Laurence Traiger

Laurence Traiger (born October 16, 1956) is an American composer and musicologist. Originally from Bellmore, Long Island, New York, he has studied and worked in Europe since 1976. He is the son of Arthur Traiger, English writing pedagogue, and brother of Saul Traiger, a philosophy educator.

At age 11 he composed duos for violin; at age 14 he took lessons in harmony, counterpoint and composition from his violin instructor, William Cosgriff, and at 16 had a work performed at the Hartt School of Music. In 1974 he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School (Bellmore, New York). He received a scholarship from the University of Kansas, studying composition under Prof. John Pozdro. Leaving Kansas after his sophomore year, he moved to Europe. He first studied with Prof. Cesar Bresgen at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, graduating in 1980. From 1980 to 1982 Traiger studied at the Conservatoire National in Paris with Ivo Malec. In 1982 he became a student in the master class of Wilhelm Killmayer at the Munich College of Music.

His extensive list of works include early music, Jewish music, Appalachian music, new music, choral music, orchestral music, accordion,Irish music, chamber music and film music, as well as compositions for historical instruments and educational works. He has found returning to his roots touching and therapeutic, incorporating both Klezmer and rural Appalachian music into his body of work. (One his earliest published works was a Yiddish sing-along.) He has long been engaged with Jewish mysticism, and many of his works reflect this interest. For didactic works he strives to provide something that the student could use as a vehicle for expression, attempting to capture the teenage disposition in a moody and thoughtful, yet energetic and optimistic tone. He has been invited to take part in international "new music" festivals such as the Steirischen Herbst, Klangspektrum, Villach and ADE-vantgarde, München. Traiger has had many collaborations with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Choir, including an invitation to compose a piece for Schumann-2010, honoring the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann's birth. His work has appeared on MDR's CD "Das Hohelied Salomos." He has dedicated works to various groups and artists, including Meistersextet Leipzig MDT Radio Choir and award-winning classical guitarist, and fellow Mozarteum teacher, Maria Isabel Siewers. Soprano Priska Eser-Steit lists Traiger as one of the few composers of "modern music" in her repertoire. His work has been premiered by the Tyrolean Chamber Orchestra,Orpheus Choir of Munich,: nota bene: and Ensemble Cantissimo, among others. His favorite period is Baroque, describing it as “when rhetoric in music as well as in speaking was prized, and musicians ‘spoke’ with their instruments.” He has been described by Howard Arman as one of the few composers of music for Baroque instruments today. His motets have been performed by Cantissimo Ensemble and Cantemus Lugano. He has won numerous composition awards, including from ORF (broadcaster) and the publisher Barenreiter.

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