The late Princeton-based musician Joel Spiegelman will be honored with a special memorial concert on Wednesday, October 23, at Bristol Chapel on the former Westminster Choir College campus on Walnut Lane in Princeton.
Spiegelman (1933-2023) was a distinguished composer, conductor, and pianist whose seven-decade career left a mark on the worlds of classical and contemporary music. For the memorial concert, musicians from the U.S., Canada, and Europe come together to honor Spiegelman’s legacy by performing some of his most beloved works. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $45, are available at the door or online.
The concert features music by J. S. Bach, F. Chopin, A. Pärt, G. Kancheli, and A. Batagov, performed by Polina Osetinskaya (piano), Anton Batagov (piano), Julian Milkis (clarinet), and Pavel Nersessian (piano). The evening includes solo performances and duos, featuring Milkis and Osetinskaya and Milkis and Batagov.
Spiegelman was widely respected for his pioneering spirit in classical and avant-garde music. He conducted and performed internationally, including a decades-long commitment to bringing Russian avant-garde music to broader audiences. For the last two decades of his life, Spiegelman was a resident of Princeton, where he continued to influence the world of music through his performances and collaborations.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Spiegelman was a child prodigy, giving his first concert performance on a local radio station at the age of four. By the age of 13, he made his national debut with the New York Philharmonic, establishing himself as a superb keyboard musician. He also garnered attention from Musical America for his performance as a piano soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic. He studied at Yale, the University of Buffalo, Brandeis University, the Paris Conservatory, Moscow’s Gnesin Institute, and the Leningrad Conservatory.
Spiegelman’s first work as a composer debuted in Paris when he was 25, and his compositions have been performed worldwide. He embraced a diversity of musical roles, excelling as a pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. His career included teaching positions at institutions like Brandeis University, the University of California, San Diego, and Sarah Lawrence College, spanning a 30-year period from 1961 to 1991.
Beginning in 1958, he conducted concerts from Moscow to Greenland, dedicating much of his career to bringing avant-garde Russian music to broader audiences.
His deep connection to Russian music began during a cultural exchange in 1965 when he traveled to Moscow to study 18th-century keyboard music. There, he uncovered a movement of avant-garde composers whose works reflected revolutionary changes in music, moving away from traditional tonality and drawing on Freudian and revolutionary themes.
During this time, Spiegelman met Igor Stravinsky, who was greatly interested in the new Russian music Spiegelman had encountered and smuggled out of the Soviet Union.
Spiegelman’s commitment to avant-garde music, particularly from Russia, defined much of his later career. His work as a conductor allowed him to collaborate with some of Russia’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio TV Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Orchestra. He founded the Metro Philharmonic, an international youth orchestra in Moscow composed of young professional musicians.
In 1967 Spiegelman collaborated with Leonard Bernstein when he performed as the harpsichord soloist in the New York premiere of Edison Denisov’s “Crescendo e Diminuendo” with the New York Philharmonic.
His passion for innovation extended into the world of electronic music. In 1988, he collaborated with inventor Ray Kurzweil to record a transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations using cutting-edge sampling technology on the Kurzweil 250 keyboard. The result, titled New Age Bach, was released by East-West Records and showcased Spiegelman’s forward-thinking approach to classical music.
His impact was not limited to the concert hall — he was a frequent guest conductor in political and humanitarian contexts, including conducting the Kyrgyz National Symphony in a requiem concert for victims of the 2010 Kyrgyz revolution and returning to conduct during the Loving Cup International Festival in 2012.
Joel Spiegelman Memorial Concert, Bristol Chapel, 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton. Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 p.m. $45 online or at the door. www.ticketleap.events/events/dalet-concerts.
Late musician Joel Spiegelman will be honored at a memorial concert on Wednesday, October 23.,
