic images and associations in events that explore possibilities of communication outside the normal concert experience, though often presented within this context. Hailed as a ‘Wizard’ by the Village Voice, Kievman’s works have also been called ‘Great Art’ by the Boston Globe, ‘Enthralling’ and ‘Tours de Farce’ by the New York Times, ‘A Sensation’ by the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, ‘Arresting by the Los Angeles Times, “A Major New Trend’ by the San Francisco Chronicle, and ‘Vigorously Innovative and Uplifting’ by Newsday. Kievman has opened up the experience of the concert (and music-theater) form. His work explores musical and personal relationships between an individual and his/her environment; between the artist and his/her work; between the audience and the artist; and between music, theater and visual art.” Kievman’s present work further abstracts contemporary life and seeks to find, through a purely intuitive/associative musical process, an authentic mythology of modern experience.”

CARSON KIEVMAN - UPDATED SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Carson Kievman has been the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts American Masterworks; Miami New Times Mastermind Award; Princeton University Research Fellowship; a Janet A. Hooker Charitable Trust Award; 2 MacDowell Colony Fellowships; Jury & Participant's Prizes at the 4th International Composer's Festival Zurich, Switzerland; NEA Composer / Librettist Fellowship; Rockefeller and Adolph Foundation awards for a music-theater productions at the Public Theater; Fromm Foundation at Harvard Commission; Koussevitzky Foundation Composer/Director Residency Tanglewood; Margaret Grant Composition Prize from Tanglewood; Leonard Bernstein Fellowship; 2 Lord Mayor of Darmstadt Fellowships at Ferienkürse Fur Neue Musik; Disney Fellowship at California Institute of the Arts; Naumburg Fellowship at Princeton University; and 2 BMI Awards.
Carson Kievman has created 7 symphonies including 1- ASPEN, 2- 2(42), 3- HURRICANE, 4- BIODIVERSITY, 5- SYMBIOSIS 6- NO MAN’S LAND, 7- BEATHE, 9 full length multidisciplinary/multimedia operas including “TESLA”, “INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, The Surrender of Self in Mystical Contemplation”, “FAIRY TALES, Songs of the Dandelion Woman”, “CALIFORNIA MYSTERY PARK”, “HAMLET”, “A GLASS BEAD GAME”, “LADIES VOICES”, “RED LIGHT-GREEN LIGHT” and “WAKE UP, IT’S TIME TO GO TO BED!”, 23 music-theater works as well as works for chamber ensembles, piano, violin, voice, choir plus multiple experimental multimedia works. He recently moved to a tropical bungalow in Sarasota and is at work on 5 new compositions: PASSION LOVE GRAVITY (opera); FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR (opera); VIOLA (concerto); VIOLIN (concerto); and CELLO (concerto). To participate in the development and/or premieres of these new works contact Intelligent Company Publishers icp@mysteryparkarts.org

Carson Kievman’s work follows an independent course that blends new music with the theatrical, visual and literary arts. His symphonies, operas, chamber music, music-theater and experimental works have been performed internationally in stage, concert, dance, and museum settings, from SoBe Arts to the Berkeley Art Museum; Ysbreker (Amsterdam), the Pennsylvania Ballet (Philadelphia), The Public Theater (New York City), the Rote Fabrik (Zurich), the Tanglewood Music Festival (Lenox), and the Nationaltheater Mannheim (Germany). His works have been broadcast by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); Nord Deutsche Rundfunk, Berlin; Radio France, Paris; National Public Radio (NPR) and other media outlets worldwide. His composition teachers and mentors have included Earle Brown, Olivier Messiaen, Morton Subotnick, James Tenney and Luigi Nono.

Carson Kievman’s music attempts to tap into a higher state of illumination, evoking something otherworldly, striving to touch the nonliteral and pre-verbal incandescence. While the inspiration for his work is grounded in personal experience, he explores closer contact with the “luminosity of life’s intangibles.”

Carson Kievman Productions

 
[Off-Broadway, 1979]
Director

Writing


Carson Kievman News


Florida Grand Opera Returns To Its Roots With A Specially Expanded Production Of Leoncavallo's I PAGLIACCI


Florida Grand Opera (FGO) presents a specially expanded production of Leoncavallo's I PAGLIACCI, returning to its roots with this verismo masterpiece.

Florida Grand Opera Announces Casting For 2023�"24 Season


Florida Grand Opera announces an exciting mix of internationally acclaimed artists, South Florida favorites, and rising stars for its 82nd consecutive season featuring three of the lyric stage's most popular titles.

Opera San José Names Semi-Finalists for Irene Dalis Vocal Competition


This May, Opera San José will play host to the nation’s next generation of opera stars during its Irene Dalis Vocal Competition, named for the internationally-acclaimed mezzo-soprano who founded Opera San José.

SoBe Arts to Present World Premiere of TESLA


This September, SoBe Arts will present the world premiere of TESLA, a multidisciplinary opera, by Carson Kievman and Thomas Babe, about the exceptional life, explorations and brilliant inventions of Nikola Tesla.  We are please to announce our amazing cast and creative team and share the story of Tesla.

SoBe Arts to Present INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS


This June, SoBe Arts will present the world premiere of Intelligent Systems, an innovative 90-minute musical theater work about nothing less than the nature of the universe, conceived and presented in a thrilling multimedia style that will intrigue its audience and raise important questions about ideas that are - well, literally out of this world.

FAIRY TALES, SONGS OF THE DANDELION WOMAN Runs Now thru 5/16 at Little Stage Theater


From today, May 8 through May 18, the Little Stage Theater at SoBe Institute of the Arts becomes the portal to FAIRY TALES, Songs of the Dandelion Woman.

