Lauren Bernofsky
“The Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative represents the best of what music should be -- it brings into existence music that is not only relevant to our specific time (and available methods of rehearsal) but also fills our deeply felt need for ways of expressing our emotions and connecting with others. Most importantly, it gives young musicians an opportunity for healing and comfort that is so direly needed right now at this time and place in history.”
Biography
Hailed by Lukas Foss as “a master composer,” Lauren Bernofsky has written well over a hundred works, including solo, chamber, and choral music, as well as larger-scale works for orchestra, film, musical, opera, and ballet. Her music has been performed across the United States as well as internationally in major venues from Carnegie Hall to Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway.
She has over sixty works in print from Theodore Presser, Alfred, Carl Fischer, Boosey & Hawkes, FJH, Hal Leonard, Grand Mesa, Balquhidder, and Fatrock Ink. Her music is often heard at festivals and conferences, including Tanglewood, The Midwest Clinic, International Women’s Brass Conference, International Trombone Festival, American String Teachers Association Conference, and the International Trumpet Guild Conference.
Recordings of her music are available on the Polarfonia, Emeritus, Blue Griffin, MSR Classics, Summit, and Albany labels.
Her works have won the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition, the Longfellow Chorus Award of Distinction, and an Excellence in Composition Award from the Brass Chamber Music Forum. Bernofsky has received grants from The National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, The American Music Center, and The American Composers Forum. Her compositions have been commissioned by The Del Mar Trio, The Holyoke Civic Symphony, The Litchfield County Children's Choir, The South Shore Conservatory, Sinfonia Calcania of Boston, The Harford Ballet, Reimagining Opera for Kids, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, and many others.
Lauren Bernofsky holds degrees from the Hartt School, New England Conservatory, and Boston University, where she earned a doctorate in composition. She has taught at Boston University, The Peabody Institute, and Interlochen, and she regularly serves as a clinician and guest conductor at schools, universities, and regional festivals.
Two Folk Dances
Bernofsky’s Two Folk Dances was composed for a wind ensemble of only woodwinds. The two movements are arrangements of East European folk dances, a genre of music that Bernofsky credits as some of her earliest musical memories as a young child, and which has had profound influence on her compositional voice.