Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Jorge Liderman

On Sunday February 3, UC Berkeley Professor of Music and composer Jorge Liderman was hit by a train at the El Cerrito Plaza bart station (north of Berkeley) and was killed. Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle) reports on the tragedy here.

I had been fortunate enough when I was a member of the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus to perform two of his large-scale choral works. Sephardisms II, an a cappella setting of Sephardic folk songs, was very rewarding to sing. In 2002, I was part of the world premiere of Song of Songs, a symphonic cantata for chamber orchestra, soprano, tenor, and womens' chorus. The work was beautiful. In both cases, we got to work directly with Professor Liderman. He clearly understood the voice and loved writing for it. I know that his music will survive him and will continue to touch others.

2 comments:

Lisa Hirsch said...

I hope to sing something by him one day. Oh, YOU KNOW, Dr. P.F. takes repertory suggestions seriously. I will go email the BoD right now.

The Opera Tattler said...

I was so sad to hear this.