Biography
Joseph Rivers is a concert and film composer and is Professor of Music and Film Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he teaches composition, film scoring and music theory.
Recent compositions:
Coming on November 5, 2011:
Recent Work
- Soundtrack for Bo Bergstrom's feature film A Midsummer Night's Dream, music composed by Joseph Rivers, 2011
- Lone Wandering for Women's Chorus with piano accompaniment, premiered January 2011 by the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Tulsa, conducted by Marilyn Carver
- The Wanderings of Ayumi for Oboe and Harp, premiered October 2010, Lorelei Barton (harp), Lise Glaser (oboe)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, musical score to feature film (Bo Bergstrom, director), 2010
- "Lone Wandering," for Women's Chorus with piano accompaniment, premiered January 2011 by the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Tulsa, conducted by Marilyn Carver
- "The Wanderings of Ayumi," for Oboe and Harp, premiered October 2010, Lorelei Barton (harp), Lise Glaser (oboe)
- Overture for Debbi, commissioned by Mark Watson and the Friends of the Starlight Band in memory of beloved Tulsa flutist Debbi Turner, premiered by the Starlight Band of Tulsa on June 29, 2010
Nuova Avventura, a long-awaited CD of his compositions for piano, and with violin, clarinet, viola and cello, was released in 2010.
Oboist Lise Glaser commissioned Rivers' Concerto for Oboe, English Horn and String Orchestra (made possible by Carol Pearson), which was premiered on March 9, 2007 by the University of Tulsa Orchestra with Lise Glazer and Lisa Wagner, soloists. - It consists of three movements:
- I. Fears
- II. Passionate Hope - (excerpt from the 2nd movement: Passionate Hope):
III. Rollicking Dance
His Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano, was composed in fulfillment of the 2007 Oklahoma Music Teachers Association Commissioned Composers Award, and was premiered by Trio Tulsa in June 2007 during the OMTA Convention in Norman, OK. The work is comprised of three movements: I. Wind, Waters and Sky, II. Agehya's Love, and III. Forest Journey , and reflects the composer's impressions and feelings about the natural landscape and human story of native and pioneer Oklahoma. It is also written in memory of Oklahoma composer, Louis Ballard, one of America's preeminent Native American composers and a personal friend, who died in February 2007.
Rivers' Symphony No. 1, Echoes of War-Visions of Peace, commissioned and premiered by the Signature Symphony of Tulsa, was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Robert Winstin for the ERMMedia "Masterworks of the New Era" CD series, released in 2010
Echoes of War-Visions of Peace - Excerpt:
His other compositions celebrating the Oklahoma centennial include Will Rogers Self-Portrait for mixed chorus and chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Will Rogers Heritage, Inc. and the Claremore Community Chorus.; a one-act opera, Prairie Dreams, about pioneer Oklahoma; and Lonely People of the Osage, a choral setting of the beautiful poem by Oklahoma poet Winston Weathers about the Osage people near Tulsa.
Will Rogers Self-Portrait - Excerpt:
Rivers' compositions also include Tempests Round Us Gather for mixed chorus and piano with multi-media, commissioned by the Coventry Chorale of Tulsa in honor of its twentieth performance season, and in conjunction with the Smithsonian American Museum of Art exhibition, "The Gilded Age"; and The Exile's Return (Dream Sequence), an orchestral ballet in five scenes, choreography by Ken Bello, premiered February 1997 in Tulsa, OK by the Mid-Illinois Ballet.
Tempests Round Us Gather -Excerpt:
He completed the scores to the feature films, Brother Mine (Nathan McLeod, director) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bo Bergstrom, director). He is currently working on a symphony to be premiered by the Signature Symphony of Tulsa during the 2011-12 concert season.
Rivers is a member of BMI, Sigma Alpha Iota (National Associate), Society of Composers and Lyricists, American Composers Forum, College Music Society, and Phi Beta Kappa.
He earned his degrees at the University of South Carolina (B.M. and M.M.), where he studied with Gordon Goodwin and Fred Teuber, and at the University of Arizona (Ph.D.), where he studied with Richard Faith and Edward Murphy.
Joseph Rivers: e-mail | Studio: 562/243-8656 | Office: 918/743.6890