Bøker av Al Kryszak

"Meditation for Cello or Viol Orchestra" is a shorter work (02:42), exploring the stillness of overtones with similar string instruments perform without vibrato, for 12 or more Cellos or Viols.Minimum Instrumentation: VERSION 1: 2 choruses of Viol Sextet: (2 Treble, 2 Tenor, 2 Bass in each group)VERSION 2: "Meditation for Viol Orchestra" arranged for Cello Orchestra: 12 or more cello groups (ex. 12, 24, 36, 48) AKA"Meditation for Viola de Gamba Orchestra" on the 2016 CODEX SUBURBIA release by Kryszak. CONCERT & CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEWS: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. " - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice (Former NY Times Classical Music Critic) "Al kryszak's score for "Nosferatu" bathes the silent classic in desolate ambience: moody sounds, processed guitars, and cimbalom...." - New York Magazine Magazine "... Alan Kryszak is a composer, guitarist and photo artist. His former works include not only albums, but also classical pieces for a range of instruments, including pianos, strings and full-scale orchestra. Not reviewed on DPRP, his Codex Suburbia from 2016 is my favourite work by Alan (and his most ambitious one) which lovers of modern classical / chamber music should definitely pick and enjoy." - Sergey Nikulichev: Dutch Prog Rock ReportAL KRYSZAK BIO: A composer/guitarist with 30 years of concert, silent film and theatre work, this work is from the 2016 "Codex Suburbia" release (Choral & Wind Music about 'Men, Women & Race').Commissioned premieres include the KINO International, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, The World Financial Center, Symphony Space, The Los Angeles Directors Guild, The Kitchen, Arts at St. Ann's, Mabou Mines, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, & The North American New Music Festival, among other venues.Much of his work brings 'new music' and film together, bringing new concert music to more diverse audiences. KINO films released a collection of nine film scores entitled "A Christmas Past", and his "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" & "Broken Blossoms" orchestral scores are featured on Turner Classic Movies. He currently teaches Media & Music courses at The University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University.

Commissioned by Robert Pacillo and the Harmonia Chamber Singers, "Voices From The Shoreline" reflects on the prevention of world-wide violence against women, of which every nation participates in some way. One movement: "Lost Girls of Juarez", was performed by Harmonia in Buffalo, NY in 2013 (also on YouTube), and the first recording of that movement appears on Kryszak's "Codex Suburbia" album on AppleMusic. The Facebook site "Loud Guys Against Violence Against Women", includes over 10,500 people from Israel, Egypt, Sudan, New Zealand and 80 other nations, representing men's intention of fighting the only world-wide epidemic that doesn't cost a dollar to cure. Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.

Concerto for Piano Trio From Broken Blossoms "Broken Blossoms", the 1919 silent film class, was directed by D.W. Griffith, starring With Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess & Donald Crisp. If one can see the era as it was, where non-Asian actors regularly played Asian roles, the film projects a profoundly empathetic friendship between 2 outcasts: an abused daughter & a maligned "Oriental", who see over the walls to which others cling. This book includes the complete score, as conducted by the composer at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theatre in 2008, featuring Ivan Docenko (piano), Gregory Docenko (Violin) & Bryan Eckenrode (Cello). Many thanks to Sayre Maxfield at Lincoln Center, and film curator Sandra Birnhak, for commissioning the new score, and Charlie Tabesh of Turner Classic Movies for making it a regular programming feature. REVIEWS: Concert Music: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. " - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice (Former NY Times Classical Music Critic)"Al kryszak's score for "Nosferatu" bathes the silent classic in desolate ambience: moody sounds, processed guitars, and cimbalom...." - New York Magazine Magazine"I've been having a devil of a time finding biographical information about composer Alan Kryszak, even including his date and place of birth. Maybe he was spawned instead of being born in the usual manner? That would accord with the proliferation of multiple talents and interests in a most remarkable figure who is pianist, guitarist and baritone and has done notable work with the REV alt-rock band. He has also won recognition for his film scores, particularly for silent films (Broken Blossoms, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) which have been released by TCM. And he‟s even a visual artist in the media of acrylic painting and woodburning." - Phil's Reviews P.S. Thanks, Phil.Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. Silent film score premieres include Sven Gade's "Hamlet", starring Asta Nielsen as the first actress to play the moody lead role, "Limite" (NY Shakespeare Film Festival), "Intolerance" (Symphony Space), "Nosferatu: Guitar Solo Version" (LA Directors Guild at Cinematheque), "Broken Blossoms" & "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (Film Society of Lincoln Center/Turner Classics Silent Sunday's), "A Christmas Past" (Turner Classic Movies/KINO) & "The Fall of the House of Usher" (NY University/American Festival of Microtonal Music). Kryszak is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with

Commissioned by Sayre Maxfield & The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and written for the virtuosic expanse of Anthony de Mare's piano mastery, Al Kryszak's "Piano Concerto" premiered in its film score form at Lincoln Center in 2004. Conducted by the composer at The Walter Read Theatre, the marathon piano concerto accompanied the rarely seen "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde", starring John Barrymore in this landmark 1920 silent classic directed by John Robertson. The dramatic scenes of Dr. Jekyll's descent into madness via chemicals, alternated with his fiancé, Milly, at the piano, in melancholic meanderings which triggered the composer to conjure melodies she may have been writing for her ill-fated husband-to-be. Selected Reviews of the Composer's Concert & Film Work: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. " - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice (Former NY Times Classical Music Critic) "Al kryszak's score for "Nosferatu" bathes the silent classic in desolate ambience: moody sounds, processed guitars, and cimbalom...." - New York Magazine MagazineAl Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.

Guitar Quartet #1premiered on the 1987 North American New Music Festival, when I was studying with Morton Feldman. The Castellani-Andriaccio Duo led the guitar quartet at the Burchfield Center in Buffalo, N.Y.Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.REVIEWS - KRYSZAK GUITAR WORKS: Re: 2021's Murmur Rations"The two most beautiful compositions on this CD are Murmur Rations I & II and they are almost Hackett-esque, incorporating abstract acoustic and bass lines, which build back the order out of non-rhythmical chaos, to finally grow into a very lyrical theme. Lovers of Nordic jazz (see Terje Rypdal, for instance) might also like to take notice." - Sergey Nikulichev: Dutch Prog Rock Review"This album is a respite from "crazy." It offers instead, a journey - a mesmerizing free flight of musical experience - that is meditative in demeanor, tinged with loss, buoyed by gains, and dramatic in circumstance. It is a shared moment in time with a gifted artist.""An accomplished guitarist, Kryszak plays all of the instruments on this album. That expertise showcases a distinct connection he has with every instrument he plays." - Rick Heller: Bangor Daily News "With four full-length REV albums and several classical music and silent film score recordings distributed from his one-man operation, Kryszak continues to produce and release fiercely independent music that goes largely unheard.His first alt-rock solo album, Lullabies for People Who Don't Need Sleep, is an intricately woven but wildly stitched pattern of acoustic composition, adorned with a light arrangement of sparse background collage that supports the subtlest, and often sweetest, of melodies." - Guy De Federicis: Seattle Post-Intelligencer"His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded.Kryszak's new Soft Clowns of the Sea (Orchard) is a bit of everything - eight songs in a folk-rock style, 11 instrumentals, some with soaring electric guitar lines, others more jazz-tinged, both harmonically and texturally, and a healthy measure of thematic recurrence and transformation, in the best classical tradition." - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice

After years of efforts to release forgotten film masterpieces, former Killiam Collection curator Sandra Birnhakcommissioned composer Al Kryszak to write new film scores for the rare collection titled "A Christmas Past", featuringdirectors going back to Thomas Edison himself, Edwin S. Porter, D.W. Griffith and John S. Robertson. Years after the KINO International DVDrelease of the films, this suite for String Quartet & Harp offers an off-center take on the holidays, with a few mis-remembered Christmas quotes, for people who have trouble with holidays (and aren't afraid to admit it). Premiered live in 2022 by The New England Film Orchestra conducted by Gina Naggar in Boston, the original recordingon AppleMusic, titled "Having an Atonal Christmas", featured Buffalo, New York-based musicians Bryan Eckenrode, Brain Walnicki, Alan Reed & Gregory Docenko. The quartets include the energy of Kryszak's guitar solo work, even some harmonic distortion of sorts, combined with sentimental melodies that counter stringent harmonies resulting from close canonic structures and polytonal passages. (d.f.) REVIEWS: The String Quartet & Harp Collection "These films have been digitally mastered from original 35mm elements and are accompanied by a wistful new score by Al Kryszak -- performed by a variety of instruments including harp, violin, and Christmas handbells -- which beautifully enhances the delicate shadings of each of these rare and fascinating treasures." - KINO International "If you were checking out perennial cable home for vintage films Turner Classic Movies last Sunday at midnight in search of holiday movie comfort food, you might have left a little confused. Or enchanted, intrigued and delightfully weirded out. That's all depending on your reaction to the network's airing of a collection of turn-of-the-century (the 20th century) silent holiday shorts from the years 1901-25. In the mix of nine shorts, ranging in length from 5 to 29 minutes (a 1910 Edison Film Manufacturing Corp. adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" clocks in at a brisk 10), late-night viewers seeking some untrodden holiday film fare also heard something unusual. Over the flickering images of wildly eclectic Christmas drama from more than a century ago, the nine films feature a decidedly uncharacteristic score for holiday movies. A complex mix of violin, harp and handbell, the soundtrack interwoven among all nine shorts is by Maine-based composer and filmmaker Alan Kryszak, all original compositions written by Kryszak for the films' DVD release (titled "A Christmas Past") for the esteemed Kino Lorber imprint." - Dennis Perkins: The Portland Press HeraldConcert Music: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. " - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice "Alan Kryszak is a composer, guitarist and photo artist. His former works include not only albums, but also classical pieces for a range of instruments, including pianos, strings and full-scale orchestra. Not reviewed on DPRP, his Codex Suburbia from 2016 is my favourite work by Alan (and his most ambitious one) which lovers of modern classical / chamber music should definitely pick and enjoy." - Sergey Nikulichev: The Dutch Prog Rock Report

From the "Broken Blossoms" film score premiering at The Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, the Piano Quartet #1 draws on the dramatic extremes from the 1919 silent classic film by D.W. Griffith. Turner Classic Movies airs the full score for orchestra, piano trio & guitar, throughout their Silent Sundays series, along with other Kryszak film scores, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde", and "A Christmas Past", a collection of the very earliest ventures into film as a narrative medium. Piano Quartet #1 is based on the piano trio, guitar & orchestra film score, with thanks to Sandra Birnhak, Charles Tabesh, and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with musicians Gregory Docenko, Ivan Docenko & Bryan Eckenrode premiering the live score with the composer at Lincoln Center in 2008.Kryszak Music Reviews: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded. " - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical Voice "Kryszak has earned something of a national reputation for his work as a composer of new scores for silent films. He composed several scores for live presentations by the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, including D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent classic Broken Blossoms. His scores were subsequently recorded and released with the films by Turner Classic Movies." - Jan Jezario: Artvoice "A large part of the ("Soft Clowns of the Sea") album... is instrumental and mostly acoustic; tracks that demonstrate not only Kryszak's compositional mastery but also his prowess on guitar, bass and keyboards." - Mark Hughs: Dutch Prog Rock Report Al Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts/Media Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias, Unity College & Southern New Hampshire University. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Bill Kothe, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.

On the more meditative & solitary spectrum of his concert music, Al Kryszak's "Lux Internum" is a 12 movement nocturne collection for solo piano. The 2020 premiere recording, released by FilmTrax/The Orchard, features Ukrainian virtuoso Svetlana Belsky in a deeply introspective recording of the complete collection. Reviews of the premiere recording of Lux Internum on AppleMusic: "Dr. Belsky explains: "I was immediately attracted to the complexity of Alan Kryszak's music: harmonic, textural and rhythmic. His inner light is irresistibly multi-faceted and often ambiguous, and profoundly human." That depth of understanding runs throughout the music, which comes to life via Dr. Belsky's very expressive and expansive performance." - Kathy Parsons: Mainly Piano "Svetlana Belsky's playing is always fresh and illuminating; and this is repertoire that is fully deserving of dissemination.Belsky is ever sensitive to shifts [of mood], pinpointing the muted drama in the harmonies of the fourth and commendably unhurried in the tolling bell of the sixth (reminiscent, to me at least of Debussy's "Cathédrale engloutie"). " - Colin Clarke: Fanfare Magazine Concert Music: "His classical pieces are beautifully wrought, and include a lovely set of works for clarinet and orchestra (which he released as All The Luck, in 2008), several sets of piano works, and Having an Atonal Christmas, for string quartet and harp, as well as soundtrack music for silent films, including an inventive flute and guitar score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a piano concerto that doubled as a score for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and that the pianist Anthony DeMare has recorded." - Allan Kozinn: San Francisco Classical VoiceAl Kryszak is a composer, filmmaker, pianist & guitarist based in Maine. Work includes Turner Classic Movies, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New England Film Orchestra, The American Festival of Microtonal Music, Mabou Mines, June-in-Buffalo, Symphony Space, LA Directors Guild, & KINO. He is on the Creative Arts Faculty at the University of Maine at Machias. Kryszak studied at SUNY Buffalo with Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman, Louis Andriessen & Lou Harrison.

"All The Luck", a concerto for clarinet & orchestra, is Al Kryszak's Homage to the Greatest Generation's Music. Originally intended for theatrical music in The Road Less Traveled production of Arthur Miller's "The Man Who Had All The Luck", the work quickly expanded into a full orchestral concerto for what I feel is one of the World War II generation's primary instruments: the Bb clarinet. Though inspired by my mentors from the late 20th Century: Lukas Foss, Leonard Rosenman & Earle Hagen, the work is dedicated to my Dad, Joseph, and Mom, Gloria, who encouraged me to build things from imagination & stand up for someone else when the time comes. Buffalo clarinetist Andrea Runfola recorded the expressive & subtle chamber version on AppleMusic, but the full orchestral version has yet to be performed. A.K. 12-2023

Always enamored with haunted people, haunted locations & haunted nationalities (Polish & Transylvanian ancestry), F. W. Murnau's masterpiece of horror, "Nosferatu" (1922) was my first live film score. I performed a quite different version of the score 30 years ago, at The L.A. Directors Guild at The Cinematheque, and Arts at St. Ann's in NYC. The original, lost score by Hans Erdmann has been partially reconstructed by various composers, inviting completely new music for Murnau's 100 year old vision. The new orchestral score translates the colors from the live, solo score: electric guitar, melodic feedback, acoustic guitar & hammered dulcimer.