Persis Parshall Vehar
Brief Composer Bio
Hailed by the New York Times for her musical “honesty, clarity and
compositional skill”, Persis Parshall Vehar has had works commissioned
and performed by leading orchestras, opera companies, ensembles,
soloists and schools throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, South
America and Europe. With over 300 compositions ranging from solo song
to full orchestral works and operas, Vehar’s works have been performed
at many of the leading concert venues including the Royal Festival Hall
(London), Graz Music Festival (Austria), Copenhagen Hall (Denmark),
McMaster & Brock Universities (Canada), Uppland University (Sweden),
Ohio State University, Duke University, Kleinhans Music Hall (Buffalo,
NY), Spoleto USA (Charleston, NC), National Women’s Historical Museum
(Seneca Falls, NY), New York State Fair on “Equality & Social Justice
Day”, and Carnegie Recital Hall.
Vehar is included in the International Museum’s Collection of
Distinguished Musicians in London and the Biblioteque Internationale De
Musique Contemporaine in Paris. She is the recipient of 47 annual ASCAP
Plus Awards for excellence in composition, five Buffalo News Music
Critic’s Yearly Awards, and seven Meet the Composer Grants. She is
listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, and the International
Encyclopedia of Women Composers. Among her publishers are C. F. Peters
and Boosey & Hawkes. Her compositions are broadcast regularly on
National and International Public Radio & Television.
Her recent CDs include “CITY OF LIGHT, The Music of Persis Parshall
Vehar”, featuring Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Clarinet John
Fullam, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, Conductor,
the Amberg Chamber Ensemble, and Pianist Vehar. The CD garnered 3 Grammy
Nominations. “FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP” was recorded by Maggio Musicale
Principal Trumpet David Kuehn, Colorado Symphony Trumpet Daniel Kuehn, and
Organist Ken Mervine (Naxos). On MODERN AMERICAN ART SONG, her song
cyele, “WOMEN, WOMEN,” was recorded by Mezzo Soprano Sharon Mabry, and
Pianist Patsy Wade (Albany). MUSICAL LANDSCAPES FOR TRUMPET, including
her sonata, “SOUND-PIECE for Trumpet/flugelhorn/Piccolo Trumpet, and
Piano”, was recorded by Trumpeter David Kuehn and Pianist Persis Vehar
(Naxos).
Conductor JoAnn Falletta said, “Persis is a composer of great
imagination and tremendous talent. She enjoys writing for musicians whom
she knows and cares about, and her music is always deeply personal and
very communicative.” Among others, Vehar has also collaborated with
Conductors Robert Franz, Heather Buckman, Marylouise Nanna, and Michael
Ching. Singers that she has collaborated with are Metropolitan Opera
Bass-baritone Zachary James, Metropolitan Opera Bass Valerian Ruminski,
German-American Tenor Eric Fennell, African-American
Internationally-known Soprano Louise Toppin, African-American
Countertenor University of California Voice Faculty Darryl Taylor, and
Internationally-known Soprano Laura Aikin. She has collaborated with
many instrumentalists including, Principal Trumpet Maggio Musicale David
Kuehn, Buffalo Philharmonic Principal Clarinetist John Fullam, Principal
Tubaist of the Connecticut Symphony Robert Vehar, Trumpeter Daniel Kuehn
of the Colorado Symphony, Concertperson of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra
Susanna Perry Gilmore, and Prinicpal Trumpet of Tulsa’s Signature
Symphony Benjamin Hay.
Vehar’s songs have received enthusiastic reviews. American Music Teacher
has stated that “Ashore At Last ... [is] one of the most captivating
songs to be published recently ... the effect is almost ethereal.” The
Los Angeles Times wrote that her six musical settings of Charles
Bukowski’s poetry, “give enticing glimpses of a fresh sort of
whiskey-breathed art song.” The International Alliance of Women in Music
stated, “For her song cycle, Women, Women, Vehar selected the poetry of
three feminist poets, each with as distinct an original voice as the
composer herself. Vehar conveys the meaning of the poem vocally of
intoning, Sprechstimme, and spoken narrative, which is complemented
deftly by a sparse piano part that reflects the theatrical character of
the voice, with its dissonance and recurring angular intervals.”
“Congratulations Persis! I was dazzled by the opera and thought it was a
fantastic production with great singers. The libretto was stunning and
the music was so powerful and so lyrical.” JoAnn Falletta, Conductor.
“A gifted and artful composer, her music is stunning to listen to and to
perform. Persis crafts each line to fit the voice like a glove. Her
encouragement and feedback was invaluable in creating the role of
Supterintendent Bull—I look forward to singing many more of Persis’
works over the years!” Bass Fred Furnari.
Her vast catalog of instrumental works has garnered rave reviews. The
International Trumpet Guild website affirms about one of her
performances: “One of the highlights occurred when Kuehn and his
brother, Dan Kuehn, also an accomplished trumpet player, performed From
The Mountain-Top by Persis Parshall Vehar ... The overall effect was
tremendous ... the work ended on a beautiful major chord in the organ
bringing a heightened sense of peace and repose to this inspired piece.”
About her 1989 String Quartet, the Buffalo News wrote “The second
movement seems to seek a level of spirituality similar to that achieved
by Beethoven in some of his great slow movements.” Fanfare wrote, that
her SOUND-PIECE “is at once jazzy and pointillistic. Both serious and
tongue-in-cheek, it integrates a wide and divergent array of melodic
material into a cogently worked out essay.” In 2010, Fanfare said, “Both
Kuehn and Vehar were brilliant as performers ... one finds in Vehar’s music
a masterly integration of many supposedly mutually exclusive
elements—jazzoid passages cleverly intertwined with harsh moments of
extended instrumental techniques, patches of severe dissonance uncannily
melt into soaring lyricism with an undeniably American accent. [CITY OF
LIGHT Clarinet Concerto by Principal Clarinetist John Fullam and Buffalo
Philharmonic] with jazz intertwined with Gregorian chant Irish keening
and diatonic lyricism show Vehar to be a resourceful master of both
instrumental color and scale ... intensely poetic ... magical disc.”
Vehar holds a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and a Master of
Music from the University of Michigan, and had three years’
post-graduate study in New York City. She has had private composition
lessons with Warren Benson, Ross Lee Finney, Roberto Gerhard, and Ned
Rorem. Her copious Composition Master Classes include those with John
Cage, Jacob Druckman, Leon Kirchner, Philip Glass, and John Corigliano.
Vehar has been consultant to the New York State Council for the Arts,
Collaborative Pianist in the Rockefeller Kennedy Center Voice
Competition for Excellence in American Music, judge for the
Internationally known Crane festival of New Music Solo Performer
Competition, and Composer Panelist for the New York Foundation for the
Arts.
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Persis Vehar, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Principal
Clarinetist John Fullam, & Conductor JoAnn Falletta at the premiere of
Vehar’s City Of Light Concerto |
At the premiere of her opera, Eleanor Roosevelt, Curtis Tucker, Director of the Opera Saratoga,
Persis Vehar, and John Douglas, Music Director |
Photo: Tom Wolf |
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