Festival Opening Night Wednesday, June 4, 2008 7:30pm The American Composers Alliance presents:
The New York Virtuoso Singers
Harold Rosenbaum, conductor
Christopher Oldfather, piano
FIVE LIVE CONCERTS
MORE THAN 30 COMPOSERS
Festival Schedule:
Leonard Nimoy Thalia
at Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway (at 95th St.)
New York City
Wednesday, June 4 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, June 5 at 7:30 PM
Friday, June 6 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, June 7 at 4:00 PM
Saturday, June 7 at 7:30 PM
The American Composers Alliance is a not-for-profit corporation. This event is made possible in part, with funds from the Argosy Foundation,
BMI, the City University Research Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, the NYU Arts and Sciences Music Department, and
other foundations, businesses, and individuals.
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The American Composers Alliance Festival of American Music 2008 (9th Annual) The New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, Conductor
Christopher Oldfather, piano
Mark Zuckerman
Two Browning Settings (1998/99)
Brian Fennelly
Soon Shall the Winter’s Foil (1994)
Robert Ceely
Five Contemplative Pieces (2000)
Gregory Hall
April (2005)
Jody Rockmaker
Yiddish Choruses (2006)
Intermission
*Presentation of the ACA Laurel Leaf Award to Harold Rosenbaum
Hubert S. Howe, President, ACA
Louis Karchin
To the Stars (2003)
John Eaton
Duo (1977)
Soprano solo: Cynthia Richards Wallace
Edward Jacobs
When Time (2007)
Elliott Schwartz
Two Watterson Poems (2004)
Percussion: Adam Forman, Paul Kerekes
Steven R. Gerber
Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought (2003/04)
The New York Virtuoso Singers Sopranos: Cynthia Richards Wallace and Julie Morgan Altos: Hai Ting Chinn and Nancy Wertsch* Tenors: Neil Farrell and Michael Steinberger Basses: James Gregory and Nicholas Hay *choral contractor
Many of the works performed at this year's Festival of American Music are published and distributed by the American Composers Alliance. If
you would like to inquire about any of these works, please contact us: [email protected]
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TEXTS AND PROGRAM NOTES
Mark Zuckerman
Two Browning Settings:
Grow Old Along With Me (1998) and Because (1999)
These two choral settings of poetry by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were written for my
wife, Judith. Grow Old Along With Me was sung at our wedding. This piece is actually a joint effort with
Judith, since we both selected the text. It was her idea to use Robert Browning, and she chose as our
theme the famous first lines from Browning’s poem, Rabbi Ben Ezra. We then read through several
volumes of Browning’s work until we discovered Any Wife to Any Husband, the second stanza of which
we felt captured exactly how we felt about each other. In the resulting composite text the lines from
the first poem frame the excerpt from the second, a relation reflected in the music.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be!
I have but to be by thee, and thy hand
Will never let mine go, nor heart withstand
The beating of my heart to reach its place.
When shall I look for thee and feel thee gone?
When cry for the old comfort and find none?
Never, I know! Thy soul is in thy face.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be!
Because was a first anniversary gift, presented with the help of the Gregg Smith Singers at their summer
workshop in Saranac Lake, New York, close after the actual event. Because sets the Sonnet XXXIX of
Elizabeth Barrett Browning from her collection of forty-four Sonnets from the Portuguese. She wrote
these in secret, presenting them to her husband Robert in 1847. Although she never meant them to be
published, she was, fortunately, persuaded to put them in print. According to Louis Untermeyer (the
editor of The Love Poems of Elizabeth and Robert Browning, currently published by Barnes and Noble):
The title was something of a mystery; it was a modest, and misleading, attempt to conceal the
unimpeded confessions of an impassioned heart. The poems were obviously not translations;
the title was merely one more token of domestic intimacy. At first Mrs. Browning suggested
“Sonnets translated from the Bosnian.” But the title finally chosen was another homage to
Browning; it was an acknowledgment of her husband’s playful way of calling her his “own little
Portuguese” because of her olive skin.
Because is heavily influenced by the music of Lili Boulanger – in particular her Psalm settings – which
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highlights nuances in the text with dramatic awareness and sensitivity. The title, Because, comes from the
first word which is repeated twice in key positions within the poem and distills the thrust of the text.
