Steven R. Gerber (1948-2015) was born in Washington, D.C. He held degrees from Haverford College and from Princeton University, where he received a four-year fellowship. Gerber's music composition teachers include Robert Parris, J. K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt.
His early works were in a free atonal style, incorporating serial and non-twelve-tone languages into a distinctive and deeply personal sound world. During his years as a graduate student at Princeton and throughout the 1970's, he wrote a number of stunning compositions, such as the a cappella choral works Dylan Thomas Settings and Illuminations (Rimbaud). Beginning in the early 1980s, he abandoned twelve-tone and atonal composition, with rare exceptions, and his music became much more tonal while still retaining the expressive elements of the his earlier works.
Gerber's music gained international attention as a result of recorded CD releases featuring several of his major works for orchestra as well as concertos. His Symphony No. 1, Dirge and Awakening, the Viola Concerto and Triple Overture were recorded by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling, with Lars Anders Tomter, viola, and the Bekova Sisters Trio on the Chandos label. Koch International Classics released his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, and Serenade for String Orchestra, with performances by the National Chamber Orchestra under Piotr Gajewski, with soloists Kurt Nikkanen (violin) and Carter Brey (cello). In 2007 Arabesque records released a CD with three of Gerber's orchestral works, Spirituals for string orchestra, Clarinet Concerto, and Serenade Concertante, featuring the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony, conducted by Vladimir Lande, with clarinet soloist Jon Manasse. Other releases included recordings of his music with Composers Recordings, Inc., and Opus One record labels.
The American premiere of his Violin Concerto at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was performed in 1995 by Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Gajewski. Gerber's chamber music release on Naxos Steven R. Gerber Chamber Music features nine of his finest works in the genre, recorded by violinists Kurt Nikkanen and Cho-Liang Lin and cellists Cyrus Beroukhim and Brinton Smith, with pianist Sara Davis Buechner. Timothy Gerken.
