Violist Barry Shiffman, Associate Dean of The Glenn Gould School and Director of The Taylor Academy, has curated and will lead a concert featuring the music of Argentinian-American composer Osvaldo Golijov on January 25. The concert takes place at Toronto’s Mazzoleni Concert Hall.
Shiffman and Golijov enjoy a musical friendship that dates back to the early 1990s.
Osvaldo Golijov also recently released his album Ever Yours on the Phenotypic Recordings label on January 16. On his own website, he writes,
“This record is especially close to my heart because it is a celebration of friendship. First and foremost, of my 30 years of friendship with Geoff Nuttall. I am especially moved to have made this homage to Geoff with Stephen Prutsman, who produced the record, and Barry Shiffman, who arranged and played the K’vakarat for the viola + string quartet version here. Stephen and Barry were also dear friends of Geoff for many decades.”
LV spoke to Shiffman about Golijov and the concert.
Who Is Osvaldo Golijov?
Born in La Plata, Argentina, Osvaldo Golijov’s mother was a pianist, and he began his studies of music as a child. He moved to Jerusalem in his early 20s, and furthered his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music. Golijov subsequently moved to the US, and earned his PhD in music at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is a professor and the Composer-in-Residence at The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
He has composed orchestral, chamber, and vocal works, and he’s become known for music that combines the traditions of Western classical chamber and orchestral music, Jewish liturgical music, and klezmer, along with the Nuevo tango of Astor Piazzolla, and other elements of Latin American music.
Golijov has won two GRAMMY Awards, Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Composition, both for his release Ainadamar (2006).
Along with his concert music, Osvaldo has written music for film, including Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Megalopolis, among others.
Barry Shiffman: The Interview
“Osvaldo is one of my closest friends in the world,” begins Shiffman.
Golijov had been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1990, where he wrote his piece Yiddishbuk on a commission. The St. Lawrence String Quartet was invited to the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music in 1992.
“We were required to play one of his pieces,” Barry recalls. “It was a pretty dramatic meeting,” he adds.
“At first, we were kind of skeptical of what he’d written.”
At a meeting with the composer, Osvaldo began to sing the music. As he did so, the quartet of musicians realized the genius of his composition. “We were just like uncontrollable animals in attacking his music.”
Golijov considered the event as a pivotal moment in his musical career, and it began a lifelong friendship. The St. Lawrence Quartet became one of the chief advocates for his music, as well as personal friends, and played it live frequently. The new album’s first track, “Ever Yours,” was written in memory of violinist Geoff Nuttall.
As Shiffman notes, the Kronos Quartet was in the audience for the performance, and they too became champions of his work.
The Concert
Barry curated the program for the January 25 concert. “On the program, the first work, the Last Round, is dedicated to my late quartet partner Geoff Nuttall and myself.
Lua Descolorida is the second work on the program. “It’s one of the most exceptionally beautiful pieces for soprano and quartet,” he says.
Tenebrae comes third in the program. “It’s a sound world that, unless you hear it, you can’t believe it exists.”
The Ontario premiere of a three-part work, Tintype (2024), comes after the intermission. Golijov composed the music for a documentary titled Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, directed by Oren Rudavsky about the life of the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate. He showed the score to Shiffman a few years ago.
“I gathered through a few musicians at the Conservatory and read through it,” Shiffman recalls. Golijov took themes from that score and created Tintype.
On the album, Barry plays K’vakarat (1993), a work that was originally written for the Kronos quartet and cantor Misha Alexandrovich. In its original form, it was included in Osvaldo’s 1997 album The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. The St. Lawrence String Quartet also included the track The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind on their double GRAMMY-nominated 2002 album Yiddishbbuk.
Shiffman rearranged K’vakarat for viola (replacing the original clarinet) and string quartet. “I liked the way it worked,” he says. “K’vakarat is a prayer that comes from the Yom Kippur service.”
As he points out, Jewish music, including both liturgical music and the klezmer tradition, informs much of Golijov’s work. But, it’s not the only element you’ll hear in his compositions. “A lot of his music borrows from the streets of Latin America.” He mentions the 2024 premiere of Golijov’s GRAMMY-winning opera Ainadamar at the Met Opera in New York. “It was basically a two hour flamenco show. You never know what you’re getting with him.”
What’s most striking about Golijov’s music is its sheer beauty.
“It’s some of the most loved music by the performers,” Shiffman says. “He has a really great sense of giving space for the interpretive juices of the performer.”
The Concert
“In this performance, there’s a wide range of artists,” Barry notes. That includes Genn ould School faculty members and alumni, along with musicians from The Glenn Gould School and The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists.
“It’s going to be a stage full of wonderful performers,” he says, calling it, “a full immersion into his singularly beautiful world. It’s unabashedly beautiful,” he adds.
“Whatever people think about new music, they can leave those thoughts at the door.”
The All-Osvaldo Golijov Program:
- The Last Round
- Lua Descolorida
- Tenebrae
- INTERMISSION
- Tintype (Ontario premiere)*
- K’va Karat
Find tickets and concert details [HERE].
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