Within the poem’s rigorous sonnet structure lies a wealth of dramatic and contrasting images and
thumbnail sketches evocative of deep feeling and long experience. Consequently, Because shifts moods
rapidly along with changes in the text and imagines the emotional foundation for each declaration.
Because thou hast the power and own'st the grace
To look through and behind this mask of me
(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly
With their rains), and behold my soul's true face,
The dim and weary witness of life's race,-Because thou hast the faith and love to see,
Through that same soul's distracting lethargy,
The patient angel waiting for a place
In the new Heavens,-- because nor sin nor woe,
Nor God's infliction, nor death's neighbourhood,
Nor all which others viewing, turn to go,
Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,-Nothing repels thee,… Dearest, teach me so
To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!
Brian Fennelly
Soon Shall the Winter’s Foil (1994)
This is the single setting completed of a planned set of nature poems by Walt Whitman for Harold
Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers. It was written for a now-abandoned recording
project of some years ago involving all my choral music.
Soon shall the winter’s foil be here;
Soon shall these icy ligatures unbind and melt -- A little while,
And air, soil, wave, suffused shall be in softness, bloom and
growth -- a thousand forms shall rise
From these dead clods and chills and low burial graves.
Thine eyes, ears -- all thy best attributes -- all that takes cognizance
of natural beauty,
Shall wake and fill. Thou shalt perceive the simple shows, the
delicate miracles of earth,
Dandelions, clover, the emerald grass, the early scents and flowers,
The arbutus under foot, the willow’s yellow-green, the blossoming
plum and cherry;
With these the robin, lark and thrush, singing their songs -- the
flitting bluebird;
For such the scenes the annual play brings on.
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Robert Ceely
Five Contemplative Pieces (2000)
The Five Contemplative Pieces for chorus is receiving its first New York performance. The poems
express the meanings and character of each song as well as the mood of the composer while
writing them.
3. My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold
by Wordsworth
1. On Solitude by Alexander Pope
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breath his native air
In his own ground.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So it is now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with
bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade.
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.
4. Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Bronte
Fall leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree,
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix’d; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
5. Age by Walter Savage Lander
Death, tho I see him not, is near
And grudges me my eightieth year.
Now I would give him all these last
For one that fifty have run past.
Ah! He strikes all things, all alike,
But bargains: those he will not strike
2. Eternity by William Blake
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.
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Gregory Hall
April (2005)
April is from W.S. Merwin’s, The Lice. The composition of this work was a case in point for my
relationship to the poetry of Merwin. Having set many of his texts in the past—I deliberately turned to
the works of several other poets. However, this poem jumped out at me in the way that Merwin’s
poems tend to do, and I had no choice, as the music came quickly as well. Specifically, the music was
almost immediately inspired by the line “April, April”, and I took the liberty of using it as a recurring
refrain. Other musical devices inspired by the poem include lengthy solo melismas, and staggered
entrances on the words “sinks” and “you”.
When we have gone the stone will stop singing
April April
Sinks through the sand of names
Days to come
With no stars hidden in them
You that can wait being there
You that lose nothing
Know nothing
"April" from The Lice
Copyright © 1967 by W.S. Merwin
Jody Rockmaker
Yiddish Choruses (2006)
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Bulba
Shlof Meyn Kind
Ma noymar uma nedaber
Zackele
Volt Ikh
A chance discovery in the ASU Music Library spurred the creation of Yiddish Choruses. There, sitting on
the recent acquisitions shelf, the title boldly emblazoned in Hebrew on the spine was an anthology of
Yiddish folksongs published in Glasnost-era Russia. I recognized many of the tunes, songs I had heard
from family or friends or simply in passing. I wanted to set my favorites for chorus.
Each movement is dedicated to a family member. Bulba is a song my mother remembers from her
childhood. Shlof Meyn Kind is a lullaby for my daughter. My brother-in-law loves to sing Ma noymar uma
nedaber during Passover. I had used the melody of Zackele as the theme to a set of piano variations my
freshman-year of college. This setting is dedicated to the memory of my Bubby. Volt Ikh is a gift to my
wife. The movements may be sung singly or in any combination.
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English translations by the composer.
1. Bulbe
Zuntik bulbe, montik bulbe,
dinstik un mitvokh bulbe,
donershtik un fraytik bulbe.