FAIRY TALES, SONGS OF THE DANDELION WOMAN to Run 5/8-16 at Little Stage Theater


From May 8 through May 16, the Little Stage Theater at SoBe Institute of the Arts becomes the portal to FAIRY TALES, Songs of the Dandelion Woman, a 90-minute music-theater trip 'down the rabbit hole.' With a score and libretto created by Carson Kievman, this contemporary operatic song cycle hurtles through a kaleidoscopically shifting mental landscape, past the borderline between hilarity and madness, into a surrealistic dislocation. This parallel world, very much like our own as seen through a magnifying glass, is created as the Bank Examiner (Ken Mattice, baritone) and The Dandelion Woman (Megan Brus, soprano) become aware of each other: an authority figure who is charged with determining her competence, and a misfit who moves with angular grace through her own private world, and is charismatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as she pleases.

FAIRY TALES (SONGS OF THE WHITE WOMAN) Coming Soon to SoBe Institute of the Arts, 5/8-18


From May 8 through May 18, 2014, the Little Stage Theater at SoBe Institute of the Arts becomes the portal to Fairy Tales (Songs of The White Woman), a music-theater trip 'down the rabbit hole.' This contemporary operatic song cycle hurtles through a kaleidoscopically shifting mental landscape, past the borderline between hilarity and madness, into a surrealistic dislocation. This parallel world, very much like our own as seen through a magnifying glass, is created as the Bank Examiner (Ken Mattice, baritone) and The White Woman (Megan Brus, soprano) become aware of each other: an authority figure who equates sanity with correct behavior, and a misfit who moves with angular grace through her own private world, and is charismatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as she pleases.

Carson Kievman Turns to Kickstarter to Fund Latest Symphony Recording


Miami-based composer Carson Kievman is in need of funding to record his newest symphony. Rather than look to traditional sources, he turned to the internet and launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund the professional recording of his Symphony No. 4 (Biodiversity). Many classical artists are looking to crowdfunding to fund various projects as more traditional grants and donations are harder to obtain.

SoBe Institute of the Arts Raises Funds to Record SYMPHONY NO. 4 (BIODIVERSITY)


There's always a story behind a symphony. Whether it is love, heartbreak, or a major life event, a composer always has inspiration. For Carson Kievman, the founder and Executive Artistic Director of SoBe Institute of the Arts (SoBe Arts), it is the environment and the planet's many ecosystems.

Delta David Gier, Oliver Hagen to Replace Gil Rose at American Composers Orchestra's (JCOI) Readings


Conductors Delta David Gier and Oliver Hagen will replace Gil Rose for American Composers Orchestra's Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI) Readings on Monday, June 3 at 10am (working rehearsal) and Tuesday, June 4 at 7:30pm(run-through) at Columbia University's Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway). Rose has withdrawn with regrets, due to a family emergency. Both events are free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested. ACO is one of three orchestras participating this year in JCOI Readings - the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (April 23 & 24) and La Jolla Symphony & Chorus (September 19 & 20) are also workshopping, rehearsing, and giving public readings of new works for symphony orchestra by jazz composers.

SoBe Presents ALL ROADS LEAD TO WAGNER: Marina Radiushina and Milana Strezeva, 5/10


The Flying Dutchman Overture by Richard Wagner (from the opera, Der fliegende Hollander 1943. Based on Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1933 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski and a stormy sea crossing that Wagner made from Riga to London in July and August 1839).

HAMLET Opera/Soundtheatre Closes March 11


HAMLET, a staged concert of a new soundtheatre/opera by Carson Kievman at the SoBe Arts' Little Stage Theatre, Miami Beach runs until the 11th of March.

HAMLET Opera/Soundtheatre Opens March 2


HAMLET, a staged concert of a new soundtheatre/opera by Carson Kievman opens this Friday, March 2 at the SoBe Arts' Little Stage Theatre, Miami Beach, at 8pm. It runs until the 11th of March.

HAMLET Opera/Soundtheatre Opens March 2


HAMLET, a staged concert of a new soundtheatre/opera by Carson Kievman opens this Friday, March 2 at the SoBe Arts' Little Stage Theatre, Miami Beach, at 8pm. It runs until the 11th of March.

Opening Weekend of Soundtheater/Opera HAMLET Rescheduled


Due to technical difficulties, the official opening night of Carson Kievman's 'HAMLET Soundtheater/Opera,' at SoBe Arts' Little Stage Theater, will be moved to Friday, March 2. Additional performances will take place (as previously scheduled) through March 11, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

SoBe Arts Presents The World Premiere Of HAMLET Soundtheater/Opera


SoBe Institute of the Arts presents the World Premiere of Carson Kievman's HAMLET Soundtheater/Opera in the Little Stage Theater on Miami Beach. This provocative, sophisticated, and radically re-imagined musical setting of Shakespeare's masterpiece was the final commission by legendary producer Joseph Papp ("A Chorus Line," "Hair," etc.) for the New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater. Due to Papp's tragic passing soon after the work was completed, HAMLET remained unperformed, until now.

SoBe Arts Presents The World Premiere Of HAMLET Soundtheater/Opera


SoBe Institute of the Arts presents the World Premiere of Carson Kievman's HAMLET Soundtheater/Opera in the Little Stage Theater on Miami Beach. This provocative, sophisticated, and radically re-imagined musical setting of Shakespeare's masterpiece was the final commission by legendary producer Joseph Papp ("A Chorus Line," "Hair," etc.) for the New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater. Due to Papp's tragic passing soon after the work was completed, HAMLET remained unperformed, until now.

Carson Kievman FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How many shows has Carson Kievman written?

Carson Kievman has written 1 shows including Wake Up, It's Time to Go to Bed (Conceiver).

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