Ask Wednesday: Geoffrey Dean on the Ardenza Foundation

Geoffrey Dean is an American musician who relocated to Bulgaria twenty years ago to help found the American University in Bulgaria, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Music. He performs internationally as cellist of the Sofia Quartet, the resident chamber ensemble of the Sofia Philharmonic. A more recent classical chamber music affiliation is with the Ardenza Trio, which he founded with violinist Galina Koycheva and pianist Daniela Dikova in 2005. This interview focuses on the activities of another Ardenza organization, the Ardenza Foundation. [Our questions are in italics.]

Featured on the cover of Time

Another treat, in that cardboard box on Saturday, was a mock issue of Time Magazine, dated May 30, 1995, that my son had created, probably in elementary school around 1978 or 1979. The cover article featured a "Masterpiece~Music~Writer," illustrated with a mustachioed musician holding a book titled How to Compose a Masterpiece.
    This prophetic piece reminds me of the class prophecy I'd written for my graduation from Liberty School. My piece had identified what various classmates would be doing some years later; my son's much more imaginatively (and accurately) says what he himself would be doing during the following seventeen years or so:

Now a composer and classical musician, Geoff Dean started out as a cellist in the fourth grade. He continued to play the cello throughout elementary school.
    In high school, he became an excellent classical musician and played in the school orchestra. While in college at Yale University [alas, no, he wouldn't even apply to Yale, but would attend the North Carolina School of the Arts], he studied music composition, plant taxonomy [his mother's particular interest], and chemistry. In his spare time, he took piano lessons.
    After graduating from college, Geoff wrote a short piece called, "Moonlit Music," for violin, clarinet, cello, bassoon, French horn, and viola. It was to be in C minor. It happened to catch the attention of a conductor whose manager wanted to buy a short piece of music to play during intermissions at an opera house in New York City.
    The conductor told the manager, who offered 3,000 dollars for it. Geoff accepted the offer, on the condition that he get 5.00 dollars for every two times it was played. The piece was played during all of the intermissions of 50 plays, and was heard by millions. Soon it was being played all over America and Europe. Geoff was becoming known everywhere, and making a fortune.
    In 1990, he wrote a short symphony. It was heard by more people than ever before when it was played in concert tour with a collection of selected musical pieces.
    Geoff has decided that he has overstayed his welcome in the musical world. Other composers aren't very friendly with him; they make fun of his age and the bow ties he wears. Now he is going to write music to play on his piano and cello at his home in Los Gatos, California. Besides playing his instruments, he also likes to work on his tree and flower gardens. He thinks that he's got a prize peach tree growing in his back yard! –Herman Grablow

I said that Geoff's childhood prophecy was more accurate than mine. He did continue, and continues to this day, to play the cello. He is a professional musician. He has composed a few pieces. He has transcribed many pieces (mostly Bulgarian compositions) for performance on the violoncello.
    He performs all over Europe and is about to leave for a week of performances in Japan, traveling there with the conductor of the Sophia Philharmonic Orchestra and its concertmistress.
    He is a member of the Sofia Quartet and a founding member of the Ardenza Trio. He organizes the annual Am-Bul Festival of American and Bulgarian Music. He is the author of a blog of "random notes from the daily life of an American musician in Bulgaria."
    He has a profile on the website at the American University in Bulgaria. He is listed as the dean of students on the website of Killington Music Festival.
    He hasn't made a fortune yet, however.

Ardent images

The Ardenza Trio in concert, January 2008

To hear snippets of Ardenza Trio performances, visit their "Repertoire" page.

Ardenza Trio in more performance!

Ardenza's website also has links to performance clips on their Projects page....

Ardenza Trio in performance

The Ardenza [piano] Trio has posted a couple of sound recordings of their performances on their Repertoire page. Currently, there's

• Dvorak from Op. 90, "Dumky" (mp3 [6.4Mb]) and
• Shostakovich from Trio Op. 67, Parts 2, 3, 4 (mp3 [18.2Mb]).

Enjoy!