Shabes in a novine a bulbekigele!
Zuntik vayter bulbe!
Potatoes
Sunday potatoes, Monday potatoes Tuesday
and Wednesday potatoes,
Thursday and Friday potatoes.
On Sabbath day a novelty, potato pie! Sunday
again potatoes!
Broyt mit bulbe, fleysh mit bulbe,
Varimes un vekhere bulbe,
Ober un vider bulbe.
Eynmol in a novine a bulbekigele!
Zuntik vayter bulbe!
Bread with potatoes,
meat with potatoes,
Lunch and dinner potatoes,
Over and over potatoes.
One time a novelty, potato pie!
Sunday again potatoes!
Ober bulbe, vider bulbe,
Nokh amol un ober amol bulbe!
Haynt un morgn bulbe!
Ober Shabes nokhn khlont
Again potatoes, more potatoes,
More and more potatoes,
Evening and morning potatoes,
But on the Sabbath, a treat,
a bulbekigele!
Zuntik vayter bulbe!
potato pie!
2. Shlof meyn kind
Shlof meyn kind,
meyn treyst, meyn shayner,
shlof ze, lu lu lu.
Shlof meyn laybn,
meyn kadish ayner,
shlof ze, shlof tokhter.
Sleep, my child
Sleep my child
my hope, my pretty one,
go to sleep, hush, hush.
Sleep, the apple of my eye,
my only one,
Sleep, sleep my daughter.
Sunday again potatoes!
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3. Ma noymar uma nedaber
Ma noymar uma nedaber,
oy vay ma nedaber
ver ken zagen ver ken rayden
vos ayns badayt?
Zibn zaynen di Vukhenteg
Zeks zaynen di mishnahyes,
Finf zaynen di Humash,
Fir zaynen di muters,
Dray zaynen di foters,
Svay zaynen di lukhes,
Un ayner iz dokh Got,
Got iz ayner un vayter kayner.
What shall we say?
What shall we say?
Oh my! what shall we say?
who can say, who can tell,
what (one) means?
Seven are the days of the week,
Six are the orders of the Mishna,
Five are the books of the Torah,
Four are the mothers,
Three are the fathers,
Two are the tables of the covenent,
And one is God,
God alone and no one else.
4. Zackele
Zackele Zackele,
shpil mir a zemele,
Far a drayerl oyf Zackes kremele.
shpil mir a kazackele,
zokh an oreme, abi a zvakhke.
Zackele, Zackele, play me a Russian dance. Although poor, yet with a spirit. Refrain: Poverty is not good, poverty is not good. Let us not be ashamed of our own blood. Zackele, Zackele, play me a ballad. Although poor yet with piety. Zackele, Zackele, play a merry song for all my friends.
Refrain:
Orem iz nit gut, orem iz nit gut.
Lomir zikh nit shemen
mit eygenem blut!
Zackele Zackele, shpil mir a dume,
zoch an oreme, abi a frume.
Zackele, Zackele,
If I had golden wings
If I wish I had golden wings,
I would fly over to you.
If I had golden wheels,
I would drive over to you.
If I had horse and saddle,
I would ride over to you.
If I had ink and quill,
I would write to you.
If I had a golden ring,
I would give it to you.
5. Volt Ikh
Volt ikh hobn gilderne fliglen,
Volt ikh cu dir flien.
Volt ikh hobn gilderne reder,
Volt ikh cu dir forn.
Volt ikh hobn ferd un tsotel,
Volt ikh cu dir geritn.
Volt ikh hobn tint un feder,
Volt ikh cu dir geshriben.
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Louis Karchin
To the Stars (2003)
“In 2002-03, I was totally immersed in the Orpheus myth, writing a masque for baritone, instruments,
and dance, based on a modern recasting of the legend by poet Stanley Kunitz. While researching
various versions of the story, I came across a book of Orphic hymns, most likely written in the third or
fourth century A.D. by followers of a religious sect that had grown up around the legend of Orpheus.
The hymns were beautifully translated by classics scholar and UC Santa Barbara Professor, Apostolas
Athanassakis. I thought of incorporating them into my masque, but in the end, two of the hymns
became separate short works—To the Sun and To the Stars. To the Sun is for soprano and piano, and
To the Stars, for chorus. Tonight’s concert marks the premiere of To the Stars.
