Born in Baltimore in 1949, Rouse developed an early interest in both
classical and popular music. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and
Cornell University, numbering among his principal teachers George Crumb and
Karel Husa. Rouse has maintained a steady interest in popular music: at
the Eastman School of Music, where he is Professor of Composition, he also
teaches a course in the history of rock.
While the Rouse catalog includes a number of acclaimed chamber and ensemble
works, the composer is best known for his mastery of orchestral writing.
His music has been played by nearly every major orchestra in the U.S., and
numerous ensembles overseas, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies, and the
Austrian Radio Orchestra. The first six months of 1997 alone brought
performances in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands,
and the U.K. Conductors Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Slatkin,
and David Zinman have been consistent champions of his work.
Rouse's Symphony No. 1 (1986), commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra (to be performed at the Festival this season), was rated by the
Boston Globe as "probably the most completely successful
symphonic composition yet written by an American composer of his rising
generation." Symphony No. 2 (1994), commissioned by Christoph
Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony, has found equal success, earning praise
in both its premiere and in European tour performances. Eschenbach and the
Houston Symphony have recorded Symphony No. 2 for Telarc, on an all-Rouse
disc that also features the Celtic-inspired Flute Concerto (with Carol
Wincenc as soloist) and Phaethon, one of several Rouse scores
inspired by mythology. The disc earned a 'Diapason d'Or' award from the
French magazine Diapason. RCA has also issued a CD devoted to Rouse's
music, featuring Marin Alsop leading the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in
Gorgon, Iscariot, and Trombone Concerto, with New York Philharmonic
principal trombonist Joseph Alessi as soloist.
Over the past decade Rouse has gained particular notice for his concertos.
Among these are Violin Concerto (1991), commissioned by the Aspen Music
Festival for Cho-Liang Lin, and Violoncello Concerto, given its premiere in
Spring 1994 by Yo-Yo Ma, with David Zinman leading the Lost Angeles
Philharmonic. Violoncello Concerto elicited cheers from the audience and a
glowing review from The New York Times, which called it a
"strongly conceived elegy...Rouse's music [has] been acclaimed by both
audiences and critics and is among the most intriguing orchestral music now
being written." Ma has recorded the Violoncello Concerto for Sony
Classics, accompanied by David Zinman and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Rouse's most recent concerto is Der gerettete Alberich, (to be
performed this season at the Festival with soloist Colin Currie) a
"fantasy for percussion and orchestra on themes of Wagner"
commissioned for soloist Evelyn Glennie by a consortium of four leading
orchestras: the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Christoph von
Dohnányi conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in the work's debut in
January 1998; the Cleveland Plain Dealer described Rouse's
transformation of Wagner's narrative as "a fresh burst of creative
imagination...[a] brilliant melding of romantic and contemporary
idioms."
1999 brought a pair of high-profile premieres for Rouse. Kabir Padavali, cycle for soprano (Dawn Upshaw) and orchestra, commissioned by the
Minnesota Orchestra, and Seeing, a piano concerto written for Emanuel
Ax and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic.
