Throughout the remainder of the 1970s and into the '80s and '90s came more concerts, tours, commissions albums, theatrical scores, soundtracks, and perhaps his greatest creation of all: the three children he raised with his ex-wife. The period also saw a lengthy return to agrarianism with the stewardship of Peekskill Hollow Farm in Putnam Valley, where his family grew organic vegetables and kept Jersey cows until the kids flew the nest and it became too much for even the multitasking maestro to manage. Today, Alana is a solo singer-songwriter and the bassist of Los Angeles garage punks Death Valley Girls and her younger siblings are musical performers as well: Adam is the drummer of New York psychedelic band Psychic Ills and Adira has worked with DJ Kid Koala.
The 2000s, however, may be the purplest patch yet for the octogenarian. His most recent opuses include 2002's Giants of the Night, 2007's This Land: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, and 2009's Three Songs: A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. As he looks forward to the next 80 years, does Amram have any plans to at last take some time off?
"I'll have to check with my girlfriend, she runs the schedule on my website," the author of three books, former amateur boxer, and recent star of the Actors Studio's production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya" says with a laugh. "Whenever I try to not do anything, I slide right back into doing something else. Someone recently asked me if was thinking of making a comeback—I said, 'Man, I make three or four comebacks a week!'"
David Amram's So in America: Selected Chamber Music Compositions 1958-2017 is out March 2 on Affetto/Naxos Records.
