Life
At university, he studied with George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and George Rochberg. After college, Levinson went to study composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory. He was inspired by Messiaen's use of birdsong and his unique harmonic ideas, as well as the musics of Bali and India. Levinson has also worked with Simon Rattle, Ralph Shapey, and Seiji Ozawa.
His notable works include Anahata, Symphony No. 2, and Black Magic/White Magic (1981), a collaboration with his wife, poet Nanine Valen. Numerous CDs of his music have been released, and his scores are published by Theodore Presser.
He has taught music at Swarthmore College since 1977. His works have previously been performed by orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A new work for organ and orchestra by Levinson was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in its 2005-2006 season. He has two children, Adam Valen Levinson, and Ari Valen Levinson.
Read more about this topic: Gerald Levinson
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Jupiter, not wanting man’s life to be wholly gloomy and grim, has bestowed far more passion than reason—you could reckon the ration as twenty-four to one. Moreover, he confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)