Born in Sacramento, Kentucky, in 1941, Gérard PLAIN spent most of his musical training studying with Leslie Bassett and Rose Lee Finney at the University of Michigan. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Music at De Paul University in Chicago, at the Chicago Musical College, and, briefly, at the Eastman School of Music.
In 1974, Gerard PLAIN received the Rome Prize Fellowship and the 4th Prize at the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition.
Over the next two years, his work "And Left Ol' Joe a Bone, AMAZING!" won awards in several competitions.
In 1980, he received the “Prix de Composition Musicale” de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, for his Concerto de Violon, which he later reworked to make his Capriccio for violin and orchestra.
Despite its title, this work of reduced dimensions is a single movement, thus differing from a traditionally structured concerto.
Concerto here refers to a composition in which the soloist exerts his influence and extends his virtuosity over the widest possible ensemble.
Unlike Gerard PLAIN's other works, the Violin Concerto contains only a few "colorations of popular elements," as the composer's primary focus, here, was to create a sound characterized by a texture, a grain mastered by a strictly controlled musical movement.
This work was premiered in Monaco on Sunday, April 2, 1982, by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Lawrence FOSTER (Ronald Patterson, violin, to whom later, Gerald Plain dedicated his Capriccio).