To the Stars
I call forth the sacred light of the heavenly stars
and with devotional prayers I summon the holy demons.
Heavenly stars, dear children of dark Night,
On circles you march and whirl about,
O brilliant and fiery begetters of all.
Fate, everyone’s fate you reveal,
and you determine the divine path for mortals
as, wandering in midair, you gaze upon the seven luminous orbits.
In heaven and on earth, ever indestructible on your blazing trail,
you shine upon night’s cloak of darkness.
Coruscating, gleaming, kingly and nocturnal,
visit the learned contests of this sacred rite,
finishing a noble race of works of glory.
Anonymous, circa 3rd century A.D.
Translated by Apostolas Athanassakis
Copyright 2002 Apostolas N. Athanassakis. Used with permission
John Eaton
Duo (1977)
Duo is more like a cantata movement than a choral piece – in any case it is operatic in intent. Two
very divergent eschatological views are represented by, on the one hand, the smug, complacent
chorus – a typical congregation - and, on the other, the suffering, questing soloists. These two
views are dramatically juxtaposed. I’ve tried to further intensify the contrast by giving the two
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groups contrasting musical materials. Enough said; the piece will work out the drama. Let me only
add that the concluding word of the piece, “Selah”, as used in the psalms can mean “Stop! And
begin over (or anew)!”
whom I have created,
from the face of the earth.”
Selah.
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down; yea, we wept,
when we remember thee, O Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows,
in the midst thereof.
For there they who carried us away,
captive, required of me a song.
though the earth be removed,
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a new land?
O God, why hast thou cast us off forever?
Why doth Thine anger smoke
against the sheep of my pasture?
Chorus: God is our refuge,
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, will we not fear,
Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of Hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah.
And God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth.
And the Lord said: “I shall destroy man,
Edward Jacobs
When Time (2007)
When Nick Glennon emailed me the poem upon which this music is based, I was shaken by its clarity
and directness. In very short order I set the text to a single melodic line—that which appears in mm. 2037. As I continued to develop the piece, the word “time” and the rising interval of a ninth became
linked, and so emerged the beginning of When Time. The choice of a double choir seemed clear to me,
as the notion of an echo—either in space or in time—was unspoken, yet implied, to me, in the poetry.
The poetry used in this work was written by Nicholas J. Glennon (1957-2007) in May, 2006. It is used
here with permission from his estate.
Time as a fly
Whisking
Over our heads
Heartless
We only notice
It is in our way
When
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Elliott Schwartz
Two Watterson Poems (2004) Text by William Watterson
These choral settings of poetry by my Bowdoin faculty colleague William Watterson were composed in
2004, and first performed in December of that year by the Bowdoin College Chamber Choir. Apart
from that premiere, the music was designed for the choir's spring 2005 tour of California, which
included venues that lacked a piano. Hence the absence of a piano part for the /Two Watterson Poems.
As a compromise, midway between a cappella setting and full accompaniment, I decided to augment the
choral texture with a number of percussion instruments (small enough to be taken around California in
a rented car). The two poems may appear to be quite different, one serious and meditative, the other
humorous -- but in fact they share one aspect which I found fascinating: a duality of "inside" and
"outside," the observer and the observed. I tried to capture that quality in my settings. Cat Fall
I.
Outside
the feral mother won’t let me near
though when I call she hears me;
she never quite finishes her food.
She covers the bowl with grass,
Then arranges sticks and stones
around it in patterns
I do not understand.
Only she knows what she means.
II.
Inside
the paws of the kitten who survived
explore the keyboard
of an old piano,
striking notes randomly
like a row by Schoenberg
never to be repeated.
Music at the edge,
at the edge music
which will not harden into form.
A gust rattles the windowpane.
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On the roof the rain is playing
its small silver triangle.
III.
Yellow eyes stare up into my eyes,
their vacancy
unwordable as song…
Seminar
They watch me like a t.v. turned down low
and now I am watching them watch me,
their faces blank as endpapers
in books they will never read.
I am, apparently, a rerun,
just words but no music,
my “teacher knows best” voice a drag
no matter how much I modulate,
a one-man show less commercial interruptions,
my rating lower than I know.
When the hour ends I unplug myself,
my cord a prehensile tail that slithers like a whip.
When the screen goes dark
the Keats ode fails
like perfect flora frozen in the shale.
