Ilya Levinson
Ilya
Levinson, Interim Director of Composition StudiesRussian-born Ilya Levinson graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory as a composer, where he studied composition with Alexander Pirumov and orchestration with Edison Denisov. After immigrating to the United States in 1988, Levinson completed a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Chicago where his training included instruction from Ralph Shapey, Shulamit Ran, John Eaton, and Howard Sandroff. He teaches Composition, Orchestration, Sightsinging 2, Keyboard 1 at Columbia College Chicago and Musicianship skills at the University of Chicago.
Levinson’s catalogue includes four operas, four musicals, various symphonic and chamber music, film scores and original music for theatre productions.
His "Klezmer Rhapsody," recorded by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, was released on Shanachie label. In Sing Out Magazine vol. 46 no. 4, Seth Rogovoy writes, The 18-minute "Klezmer Rhapsody," written by Ilya Levinson, will undoubtedly remind listeners of George
Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," not only because of its similar dramatic concerto format, but because on its way toward putting the blues on the concert stage Gershwin's work already nodded to Yiddish modalities. The raw material that makes up klezmer's three- and four-minute dance numbers is rich enough to be mined at greater length and depth, and Levinson's fine experiment, which brings to mind Duke Ellington as much as Gershwin in the manner in which it paints a
particular landscape through shifting perspectives, will undoubtedly point the way to more efforts like it.
His monodrama, "The Tell-Tale Heart," was commissioned by CUBE Contemporary Music Ensemble in 2001 and performed to critical acclaim.
Ilya Levinson’s "Chicago Fantasy," written for American Music Festivals where Mr. Levinson is a composer-in-residence, premiered on July 4 2000 with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra in Bolshoi Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Phil Simmons, conducting. It was subsequently performed by Presidentâs Orchestra (Russia) during Chicago Days in Moscow in 2002.
A sought-after orchestrator, Ilya worked on "Bockchoy Variations" by Evan Chen for the Minnesota Opera (1996); on "Glass House" by Ellen Gould for Northlight Theatre, Skokie (1998); and "Voices," a CD by Michael Reily.
A winner of the 1994 Midwest Composers Competition and recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships in Music Composition (1997, 2003), Levinson’s music has been performed by Contemporary Chamber Players, Chicago; the New Music Ensembles of The University of Chicago and Northwestern University; the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra; and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Ilya Levinson was composer-in-residence at Noble School, Chicago, and the Momenta Academy, Oak Park. He is Music Director and co-founder with Phil Bohlman, Artistic Director, of the New Budapest Orpheum Society, which specializes in performing music of Jewish Cabaret. Their double-CD, "Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano," was released on Cedille label and is distributed worldwide. The group gave a concert at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington in May 2003.
Levinson’s film credits include additional music for Shtetl (WBGH Frontline); Cleared for Landing (Discovery); The Fransworth House, The Tugenhadt House, and Lafyette Park, films about the architecture of Mies van der Rohe for Lost and Found Productions (Chicago); and 1998-2000 fundraising videos for the Jewish United Fund, Chicago. He has also worked for Kartemquin Educational Films, Chicago.