Raymond Premru
Encyclopedia
Raymond Eugene Premru (June 6, 1934 - May 8, 1998) was an American trombonist, composer
, and music teacher, who was based for most of his career in London
, England
. His work on the bass trombone was widely admired, and is preserved on innumerable recordings in diverse genres; his teaching influenced many leading trombonists; and his compositions were performed by leading orchestras and ensembles throughout the United States
and Great Britain
, contributing significantly, in particular, to the repertoire for brass instruments.
in western New York
State and grew up in the Finger Lakes
region south of Rochester
. As a teenager he took up the trombone, and began studying with Dale Clark at the Eastman School of Music
’s preparatory department. After high school he enrolled at Eastman to study trombone with Emory Remington
, and composition with Gladys Leventon and Bernard Rogers
.
Soon after graduating in 1956, he travelled to England for further composition study with Peter Racine Fricker
, intending to stay a few months. He began freelancing on trombone and bass trumpet
, becoming a regular in the London jazz scene with groups like the Kenny Baker’s Dozen. In 1958, he won the bass trombone position in the Philharmonia Orchestra
, where he would serve for the next 30 years. Also in 1958, he married Susan Talbot, with whom he would have two daughters.
In addition to performances and regular recording with the Philharmonia, Premru continued to freelance. As a session musician, he would play and record with, among others, Frank Sinatra
, Oscar Peterson
, Ella Fitzgerald
, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles (most notably on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). In 1964 he joined the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
, for which he would write several pieces; he remained a member until Jones’ own retirement in 1987. He also co-directed, and composed for, the Bobby Lamb/Ray Premru Big Band.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980617/ai_n14151548
Over time his interest in teaching grew, and after a term as a sabbatical replacement at Eastman, he decided in 1988 to retire from the Philharmonia and return to the US to accept a professorship at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio
. Premru’s pedagogy
rested largely on the legacy of Remington. He displayed a flexibility on technical matters, emphasizing relaxation, the development of a warm “singing” tone and a smooth legato, and musicianship: all qualities that characterized his own playing.http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/resources/articles/premru.php
While at Oberlin he continued to perform occasionally, and to compose. In 1990 he remarried, to Janet Jacobs. In 1997 he was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music.http://www.oberlin.edu/wwwcomm/ats/atspast/ats0997/ats0997_arts1.html That same year he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer
, and he died at the Cleveland Clinic
the following May, at the age of 63.http://www.oberlin.edu/consrv/connews/current/premru.html
In a 1981 interview with Capital Radio
, he cited as influences the music of Berg
, Prokofiev
, Bartok
and Ives
, in addition to jazz
and early Bach
studies. Throughout his career his language remained one of relatively conservative mid-century modernism
, with a bent toward gentle lyricism; though he wrote some works in a lighter vein, and jazz idioms and techniques pop up in even his most “serious” scores.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980617/ai_n14151548http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/resources/articles/premru.php
His large-scale works include concerto
s for Trombone (1956), Trumpet (1983), and Tuba (1992); Music for Three Trombones, Tuba and Orchestra (1985); a Concerto for Orchestra (1976); and two symphonies
(1981 and 1988). Most were commissioned and premiered by major ensembles (the symphonies by the Philharmonia
and Cleveland
orchestras, with conductors Lorin Maazel
and Vladimir Ashkenazy
, respectively); however none have been commercially recorded as of 2007 and only the Trumpet and Tuba concertos remain in print (also as of 2007).
Perhaps his most lasting legacy is in his chamber
works for brass, several of which remain available in print and on recordings, including: the Concertino for trombone and woodwind quartet (1954); Music from Harter Fell
(1973) and the nine-movement Divertimento (1976), both for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble; the Brass Quartet of 1960; Two Pieces for three trombones (1951); and In Memoriam (1956) and the Tissington
Variations (1970), both for trombone quartet.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, and music teacher, who was based for most of his career in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His work on the bass trombone was widely admired, and is preserved on innumerable recordings in diverse genres; his teaching influenced many leading trombonists; and his compositions were performed by leading orchestras and ensembles throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, contributing significantly, in particular, to the repertoire for brass instruments.
Life and career
The son of a Methodist minister, Premru was born in ElmiraElmira, New York
Elmira is a city in Chemung County, New York, USA. It is the principal city of the 'Elmira, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses Chemung County, New York. The population was 29,200 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chemung County.The City of Elmira is located in...
in western New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
State and grew up in the Finger Lakes
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...
region south of Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
. As a teenager he took up the trombone, and began studying with Dale Clark at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
’s preparatory department. After high school he enrolled at Eastman to study trombone with Emory Remington
Emory Remington
Emory B. Remington was a trombonist and music teacher. His unique method made him one of the most well-known and influential trombone educators in history...
, and composition with Gladys Leventon and Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers was an American composer.Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloch, Percy Goetschius, and Nadia Boulanger. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Hartt School, and the Eastman School of Music...
.
Soon after graduating in 1956, he travelled to England for further composition study with Peter Racine Fricker
Peter Racine Fricker
Peter Racine Fricker was an English composer who lived in the United States for the last thirty years of his life....
, intending to stay a few months. He began freelancing on trombone and bass trumpet
Bass trumpet
The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B today, but is sometimes built in E and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the...
