Lembit Beecher

Estonian-American composer and animator Lembit Beecher writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) that stems from a fascination with the ways memories, histories, and stories permeate our contemporary lives. Threading together fragments of family lore, distantly experienced legends, imagery, and songs from Estonian folk culture, and explorations of place, migration, natural processes, and ecology, he has created an idiosyncratic and thoughtful musical language full of fragile lyricism, propulsive energy, and visceral emotions, which draws raves for its “astonishing musical invention” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “exquisite touches” (San Francisco Chronicle). Noted for his collaborative spirit and “ingenious” interdisciplinary projects (Wall Street Journal), Lembit has served three-year terms as the Music Alive composer-in-residence of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the inaugural composer-in-residence of Opera Philadelphia, working with devised theater actors, poets, ethnographers, and engineers, as well as incorporating Baroque instruments, electronically-controlled sound sculptures, and recorded interview samples into his music. Lembit’s three operas with noted Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch have drawn particular acclaim. Starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson, his opera “Sky on Swings,” which traces the relationship of two women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was praised as “a monumental achievement” (Parterre) and “a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer’s disease” (Wall Street Journal). Recent and upcoming premieres include “Tell Me Again” for cellist Karen Ouzounian and the Orlando Philharmonic, “A Year to the Day,” a song cycle for tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich, and string quartets for the Juilliard, Aizuri and Lydian quartets. For 2023-24, Lembit will serve as a Visiting Artist at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford.