Alexander Frey
Encyclopedia
Alexander Frey is an American symphony orchestra conductor. He is also known as a virtuoso
organist
and pianist
. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the concert hall and opera house
, and in the music of Broadway
and Hollywood.
In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute, as is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with performances of great depth.
In January 2008, during an interview broadcast on Radio Cairo while conducting in Egypt, Frey stated that "Music is a peaceful island in a river of sadness.
In an interview celebrating his 95th birthday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Studs Terkel
discussed his "diverse and idiosyncratic taste in music, from Bob Dylan to Alexander Frey, Louis Armstrong to Woodie Guthrie".
In recent years, he has taken to playing his solo recitals with a lamp next to or on the piano providing the only stage light (and often the only lighting in the concert hall as well), and an oriental rug underneath the instrument to "create an intimacy between my audience and the music, as if everyone were in my living room listening together".
A resident of Berlin, Germany, Frey has been frequently invited by the city's diplomatic community to perform for heads of state including President Bill Clinton
and the Dalai Lama
, and former German chancellors Helmut Kohl
and Gerhard Schroeder, among others.
A witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called "a raconteur, a young Oscar Levant
" by American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor
, "his generation's Noel Coward
", "everybody's favorite dinner guest" and that "he seems like a classic character from the golden age of the Broadway musical".
Frey is an official Steinway Artist.
He is Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria.
Frey is of Greek-American and Swiss-American descent.
Frey was appointed conductor of the Bohemia Symphony Orchestra (later named the Stern Chamber Orchestra) in Prague, Czech Republic, a position he has held since 2000. He was conductor of Prague's historic Karlin Theater from 2004 to 2008 where he conducted 50 performances per season.
His many recent guest conducting appearances include performances on five continents with the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
, Athens State Orchestra, Sibelius Symphony Orchestra, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra
, Philharmonia Orchestra of Berlin, Brandenburg Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Sicily (Palermo
), Bari Symphony Orchestra, and the Collegium Symphonium Veneto (Padua
) among others. He also conducted Ensemble Europa (members of the Israel Philharmonic and Deutsche Oper orchestras) in sold-out concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Berlin commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps. In 2006, he conducted Prague's official orchestral gala concert (with the Stern Chamber Orchestra) celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday on the day of the composer's birth. In 2010, he was the only American conductor invited to conduct an Italian orchestra for the Festa della Repubblica
, the Italian independence day on which all the major orchestras in Italy give concerts in honor of the occasion.
Frey has also been Music Director for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival
(where he was awarded the festival's Critics' Prize), the Wiener Festwochen (Theater an der Wien
, Vienna), Venice Festival (Teatro La Fenice), Holland Festival
, the Fifth European Festival, and the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
From 1992 to 1996, he was Music Director of Germany's most renowned theater, the Berliner Ensemble
, founded by Bertolt Brecht
, where he collaborated with the celebrated stage director Peter Zadek
. Frey was the first American to hold a position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theater's first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors who held the same music directorship included the composers Kurt Weill
, Hanns Eisler
, and Paul Dessau
. While there, Zadek and Frey's artistic collaboration made theater history by producing several revolutionary and innovative productions which received great international acclaim. They adapted Vittorio DiSica's classic film Miracle of Milan (Miracolo e Milano) for the stage using the actual entire dialogue script from the film. Frey devised the idea of restoring the entire original film score and performing it live throughout the play using exactly the same music cues as in the film, marking the first time this technique was ever used. He repeated this method for a subsequent production in Austria of a stage version of the film Arsenic and Old Lace
. For Miracle of Milan, Frey and the production were nominated for a Berlin Theater Critics' Prize. Frey also produced and directed the Berliner Ensemble's A Paul Dessau Evening, a highly acclaimed multimedia retrospective of the musical and dramatic works of the theater's music director of the 1950s.
, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
, Munich Symphony Orchestra
, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
(ORF), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra), Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino (with whom he appeared as soloist in the 3 inaugural concerts opening Torino's newly restored opera house), the Cairo Symphony Orchestra
, Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Prague), the chamber orchestra of the Palacio de Bellas Artes
(the chamber orchestra of the opera house of Mexico City), Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana and Neues Barockorchester Berlin among others, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado
, John Mauceri
, Michael Tilson Thomas
and Howard Shore
.
He frequently played recitals with the renowned Grammy Award
-winning tenor, Jerry Hadley
. Frey has performed chamber music with violinist Ruggiero Ricci
and the Vermeer Quartet
, among others. In 1985, Ricci and Frey performed New York City's official concert commemorating the anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach
, given in a sold-out Alice Tully Hall
on the actual day of the composer's 300th birthday. He has performed concerts in Europe with American writer and A Prairie Home Companion
host Garrison Keillor
.
Frey's annual schedule also includes worldwide recital tours. He was the first organist ever to perform an entire symphony of Gustav Mahler as a solo work for organ. This historic achievement resulted in Frey's live performance of the organ transcription Gustav Mahler
's Symphony #5 (transcribed by Jerry Kinsella) being regarded as one of seven performances listed as "the most important organ-related events of the 20th century" by The American Organist magazine.
In Barrie Gavin
's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs several solo keyboard works and the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, which exists only in a manuscript piano score. Most of the background piano music in the film is also taken from Frey's performances of the composer's music.
's Peter Pan
, which Frey restored from the composer's manuscripts, including almost an hour of music previously unheard. This historic recording features Broadway star Linda Eder
in the role of Wendy, and internationally acclaimed baritone Daniel Narducci singing the role of Captain Hook. The CD debuted as #11 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart, eventually rising to become the 8th highest selling classical music recording in the world and third highest selling musical theater recording during the weeks following its release. It also became the best selling recording of Koch International Classics, the record company which produced it. Frey's CD of the complete solo piano music of Leonard Bernstein (also on Koch International Classics) is considered to be the definitive performance of that music His ongoing project is recording the complete piano works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Koch International Classics) and he is regarded as the leading interpreter of Korngold's keyboard music. Frey's recordings can also be found on the Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
when he played a piano transcription of the complete score to that film. He also performed the world premieres of Max Steiner
's Wiener Lob and a large-scale piano transcription of David Arnold
's music for the film Independence Day
in concert with Arnold in attendance. In Mexico, Frey conducted the Latin American premiere performances of both Bernard Herrmann
's music for Alfred Hitchcock
's film Vertigo
and Franz Waxman
's music for the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He also gave the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
's music for the 1944 film Between Two Worlds, as well as the European premiere of the Suite from Schindler's List
, composed and arranged by John Williams. In Barrie Gavin
's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, composed in Hollywood at the end of the composers life and exists only in piano score, in addition to playing several solo keyboard works and most of the background piano music.
He has conducted James Helme Sutcliffe
's Gymnopedie
and Night Music
(both world premieres), Charles Kalman's Hudson Concerto, Naji Hakim
's Hymne de l'Univers (North American premiere) and Ada Gentile
's Adagio and Adagio Prima, Adagio Seconda. As pianist, Frey has given the world premieres of Leonard Bernstein
's Five Anniversaries and Thirteen Anniversaries, as well as the European and Asian premieres of that composer's Sonata for the Piano. He gave the world premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
's Vier Walzer (Four Waltzes), Kurt Weill
's Albumblatt (the composer's only work for solo piano) and Franz Schubert
's unpublished Fugue in D minor for organ.
Frey is Musical Advisor to the Hollywood in Vienna Festival.
, was made in 1998 in the United States. In 2001, Frey gave live performances for the BBC (with the renown soprano Marta Eggerth
) when the two artists gave recitals together in American and Europe and an all-Verdi program for RAI (Italy).
(1898–1989) a pupil of Wanda Landowska
, whose legacy revived the harpsichord repertoire in the mid-20th Century. He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (both with honors) from the University of Michigan
where he studied organ with Robert Glasgow
and conducting with Gustav Meier
.
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the concert hall and opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
, and in the music of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and Hollywood.
