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Sean Shepherd
With recent premieres of commissioned works by major ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the music of composer Sean Shepherd (born 1979) has appeared in celebrated venues across the United States and Europe. Engagements include those with the National Symphony Orchestra’s CrossCurrents Contemporary Music Week at the Kennedy Center, the 2008 Aldeburgh Festival, and a portrait concert at the ultramodern Radialsystem V in Berlin, presented by the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, with the composer conducting. Oliver Knussen premiered Shepherd's Wanderlust in Cleveland in 2009, and Alan Gilbert led the premiere of These Particular Circumstances, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the inaugural season of CONTACT!, the New Music Series, in April 2010 to general acclaim.
Comments [12]
I'll be listening for your name tomorrow night!
Sean's music is a treat to the ear. It flows naturally with the world. Thanks and I look forward to finding your music in recordings.
Sean's music is exciting to the ear. He carries the listener along. Hope to hear more of your music.
Crazy talented.
Lumens is a really nice work!
Sean's music has a great, unique and humorous style and is always orchestrated so brilliantly--the surface of his music is so effortlessly ear-catching it's easy to overlook how deftly he changes colors and textures and how "right" all of the gestures are. Definitely gets my vote for an Orpheus commission.
I like Sean Shepherd's music very much:
this octet is great. Original sounds, lots of Stravinsky influence I think! Rhythms pungent, each instrument has elegant lines: loads of counterpoint. I imagine his music is fun to play (this alone would recommend it to me!).
this music has personality and skill. I would like to hear more. (I am no friend of the composer, seriously).
PS - the Octet reminds me of that awesome Orpheus Schoenberg Chamber Symphony recording. Just sayin
Wow, I haven't heard Sean's music since college -- great stuff! I love these excerpts. You make the octet sound like a much larger ensemble. Very exciting. Likewise in Lumens. Great ensemble shapes. Cartoon, no. But Carl Stalling did use a lot of bassoon and viola, i guess...
Hey Sean, don't you owe me a piece? ;)
I never heard of Sean Shepherd before but I'm sorry that such moving and intelligent music is mislabelled as "cartoon music". Without disparaging any of the other uniquely personal music I've also enjoyed from Project 440, this music is indeed quite exceptional. Thanks.
The selection from the "Octet" sounds a bit like superior cartoon music. I appreciate, though, the detail and the continual development. This is much better than a huge majority of the works I've heard in Project 440.
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