MILLSTONE June 2018

As We Age

Allentown Composer Receives Prestigious Award By Pam Teel

Charles Andrew Rudin has been a resident of Allentown for 27 years. All of his life, he has been passionately involved with music. He spent most of his adult life as a composer of contemporary Classical Music. His time and passion for his music has paid off royally as Charles, who goes by his middle name Andrew, was one of four winning composers given a prestigious award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2018 Music Awards on May 23rd, in NYC. The winners were se- lected by a committee of the Academy members.

Allentown Composer Charles Andrew Rusin The composers each received $10,000 Arts and Letters Awards in Music, which honor outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledge composers who have arrived at their own voice. They each received an additional $10,000 toward the recording of one work and will have their music presented in a concert at the Acad- emy in the spring of 2019. The organization was founded in 1898, by (among oth- ers) Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Mark Twain. Rudin pronounced (roo- Deen) comes from Swedish immigrants. To Andrew, life in Allentown is ideal for him because he can walk to the post office, library, and various shops and restaurants, but at the same time he has convenient access to events in both New York and Philadelphia, as well as the resources of Princeton. Andrew grew up in a small town in Texas where most of the people were employees of Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. The town founded in 1920, was dismantled in 1993 when mining and processing of sulphur finally ceased. During that time when his father was transferred to Beaumont, Texas, Andrew broadened his studies by learning to play the trombone and the cello, while continuing with piano lessons and experimenting with various other instruments (flute, harp, jazz vibraphone). The generous tax base that local industry provided meant extensive equipment and opportunities for choral programs, marching and concert bands, a string orchestra, a jazz band, and a full symphony orchestra, including oboes, bassoons, horns, harp, and a complete percussion section. Andrew credits one of his music teachers for opening the doors of the Arts for him. She taught him music theory, Bach, Mozart, and Chopin, and took him to see the Metropolitan Opera on tour in Houston. He felt very fortunate to have had such a sophisticated teacher eager to share her love for music and equally fortunate to have had parents who supported him in his musical endeavors. At fifteen, he composed short fragments and arrangements that he got to hear in readings from his school orchestra. In both junior high and high school he wrote Broadway-style musical comedies, complete with pit orchestra. His earliest public performance was of his Comic Overture, an expanded full-orchestra version of the overture to the musical comedy, Triple Double-Cross. He attended All-state Orchestra as a cellist, and entered their compo- sition contest winning second prize. Andrew came east in the 1960's to go to University of Pennsylvania. He lived most of his life in Philadelphia and in NYC, and was on the music faculties of The University of the Arts (Phila.) and The Juilliard School. His Il Giuoco (1966) was the first large-scale work for Moog synthesizer. With his Nonesuch LP Tragoedia, working as music assistant to Alwin Nikolais Dance Company, and inclusion in the sound-track of the film, Fellini Satyricon, he received early recognition primarily in the field of electronic music. Scores for many dance companies followed, including The Pennsylvania Ballet, as well as incidental music for theatre, and television. His opera, The Inno- cent, was produced in Philadelphia by Tito Capobianco. Recent concertos for violin, viola, and piano, along with numerous chamber music commissions, have brought him renewed recognition. Purewater, a chamber opera, written in collaboration with librettist Ann McCutchan, will be presented by The Center for Contemporary Opera in fall 2018. Andrew is now retired but he continues with his composing. To read more about Andrews life accomplishments go to: http://www.composerrudin.com/ .

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The Millstone Times

June 2018