To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the composer, the Irving Fine Society is going to host a yearlong series of events all over the country, with one concert even in the United Kingdom.
Irving Fine was born and bred in the Boston area. He attended Harvard University, receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees there. Fine had extensive performing experience from being a pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra to studying at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris. He was a peer and friend of greats such as Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. He later taught at Harvard, before coming to Brandeis where he was the founder and first director of the School of Creative Arts. Some of Fine’s best known work includes “Fantasia for String Trio,” “Serious Song” and “Symphony 1962.” The latter premiered at Tanglewood Music Festival in the weeks before his death in August that year.
Brandeis professor Eric Chasalow (MUS) holds a professorship endowed in Fine’s name.
The Irving Fine Society was created by Brandeis alumnus Nicholas Brown in 2006. Brown is also the music director for the society, which is comprised of the Irving Fine Singers and a woodwind quartet, the Gifford 5. The group dedicates itself to “honoring the legacy of composer Irving Gifford Fine (1914-1962) and the global impact of American culture in the twentieth century,” according to its website. Frequently featuring the music of its namesake, the society holds concerts and events.
“A Tribute to Irving Fine” will take place at the Slosberg Music Center on Sunday, March 9 at 3 p.m., featuring sonatas by Fine and Harold Shapero played by Lydian violinist Daniel Stepner and pianist Sally Pinkas. The concert will be free and open to the public. Other concerts to be performed over the year include the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum in Cambridge, the Galliard Wind Ensemble in West Yorkshire, U.K., and Singing City in Philadelphia, Penn. The year will be concluded with the Library of Congress Irving Fine Centennial Festival in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4-6, 2014.
