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LAWRENCE DILLONAPPENDAGE AND OTHER STORIES Lauren Flanigan SOPRANO Ransom Wilson CONDUCTOR Supported by a grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County with funding from the State of North Carolina, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1170 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2010 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. THE COMPOSER THE MUSIC Still Point (2007) Appendage (1993) Lawrence Dillon is best known for his chamber music, Appendage and Other Stories is a collection of works by Still Point was commissioned by poet Shona Simpson to About Appendage, the composer writes: with commissions, performances and recordings by the Lawrence Dillon that combine words and music. Entrance celebrate her husband Jonathan Burdette’s birthday. It In late 1992, I became so discouraged with American, Borromeo, Cassatt, Daedalus, Emerson and and Exit use spoken text, Still Point is sung and Appendage scores Simpson’s tender sonnet for mezzo, viola and piano. slow progress on a piece I was sketching Mendelssohn String Quartets; this recording is the first alternates between spoken and sung text. The days rush by in fleets like drifts of clouds. that I crumpled up my notes, tossed them to feature some of his many works combining words and We mean to note them, find their shapes or plot down to the end of the piano, and began music. Composer in Residence at the University of North Entrance and Exit (2007) their known locations, call their names out loud, working on something else. Carolina School of the Arts, Dillon began composing at Entrance and Exit are framing pieces for a chamber con- but they are here before we know they’re not. In the ensuing weeks, I found I couldn’t get the age of seven, despite the complete loss of hearing in cert. Entrance is about layers of memory and connections A flock of starlings wheels and turns and dives the aborted sketch out of my head. I would one of his ears due to a childhood illness. He has won to the past: a story unfolds about a listener whose mind as one, the individual birds suppressed frequently glance down to the end of the awards from ASCAP, The Juilliard School (where he wanders away from the music and drifts back to another by boundless number; seamlessly they fly piano, where it lay in a disturbing heap, earned his doctorate, subsequently joining the faculty), time and place. Her recollections of that other world are till darkness forces them, like us, to rest. casting silent accusations of abandonment the Ravinia Festival, the International Horn Society, the influenced by the music she is hearing, and, in turn, the in my direction. Over time, it came to seem American Music Center, CRS and many other organiza- music responds to the journey of her imagination. I’ve heard that when you die your brain reviews more and more like a living thing, and I found your life, and pauses on the scenes that mean tions. More info at www.lawrencedillon.com Exit is an exuberant spin through an entire life cycle, myself wondering how it would feel to be the most. But what if days, like clouds, refuse foretelling the future as a metaphorical journey from alive, yet unfinished—searching for identity, to stop? Like starlings, won’t alight, be seen? birth to death and beyond. origin and purpose. I seek the one still point in all the roiling air. In both pieces, the text and music are held together That experience led me to a new piece, I close my eyes, and you are there. through a complex system of cross-cueing between Appendage, about just such an unfinished the actor and musicians. The complete texts for both Still Point was premiered on a concert series hosted in the creature, striving to complete itself, to works may be found on the composer’s website: Simpson-Burdette home. make itself lovely. http://www.lawrencedillon.com/entrance-and-exit.php A song cycle in six consecutive sections, Appendage traces a fantastical journey from incoherence to a cautious self- awareness. Excerpts from the text follow; the com- plete text may be found on the composer’s website, www.lawrencedillon.com/appendage.php. 1. Appendage your creviced cheeks THE PERFORMERS Soprano Lauren Flanigan has enjoyed a rich career and I sit by the window your pinioned arms. Actor Robert Beseda appeared at major theatres interpreting great musical masterworks from the bel waiting to be finished canto to Berio and centering specifically on the 6. Last lullabye including the American Shakespeare Festival, the Goodman, to be molded Wrap your fingers ’round my thumb, Asolo & Long Wharf. Prior to becoming the Assistant American musical canon. Recordings: The Cabildo, Peter to be lovely my little one, my lovely one, Dean of Drama at University of North Carolina School of Ibbetson, Merrymount, Frau Margot, Monologues, Symphony #6 Plutonian Ode and the major motion 2. Les yeux I will listen while you sleep, the Arts, he was a Broadway press agent and actors rep- picture Death to Smoochy Les yeux mystérieux, my dearest one, my darling one, resentative in New York. He is an alumnus of Juilliard. les cheveux lumineux the silence in the stream won’t rise to wake you, Violist Sheila Browne has recorded solo and chamber Canadian pianist Allison Gagnon directs the the struggling you have seen won’t come to shake you Collaborative Piano Program at the University of North 3. Warm eyes works for Nonesuch, Sony, Albany, Centaur and ERM from your dreams, your magic dreams, magic and Cool eyes, warm arms, labels. A graduate of the Juilliard School, she is the Carolina School of the Arts and performs with both fragile dreams. light wings brushing at desire. Artist/Teacher of Viola at the University of North Carolina instrumental and vocal colleagues. She earned her DMA Wrap your dreams around my thumb, School of the Arts and at New York University. at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Anne Epperson. 4. Appendage my sweetest one, my precious one, Mezzo-soprano Theodora Hanslowe appears regularly and when I loosened my ears I will listen while you sing, Violinist Jacqui Carrasco has performed and recorded with the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera and I began to sing my charming one, my helpless one, musical styles from jazz and tango to compositions by houses in the U.S. and abroad. She is also a frequent he turned, pressing deep fold your wings within my span, Steve Reich and Iannis Xenakis. Violinist of the Carolina collaborator in orchestral, recital and chamber music. to greet my lips my graceful one, my sparkling one, Piano Trio, she also co-directs the Carolina Summer The Stuttgarter Zeitung described her voice as “a sound in solid, certain sleep as long as you hold tight, Music Festival and teaches at Wake Forest University. from another, more beautiful world.” 5. Recognition I will be here, beside you dear. Pianist Melvin Chen is recognized as an important When you ceased If I grow old before you wake, young artist, having received acclaim for performances A soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian (what is she doing?) don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, throughout the world. He has performed at major State Symphony and the Tokyo Philharmonic and a for- I couldn’t find you just take my place beside the empty crib venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the mer member of the Borromeo Quartet, violist Hsin-Yun for the longest time. and sing the words I whisper in your heart, Kennedy Center. Mr. Chen is on the piano faculty of the Huang has collaborated with the Guarneri, Juilliard and (why is she straining?) my lovely one, my precious one, my only one. Bard Conservatory. Brentano Quartets. She currently teaches at Juilliard Now each peeléd crease reveals and Mannes. your violent eyes, —notes by Jeffrey James Cellist/composer Clancy Newman, first prizewinner of Flutist Elizabeth Ransom can be heard performing in Actor Cinny Strickland is a graduate of the University Conductor Ransom Wilson serves as Assistant the 2001 Naumburg Competition and recipient of a 2004 the Winston-Salem Symphony, Carolina Chamber of North Carolina School of the Arts, BFA Drama; and a Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. Wilson has guest Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been a featured composer Symphony Players, and the Ransom-Pecoraro Duo. She graduate of Princeton University, AB Political Science. conducted the New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has taught courses in music career development at the She enjoys performing in television, film, and regional London Symphony, Kraków Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Musicians. University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is a theatres across the country. Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as the chamber orches- co-director of the Carolina Summer Music Festival. tras of Los Angeles, Saint Paul, and San Francisco. He Flutist Rebecca Nussbaum is a performer and arts Taimur Sullivan is the Artist/Professor of Saxophone at performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln administrator. She has been a member of chamber Pianist Robert Rocco hails from western Pennsylvania the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, a Center and is on the faculty of the Yale School of Music.

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