Glenn L. Rudolph
Born in Miami, FL I earned my Bachelor of Music in Composition degree in 1973 from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio where I graduated magna cum laude. I went on to begin graduate studies in Cincinnati while teaching freshman music theory on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. After a long break from academia, I finished my Masters of Music in Composition degree in 2011 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
As a composer, I have concentrated my efforts on choral and vocal music. My compositions are published by GIA Publications, Oxford University Press and MorningStar Music Publishers. More about my music and career can be found on my music website at www.reindeermusic.com.
The Blogging Reindeer: Notes from the Cheap Seats
As anyone who has gone back to college later in life will attest (I was in my 50s), you tend to bring a much different attitude both toward your studies as well as relationships with your fellow students and faculty. For me, this difference in attitude manifested itself in the confidence to challenge and question things that I would have accepted out-of-hand when I was an undergraduate student. When I was younger, upon hearing an avante-garde composition, if asked for my opinion, I was more apt to reply “it was interesting” when what I really felt was “I just didn’t get it – the piece did nothing for me!”
Another difference between my undergraduate and graduate experience, was that I found areas of study that held little or no interest in when I was younger, fascinated me as an older adult: specifically Philosophy of Music and Music Criticism. Since earning my Masters, I have maintained a subscription to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and regularly attend area choral and instrumental ensemble performances. Frequently, after reading the printed reviews of these concerts, I found myself wondering if I heard the same performance. Rather than only complaining to friends and fellow musicians, I decided to start this blog.
But why “Notes from the Cheap Seats?” My performance and recording reviews will be from the point of view of a non-elitist. That is, even though I’ve been educated to have an appreciation for and an understanding of the new, the avant-garde and the esoteric in music, I intend to call it like I hear it – as the common man or maybe the undergraduate student I was when I was so reluctant to say “I just didn’t get it.”