WILLIAMSTOWN NATIVE STEPHEN DANKNER TO PREMIERE ORIGINAL WORKS AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE

For Immediate Release
September 29, 2017

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Composer Stephen Dankner presents a free concert of original works at the Clark Art Institute on Sunday, October 15 at 3 pm. The concert will be held in the Clark’s auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.

The program includes De Profundis (2010) with violinist Joana Genova and cellist Cicely Parnas; The Merit of Light: Seven Songs of Stephen Rifkin with mezzo soprano Ivy Walz and pianist Charis Dimaras; Duo for Two Violins (2016) with violinists Joana Genova and Heather Braun-Bakken; and Piano Quintet (2015) with the Arneis String Quartet and pianist Victor Cayres. Members of the Arneis String Quartet include violinists Heather Braun-Bakken and Rose Drucker, violist Daniel Doña, and cellist Agnes Kim.

ABOUT STEPHEN DANKNER
Stephen Dankner was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his doctor of musical arts degree in music composition from the Juilliard School in 1971. Original works since 1990 include eight symphonies, twenty string quartets, a saxophone quartet (commissioned by the Mana Saxophone Quartet), six concerti, an E flat clarinet concerto (commissioned by Louisiana Philharmonic E flat clarinetist Stephanie Thompson), and a concerto for alto saxophonist Lawrence Gwozdz. He also composed Symphony for Saxophone Chamber Orchestra; four major song cycles; sonatas for violin, piano, alto saxophone, viola, and cello; four piano trios; a piano quartet, piano quintet, and saxophone quintet; and five orchestral tone poems. Dankner was the composer-in-residence with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2004–2007.

The National Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Nürnberg Symphoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, and Berkshire Symphony have given premieres of his commissioned and other works. The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra has given premiere performances of seven of his eight symphonies from 1998–2012.

Dankner has twice been a recipient of a State of Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship in Music Composition (1986, 1998) and four times the recipient of the State of Louisiana Division of the Arts Mini-Grants (1998–2004). He was the winner of the William Lincer International Composition Award for Piano Quartet (2001). He has held fellowship residencies at Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, A Studio In The Woods, and The Millay Colony. Dankner was a recipient of a Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship to compose his Eighth Symphony (2004–2005).

Dankner also is an experimental digital visual artist and has had several juried exhibitions of his giclée prints in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. He resides in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 270,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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