When
MYRON FINK
was a 4-year old boy growing up in Chicago, his mother took him to a music
store where he heard this beautiful music playing in the background. He
was so enraptured he did not want to leave the store - he had to be dragged
home crying! (Later he learned it was Mozart's Symphony in G minor.) There
and then, he knew for sure he was going to be a musician when he grew up.
His parents, sensing his inclinations, started him on piano lessons early
on. His first piece was something we all hum today - Here Comes the Bride.
When he was taken to be tested by one of Chicago's most famous music teachers,
Myron impressed him so much that he offered free lessons if the family could
not afford them.
When at age 8, he learned that music existed because someone - a COMPOSER
- had written it he knew he had to become a . He
devoured lessons in music theory and soon was studying harmony and counterpoint.
A year later he went to see a performance of Puccini's Tosca and
instantly knew he would compose for
He then went on to study at the Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music.
A Woodrow Wilson Memorial Fellowship enabled him to obtain a Master of
Music degree at the University of Illinois where he met his wife Bonnie
(a voice teacher) and fellow music student Don Moreland. Fink and Moreland
have been friends and collaborators in music ever since. A full year at
the Staatsakademie der Musik in Vienna as a Fulbright scholar completed
Fink's formal music education. His teachers have included: Felix Borowski,
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bernard Wagenaar, Burrill Phillips and Robert
Palmer.
A few years later, he became a teacher himself. From 1966 to 1991, he
was on the faculty of Hunter College of the City University of New York
(CUNY). He has also taught at the Curtis School of Music and at the State
University of New York at Purchase.
Myron Fink is an active composer, pianist, coach-accompanist and teacher.
He is a prolific composer who has written for voice, piano, organ and
a wide variety of instrumental and choral ensembles. He has written four
symphonies. But his greatest interest remains opera and music for the
theater. His incidental music to Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle
has been performed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and South
Africa. Jeremiah, his first full-length opera was the first opera
to be funded by the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York Times
called it "one of the best operas written in the United States".
During the writing of the libretto of The Conquistador, Myron
Fink was injured in an accident. He and his wife came to San Diego, California
to convalesce. They loved the climate and were charmed by the city they've
called home since 1990. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Fink was Composer-in-Residence
at the San Diego Opera which in March 1997 world- premiered his latest
operatic work, The Conquistador, with great success.
In the year 2000, he and Don Moreland were
commissioned by the San Diego Opera to write an opera for children. The
result: the delightful work called Animalopera. It has enjoyed
several "seasons" in San Diego city schools as a production
of the San Diego Opera's Education and Outreach program. The composer-librettist
duo has just completed another opera, Edith Wharton, based on
the life of the famous American novelist.
See
a VIDEO of Myron and Don in conversation
about the music and language of ANIMALOPERA.
Visit MYRON'S WEBSITE.
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