, becoming a regular in the London jazz scene with groups like the Kenny Baker’s Dozen. In 1958, he won the bass trombone position in the Philharmonia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, where he would serve for the next 30 years. Also in 1958, he married Susan Talbot, with whom he would have two daughters.
In addition to performances and regular recording with the Philharmonia, Premru continued to freelance. As a session musician, he would play and record with, among others, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles (most notably on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). In 1964 he joined the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, founded in 1951 by trumpeter Philip Jones, was one of the first modern classical brass ensembles to be formed. The group played either as a quintet or as a ten-piece, for larger halls...
, for which he would write several pieces; he remained a member until Jones’ own retirement in 1987. He also co-directed, and composed for, the Bobby Lamb/Ray Premru Big Band.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980617/ai_n14151548
Over time his interest in teaching grew, and after a term as a sabbatical replacement at Eastman, he decided in 1988 to retire from the Philharmonia and return to the US to accept a professorship at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. Premru’s pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
rested largely on the legacy of Remington. He displayed a flexibility on technical matters, emphasizing relaxation, the development of a warm “singing” tone and a smooth legato, and musicianship: all qualities that characterized his own playing.http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/resources/articles/premru.php
While at Oberlin he continued to perform occasionally, and to compose. In 1990 he remarried, to Janet Jacobs. In 1997 he was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music.http://www.oberlin.edu/wwwcomm/ats/atspast/ats0997/ats0997_arts1.html That same year he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...
, and he died at the Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...
the following May, at the age of 63.http://www.oberlin.edu/consrv/connews/current/premru.html
Music
Premru’s compositional output runs from jazz arrangements to choral works, and includes pieces commissioned by numerous leading orchestras, festivals and organizations.In a 1981 interview with Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
, he cited as influences the music of Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
, Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Bartok
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, in addition to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and early 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...
studies. Throughout his career his language remained one of relatively conservative mid-century modernism
Modernism (music)
Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with the past or common practice.- Defining musical modernism :...
, with a bent toward gentle lyricism; though he wrote some works in a lighter vein, and jazz idioms and techniques pop up in even his most “serious” scores.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980617/ai_n14151548http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/resources/articles/premru.php
His large-scale works include concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s for Trombone (1956), Trumpet (1983), and Tuba (1992); Music for Three Trombones, Tuba and Orchestra (1985); a Concerto for Orchestra (1976); and two symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
(1981 and 1988). Most were commissioned and premiered by major ensembles (the symphonies by the Philharmonia
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
and Cleveland
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
orchestras, with conductors Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
and Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
, respectively); however none have been commercially recorded as of 2007 and only the Trumpet and Tuba concertos remain in print (also as of 2007).
Perhaps his most lasting legacy is in his chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
works for brass, several of which remain available in print and on recordings, including: the Concertino for trombone and woodwind quartet (1954); Music from Harter Fell
Harter Fell
Harter Fell may refer to the following locations in England:*Harter Fell in Eskdale in the Lake District National Park, Cumbria*Harter Fell in Mardale, also in the Lake District National Park*Harter Fell in Lunedale, in the Teesdale district of County Durham...
(1973) and the nine-movement Divertimento (1976), both for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble; the Brass Quartet of 1960; Two Pieces for three trombones (1951); and In Memoriam (1956) and the Tissington
Tissington
Tissington is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is part of the estate of Tissington Hall, owned by the FitzHerbert family since 1465. It is regarded as one of the most picturesque English villages and is a popular tourist attraction, particularly during its well dressing week. It also gives its...
Variations (1970), both for trombone quartet.
Online sources
- Anderson, Martin. Obituary: Raymond Premru. The Independent (London), 1998-06-17. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
- Bassano, Peter (Autumn 1988). Ray Premru: An Appreciation. British Trombone Society. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
- Raymond E. Premru, Professor of Trombone and Esteemed Colleague, Dead at Age 63. Conservatory News (Fall 1998). Oberlin Conservatory. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
- Tomkins, Les (1971). Bobby Lamb and Ray Premru...(interview). JazzProfessional.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
- Roy, Klaus G. (1997). Raymond Premru: Player/Composer. ClevelandArtsPrize.org. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
- Paine, Anne C. Summertime Surprise: Premru Wins Cleveland Arts Prize. Around the Square (September 1997). Oberlin College. Retrieved on 2007-03-16
Printed sources
- Slonimsky, NicolasNicolas SlonimskyNicolas Slonimsky was a Russian born American composer, conductor, musician, music critic, lexicographer and author. He described himself as a "diaskeuast" ; "a reviser or interpolator."- Life :...
, rev. Laura Kuhn. (2001): Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians—Centennial Edition, Vol. 5, p. 2858. New York: G. Schirmer. ISBN 0-02-865525-7 - Anderson, Ruth, ed. (1982): Contemporary American Composeers: a Biographical Dictionary, p. 414. Boston: GK Hall. ISBN 0-8161-8223-X
- Press, ed. (1985): Who’s Who in American Music: Classical 2nd Edition, p. 470. New York: RR Bowker ISBN 0-8352-2074-5
- Driscoll, Anne: “The Art of Trombone Playing: A Conversation with Raymond Premru and Ralph Sauer” The Instrumentalist vol 40 no. 10 (May 1986), pp. 18–24.