Daniel Pinkham
Composer, conductor, teacher, organist and harpsichordist Daniel Pinkham died yesterday at 83. Among the many things that made Mr. Pinkham remarkable, was his status as a contemporary composer whose work was popular with music connoisseurs as well as the larger, general music audience.
Jeremy Eichler wrote Mr. Pinkham's obituary for today's Boston Globe:
"A pioneer of the local early music movement, Mr. Pinkham served on the faculty of New England Conservatory since 1959 and taught at many other local schools. He served at King's Chapel as music director and music director emeritus for more than four decades. Widely admired by colleagues for his generosity and quick wit, he was also an active performer on harpsichord and organ, playing for many years in a duo with the violinist Robert Brink. His orchestral music was once performed by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein." Read the complete text of the article.
Though we are a mere footnote in Daniel Pinkham's career, the Celebrity Series was fortunate to have commisioned work from him. His composition Blue Blazes appeared as one of six segments of The Rainbow Hexameron, (each segment by a different Boston composer, the others being Julia Carey, Christopher Trapani, Joseph Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, and Alan Fletcher) premiered by pianist Sergey Schepkin at NEC's Jordan Hall in April 2005.
In the program notes for the premiere, Pinkham described Blue Blazes this way:
Sergey Schepkin, in explaining to me his vision and plan of The Rainbow Hexameron, assigned me the color blue. He also specified that the piece be “turbulent”. The title jumped out at once — Blue Blazes — and immediately the form and shape of the work emerged. It would be a succession of musical fragments alternating extremely fast and brilliant fireworks contrasted with passages of tranquil and reflective lyricism.
Richard Dyer, reviewing the concert for The Boston Globe, said of Pinkham's Blue Blazes that it is, "...like light passing through a cobalt bottle that contains a message."
Daniel Pinkham's web site (site has posted information on donations in lieu of flowers)
Daniel Pinkham's NEC faculty page
Extensive biography of Pinkham from Notable Unitarians at Harvardsquarelibrary.com
Daniel Pinkham's wikipedia entry
A list of Pinkham's compositions for organ available from Thorpe Music Publishing
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