In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute, as is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with performances of great depth.
In January 2008, during an interview broadcast on Radio Cairo while conducting in Egypt, Frey stated that "Music is a peaceful island in a river of sadness.
In an interview celebrating his 95th birthday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
discussed his "diverse and idiosyncratic taste in music, from Bob Dylan to Alexander Frey, Louis Armstrong to Woodie Guthrie".
In recent years, he has taken to playing his solo recitals with a lamp next to or on the piano providing the only stage light (and often the only lighting in the concert hall as well), and an oriental rug underneath the instrument to "create an intimacy between my audience and the music, as if everyone were in my living room listening together".
A resident of Berlin, Germany, Frey has been frequently invited by the city's diplomatic community to perform for heads of state including President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
, and former German chancellors Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
and Gerhard Schroeder, among others.
A witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called "a raconteur, a young Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
" by American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
, "his generation's Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
", "everybody's favorite dinner guest" and that "he seems like a classic character from the golden age of the Broadway musical".
Frey is an official Steinway Artist.
He is Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria.
Frey is of Greek-American and Swiss-American descent.
Conducting
Frey was Principal Conductor of the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996 to 2002, and during that time was the only American music director of an Italian symphony orchestra.Frey was appointed conductor of the Bohemia Symphony Orchestra (later named the Stern Chamber Orchestra) in Prague, Czech Republic, a position he has held since 2000. He was conductor of Prague's historic Karlin Theater from 2004 to 2008 where he conducted 50 performances per season.
His many recent guest conducting appearances include performances on five continents with the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1948, is one of the oldest and most famous orchestras in South Korea. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986 and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the...
, Athens State Orchestra, Sibelius Symphony Orchestra, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra
Cairo Symphony Orchestra
The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, , is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer...
, Philharmonia Orchestra of Berlin, Brandenburg Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Sicily (Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
), Bari Symphony Orchestra, and the Collegium Symphonium Veneto (Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
) among others. He also conducted Ensemble Europa (members of the Israel Philharmonic and Deutsche Oper orchestras) in sold-out concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Berlin commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps. In 2006, he conducted Prague's official orchestral gala concert (with the Stern Chamber Orchestra) celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday on the day of the composer's birth. In 2010, he was the only American conductor invited to conduct an Italian orchestra for the Festa della Repubblica
Festa della Repubblica
Festa della Repubblica is celebrated in Italy on the second of June each year. The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government, following the Second World War and the fall...
, the Italian independence day on which all the major orchestras in Italy give concerts in honor of the occasion.
Frey has also been Music Director for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
(where he was awarded the festival's Critics' Prize), the Wiener Festwochen (Theater an der Wien
Theater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
, Vienna), Venice Festival (Teatro La Fenice), Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
, the Fifth European Festival, and the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
From 1992 to 1996, he was Music Director of Germany's most renowned theater, the Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin...
, founded by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, where he collaborated with the celebrated stage director Peter Zadek
Peter Zadek
Peter Zadek was a German theatre and film director, play translator and screenwriter and is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater. He was the head of the Schauspielhaus Bochum, Bochum , the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg and the Berliner Ensemble from 1992 to 1996...
. Frey was the first American to hold a position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theater's first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors who held the same music directorship included the composers Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
, Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
, and Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau was a German composer and conductor.- Biography :Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family...
. While there, Zadek and Frey's artistic collaboration made theater history by producing several revolutionary and innovative productions which received great international acclaim. They adapted Vittorio DiSica's classic film Miracle of Milan (Miracolo e Milano) for the stage using the actual entire dialogue script from the film. Frey devised the idea of restoring the entire original film score and performing it live throughout the play using exactly the same music cues as in the film, marking the first time this technique was ever used. He repeated this method for a subsequent production in Austria of a stage version of the film Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (film)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 film directed by Frank Capra based on Joseph Kesselring's play of the same name. The script adaptation was by twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941, but it was not released until 1944, after the original stage version...
