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new works for their unusual instrumental combination. cast of Hair ( 1968 ), and then continued as a replace- Composers who have written for them include Leslie ment for the role of Hud. He was nominated for a Tony Bassett, , Glenn Buhr, Peter Dickinson, for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Ida Gotkovsky, Alan Hovhaness, Husa, John Judas Iscariot in Webber and Rice’s Jesus Christ Super- McCabe, Gian Carlo Menotti, Thea Musgrave, David Ott, star ( 1971 ). Vereen received the Tony award for Best Ned Rorem, and . The has Actor in a Musical as the Leading Player in Schwartz’s undertaken many European and world tours, appearing Pippin ( 1972 ). The show was staged by Bob Fosse, and not only as a chamber ensemble but also as soloists in Vereen exhibited his prowess as a dancer in this role, several triple concertos written for them. In addition to and his lyric , capable of many colors and nuance, live performances and commissioning efforts, the group was well suited to the pop score. Other Broadway ap- has produced a series of CD and video recordings, both pearances include Leroy in the Grossman and Fitzhugh entitled The Making of a Medium . The trio also directs musical Grind (1985 ) and the replacement for the Chim- the Making of a Medium Music Publishing Series, in ney Man in Jelly’s Last Jam (1992 ), with original music cooperation with the Michigan University Press, with by Jelly Roll Morton, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. Vereen the intent to further disseminate repertoire for the en- appeared in the revue Fosse ( 1999) and replaced George semble’s distinctive instrumental combination. Hearn as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Schwartz’s Wicked ( 2005 ). Vereen also has numerous television and BIBLIOGRAPHY " lm credits, including the role of “Chicken George” P. Weston : Clarinet Virtuosi of Today (London, 1989), 183–90 H. Roth : “The Making of a Medium,” The Strad , cvi (1995), 1140–4 Moore in the television miniseries “Roots” (1977 ) and M.A. Platt: “The Making of a Medium,” Strings , x/6 (1996), 46–50 the title role of “ Louis Armstrong- Style ” (1976 ). PAMELA WESTON / MEGAN E. HILL Vereen also appeared in the " lms Sweet Charity ( 1969 ) and All That Jazz ( 1979 ), and received a Golden Globe Verdon, Gwen [Gwyneth Evelyn] (b Culver City, CA, 13 nomination for his performance in Funny Lady ( 1975 ). Jan 1925; d Woodstock, VT, 18 Oct 2000). Musical the- He has toured in two one-man shows: Ben Sings a Trib- ater dancer , singer , and actress . Daughter of a Den- ute to Sammy Davis, Jr . and Brooklyn to Broadway . ishawn instructor, she was trained in a variety of dance SYLVIA STONER-HAWKINS styles from an early age. As an adult she found work with JACK C OLE , a pioneering jazz dancer and choreogra- Vermeer Quartet. . It originated in 1969 as pher. After dancing with his troupe in nightclubs and a a trio of string players brought in as artists-in-residence few Broadway shows, she became Cole’s chief assistant at Northern Illinois University, De Kalb. The founding and featured dancer in a number of Hollywood musi- members were the violinist , the viola cals in the early 1950s. In 1953 she made a sensation on player Scott Nickrenz, and the cellist Richard Sher; in Broadway in the supporting role of Claudine in Cole 1970 second violinist Pierre Menard was added. Marc Porter’s Can-Can , choreographed by Michael Kidd, and Johnson replaced Sher as cellist in 1973 ; after Nickrenz, she topped it in 1955 when she starred as Lola the se- the viola players have been Nobuko Imai, Jerry Horner, ductive witch in Damn Yankees, choreographed by BOB Bernard Zaslav, and Richard Young, the last having FOSSE . The pairing of Verdon and Fosse was a landmark joined the group in 1985 . The quartet, acclaimed for in show business history, as she was the perfect inter- solid performances of repertory of all periods, toured preter of his unique style of jazz dancing and fertile widely in the and performed regularly at choreographic imagination. Together, they won rave re- the Marlboro Music Festival and at the