Steven R. Gerber
Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought (2003-04)
(5 Sonnets of William Shakespeare)
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's
waste:
Then can I drown an eye (unused to flow)
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee (dear friend)
All losses are restored, and sorrows end.
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Sonnet 129
Sonnet 71
Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action, and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme,
No longer mourn for me when I am dead,
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay if you read this line, remember not,
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;
But let your love even with my life decay.
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe,
Before a joy proposed behind a dream.
All this the world well knows yet none knows well,
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Sonnet 9
Sonnet 130
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife,
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it:
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,
Coral is far more red, than her lips red,
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head:
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight,
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
"To me music is organized sound in time. Whether my music is instrumental,
vocal, electronic or a combination, the impetus is the idea; the medium chosen is
a result of the idea." - Robert Ceely, born in 1930, is a composer and an
educator. His compositions include solo, chamber, and orchestral music as well
as music for tape and tape with instruments. He attended the New England
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Conservatory where he studied with Francis Cooke and completed further studies with Darius
Milhaud and Leon Kirchner at Mills College, with Roger Sessions, and with Edward Cone and
Milton Babbitt at Princeton University.
John Eaton was called "The most interesting opera composer writing in
America today" by Andrew Porter in The London Financial Times. He has
received international recognition as a composer and performer of
electronic and microtonal music as well. Eaton's work has been performed
extensively throughout the world. International performances include the
Venice Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentina, RAI, Hamburg Opera, NDR,
AND Sud-West Funk. In the U.S., his work has been performed by the San
Francisco Opera, Cincinnati Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, New York
City Opera and Brooklyn Academy of Music, among others, and has been featured at the
Tanglewood and Aspen Summer Festivals. Eaton has been the recipient of many awards. In
1990, he received the "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation. His music was chosen
to represent the U.S.A. in 1970 at the International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO). He has
received a citation and award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 3 Prix de Rome
Grants, 2 Guggenheim Fellowships, commissions from the Fromm and Koussevitsky
Foundations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is Professor Emeritus of Music
Composition at the University of Chicago. He taught there for 10 years and at Indiana
University (Bloomington) for 20. His compositions are published by Shawnee Press, G.Schirmer,
and ACA.
Brian Fennelly (born 1937) studied at Yale with Mel Powell, Donald Martino,
Allen Forte, Gunther Schuller, and George Perle (M.Mus ‘65, Ph.D. ‘68). From
1968 to 1997 he was Professor of Music in the Faculty of Arts and Science at
New York University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. In addition to a
Guggenheim fellowship, his awards include three fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts, two Koussevitsky Foundation commissions, and an award for lifetime
achievement from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His catalogue includes fifteen
works for orchestra, eleven of which have been recorded; choral music; and chamber music
including Skyscapes I-IV, Evanescences for instruments and tape, two piano sonatas, three string
quartets and three brass quintets. His music has been awarded prizes in such prestigious
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competitions as the Louisville Orchestra New Music Competition and the Goffredo Petrassi
International Competition for orchestral music. He is co-director of the Washington Square
Contemporary Music Society, which he founded in 1976. In Nov. 2007, Albany records released
a new CD of his chamber music featuring the Da Capo Chamber Players, Pro Arte String
Quartet, the ensemble counter)induction, and pianist Blair McMillen.
Steven Gerber's most recent composition, a 16-minute orchestral
work entitled "Music in Dark Times," was written at the request of
Vladimir Ashkenazy, who will conduct the four world premiere
performances with the San Francisco Symphony in March, 2009.
Other recent works of Gerber's include String Quartets # 4 and 5
for, respectively, the Fine Arts and Amernet String Quartets; a Viola
Concerto for Yuri Bashmet, a Cello Concerto for Carter Brey, a Violin Concerto for Kurt
Nikkanen, and a Clarinet Concerto for Jon Manasse; and two symphonies, the second for
Daniel Boico, which have received numerous performances in the United States, Russia,
Ukraine, and Romania. His works have been performed by the Louisville Orchestra, Omaha
Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Philharmonia Virtuosi, National Philharmonic, National
Chamber Orchestra, Knoxville Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra,
Wheeling (West Virginia) Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg State
Academic Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, among others. Three CDs of his
orchestral works are available on the Chandos, KOCH International, and Arabesque labels, and
a CD of his solo and chamber music, all featuring violinist Kurt Nikkanen, will be released
towards the end of the year. Gerber was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C. and received a B.A.
from Haverford College and an M.F.A. from Princeton University. His composition teachers
included Robert Parris, Milton Babbitt, Earl Kim, and J.K. Randall.
Gregory Hall (b. 1959) was passionate about harmony even before he
began composing in the late 1970’s. As a result, much of his work has
been concentrated on developing a contrapuntally-based musical language
emphasizing neither harmony nor melody, but the successful blending of
both. Hall holds composition degrees from the University of California,
Santa Barbara, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with
Ned Rorem. In 1991, the Maine Music Teachers National Association
commissioned his piece the Hardanger Trio. His orchestra work Arkadia, commissioned by the
Arcady Chamber Orchestra, Bar Harbor, ME, premiered in 2001 and received several
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performances at various venues in Maine. Hall has composed nearly forty works for varied
ensembles and participated in concerts by the ACA, SCI, Maine Arts, SEAMUS, Ought-One
Festival and the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, Brunswick, ME, which selected him as
the Maine Composer of the Year in 1997. Recordings include Water: 2 Poems of W.S. Merwin for
Soprano and Orchestra released in Vol. 15 of ERM Media's Masterworks of the New Era CD
series in March of 2008 and Quartet for Saxophones which will be featured in an upcoming
Capstone Records release. His MAX computer music algorithm 21st Century Baroque for
computer and sampling device(s) appeared on the internationally distributed MAX list CDROM. He is a reviewer for the Contemporary Record Society (CRS) Society News Magazine
and a Fellow of the UCross Foundation.
Edward Jacobs is an acclaimed composer and accomplished educator
whose music the American Academy of Arts & Letters described as
“immediately engaging, attractive, and intellectually demanding” upon
presenting him with the Charles Ives Award in 2005. Jacobs (b. 1961,
Brookline, MA) began playing violin at age eight, but was drawn to the
saxophone at age eleven upon hearing a friend's jazz quartet. Work at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (B.A., 1984) in jazz performance and
arranging (Jeff Holmes) and composition (Sal Macchia, Robert Stern) was
followed by study in composition (Andrew Imbrie, Olly Wilson, Gerard Grisey) and conducting
(Michael Senturia) at the University of California, Berkeley (M.A., 1986) and at Columbia
University (composition with Chou Wen-Chung, Mario Davidovsky, Marty Boykan, George
Edwards; conducting with George Rothman) where he completed his D.M.A. in 1993. He
founded and directs the Annual NEWMUSIC@ECU FESTIVAL and works in the Pitt County
Public Schools, collaborating with middle school general music teachers in his “Composers-inPublic Schools Project”, a program that strives to make the creation of music a fundamental
part of childrens’ education.
A composer of "fearless eloquence" (Andrew Porter, The New Yorker), Louis
Karchin has a highly acclaimed compositional portfolio of over sixty works. He
was born in Philadelphia in 1951 and studied at the Eastman School of Music
and Harvard University. Recent music includes vocal-instrumental song cycles
Songs of John Keats, Songs of Distance and Light, Orpheus, American Visions,
and his latest work, The Gods of Winter. Recently, the Guggenheim Museum
presented his 70-minute one-act comic opera Romulus, in a fully-staged
production, and his Chesapeake Festival Overture was premiered this past summer by the
Orchestra di Stato della Romania (Italy) and performed shortly after by the Chesapeake
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Orchestra. Karchin's music has been commissioned and performed by some of the world's
most acclaimed ensembles for new music, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New York
New Music Ensemble, the Louisville Orchestra, the Delta Ensemble of Amsterdam
(Netherlands), and Spectrum Sonori (South Korea). New World, Albany and CRI labels have
recorded his works and C. F. Peters Corporation and ACA have published his compositions.
He is the recipient of Koussevitzky and Barlow Foundation Commissions, and two awards each
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, and
the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. Mr. Karchin is Professor of Music at New
York University, teaching in an advanced graduate program in composition which he organized
for the Department of Music in 1989.
