GERARDO DIRIÉ |
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Born in Cordoba, Argentina, composer Gerardo Dirié is also an accomplished conductor, performer, and educator. He was active in Argentina until 1987 when he moved to the US for further studies. In 2003 he moved to Brisbane, Australia, where he took a research and teaching position at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
Dirié's compositions are uniquely woven with the particular threads of character brought by each of the extraordinary musicians he has collaborated with, such as viola da gambist Johanna Rose, clarinetists Diego Montes, Floyd Williams, and David Shea; guitarists Campbell Ross, Karin Schaupp, and Alan Thomas; harpists Ann Yeung, Mercedes Gomez, Janet Paulus, and Şirin Pancaroğlu; pianists Paulina Zamora, Nicholas Roth, Vicky Jang and Maggie Chen; bassonists Alejandro Aizenberg, Ezequiel Fainsguersch, and Benjamin Coelho; singers Nelda Nelson-Eaton, Moira Smiley, and Katie Noonan; percussionists Kay Stonefelt, Julie Licata, and Jeff Handel, oboists Mimi Waisbord and Eve Newsome; flutists Alain Barker, Ana Laura González, and Darina Ablogina, among many others.
From 1992 to 1996, he served as Associate Artist for the Indiana Repertory Theatre. He was on the designers' team, writing the music and sound designs for main-stage productions such as: "Yerma", "The Cherry Orchard", "A Thousand Cranes", "Much Ado About Nothing" , "The Magnificent Ambersons, and An almost Holy Picture" Highly favorable reviews on the impact of his music have appeared in The New York Times , The Milwaukee Journal , Huizmuziek of The Netherlands, and La Voz del Interior of Argentina. His musical essays and poetry have been published by Pauta magazine in Mexico, McGraw Hill and Springer in the US, Huizmuziek, in The Netherlands, the Ministry of Culture in Colombia, the online Confraria do Vento from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the E-Journal Resonate of the Australian Music Centre. Dirié
holds Master and Doctor in Music Composition degrees from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, where he studied with John Eaton and Eugene O'Brien. He attended Indiana University from 1987 after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship and Monica Mourier Archibald Grant for postgraduate studies. Prior to moving to the United States, he completed studies at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, studying composition with Atilio Argüello, Oscar Bazán, and César Franchisena. During this time he was also awarded an International Encounters in Contemporary Music Grant to study Contemporary Choral Music Conducting Techniques in Buenos Aires, as well as a Fondo Nacional de las Artes Grant to study Music and Mathematics. Complementing
his activities as a composer and scholar, Dirié has worked extensively as an educator. From 1989 to 1992 he served as an Associate Instructor of composition at Indiana University, working with students in one-to-one tuition, as well as leading large seminar classes on composition. He
was a faculty member for the Recorder Academy Summer Workshop at
Indiana University, where he conducted workshops on music Improvisation
and Multimedia Creations for Young Musicians. From 1997 to 2003 he was appointed as faculty member in the Music in General Studies at the Jacobs School of Music while maintaining a sustained heterogeneous practice in collaborative creative projects with singers, instrumental ensembles, and dancers. In addition, he was guest faculty at the 1991
Amherst Early Music Festival, the 1992 Orff-Schulwerk National
Conference in Minneapolis, and the 1993 and 1996 National Conference
on Recorder Pedagogy in Bloomington. In 1982, he was a founding member
of the distinguished Collegium Centro de Educación e Investigaciones
Musicales in Cordoba, Argentina. At this institution, devoted to music
education and research to all degree levels, he taught composition and music theory to students of all ages and was the music director of the main choral ensemble, until his departure to the U.S. in 1987. Under his direction, this ensemble presented programs devoted to contemporary music and Latin American vernacular and Colonial Music, integrally along European baroque and classical works. Dirié
has been very active in bringing Latin American art music to a wider
audience, not only through his work as composer and educator, but also as Assistant Director of Indiana University's Latin American Music
Center, first under the direction of Venezuelan composer Ricardo
Lorenz, and later directed by Venezuelan conductor Dr. Cármen
Téllez. He assisted orchestras, soloists, ensembles and scholars from around the world in programming and studying Latin American music. He has been instrumental in the recording projects of the Japanese label Marco Polo and Dorian Recordings’ Latin American Masters Series. His research and consultation helped in the programming of performances by the American Composers Orchestra and the Continuum ensemble in New York, the San Antonio Symphony, Aktive Muzik, and the Kammerorchester Schloss Werneck of Germany, among many others. He coordinated the two Inter American Composition Festivals at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University: Words
and Music (1994) with guests composers George Crumb (University of Pennsylvania) and Kathryne Alexander (Yale University) among many other creators from the Americas, and Crossroads of Traditions (1996), a similar grand gathering, with guest composers John Corigliano (Juiliard School) and Guido López Gavilán (Instituto Superior de Arte, Havanna). Dirié is co-editor of Scores and Recordings at the Indiana University Latin American Music Center, one of the "premiere resources available to performers and scholars of Latin American art music". |
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