. For Miracle of Milan, Frey and the production were nominated for a Berlin Theater Critics' Prize. Frey also produced and directed the Berliner Ensemble's A Paul Dessau Evening, a highly acclaimed multimedia retrospective of the musical and dramatic works of the theater's music director of the 1950s.
Piano/organ performances
As pianist and organist, Frey has performed with many symphony orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco SymphonySan Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...
, Munich Symphony Orchestra
Munich Symphony Orchestra
The Munich Symphony Orchestra is a German orchestra based in Munich. Kurt Graunke founded the orchestra as the Graunke Symphony Orchestra in 1945. The orchestra acquired its current name in 1990...
, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is a symphony orchestra which is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl....
, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra of the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk . Founded in 1969 with the name of the ORF-Symphonieorchester , it is the only radio orchestra in the country...
(ORF), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra), Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino (with whom he appeared as soloist in the 3 inaugural concerts opening Torino's newly restored opera house), the Cairo Symphony Orchestra
Cairo Symphony Orchestra
The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, , is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer...
, Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Prague), the chamber orchestra of the Palacio de Bellas Artes
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
(the chamber orchestra of the opera house of Mexico City), Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana and Neues Barockorchester Berlin among others, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, John Mauceri
John Mauceri
John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...
, Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
and Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
.
He frequently played recitals with the renowned Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning tenor, Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa , Susannah , and Candide...
. Frey has performed chamber music with violinist Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He was born in San Bruno, California. Ricci's brother was cellist and his sister Emma played violin with the New York Metropolitan Opera.He is the son of Italian immigrants. His...
and the Vermeer Quartet
Vermeer Quartet
The Vermeer Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and active until 2007.With performances in practically every major city in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia, the Vermeer Quartet achieved an international stature as one of...
, among others. In 1985, Ricci and Frey performed New York City's official concert commemorating the anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, given in a sold-out Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
on the actual day of the composer's 300th birthday. He has performed concerts in Europe with American writer and A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
host Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
.
Frey's annual schedule also includes worldwide recital tours. He was the first organist ever to perform an entire symphony of Gustav Mahler as a solo work for organ. This historic achievement resulted in Frey's live performance of the organ transcription Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Symphony #5 (transcribed by Jerry Kinsella) being regarded as one of seven performances listed as "the most important organ-related events of the 20th century" by The American Organist magazine.
In Barrie Gavin
Barrie Gavin
-Early years:He studied history at the University of Cambridge from 1954 to 1957.He joined the BBC as an assistant film editor in 1961. With the opening of BBC Two in 1964 he began to direct principally programmes about music....
's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs several solo keyboard works and the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, which exists only in a manuscript piano score. Most of the background piano music in the film is also taken from Frey's performances of the composer's music.
Recording awards
A highly honored recording artist, Frey has received the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis (Germany's highest recording honor), Choice of the French Media Critics, Best Recording of the Year (Fi Magazine), Best Original Cast Recording of the Year-2005 (Borders Music), Favorite Record of the Year-2005 (ArkivMusic), the Bronze World Medal of the New York Festival, BBC Critics Choice, Record of the Month (MusicWeb, UK), Best Instrumental CD of the Month (Galaxie Magazine, Canada) and Best CD of the Month (Best New Classics). June 2005 marked the release of a new CD of Frey conducting the world premiere recording of Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1950 musical)
Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, first produced in 1950, with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein...
, which Frey restored from the composer's manuscripts, including almost an hour of music previously unheard. This historic recording features Broadway star Linda Eder
Linda Eder
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...
in the role of Wendy, and internationally acclaimed baritone Daniel Narducci singing the role of Captain Hook. The CD debuted as #11 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart, eventually rising to become the 8th highest selling classical music recording in the world and third highest selling musical theater recording during the weeks following its release. It also became the best selling recording of Koch International Classics, the record company which produced it. Frey's CD of the complete solo piano music of Leonard Bernstein (also on Koch International Classics) is considered to be the definitive performance of that music His ongoing project is recording the complete piano works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Koch International Classics) and he is regarded as the leading interpreter of Korngold's keyboard music. Frey's recordings can also be found on the Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
Contemporary music and the music of Hollywood
Frey's strong commitment to both contemporary music and the film music of Hollywood is evident in the number of premieres he has performed. At the 2009 "Hollywood in Vienna Festival" held in Vienna, Austria, Frey gave the first public live performance of John Williams' music to Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in TibetSeven Years in Tibet
Seven Years in Tibet is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in...