Jody Rockmaker (b. 1961, New York City) received his Ph.D. in
Composition from Princeton University. He has studied at the Manhattan
School of Music, New England Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik
und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. His principal teachers have been Erich
Urbanner, Edward T. Cone, Milton Babbitt, Claudio Spies, Malcolm Peyton
and Miriam Gideon. Dr. Rockmaker is also the recipient of numerous
awards including a Barlow Endowment Commission, Fulbright Grant, two
BMI Awards for Young Composers, an ASCAP Grant, the George
Whitefield Chadwick Medal from New England Conservatory, and a National Orchestral
Association Orchestral Reading Fellowship. He has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony,
Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Villa Montalvo, and has been a Composition
Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center. He taught at Stanford University and is currently
an Associate Professor at Arizona State University School of Music.
Elliott Schwartz was born 1936 in New York City and studied
composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University.
He has recently retired from the faculty at Bowdoin College, where he
served for 43 years, twelve of them as department chair. His many
extended residencies and/or visiting professorships include Ohio State
University, the University of California (San Diego and Santa Barbara), Harvard, Oxford, and
Cambridge. Schwartz’s compositions have been performed by such groups as the Minnesota
Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chicago
Chamber Orchestra, and the Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands and featured at numerous
international music centers and festivals including Tanglewood, the Library of Congress,
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Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), DeIjsbreker (Amsterdam), Music of the Americas
(London), and the European Youth Orchestra Festival (Copenhagen). Leading orchestras and
chamber ensembles have recorded his music for New World, CRI, Albany, Innova, Capstone
and other labels. Honors and awards for his compositions include the Gaudeamus Foundation
(Netherlands), the Rockefeller Foundation (two Bellagio residencies), and the National
Endowment for the Arts. Over the course of his career he has served as president of The
College Music Society, president of the Society of Composers, Inc, vice-president of the
American Music Center, and board member of the American Composers Alliance.
Schwartz has also written or edited a number of books on musical subjects. These include
Music: Ways of Listening, Electronic Music: A Listener’s Guide, Music since 1945 (co-author
with Daniel Godfrey) and the anthology Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music
(co-editor with Barney Childs). During 2006, Schwartz’s 70th birth-year was celebrated with
concerts and guest lectures at Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music (London), Butler
University, Concordia College, the University of Minnesota, the ACA Festival (NYC) and the
Library of Congress.
Mark Zuckerman, a composer of “intriguing music of deceptive simplicity
... subtle, persuasive and ― quite simply ― beautiful" (Glyn Pursglove,
MusicWeb), has written extensively for virtuoso soloists, chamber
ensembles, a cappella choir (including an internationally-recognized
collection of Yiddish choral arrangements), wind ensemble, and string
orchestra. He attended Juilliard and continued at the University of
Michigan, Bard College, and Princeton University studying under David
Epstein, George B. Wilson, Elie Yarden, Milton Babbitt and J. K. Randall.
His choral music has achieved an international reputation with choruses
and at festivals and been performed and recorded by the Gregg Smith Singers, Chicago a
cappella, The Goldene Keyt Singers, the New Yiddish Chorale, and The Workman’s Circle
Chorus. Notable ensembles such as the Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, the Rutgers
University Symphony Band, the Chicago Brass Ensemble, and the Seattle Sinfonia have recorded
his instrumental music. Zuckerman earned a PhD from Princeton and is a member of the music
faculties at Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities. He has taught a wide variety of
subjects leading to a number of publications, including a book on listening to jazz drawn from
his popular jazz survey course. He is a recipient of an artist fellowship from the New Jersey
State Council for the Arts and recently had the first act of his opera, The Outlaw and the King,
presented by the Opera Workshop at Rutgers University. Characterized as "Highly accessible ...
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listeners are carefully guided through some very enjoyable musical metaphors ... quite moving" (Steve
Schwartz, Classical CD Review), Zuckerman continues to compose for both professional and
amateur performers ― especially student groups ― and for all kinds of audiences, from modern
music aficionados to children.
