ENCATC Academy on Cultural Relations and Diplomacy: The Rising Role of Cities

As writer and composer, has written scores for numerous choreographers, for theatre, and for film. Grants, awards, and honors include three NEA Opera/Musical Theatre Awards, a Meet the Composer Choreographer/Composer Commission; several Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Awards; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; a MacDowell Fellowship; a Richard Rodgers Development Award; and numerous ASCAP awards. His CD Mannahatta was featured on WNYC’s New Sounds program. He has composed music for Donald Byrd’s The Beast, and Stephen Petronio’s Drawn That Way, Chris Elam’s Throw People, and has scored, arranged, and/or directed a number of musical theatre pieces, including Papushko, WinterMan, and The Wild.  Music for film includes the BBC film Men, with choreography by Victoria Marks; The West, which premiered on PBS; and a BBC documentary series on Chinese scroll painting, Masters of Space. Teirstein’s viola concerto Maramures, recorded by the Prague Radio Symphony, was released on Masterworks Recordings. Original cast member of the Broadway musical hit Barnum. Appeared on Search for Tomorrow and in the film Sophie’s Choice. Commissioned by the University of Arizona to write a large-scale piece for seven choirs to accompany Liz Lerman/The Dance Exchange in their piece Hallelujah. Also commissioned by the Composer's Forum to write an original composition for symphony orchestra and choir forWashingtonState Millennium Concert.

Dr. Teirstein performed with Pete Seeger at SUNY New Paltz and at the Clearwater Festival in June 2013.  He was invited to be on the selection committee for the prestigious Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature this September in Atlanta, where he introduced and performed with singer Paul Simon. He has continued to tour as an actor and musician in the award-winning new musical, “Woody Sez,” and produced the show’s tour in Israel in August.  Dr. Teirstein’s live score for Buglisi Dance Theater, “Snow Falling on Water,”  premiered at The Joyce Theater in February. His String Quartet with projections of his own photography, “Restless Nation,” received performances from the Catalyst String Quartet at Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music in February and at the Grand Canyon Music Festival in August.  The third act of his opera, “A Blessing on the Moon,” was performed in concert in May at Emory University’s Center for Ethics, directed by Bob McGrath (“The Death of Klinghoffer” at BAM).  Dr. Teirstein served on the New York Foundation for the Arts selection panel and the Executive Board of the Vanaver Caravan.