composer / pianist / harpsichordist / music educator
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Larry Wallach is a composer, pianist, musicologist and educator whose compositions have been performed throughout the United States. He was educated at Columbia University, from which he holds a PhD in Musicology.
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Composer
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Recent compositions include: “Species of Motion” for orchestra, recorded by the Janacek Philharmonic and premiered by The Orchestra Now in February, 2024; “Klezmerish” for chamber ensemble; Wind Quintet; “Berkshire Rhapsody” for large orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Claflin Hill Orchestra (Milford, Massachusetts) in 2017; “Winter Music” for Percussion, commissioned and performed by the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, and several works for viols da gamba, performed by the viol consorts Arcadia Viols and Long and Away. Earlier works include Canzona for mixed chamber ensemble; Berkshire Morris Madness for woodwind quintet; Hexagram: Wind over Water for flute, harp, vibraphone and piano; String Quartet no. 1; and Housatonic River Hymn for strings and chorus, written for the Housatonic River Festival and the Berkshire Society for Theology and the Arts.
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"Chamber Concerto for Harp and Percussion,” premiered by the Atlanta Sinfonietta (1992), was described by Alex Ross, writing for the New York Times, as “smooth and sophisticated” and of which he wrote “Mr. Wallach opened up the texture with ingeniously varied scoring.” His works have also been performed by the Da Capo Players, by the Avanti Wind Quintet, at the Mannes College Percussion Festival, by the Prometheus Piano Quartet, the Walden Chamber Players, the Bard Conservatory String Quartet, and others.
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Larry was a recipient of two Meet the Composer grants from New York State. His composition “Echoes from Barham Down” for flute, string trio, and piano, based on an English country dance tune, won the New School of Music, Cambridge, composition prize in 1986.
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Pianist, harpsichordist
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As a keyboard player Larry performs on both piano and harpsichord, in repertory for small and large chamber ensembles, including those with historical instruments. He received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a year-long seminar in performance practices of early piano music, particularly Mozart and Schubert, and he participated in the Aston Magna Summer Academy on German Music and Culture. With violinist/violist Ronald Gorevic he has performed complete cycles of duo sonatas by Brahms, Beethoven, and Mozart. He also collaborates frequently with his wife Anne Legêne on repertory for cello and piano, as well as viol and harpsichord. Since 2013 he has collaborated in major song literature (Schubert, Schumann, Copland, and Harbison) with singers Pamela Dellal, John Cheek, and Catherine Hancock. He continues to enjoy playing for English Country Dancing on both piano and harpsichord.
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He is founding board member of the Berkshire Bach.
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Music Educator
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Larry's extensive teaching and consulting experience includes lectures co-sponsored by the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood and the Berkshire Museum, composition courses for Bard College undergraduates and conducting students in the Bard Master of Fine Arts program, and repertoire advising for the American Symphony Orchestra.
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He holds the Livingston Hall Chair in Music at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, where he taught from 1972 until 2023. He also taught composition in the Bard Conservatory Master of Fine Arts Program for Conductors.
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An expert on the music of Charles Ives, he performed at the Bard Music Festival devoted to Ives in 1996, and has presented papers about him at several conferences. Larry Wallach’s writings have appeared in the Musical Quarterly and the Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Music and he has written six entries for “The Compleat Brahms,” edited by Leon Botstein. Since 2009, his music reviews have appeared in the on-line magazines Berkshire Review, New York Arts, and currently The Berkshire Edge.
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Larry lives in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts.