Originally published on November 29, 2009 on the now-defunct Best American Poetry blog. Republished in The Trouble Clef.
This week we welcome Lera Auerbach as our guest blogger. Lera is among the most widely performed composers of her generation. She has composed major works for orchestra, ballet, chamber ensemble, chorus, and opera, and is a concert pianist and award-winning poet. Her new ballet, “The Little Mermaid,” will receive its American premiere in 2010 by the San Francisco Ballet. Lera is writing an opera based on her stage play “Gogol” for Vienna’s Theater an der Wien for premiere in 2011, and will be composer-in-residence with the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra the same year.
In May 2009, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. presented a composer portrait of Auerbach, and during the summer she was honored with composer portraits and premieres at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. She was a featured poet at the 2009 West Cork Literary Festival in Ireland. Lera was named Poet of the Year by the International Pushkin Society in 1997 at the age of 23, and in 2007 was named a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum. Find out more about Lera Auerbach here. Welcome, Lera.
— sdh
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