About the Artists
Founded in 1988 by conductor Harold Rosenbaum, The New York Virtuoso Singers has
become this country's leading exponent of contemporary choral music. Although the chorus
performs music of all periods, its emphasis is on commissioning, performing and recording the
music of American composers. From its early days in 1988, as an offshoot of a chorus-inresidence created expressly for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, until the present day, with selfproduced concerts, recordings, commissions and tours, NYVS has carved a unique niche for
itself in the musical world. NYVS is a twelve to sixteen-member professional choral ensemble
(sometimes expanded to 24 or more) dedicated to presenting both seldom-heard works by
past and contemporary masters, as well as premieres by today's composers. Harold
Rosenbaum has placed a special emphasis on supporting American composers. NYVS has been
featured many times on radio and TV. In August 1993, the group appeared as the first-ever
guest chorus at Tanglewood Music Center 's annual Festival of Contemporary Music (returning
in 2003), and in January 1995, NYVS made its second appearance at the Juilliard School .
NYVS has won the prestigious ASCAP-Chorus America "Award for Adventuresome
Programming of Contemporary Music" three times, and has been given Chorus America 's
"American Choral Works Performance Award." It appears on 14 commercial CDs: SONY
Classical, Albany , CRI, Bridge, Koch International, Capstone, and DRG With grants from The
Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, The Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress and
other sources, The New York Virtuoso Singers has commissioned 18 works by composers
including Michael Gordon, David Felder, David Winkler, George Tsontakis, and Tristan Keuris.
The New York Virtuoso Singers has premiered over 150 works by composers such as Luciano
Berio, John Harbison, Louis Andriessen, Shulamit Ran, George Perle, Harrison Birtwistle, Ernst
Krenek, Thea Musgrave, Jonathan Harvey, Arvo Pärt and Andrew Imbrie.
The New York Virtuoso Singers collaborates regularly with New York 's leading orchestras
and ensembles, including The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Juilliard Orchestra, The Orchestra
of St. Luke's, The American Symphony, The Bard Festival Orchestra, The Mark Morris Dance
Group, and The Bang on a Can Festival. Collaborations include The American Composers
Orchestra, The American Symphony, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, and The Glynbourne Opera
Company. The New York Virtuoso Singers is Chorus-in-Residence at St. Ignatius of Antioch
Episcopal Church in New York City.
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Harold Rosenbaum, is one of the most accomplished and critically
acclaimed choral conductors of our time. In recognition of his leadership
in the interpretation and performance of contemporary music, G.
Schirmer, Inc., the world's largest music publisher, has established its
Harold Rosenbaum Choral Series, for which he composes, edits, and
gives performance suggestions for conductors. A tireless proponent and
advocate for contemporary composers and American composers in
particular, he has created an annual choral composition competition, has
commissioned twenty works, has conducted over 200 world premieres (including works by
Ravel [in Paris], Schnittke, Henze, Berio, Perle, and Harbison), and has recorded contemporary
choral music for SONY Classical, Albany, CRI, Bridge, Koch International, Capstone, and DRG.
He is also a three-time recipient of the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventuresome
Programming of Contemporary Music , and a recipient of Chorus America 's American Choral
Works Performance Award. To fulfill his dream of conducting the most complex and masterful
choral compositions of the 20th century, Mr. Rosenbaum established The New York Virtuoso
Singers, an all-professional choir now in its 20th season.
"In that domain of the performance of contemporary music which has been most
neglected and least supported in this country, there is no choral group which has been
more able and willing to perform responsibly the most demanding and knowing of
contemporary works than The New York Virtuoso Singers, under the guidance of a
sophisticated and understanding conductor. Not only do they deserve and require
support, but the fate of contemporary choral music is largely contingent on such
support." -Milton Babbitt
About the American Composers Alliance
The American Composers Alliance was founded in 1937 by Aaron Copland to support
American composers and to foster interest in contemporary classical music. Today,
ACA is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing its composer
members a unique variety of services including promotion and publication, registration
of works, and library archiving, while bringing fresh and vibrant American music to
performing artists and the general public through its searchable online database and
exciting program of concerts.
As a non-profit organization dedicated to American classical music, ACA is a publisher,
archivist, custodian, and concert presenter with a history dating back to 1937. Its
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catalog of works is one of the most unique and diverse collections of music in the
world and includes compositions by Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Robert Helps,
Dane Rudhyar, Karl and Vally Weigl, Halsey Stevens, Miriam Gideon, Hall Overton, and
many, many others.
The American Composers Alliance A BMI Publisher Gina Genova, General Manager 648 Broadway, Rm 803 New York, NY 10012 (212) 925‐0458 Tel (212) 925‐6798 Fax [email protected] www.composers.com New Music Matters. 21