Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Noé Golijov (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡolixof]) (born December 5, 1960) is an Argentinian composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work.

Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that emigrated to Argentina from Romania. His mother was a piano teacher, and his father was a physician. He studied piano in La Plata and studied composition with Gerardo Gandini.

In 1983, Golijov moved to Israel, where he studied with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy. Three years later, he studied with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania before receiving his doctorate. In 1991, Golijov joined the faculty of the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was named Loyola Professor of Music in 2007. For the 2012-13 season, he held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As of 2016 he lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Golijov was married twice. He had three children with his first wife, Silvia. He married architect and designer Neri Oxman in 2011.

Golijov grew up listening to chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the tango of Ástor Piazzolla. His Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind was inspired by the writings and teachings of Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor.

In 1996, his work Oceana was premiered at the Oregon Bach Festival. He composed La Pasión según San Marcos for the Passion 2000 project in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2010, he composed Sidereus for a consortium of 35 American orchestras, to commemorate Galileo.

Golijov had a long working relationship with soprano Dawn Upshaw, who he called his muse. She premiered some of his works, often written specifically for her. These included Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, and his popular opera, Ainadamar, which premiered at Tanglewood in 2003.

Starting in 2000, Golijov composed movie soundtracks for documentaries and other films, including The Man Who Cried, Youth Without Youth, Tetro and Twixt. He also composed and arranged chamber music, including for the Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Golijov faced several controversies around his work, including missed deadlines and accusations of plagiarism. He came under scrutiny in 2011 for a series of high-profile commissions that were either delayed or cancelled. A violin concerto written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic was not completed in time, Golijov missed a second deadline the following year in Berlin, and a third delay followed in November 2012, and missed its January 2013 premiere at Disney Hall.

This followed a similar cancellation in 2010, when a scheduled song cycle had to be removed from the program when it was not complete in time. The March 2011 premiere of a new string quartet for the St. Lawrence Quartet was also delayed due to a missed deadline, though the work, Qohelet, was completed later that year and premiered by the quartet in October 2011.

Golijov received a commission from the Metropolitan Opera for an opera that was to be performed in 2018; however in 2017, this was cancelled for lack of progress.

Questions of musical plagiarism were leveled at Golijov after Tom Manoff, a composer and critic, and Brian McWhorter, a trumpeter, alleged that Sidereus consisted mainly of music from the Michael Ward-Bergeman composition Barbeich. Alex Ross of The New Yorker reviewed both scores and wrote, "To put it bluntly, 'Sidereus' is 'Barbeich' with additional material attached". Ross added that Ward-Bergeman was aware of Golijov's borrowings. A consortium of thirty-five orchestras had paid Golijov $75,000 to write a 20-minute work; a fee supplemented by a $50,000 grant approved by the then board of the League of American Orchestras. The final work that Golijov produced and gave to the consortium of orchestras was a 9-minute work. Golijov also used that same musical material in his 2009 composition Radio.

Golijov responded to these questions by explaining that he composed the original musical material jointly with Ward-Bergeman for a film score which in the end did not include the material, and that he used it by agreement with Ward-Bergeman, who did not comment publicly on the matter. Golijov cited Monteverdi, Schubert and Mahler as other composers who used existing musical material to create new music.

Some of Golijov's notable works include:

• Yiddishbbuk (1992), for string quartet.
• The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1994), for klezmer clarinet and string quartet (and later for clarinet and string orchestra)
• Oceana (1996), cantata for soloist, boys choir, chorus, electric guitars, and reduced orchestra (strings, flutes, and percussion).
• La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark's Passion) (2000)
• Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (2001). Lúa Descolorida from this set was later repurposed as the 'Peter's Tears' Aria in La Pasión según San Marcos.
• Ainadamar (2003): Golijov's first opera, libretto by David Henry Hwang.
• Ayre (2004): a song cycle for soprano and ensemble, premiered by Upshaw and The Andalucian Dogs.
• Azul (2006), for cello and orchestra, premiered by Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood.
• She Was Here (2008), an orchestration of four songs by Schubert, premiered by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
• Siderius (2010), for orchestra, commissioned by a consortium of 35 orchestras.

Awards

• Guggenheim Fellowship (1995)
• MacArthur Fellowship (2003)
• Musical America Composer of the Year (2006)
• Grammy Awards x2 (2007): Ainadamar, Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Contemporary Composition
• Vilcek Prize in Music (2008)

Appointments

• Merkin Hall (New York), composer-in-residence (1998)
• Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Alive Series, composer-in-residence (2001)
• Ravinia Festival, composer-in-residence (2002)
• Spoleto Festival USA, composer-in-residence (2002, 2011)
• Ojai Music Festival, composer-in-residence (2006)
• Mostly Mozart Festival, composer-in-residence (2007)
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra, composer-in-residence (2007-2010)
• Holland Festival, composer-in-residence (2008)
• Carnegie Hall, Debs Composer Chair (2012–13)

Film soundtracks

• Youth Without Youth soundtrack (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007)
• Tetro soundtrack (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009)
• The Man Who Cried soundtrack (Sony Classical SK 61870)

Voice, chamber music and orchestral

• Yiddishbbuk (EMI Classics 57356-2) - nominated for a 2003 Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance
• Oceana (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007)
• Ayre (Deutsche Grammophon CD 00289 477 5414) - nominated for a 2006 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition
• Ainadamar (Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) (Deutsche Grammophon) - two 2007 Grammy Awards, for Recording and for Composition
• La Pasión según San Marcos The Passion according to St. Mark (live & studio) (Deutsche Grammophon B0014008-00)
• The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind performed by the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79444)
• Voices of Light, Lúa Descolorida sung by soprano Dawn Upshaw (Nonesuch 79812)
• Night Prayers, K'vakarat on recording of the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79346)
• Caravan arrangements for the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch 79490)