Biography
Few musicians manage to sustain parallel identities as both interpreters and creators without one side of the endeavor casting the other in a dubious light. Marc Neikrug, an American musician equally at home at the keyboard and at the desk, has succeeded at both. Since 1975 his duo appearances with violinist Pinchas Zukerman have been regular fixtures on the concert calendar, and the pair’s joint discography now numbers more than ten releases. Although his catalog of compositions is not especially large, it demonstrates genuine command of the medium rather than borrowed authority.
Neikrug, born in 1946, is the son of cellist and teacher George Neikrug. Between 1964 and 1968 he attended the University of Detmold; in 1971 he earned a Master of Music degree from SUNY Stony Brook and worked with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood. He served as composer-in-residence at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro Festival in 1972 and, during the early 1980s, acted as new-music advisor to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a role that contributed to the ensemble’s repeated ASCAP honors for innovative programming. In 1998 he became artistic director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
At the piano Neikrug favors a precise, unmannered technique that yields clear-eyed readings of the repertory, an approach that meshes naturally with Zukerman’s own. His scores range from traditionally tonal pieces to sharply dissonant and atonal constructions. The earliest substantial work he has retained is the Piano Concerto of 1966, which he performed himself at its premiere. The following year he wrote a Sonata for solo cello for his father that has since acquired a devoted following among cellists. His 1980 theater piece Through Roses, scored for voice and eight instruments, has received widespread acclaim, as has the 1988 opera Los Alamos, an uncompromising statement against nuclear armament.
Neikrug, born in 1946, is the son of cellist and teacher George Neikrug. Between 1964 and 1968 he attended the University of Detmold; in 1971 he earned a Master of Music degree from SUNY Stony Brook and worked with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood. He served as composer-in-residence at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro Festival in 1972 and, during the early 1980s, acted as new-music advisor to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a role that contributed to the ensemble’s repeated ASCAP honors for innovative programming. In 1998 he became artistic director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
At the piano Neikrug favors a precise, unmannered technique that yields clear-eyed readings of the repertory, an approach that meshes naturally with Zukerman’s own. His scores range from traditionally tonal pieces to sharply dissonant and atonal constructions. The earliest substantial work he has retained is the Piano Concerto of 1966, which he performed himself at its premiere. The following year he wrote a Sonata for solo cello for his father that has since acquired a devoted following among cellists. His 1980 theater piece Through Roses, scored for voice and eight instruments, has received widespread acclaim, as has the 1988 opera Los Alamos, an uncompromising statement against nuclear armament.
Albums
