Top Songs By Robert Aitken
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ALBUMJohn Beckwith: The Trumpets of Summer, Taking a Stand, Synthetic Trios, Stacey (Canadian Composers Portraits)John Beckwith, Eitan Cornfield, Robert Aitken, Judy Loman, Donald Wherry, Canada Festival Singers, Elmer Iseler, Ronald Laurie, Mary Morrison, Harold Burke, Norman Tobias, Patricia Rideout, Donald Bartle, Joseph Umbrico, Alexander Gray, Canadian Brass, Therese Costes, Delores Kay-Hee, Connie Gitlin, Stephen Ralls & Monica Whicher
ALBUMNorma Beecroft: Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 1, From Dreams of Brass, Collage '76, Jeu II, Accordion Play (Canadian Composers Portraits)John Weinzweig, Norma Beecroft, Robert Aitken, Harry Somers, Harry Freedman, Mary Morrison, David Jaeger, Helen Weinzweig, Eitan Cornfield, Gordon Burwash, Stuart Beecroft, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Victor Feldbrill, John Avison, CBC Chorus, CBC Symphony Orchestra, Barry Morse, New Music Concerts, Rivka Golani, George Morgan, Joseph Petric, Bill Brennan & Accordes String Quartet
ALBUMOvation, Vol. 3: Music of Tremblay, Kenins, Beecroft, Beckwith and PentlandYves Prin, Orchestre National de France, Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, Jerome Pernod, Luca Pfaff, Canada Quartet, Toronto Festival Singers, Elmer Iseler, Steven Staryk, John Avison, CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, Chia Chou, Musici di Montreal, I, Yuli Turovsky, Marion Ross, Robert Aitken, Serge Garant, Quebec Contemporary Music Society, Lyric Arts Trio, Canada Festival Singers, Mario Bernardi, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Norma Beecroft, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Hannaford Street Silver Band, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Colin Tilney, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Victor Feldbrill, The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Tsung Yeh, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Angela Hewitt, Barbara Pentland, Robert Rogers, Arthur Polson, James Hunter, Erica Goodman & Days Months and Years to Come
About Robert Aitken
Artist Biography
Canadian flutist and composer Robert Aitken studied flute with Nicholas Fiore, Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Severino Gazzelloni; of the significant figures, Aitken regards Moyse as the teacher who had the most impact on his own playing. Aitken's composition studies were undertaken with Barbara Pentland and John Weinzweig. At the tender age of only 19, Aitken was principal flutist of the Vancouver Symphony from 1958 to 1959, and Aitken's record stands, as he still the youngest flutist to hold first chair in this symphony's history. Aitken completeed his music degrees at the University of Toronto in 1965, where he also worked in the Electronic Music Studio, composing the works Composition for flute and tape (1962), Hamlet (Incidental Music) (1963), Noesis (1964) and a Quartet for flute, oboe, viola, and contrabass (1961). Aitken's primary public debut was with his own piece, Concert for 12 Soloists and Orchestra (1968) premiered by Seiji Ozawa conducting the Toronto Symphony, where Aitken held first flute chair from 1965 to 1970. Aitken has premiered more than 65 works of other composers, most written expressly for him, including Elliott Carter, Roger Reynolds, George Crumb, Toru Takemitsu and R. Murray Schafer, with whom Aitken has worked particularly closely, premiering Schafer's opera Patria I: Wolfman in 1987.
Robert Aitken's flute playing is noted for the clarity of his tone and a subtle sense of phrasing, and concert tours has led him all over the word. In addition to many other distinctions, Aitken was a prize-winner at the 1971 Concours International de Flûte de Paris. As a composer, he has received numerous important commissions. Aitken's earlier works, such as Spectra for four chamber groups (1969) were structured around transformations of the twelve-tone series and exhibit an interest in spatial modulation of sound. After a five-month Asian journey in 1970, Aitken was greatly influenced by his experiences there, and this is reflected in his Shadow pieces. The composition Spiral (1975) features amplification of one instrument each from several blended woodwind pairs, creating fascinating timbres. Robert Aitken's later pieces are influenced by minimalism. Aitken founded the summer chamber music festival Music at Shawnigan in 1981, which continues of under the aegis of the Johannesen International School of the Arts. Although Aitken had retired from most of his teaching posts by 2001, he remains active in other ways, and from 2003 he has appeared regularly with the New York Flute Club, leading them in the New World disc Henry Brant: Music for Massed Flutes in 2006.
Hometown
Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Genre
Classical
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