Webster A. Young

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This article is about the classical composer. For the jazz trumpeter, see Webster Young.

Webster A. Young is a composer of symphonies, ballets and operas. He was the most prolific composer for ballet in the US in the 1980s, before Martins-Torke, working with Eric Hyrst, formerly of the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, New York City Ballet, and the Royal Ballet of England.[1] Young appears with Eric Hyrst in the film "Two for Ballet", available from Cinema Guild, NY.[2] "Two for Ballet" was seen on 63 PBS stations nationwide in 1992.[3] The Jerome Robbins Dance Collection at Lincoln Center, NY, has an extensive file on Eric Hyrst's career that also includes videos of the first three Hyrst-Young ballets.[4] Young became the artistic director of the Long Island Opera Company 1998–2003.[5] Young was the first composer in many decades to set Shakespeare's "As You Like It" to music as an opera in four acts. Soprano, tenor, and baritone operas from it are published at MusicNotes.com, and several performances are in videos at YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Youku, and Toudou.com [6] Now on his Opus 198. Among his most recent works are several pieces for unaccompanied cello.[7] Other recent works include 20 tangos[8] and 10 salsa pieces for orchestra, some also arranged for piano.[9] Opera arias and piano music published at MusicNotes.com [10] Young studied composition with Richard Swift, Andrew Frank, Giampaolo Bracali, and notably with Charles Jones - who was acquainted with Stravinsky and a close friend of Darius Milhaud.[11] Young is related through his grandmother, Seena Harbach Purdy, to Otto Harbach, the Broadway lyricist and playwright, who was his great uncle. Otto Harbach's oldest brother, Adolphe, Webster Young's great grandfather, was a band conductor. Young's paternal grandfather, Owen Young, was a semi professional watercolor landscape painter, of whose works a few hundred paintings are extant.[12] Webster Young is the author of three books: The Palaces of Music (2017), Music, Painting and Jung (2012), and The Little Flowers of the Desert Brothers (2017), all published at Amazon.com under his name.[13]

Operas[]

  • The Wrong Party (1994) (comedy)
  • The Sun Also Rises (1996) (permission granted by the Hemingway estate 1995)
  • Madrid (1998) (libretto based on Hemingway)
  • Stocks, Bonds, and Doggerel (1999) (comedy)
  • As You Like It (2000) (Libretto from Shakespeare's play)
  • Orpheus (2002) (based on the myth and The Bacchae by Euripides)

Symphonies

  • Symphony 1977 - Davis to Paris
  • Symphony No. 2 1982"
  • Symphony No. 3 "California"
  • Symphony No. 4 "Oregon"
  • Symphony No. 5 "The Gold Guitar" (2014)

Ballets (all were created with Eric Hyrst, choreographer d. 1996)[14]

  • Summer Ballet (1985) (4 act scenario by Young)
  • Album (1985) (based on Commedia dell'Arte by Hyrst)
  • Polonaise (1986) (abstract, by Hyrst)
  • Vintage (1987) (scenario by Young)
  • Tango (1987) (abstract by Hyrst)
  • Ballet Scenes 1987 (scenario by Hyrst)
  • Waltzes (1988) (scenario by Young)
  • The Judgement of Paris (1989) (based on the myth by Hyrst & Young)
  • Air for Strings (1990) (abstract by Hyrst)

References[]

  1. ^ The 1990 International Who's Who in Music
  2. ^ Cinema Guild, New York
  3. ^ IMDB, information on Webster Young
  4. ^ NY Public Library, Lincoln Center, NY 10023
  5. ^ Webster Young: Brief Biography
  6. ^ See Youtube.com under Webster Young
  7. ^ "Prades Prelude at Amazon books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092PKQ9W3
  8. ^ "Romance de Tango" at Amazon books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089M2GZGN
  9. ^ Webster Young, composer
  10. ^ Musicnotes.com
  11. ^ "The Palaces of Music, Editions d'Auteurs, Amazon.com/ Webster Young
  12. ^ "The Naked Composer", Editions d'Auteurs, Amazon.com/books/Webster Young
  13. ^ Amazon.com/books/Webster Young
  14. ^ Palaces of Music, Editions D'Auteurs, Amazon.com/books
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