Festival Opening Night Wednesday, June 4, 2008 7:30pm

The American Composers Alliance presents: The New York Virtuoso Singers , conductor

Christopher Oldfather, piano

FIVE LIVE CONCERTS

MORE THAN 30 COMPOSERS

Festival Schedule:

Wednesday, June 4 at 7:30 PM Leonard Nimoy Thalia Thursday, June 5 at 7:30 PM at Peter Norton Symphony Space Friday, June 6 at 7:30 PM 2537 Broadway (at 95th St.) 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 , 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 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 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

3 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 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.

1. On Solitude by Alexander Pope 3. My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold by Wordsworth Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, My heart leaps up when I behold Content to breath his native air A rainbow in the sky: In his own ground. So was it when my life began; So it is now I am a man; Whose herds with milk, whose fields with So be it when I shall grow old, bread, Or let me die! Whose flocks supply him with attire; The Child is father of the Man; Whose trees in summer yield him shade. And I could wish my days to be In winter fire. Bound each to each by natural piety.

Blest, who can unconcern’dly find 4. Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Bronte Hours, days, and years slide soft away

In health of body, peace of mind, Fall leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Quiet by day. Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me Sound sleep by night; study and ease Fluttering from the autumn tree, Together mix’d; sweet recreation, I shall smile when wreaths of snow And innocence, which most does please Blossom where the rose should grow; With meditation I shall sing when night’s decay

Ushers in a drearier day. Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me die; 5. Age by Walter Savage Lander Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie. Death, tho I see him not, is near

And grudges me my eightieth year. 2. Eternity by William Blake Now I would give him all these last

For one that fifty have run past. He who binds to himself a joy Ah! He strikes all things, all alike, Does the winged life destroy; But bargains: those he will not strike 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. Bulba II. Shlof Meyn Kind III. Ma noymar uma nedaber IV. Zackele V. 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 Potatoes Zuntik bulbe, montik bulbe, Sunday potatoes, Monday potatoes Tuesday dinstik un mitvokh bulbe, and Wednesday potatoes, donershtik un fraytik bulbe. Thursday and Friday potatoes. Shabes in a novine a bulbekigele! On Sabbath day a novelty, potato pie! Sunday Zuntik vayter bulbe! again potatoes!

Bread with potatoes, Broyt mit bulbe, fleysh mit bulbe, meat with potatoes, Varimes un vekhere bulbe, Lunch and dinner potatoes, Ober un vider bulbe. Over and over potatoes. Eynmol in a novine a bulbekigele! One time a novelty, potato pie! Zuntik vayter bulbe! Sunday again potatoes!

Ober bulbe, vider bulbe, Again potatoes, more potatoes, Nokh amol un ober amol bulbe! More and more potatoes, Haynt un morgn bulbe! Evening and morning potatoes, Ober Shabes nokhn khlont But on the Sabbath, a treat, a bulbekigele! potato pie! Zuntik vayter bulbe! Sunday again potatoes!

2. Shlof meyn kind Sleep, my child Shlof meyn kind, Sleep my child meyn treyst, meyn shayner, my hope, my pretty one, shlof ze, lu lu lu. go to sleep, hush, hush. Shlof meyn laybn, Sleep, the apple of my eye, meyn kadish ayner, my only one, shlof ze, shlof tokhter. Sleep, sleep my daughter.

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3. Ma noymar uma nedaber What shall we say? Ma noymar uma nedaber, What shall we say? oy vay ma nedaber Oh my! what shall we say? ver ken zagen ver ken rayden who can say, who can tell, vos ayns badayt? what (one) means? Zibn zaynen di Vukhenteg Seven are the days of the week, Zeks zaynen di mishnahyes, Six are the orders of the Mishna, Finf zaynen di Humash, Five are the books of the Torah, Fir zaynen di muters, Four are the mothers, Dray zaynen di foters, Three are the fathers, Svay zaynen di lukhes, Two are the tables of the covenent, Un ayner iz dokh Got, And one is God, Got iz ayner un vayter kayner. God alone and no one else.

