David Hertzberg
Hailed as "opulently gifted" by Opera News and "utterly original" by The New York Times, the music of David Hertzberg (b. 1990, Los Angeles) is swiftly garnering recognition. His opera The Wake World, co-presented by the Barnes Foundation and Opera Philadelphia in the fall of 2017, premiered to wide acclaim and won the Music Critics Association of North America award for "Best New Opera." Of the premiere, The New York Times wrote: "The score, spiked with modernist elements, makes Mr. Hertzberg seem a 21st-century Ravel." The work's debut recording was released in the spring of 2020 on Tzadik, and lauded as "astonishingly imaginative" by the BBC, "a rapturous nirvana" by the Financial Times, and "powerful, intoxicating music of his own, unique to him and to our current times" by Opera News.
The spring of 2018 saw yet another opera premiere, The Rose Elf, presented inside the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, which WQXR named The Opera Event of 2018, saying: "Hertzberg is a masterful dramatist...This one signals the arrival of a major compositional personality."
Hertzberg is currently at work on his third opera, Grand Hotel, a collaboration with director Yuval Sharon and the Los Angeles-based company The Industry.
Recent seasons have included his Chamber Symphony with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the cantata Sunday Morning with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, and Spectre of the Spheres with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Recent distinctions include a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo.
Hertzberg served as Composer in Residence for Opera Philadelphia and Young Concert Artists, and studied at The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.
The spring of 2018 saw yet another opera premiere, The Rose Elf, presented inside the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, which WQXR named The Opera Event of 2018, saying: "Hertzberg is a masterful dramatist...This one signals the arrival of a major compositional personality."
Hertzberg is currently at work on his third opera, Grand Hotel, a collaboration with director Yuval Sharon and the Los Angeles-based company The Industry.
Recent seasons have included his Chamber Symphony with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the cantata Sunday Morning with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, and Spectre of the Spheres with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Recent distinctions include a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo.
Hertzberg served as Composer in Residence for Opera Philadelphia and Young Concert Artists, and studied at The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.
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The Rose Elf
The Rose Elf is a chamber opera by Los Angeles-based composer David Hertzberg. Inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, The Rose Elf tells the story of a chilling murder as it is experienced by a magical being who lives secretly among the rose petals. The opera premiered in an unprecedented presentation in the Catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to sold-out audiences and wide critical acclaim, and was subsequently named WQXR's Opera Event of 2018. Now Swan Studios presents the work in a high definition recording starring mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, conducted by Robert Kahn, and produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Andreas Meyer.
The Rose Elf is a chamber opera by Los Angeles-based composer David Hertzberg. Inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, The Rose Elf tells the story of a chilling murder as it is experienced by a magical being who lives secretly among the rose petals. The opera premiered in an unprecedented presentation in the Catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to sold-out audiences and wide critical acclaim, and was subsequently named WQXR's Opera Event of 2018. Now Swan Studios presents the work in a high definition recording starring mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, conducted by Robert Kahn, and produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Andreas Meyer.