photo: Daniel Brändli

Laurie Altman was born in 1944 and raised in New York City. He attended the Mannes College of Music in New York where he majored in composition and studied most notably with William Sydeman and Lester Trimble. Altman has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the Mason Gross Fellowship, a Lincoln Center Composers Forum Award, a Woodrow Wilson Composers residency Fellowship, and a University Professors Citation of Excellence from Tufts University in Boston. A Resident Composer at Westminster Choir College/Rider University in Princeton NJ for many years, Altman in addition pursued an extensive career as a performing jazz pianist with his quintet in New York City, and other venues including clubs and festivals in Russia, Helsinki, and Germany. Since moving to Switzerland in 2010, he has had two European premieres at the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as performances in Zurich. His composition Brahms Takes, written for clarinetist and composer Matthias Mueller and the Galatea String Quartet, was premiered in November 2013. Altman’s music has taken place in various European Capitals including Munich and Zurich as well as numerous performances in America including New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. His music has been recorded on the Albany, Guild, and NEOS Music (Munich) labels. In 2021, his Clarinet Concerto received a world premiere in Vienna. In 2022 he was Composer in Residence at the Pitten Festival in Austria, where his composition, As it Were was premiered. Altman lives with his wife — pianist and photographer Jeannine Hummel — in Spiez, Switzerland.

News

October 9, 2024

The Inside Story: Laurie Altman and FROM SOMEWHERE

Albums

From Somewhere

Release Date: September 6, 2024
Catalog Number: NV6635
21st Century
Solo Instrumental
Piano
FROM SOMEWHERE by composer Laurie Altman and pianist Clipper Erickson finds common ground between the global and the personal. Altman's compositions — ranging from sonatas and fugues to heartfelt solos — draw on diverse musical influences, including jazz, classical, and boogie. Through music, Altman contemplates the devastating war in Aleppo, the impact of COVID-19, and the death of George Floyd, as well as the most meaningful personal relationships in his own life. At the outset of this recording project, Altman considered where his music comes from; the album’s title is his cheeky reply. Anchored by Erickson's exceptional piano performances, FROM SOMEWHERE transcends the boundaries of classical music to make the personal universal and vice versa.