clarinet
I studied and played clarinet for three years at the beginning of my musical studies (1957-1960). I have taught clarinet for three years in the Conservatory of Music in Dimona, Israel from 9/80 until 6/83.
I have also taught ptivately in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1997-2000 and every so often in the Los Angeles area from 2001 until the present.
composition (music)
I've saved the best for last. I began composing during my second year at the Juilliard School. In a class called the Literature and Materials of Music, an all-encompassing course on everything in music, every time we learned a new concept in music, we were assigned to compose a short piece illustrating that concept. We had to write for the instruments played by our fellow students, so that our pieces could be performed in class. I found that most of the time, my pieces were chosen for in-class performance. So I thought that if I am doing so well in class, I should try to compose music for myself. So for the next eight years I did just that. I studied scores by the mainstream composers, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and in the area of contemporary music, scores by Stravinsky, Varese, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. From 1968 through mid-1969 I wrote my first symphony and conducted its world premiere at the University of Massachusetts in 1971.
In 1972, I decided to go back to school and finish my bachelor's degree. I entered Hampshire College (MA) and studied first, with Randall McClellan and later with Robert Stern, who was on the UMass faculty.
For the next 19 years I again composed on my own. Then, in 1994, I entered the University of Miami (FL) where I studied for three years with John van Der Slice. After graduation from UMiami, I immediately began studies for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I studied composition and conducting with Dr. Tyler G. White.
Over the years, I have written three symphonies and am now at work on my fourth. Much of my music is chamber music, and I have been commissioned by many Florida and Nebraska musicians to write music for them. I have had compositions premiered on Festival Miami, an international music festival held each year at UMIami from 1994-1997. Most recently, I conducted the world premiere of "Bring Me An Axe and a Spade", a setting of three poems by Pasadena poet Katherine Morgan, at the University of Illinois with Oboe professor John Dee and fellow faculty members.
I am now publishing my compositions under my own imprint: Music of Rafael Mevorach Co. My music for oboe and bassoon is now being retailed by Forrests Music in Berkeley, CA.
Current and future projects include the aforementioned fourth symphony, which is scored for soprano, women's choir and orchestra, a set of five songs for soprano and piano (settings of poems by Emily Dickenson) and a concerto for oboe, percussion and strings.
general music
I look upon this category as any course offering having to do with music fundamentals as well as music appreciation; perhaps an introduction to music theory (a continuation of the music fundamentals course) would be listed here as well.
As a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska, I taught three semesters of the course, "The Music Experience", which was an arts elective for non-music majors. The course content included live performances illustrating various concepts in music, such as fugue, sonata and rondo as well as brief, but thorough lessons of information on the history of western music from Medieval/Renaissance - to contemporary eras. There were also units concerning world musics, jazz (explained by a live performance)and rock.
Later, in 2006,I taught a non-major music appreciation/fundamentals course at a small TOESL institute (the course was required for their accreditation).
music history
I began to become interested in the area of music history while attending the University of Miami (FL), and studying for the degree of Master of Music. A course on the music of American composer and icon, Charles Ives, was being offered. I registered for the course and with my three fellow classmates, began a thorough study of Ives' music. Each student was assigned a different aspect of his music - choral, vocal, chamber music, orchestral music, etc. I was assigned his orchestral music and then began a chronological survey of Ives' music for large ensembles. I ended up with a 50 page thesis, including musical examples. An example of one of the works I researched was Ives' Universe Symphony, which the composer did not complete. He left istructions that anyone could attempt to finish the work. American composer, Larry Austin did just that. In my researches, I found that the recording of the piece had not been released, but with help from the internet I was able to find the manufacturer/publisher of the CD and order a pre-sale copy of the piece.
While attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a doctoral student, I had to register for a graduate level, required, course in the area of performance practice in the Baroque era. My term project consisted of a comparative note-by-note analysis of the modern published edition of a particular trio sonata by G.P. Telemann, which I had been performing over the years. I was very fortunate in locating the original manuscript, a photocopy of which I was able to get. My project also included a performance of the piece.
I also registered for a course on the music of J.S. Bach, and it was in this class that my professor encouraged me to work on a paper of original research. My project became a comparative analysis of the different cantata movements that Bach utilized in the composition of his great B minor mass or as they are known, the "parody" movements. The Kyrie and Sanctus had been composed much before Bach put the rest of the mass together: he had written these two movements for an audition at the Dresden court, so that they were "original" movements. All the other movements of the mass used the music portions of several canatas.
music theory
I began my studies in music theory while in high school with courses in the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. After high school, I attended the Juilliard School for two years where I took such courses as Solfege (Ear Training), Keyboard Harmony and Theory 1 and 2.
I taught elementary theory (Theory 1) to groups of high school students in Israel during the years 1980-1985.
Much later, while I was studying composition and oboe performance at the University of Miami (FL), I studied the first year of theory, including all aspects of funtional harmony as well as formal analysis.
Now, when I teach instrumental music, I always include theory in my instruction: i.e., I have my students analyze the music that they are practicing and/or performing.
Over the past few years, I have taught courses in elementary theory as well as music fundamentals. The latter course includes the basics of theory, including triad formation as well as 1st and 2nd inversions and how these facets function within the music itself.
oboe
I began studying oboe during my fourth year as a budding musician. During my high school years I attended the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD, where I studied oboe with Mr. William Schnabel. The first two years of college were in New York City, where I studied with Lois Wann (dec.) at the Juilliard School of Music. Between the years 1965-1968, 1969-1971 and in 1974, I studied with John Holmes (dec.) who was the second oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Between the mid-1970s and the fall of 1997 I kept busy, working in music and outside of music as well. However, in the early spring of 1980 I traveled to Israel, where I worked as a teacher, composer and performer for almost six years. A major highlight of my time there was a solo performance of a concerto for oboe d'amore and strings by Georg Philip Telemann with the Dimona Chamber Orchestra.
In 1994. I entered the University of Miami (FL) where I began studies toward the degree of Master of Music with a major in composition and a minor in oboe performance. I received the degree, with an Award of Academic Merit in May, 1997.
Immediately following this accomplishment, I entered the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (UNL) and began studies toward the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in composition and conducting. While there, I performed with the UNL Symphony in performances of the music of George Gershwin.
Since then, I have taught oboe and other instruments in Los Angeles, CA area.
saxophone
I came to the saxophone out of necessity in 1980, when I was asked to teach the alto and tenor saxophones as part of my faculty portfolio at the Conservatory of Music in Yeruham, Israel, where I had come to live, teach, compose and perform (on oboe and oboe'amore).
It was not until several years after I had returned
from Israel, at the end of 1985, that I began teaching saxophone, this time, soprano saxohone.
It should be noted that the fingering design of the saxohone is almost the same as that of the oboe, so that even that the saxophone is a single reed instrument, the actual teaching came very naturally to me. Also, having studied clarinet during the first three years of my musical life, I had not forgotten how to create the correct embouchere for saxohone playing.
I would be comfortable with teaching beginners through the level of upper intermediate.