Biography
African American composer Alvin Singleton blends jazz elements with the classical avant-garde in his output, which has received extensive performances across the United States and in Europe, the continent where he completed part of his training. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 28, 1940, he earned a bachelor’s degree at New York University after working with Charles Wuorinen and Hall Overton. He later obtained a master’s degree from Yale University, where Mel Powell and Yehudi Wyner served as his instructors. A Fulbright award then took him to Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia for lessons with Goffredo Petrassi; he remained abroad from 1971 until 1985. Upon returning to the United States he served as composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra between 1985 and 1988 before assuming a comparable post at Spelman College in Atlanta. In 1989 the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, led by Robert Shaw, issued the recording Alvin Singleton: Shadows; Yellow Rose Petal; After Fallen Crumbs.
Among his major scores are the 2004 orchestral work When Given a Choice, first heard at New York’s Carnegie Hall; the choral ballet TRUTH from 2006; Brooklyn Bones for chorus and orchestra, completed in 2008; the piano concerto BluesKonzert, introduced by Ursula Oppens in 2010; and the 2012 orchestral piece Different River. Additional residencies followed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Ritz Chamber Players in Florida, and the city of Tirana, Albania, while grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation aided his career. Major American ensembles that have presented his music include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra; European groups such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic, L’Orchestre de Paris, and the Kölner Philharmoniker have done likewise. The Kronos Quartet and the Momenta Quartet, the latter of which recorded a cycle of his string quartets, number among the chamber ensembles that have featured his compositions. Several discs devoted to his work have appeared on the Albany label, and in 2023 cellist Seth Parker Woods included selections on the album Difficult Grace. Singleton has also taught as a visiting professor at Yale University.
Among his major scores are the 2004 orchestral work When Given a Choice, first heard at New York’s Carnegie Hall; the choral ballet TRUTH from 2006; Brooklyn Bones for chorus and orchestra, completed in 2008; the piano concerto BluesKonzert, introduced by Ursula Oppens in 2010; and the 2012 orchestral piece Different River. Additional residencies followed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Ritz Chamber Players in Florida, and the city of Tirana, Albania, while grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation aided his career. Major American ensembles that have presented his music include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra; European groups such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic, L’Orchestre de Paris, and the Kölner Philharmoniker have done likewise. The Kronos Quartet and the Momenta Quartet, the latter of which recorded a cycle of his string quartets, number among the chamber ensembles that have featured his compositions. Several discs devoted to his work have appeared on the Albany label, and in 2023 cellist Seth Parker Woods included selections on the album Difficult Grace. Singleton has also taught as a visiting professor at Yale University.
Albums