when he played a piano transcription of the complete score to that film. He also performed the world premieres of Max Steiner
Max Steiner
Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
's Wiener Lob and a large-scale piano transcription of David Arnold
David Arnold
David Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
's music for the film Independence Day
Independence Day
An Independence Day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another nation or state, and more rarely after the end of a military occupation...
in concert with Arnold in attendance. In Mexico, Frey conducted the Latin American premiere performances of both Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
's music for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's film Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
and Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
's music for the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He also gave the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
's music for the 1944 film Between Two Worlds, as well as the European premiere of the Suite from Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
, composed and arranged by John Williams. In Barrie Gavin
Barrie Gavin
-Early years:He studied history at the University of Cambridge from 1954 to 1957.He joined the BBC as an assistant film editor in 1961. With the opening of BBC Two in 1964 he began to direct principally programmes about music....
's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, composed in Hollywood at the end of the composers life and exists only in piano score, in addition to playing several solo keyboard works and most of the background piano music.
He has conducted James Helme Sutcliffe
James Helme Sutcliffe
James Helme Sutcliffe was an American composer and music critic.- Biography :...
's Gymnopedie
Gymnopedie
Gymnopedie may refer to:*Gymnopaedia, a festival or dance in ancient Greece*Gymnopédies , a series of three compositions by French composer Erik Satie...
and Night Music
Night music
Night music can refer to:* A nocturne, usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night.* Night music , a stylistic evocation of the night found in the music of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók....
(both world premieres), Charles Kalman's Hudson Concerto, Naji Hakim
Naji Hakim
Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim is a Lebanese-French organist, composer, and improviser. He studied under Jean Langlais, and succeeded Messiaen as organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris.-Biography:...
's Hymne de l'Univers (North American premiere) and Ada Gentile
Ada Gentile
-Life:Ada Gentile was born in Avezzano and attended the Conservatorio di St. Cecilia in Rome, graduating in piano and composition. She then completed a graduate degree at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia with Goffredo Petrassi...
's Adagio and Adagio Prima, Adagio Seconda. As pianist, Frey has given the world premieres of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Five Anniversaries and Thirteen Anniversaries, as well as the European and Asian premieres of that composer's Sonata for the Piano. He gave the world premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
's Vier Walzer (Four Waltzes), Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's Albumblatt (the composer's only work for solo piano) and Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's unpublished Fugue in D minor for organ.
Frey is Musical Advisor to the Hollywood in Vienna Festival.
Radio biography
An hour-long radio program about Frey's life and work, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs TerkelStuds Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
, was made in 1998 in the United States. In 2001, Frey gave live performances for the BBC (with the renown soprano Marta Eggerth
Marta Eggerth
Marta Eggerth is a singer/actress from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her...
) when the two artists gave recitals together in American and Europe and an all-Verdi program for RAI (Italy).
Education
Frey studied in Chicago with the pianist, harpsichordist and teacher, Gavin WilliamsonGavin Williamson
Gavin Alexander Williamson is an English Conservative Party politician. He was elected at the 2010 general election as Member of Parliament for South Staffordshire. Williamson is currently a ministerial aide at the Northern Ireland Office.-Early life and family:Williamson originally hails from...
(1898–1989) a pupil of Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...
, whose legacy revived the harpsichord repertoire in the mid-20th Century. He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (both with honors) from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
where he studied organ with Robert Glasgow
Robert Glasgow
Robert Glasgow was an American organist and music pedagogue. He taught at the University of Michigan for over 40 years and was an internationally respected performer....
and conducting with Gustav Meier
Gustav Meier
Gustav Meier is the director of the Orchestra Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also Music Director of the in Connecticut.-Biography:...
.