DA CAPO AL FINE: CHESTER BISCARDI’S MUSICAL RETURN

Chester Biscardi

BUENA PARK, CA (September 6, 2002)—It was probably a good thing that Yamaha artist Chester Biscardi abandoned music at the age of 16. His parents wanted him to be a lawyer, and a prominent musician suggested that he listen to them. So Biscardi, who had started composing at age nine, simply stopped. He studied Italian instead, becoming fluent in the language, and earned an M.A. in Italian Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Fortunately for music, however, Biscardi, returned to his first love, attuned forever to the rhythm and meaning of words. "The background in literature has been really important to my work," says the 53-year old composer, who went on to earn an M.M. in Musical Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music. "It has fed into my sense of structure and sensitivity to language."

Biscardi, a native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a winner of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, which puts him in the same company as famed American composers Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. His lyrical, accessible, music, with its attention to nuance and color, includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo piano, but his foray into chamber opera and his recent concentration on songs reflect his years as a scholar of text. "The Gift of Life," a song cycle for soprano and piano (1990-93), is based on the writings of Emily Dickinson, Denise Levertov, and Thornton Wilder. "At Any Given Moment," for voice and piano with words by William Zinsser and "Recovering," for tenor and piano with words by Muriel Rukeyser, were written this year on the composer's new Yamaha Disklavier® DC2A.

"The piano combines technical wizardry with the really beautiful, warm, and sensuous sound that I need to have," says Biscardi. "I would be completely comfortable performing on it in Carnegie Hall."

The Manhattan-based musician's newest project is an opera, for which he will write the libretto that is based on a true episode during his sojourn in Italy. He will work on it this summer during a three week stay as composer-in-residence at Copland House, Aaron Copland's restored house and studio in suburban New York.

Biscardi is Director of the Music Program at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Music.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; visit www.yamaha.com or telephone (714) 522-9011.