Five Movements for My Father

Biographies After many years as a successful playwright, in 1992 SUSAN KANDER returned to her original training in music from Harvard University, combining it with her theatrical experience to write both libretto and music for an opera for schoolchildren and professional adult singers to perform together. Thrilled to 'come home' to music, she rapidly moved into full time composition, and has since been commissioned by a wide range of performers and ensembles resulting in a growing catalog of vocal, chamber and choral works that share a vivid tonal presence and rhythmic immediacy. A particular highlight was attending the 2004 Russian premiere of her SoloSonata, commissioned and performed by violinist/violist Yuval Waldman, at the renowned Composer's Union in St. Petersburg. Other commissioned works include Partite Americaine, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, violin, cello and harpsichord; The News From Poems, settings of William Carlos Williams' poetry for chamber choir; And You and I, a setting of unpublished poem by a young girl in the Terezin concentration camp, scored for soprano, children's chorus, SATB, violin, double bass, and piano; A City Suite for cello and piano; The Lunch Counter for solo bassoon; and Two Tricky Tales, for narrator and chamber ensemble. Continuing to find new ways to combine classical music and theater, she describes The Donkey, the Goat and the Little Dog, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, as "the first all-talking, all-acting, in-motion string quartet." Susan Kander continues to write occasionally for young audiences, and is widely recognized as a leading composer in the field of music education, having received numerous commissions from major organizations including the National Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Opera Columbus, and the Copland Fund. These works have been performed in dozens of cities across the country to enthusiastic audiences. Among the most popular of her operas for young people are: She Never Lost a Passenger: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad; and One False Move, which deals with the social phenomenon of "mean girls" and has been produced in middle schools, high schools, colleges, and opera companies throughout the United States. "Silver voiced" (NY Times) ROBERTA GUMBEL has sung with Houston Grand Opera, Opera Memphis, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera Philadelphia, Indianapolis Opera, Michigan Opera Theater. Broadway credits include Showboat, Ragtime, La Boheme, and In My Life. Concert appearances include return engagements with Jazz at Lincoln Center's Red Hot Holiday Stomp with Wynton Marsalis, the Queen's Chamber Band in New York and the Scarborough Chamber Players of Boston. Committed to performing new music, Roberta has sung the works of Diedre Murray, Allan Blank, Eric Reed, George Quincy, Robert Starer, Leon Kirchner, Jean Belmont, Laura Clayton, T.J. Anderson, John Heiss and Roosevelt Credit and in 1994 premiered the role of Harriet Tubman in Susan Kander's opera Never Lost a Passenger. KEITH PHARES is acclaimed on both opera and concert stages as one of today's most versatile artists. He has bowed at the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Spoleto Festival USA; in concert, with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; and in numerous recitals under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the Austrian Cultural Forum in NYC. Deeply committed to the music of living composers, Keith has performed works by Jake Heggie, Dominick Argento, Robert Aldridge, Thomas Adès Carlisle Floyd, John Adams, Philip Glass, Cary John Franklin, and Rachel Portman among others. Before joining the New York Philharmonic in 1997, cellist ERIC BARTLETT served as principal cellist of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and co-principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for 14 years. Dedicated to contemporary music, Mr. Bartlett has participated in over 90 premieres. He has recorded the cello music of Larry Bell on a CD entitled River of Ponds for North-South Records, and he has been a member of Speculum Musicae since 1982. Mr. Bartlett teaches Orchestral Performance classes at both Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music. On both clarinets and saxophones LINO GOMEZ has solo'd with the New York Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Pops, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York City Ballet, and American Ballet Theater orchestras. He is a frequent guest of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, American Symphony, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, New York Pops, American Composers, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and New Jersey Symphony orchestras. He has played chamber music with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble, Boston Symphony Chamber Players at Tanglewood, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Violinist SUZANNE OR
ASIN: B0011ZPJ22
VSKU: 56JUHA000FRQ_ns
Condition: New
Author/Artist:Susan Kander
Binding: Audio CD
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