George Spicka
From BaltoCo
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Contents |
[edit] Biography
George's music publishing link at Sibelius Music -> http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/whichstore.pl?url=georgespicka
George's page at the American Music Center -> http://www.amc.net/composers/c_works.asp?ComposerID=18428&ActorID=38777
Imported from the Baltimore Composers Forum website (Jan08)
December 1, 2006
< The BCF site is closed. A new one is under construction>
Pianist GEORGE SPICKA has composed over 500 diverse works ranging from jazz, to electro-acoustic, to chamber and contemporary classical.
He is currently co-president of the Baltimore Composers Forum. A member since 1994, he has debuted and performed over two-dozen new works.
He has been showcased in New York twice under the sponsorship of American Music Center's NewMusicBox editor, Frank Oteri.
He conceived and organized the First Annual Baltimore Jazz Composers Showcase, which was held on October 23, 2005, at the Eubie Blake National Jazz Center and Cultural Center. This event was the subject of a feature article in the Baltimore Sun by writer Carl Schoettler.
In May of 2005, he debuted an original composition on Maryland Public Television's Artworks This Week, as part of the promotion for a Baltimore Composers Forum concert. He returned to the station in October 2005 to perform another composition, Emerald Raindrops, which was featured in the First Annual Baltimore Jazz Composers Showcase.
He was commissioned by Heritage Theatre Artists' Consortium to write original music for the June/July 2005 world premiere of the play, Levy's Ghost, by Lewis Schrager and directed by Harriet Lynn that was produced aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The play has been featured on Maryland Public Television's Artworks This Week, Fox-45 TV, and reviewed by the Baltimore Sun.
His latest project is arranging the music for twenty-seven selections for the original musical, Winds of Change, by Jim McTamney and Rita Pearlman.
In 1987, he founded JAZZ STREET STATION, an ensemble that performs the work of Greater Metropolitan Baltimore area jazz composers. In 1994, he engineered and produced the ensemble's debut CD, The Rhythm Of Love, which was selected to appear on the 1994 Grammy Nominations Ballot and nominated for a Washington Area Music Association award in the contemporary jazz category. In the summer of 2000, Flashback, one of his compositions from this CD, achieved the rank of #13 out of 800 listings in the MP3.com jazz vocalist genre competition.
Under his leadership as Artist Director and pianist, the group performed over six dozen concerts throughout the Mid-Atlantic region including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Oregon Ridge Park, Blues Alley, Baltimore Museum of Art, Wilmington Cityfest, King of France Tavern, Walters' Art Gallery, Frederick Festival of the Arts, Charleston Jazz Series and the Shore Jazz Society.
The group was selected as Round 3 Semifinalists in Musicians Magazine's 1996 Best Unsigned Band Competition, the only jazz group from Maryland in over 3,000 entries.
[edit] with Jane Lamar-Spicka (1947-2005)
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Remembering Jane -> http://rememberingjane.blogspot.com/
Link to Jane's tribute at Maryland Woman's Heritage Center -> http://www.mdwomensheritagecenter.org/wow2007.htm
Jane's link at AOL Hometown -> http://hometown.aol.com/voiceplay/
Jane's page at Etheria: The Rock Opera ->http://www.synthology.com/Etheria2004/cast/lamar/lamar.html
1996 saw the release of the CD single, Go Home/Ride Me Home by him and his late wife's original music roots rock band, Jane Lamar & Snidley's Daughter, which received extensive acclaim and airplay in Europe. The same year, he performed for 6 weeks as the onstage pianist in Center Stage's production of Noel Cowards' Private Lives.
In 1997, they entered into a publishing agreement with Transition Music, (Hollywood) and subsequently have had a song placed in the New Image Entertainment film production, October 22nd.
2002 saw his debut of his eleven-movement piece, The St. Petersburg Suite, as part of Baltimore's Vivat! St. Petersburg Festival, to much acclaim.
[edit] Honors
Honors: A former resident of Silver Spring, MD, he was nominated for the D.C. Mayor's Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist. That same year, he was a finalist in American Mensa's Arthur SIG Exchequer Award for artistic excellence. He competed in the First Annual Theolonius Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and has been awarded two music composition grants by the Maryland State Arts Council for demonstrating exceptional creativity and originality. He performed as a solo pianist for the Honorable John Conyers (D-Mich) and the Congressional Black Caucus, and was featured as a performer/panelist at the D.C. Federation of Musicians Jazz Symposium. His biography is listed in Who's Who in the East and 2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century.
Education: He attended the University of Maryland as a Music Education Major. He has studied improvisation and composition privately with internationally acclaimed jazz pianists/composers Jessica Williams and Marc Copeland, and studied composition and orchestration with 20th Century composer John Stevens, himself a student of Pierre Boulez.
Media: His activities have been highlighted in International Musician, the National Jazz Service Organization Jazz Journal, Music Monthly, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, and Alive magazine.
Radio features have included WBJC, WJHU, WEAA, WPFW and WTRI.
Organizations: He currently holds membership in the following: American Federation of Musicians (locals 40-543/161-710), Broadcast Music Inc.(BMI), American Mensa, Baltimore Composers Forum (Co-President/Composer/Pianist/Recording Archivist), Baltimore Jazz Alliance (Steering Committee), Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and the Baltimore Songwriters Association.
[edit] Available CDs
- Rhythm of Love(Jazz Street Station) JSS-001
- Keyboard Mania(solo piano) JSS-002
- Live at the Cat's Eye Pub(Jazz Street Station) JSS-003
- U..F..O.. and Other Oddities(Jazz Works - Volume 1) JSS-004
- Famous Lost Words(Synth & Sound Works - Volume 1) JSS-005
- Shiftsense(Synth & Sound Works - Volume 2) JSS-006
- A Glassful of Doubt(solo piano) JSS-007
- Standards #1(solo piano) JSS-008
- The Taunting World(solo piano) JSS-009
- Jane Lamar & Snidley's Daughter(country-rock demo) JSS-010
- Rhythm Machine(Dance Works Demo) JSS-011
- George F. Spicka / Jane Lamar-Spicka(Film-Movie Demo) JSS-012
- American Music Center(Demo) JSS-013
- MPT.org Artworks This Week (13 April 2005)
- http://hometown.aol.com/jazzstreet
- http://hometown.aol.com/voiceplay
- http://mdwomensheritagecenter.org/wow2007.htm
- http://baltimorecollective.com/w/index.php?title=George_Spicka
- Friendly permalink to this page: baltoco.org/spicka
- See also: Baltimore_Composers_Forum | Baltimore_Jazz_Alliance | Baltimore_Songwriters
