Seymour Barab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seymour Barab (January 9, 1921 – June 28, 2014) was an American composer of opera, songs and instrumental and chamber music, as well as a cellist, organist and pianist.[1] He was best known for his fairy tale operas for young audiences, such as Chanticleer and Little Red Riding Hood. He was a longtime member of the Philip Glass Ensemble.
Barab was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Samuel Barab and Leah Yablunky. Both of Barab's parents were Polish immigrants, who emigrated separately and met in the United States. His older brother, Abraham (b. 1913), later changed his name to Oscar. Barab's father also changed his name in later years to Leo.[2] The family had little money, but Barab's parents considered culture important,[3] and he was given piano lessons, from an early age, at first with his aunt, Gertrude Yablunky.[4]
When Barab was thirteen, he started his first musical job as an organist for a church of spiritual healing that his aunt attended.[5] Barab began to study the cello when he entered Lane Tech High School in Chicago in 1935. Lane Tech offered a four-year music program and required each student to study an orchestral instrument. He later said of his choice: "They happened to need cellos. If they had needed a French horn player, I’d be a French horn player".[6] Barab also took lessons with the high school orchestra conductor. While at Lane Tech Barab became friends with Ben Weber and George Perle, both of whom would go on to become well known contemporary composers. Together, in 1938, the three founded the New Music Group of Chicago presenting contemporary 20th-century music.[7] They programmed their own compositions in addition to works by other contemporary composers. Most notably, they gave the Chicago premier of Béla Bartók's First String Quartet. Barab became a lifelong champion of contemporary music.[8] Barab later said of Weber and Perle: "I learned from them. I learned all about music, really. It gave me something to be dedicated to, unplayed music by talented composers. Of course we were all very young then. I just decided that this was what I wanted to do, rather than play the concerto repertoire and the sonata repertoire."[9]
Performance career
After finishing high school, Barab began his first professional position was as a cellist in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. This was followed by positions with orchestras in other cities around the United States including Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.[10] and with The Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.[11] Barab later recalled: "I went from one [orchestra] to the other, which is hard to imagine these days. … You stayed in one, one season. Then, you moved up to a better orchestra."[12]
During World War II, Barab joined the Navy as musician and was stationed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard where he learned to play clarinet and played in the military band. According to Barab, the main reason he was stationed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard was because Eugene Ormandy recruited him as a cellist so there would be a string orchestra "to play for the Officer’s Lunch".[13] During this time, Barab played with the Philadelphia Orchestra and studied cello with Gregor Piatigorsky, who was teaching at Curtis Institute of Music. Toward the end of the war, Barab married Shirley Gabis, but the marriage ended in an annulment five years later.[14] Barab and his wife moved to New York City, where he played for both the American Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System. He also played in the Galimir String Quartet and helped to found the New Music Quartet of New York. With Noah Greenberg, he later founded the New York Pro Musica Antiqua in which Barab played viola da gamba.[15]
