The Barcelona Composition Workshop

Students will participate every day in a group seminar directed by Max Lifchitz. They will also meet privately with Mr. Lifchitz and festival guest composers during the course.

The seminars will be devoted mostly to examining the works being composed by the festival participants. Whenever appropriate, musical scores by master composers will be analyzed and discussed. Issues such as contemporary performance practice and how to prepare new scores for performance will also be covered.

During their stay, participants will complete a composition for voice and chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano) to be performed on the closing day of the Festival.

A maximum of ten composers will be selected to participate in the Festival. Please apply early to secure your place.

Non-participating partners or friends who might like to join the workshop and festival in Barcelona are welcome for bed and board. Observers, whether music specialists or complete novices, are also welcome. Participants will experience total immersion in vocal and contemporary music in the delightful and exciting atmosphere of historic Barcelona.

For more information about hte Barcelona Composition Workshop please write to     info@barcelonafestivalofsong.com

Max Lifchitz,  composer & pianist (México-USA): Max Lifchitz was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music held in Holland . Robert Commanday, writing for The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a young composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist." The New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn praised Mr. Lifchitz for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances” while Anthony Tommasini remarked that he “conducted a strong performance.” Payton MacDonald writing for the American Record Guide remarked, “Mr. Lifchitz is as good on the podium as he is behind the piano.”

Donal Henahan, also writing for the New York Times, stated "Mr. Lifchitz, who is the enterprising director of North/South Consonance, is also an ambidextrous conductor of complex music. His own piece required him to beat intricate polyrhythms -- not only fairly simple patterns like 4 with one hand against 3 with the other, but also such metrical puzzles as 3 against 11 or 5 against 13."

A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Mr. Lifchitz has appeared in concert and recital throughout the US, Latin America and Europe. His CD album devoted to the piano music of Mexico elicited the following comment from Fanfare Magazine: "After several listenings, North/South Recordings No. 1010 is recommended to more than just a specialist audience because of the wide variety of attractive and challenging music that it contains. Lifchitz is a poetic pianist with requisite power to make the many granitic climaxes register. Easily, the most interesting new piano disc so far in 1996."

The American Record Guide commented as follows on Mr. Lifchitz’s album The American Collection (N/SR 1014): “suffice it to say that it would be hard to find a better snapshot of what American composers have been writing for the piano in the past decade than this collection. Lifchitz plays everything with sensitivity and force, where appropriate; and recorded sound is vivid and natural.”  His CD album Diversions (North/South Recordings No. 1026) elicited the following comments from the London-based Gramophone Magazine: "Lifchitz has devised a charming programme of previously unrecorded pieces… His affectionate playing provides surprising emotional weight… Beautifully recorded album… Recommended.”       Writer Jack Sullivan, reviewing his most recent solo releases for the American Record Guide stated: “Max Lifchitz, for whom much of the music featured in Final Bell (N/S R 1044) was written, plays with his usual brave authority, and North/South’s sound has a large, much-needed dynamic range.” And concerning American Women Composers (N/S R 1043) Mr. Sullivan wrote: “better to celebrate this engaging collection of new music played with color and commitment by one of America ’s finest exponents of contemporary piano music.”