4. Zackele shpil mir a zemele, Zackele Zackele, 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: Orem iz nit gut, orem iz nit gut. Refrain: Lomir zikh nit shemen Poverty is not good, poverty is not good. mit eygenem blut! Let us not be ashamed of our own blood.

Zackele, Zackele, play me a ballad. Zackele Zackele, shpil mir a dume, Although poor yet with piety. zoch an oreme, abi a frume. Zackele, Zackele, play a merry song for all my friends. Zackele, Zackele,

5. Volt Ikh If I had golden wings Volt ikh hobn gilderne fliglen, If I wish I had golden wings, Volt ikh cu dir flien. I would fly over to you. Volt ikh hobn gilderne reder, If I had golden wheels, Volt ikh cu dir forn. I would drive over to you. If I had horse and saddle, Volt ikh hobn ferd un tsotel, I would ride over to you. Volt ikh cu dir geritn. If I had ink and quill, Volt ikh hobn tint un feder, I would write to you. Volt ikh cu dir geshriben. If I had a golden ring, I would give it to you.

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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 . 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)!”

By the waters of Babylon, whom I have created, there we sat down; yea, we wept, from the face of the earth.” when we remember thee, O Zion. Selah. We hanged our harps upon the willows,

in the midst thereof. Chorus: God is our refuge, For there they who carried us away, God is our refuge and strength, captive, required of me a song.

though the earth be removed, a very present help in trouble. How shall we sing the Lord’s song

in a new land? Therefore, will we not fear, O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Be still and know that I am God. Why doth Thine anger smoke I will be exalted among the heathen. against the sheep of my pasture? I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of Hosts is with us; And God saw that the wickedness of man The God of Jacob is our refuge. was great in the earth. Selah. 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. 20- 37. 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 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)

Sonnet 30 And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe, When to the sessions of sweet silent thought, And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight. I summon up remembrance of things past, Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er And with old woes new wail my dear time's The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, waste: Which I new pay as if not paid before. Then can I drown an eye (unused to flow) But if the while I think on thee (dear friend) For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

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Sonnet 129 Sonnet 71

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame No longer mourn for me when I am dead, Is lust in action, and till action, lust Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody full of blame, Give warning to the world that I am fled Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell: Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight, Nay if you read this line, remember not, Past reason hunted, and no sooner had The hand that writ it, for I love you so, Past reason hated as a swallowed bait, That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, On purpose laid to make the taker mad. If thinking on me then should make you woe. Mad in pursuit and in possession so, O if (I say) you look upon this verse, Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme, When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay, Do not so much as my poor name rehearse; A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe, But let your love even with my life decay. Before a joy proposed behind a dream. Lest the wise world should look into your moan, All this the world well knows yet none knows well, And mock you with me after I am gone. 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? My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die, Coral is far more red, than her lips red, The world will wail thee like a makeless wife, If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun: The world will be thy widow and still weep, If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head: That thou no form of thee hast left behind, I have seen roses damasked, red and white, When every private widow well may keep, But no such roses see I in her cheeks, By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind: And in some perfumes is there more delight, Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; I love to hear her speak, yet well I know, But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, That music hath a far more pleasing sound: And kept unused the user so destroys it: I grant I never saw a goddess go, No love toward others in that bosom sits My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. That on himself such murd'rous shame commits. 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 at Mills College, with Roger Sessions, and with Edward Cone and 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, , 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, , and (M.Mus ‘65, Ph.D. ‘68). From 1968 to 1997 he was Professor of Music in the Faculty of Arts and Science at , 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

14 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 . 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

15 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 CD- ROM. 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 (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-in- Public 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 . 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 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-in- residence created expressly for the , until the present day, with self- produced 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 .

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 , , , Shulamit Ran, George Perle, Harrison Birtwistle, , 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 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 to support American composers and to foster interest in contemporary . 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.

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