Mostly Mozart views for New Girl in Town (1957 ), Redhead (1958 ), festival in New York; it was also featured at the Festival Sweet Charity (1966 ), and Chicago ( 1975). With her of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Its recordings brought the ! aming red hair, an endearing quaver in her voice, a quartet several Grammy nominations; among these are lithe, shapely " gure, and a vibrant stage presence, she piano quintets with on the Naxos label was irresistible as a star of musical theater. In later life and Bartók string quartets, released with the same com- Verdon acted in movies and on television, but she is pany. Since 1970 , another important function of the best known as Broadway’s consummate dancer-singer- group was as a teaching unit, and they fostered the tal- actress, a delightful comedienne of rare physicality and ents of some of the most important young chamber extraordinary charm. ensembles in the United States, including the Shanghai String Quartet and the Paci" ca String Quartet. Their in- BIBLIOGRAPHY terpretation of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ has E. Mordden : Broadway Babies: the People Who Made the American garnered special mention by critics, and they have per- Musical (New York, 1983) formed the work throughout the world. The quartet K.B. Grubb : Razzle Dazzle: the Life and Work of Bob Fosse (New York, 1989) was active until 2007 . L.J. Sagolla: “Verdon, Gwen,” American National Biography Online JAMES WIERZBICKI /JONAS WESTOVER (New York, 2000), CLAUDE CONYERS Vernon, Charles ( b Asheville, NC, 15 Feb 1948). Bass trombonist. Vernon studied with Bill Hill and Gail Wil- Vereen, Ben [Middleton, Benjamin Augustus ] (b Miami, liams at Brevard College and Georgia State University. FL , 10 Oct 1946). Actor, dancer , and singer . Vereen made Edward Kleinhammer and ARNOLD J ACOBS of the Chicago his Broadway debut as an understudy in the original also served as mentors. Vernon’s orchestral 354 Verrall, John

career began in 1971 as bass trombonist with the Balti- pf, 1956 ; Nocturne, b cl, pf, 1956 ; 4 sonatinas, vn, va, vc, ob, all 1956 ; more Symphony. A one-year appointment with the San Prelude, Intermezzo and Fugue, 2 pf, 1960 ; Preludes en Suite, pf, 1960 ; Sonata no.2, va, pf, 1963 ; Canzona, org, 1965 ; Septet, wind, Francisco Symphony in 1980 was followed by a " ve- 1966; Suite, 2 pf, 1967 ; Nonette, wind qnt, str qt, 1969 ; A Brief Elegy, season position with the Orchestra. In cl, 1970; Sonata, ! , pf, 1972 ; Introduction, Variations and Adagio, ! , 1986, Vernon succeeded his mentor, Edward Kleinham- ob, vn, vc, pf, 1974 ; Eusebius Remembered, hn, pf, 1976 ; Invocation mer, in the Chicago Symphony. He has taught on the to Eos, hn, pf, 1983 ; Sonata, 2 pf, 1984 ; Fantasy Variations for Vn and faculty of DePaul University and has also served in sim- Pf, 1989 Vocal: Ah Come, Sweet Death, chorus, 1947 ; They shall never thirst, ilar positions at Brevard Music Center, Catholic Univer- chorus, 1954; Colonial Heritage (Colonial poets), 1v, pf, 1978 ; Songs sity, Northwestern University, and the Curtis Institute. of Nature (Brown), 1v, pf, 1980 ; several other songs Many of Vernon’s students have been appointed to Band arrs., pieces major orchestras including Blair Bollinger with the Principal publishers: Peters, Presser, G. Schirmer . Vernon has premiered numer- ous works including Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s and Frank WRITINGS Elements of Harmony (n.p., 1937 ) Siekmann’s Concertos for bass trombone and most re- with S. Moseley: Form and Meaning in the Arts (New York, 1958 ) cently Christian Lindberg’s Chick a’ Bone Checkout for Fugue and Invention in Theory and Practice (Palo Alto, CA, 1966 ) alto, tenor, and bass trombone. Basic Theory of Scales, Modes and Intervals (Palo Alto, CA, 1969 ) MARTIN MCCAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY EwenD Verrall, John (Weedon) ( b Britt, IA , 17 June 1908; d Lau- J. Beale: “The Music of John Verrall,” ACAB , vii/4 (1958), 10–15 [incl. relhurst, WA, 15 April 2001). American composer. Early list of works] studies in composition with DONALD NIVISON F ERGUSON and S. Eskenazi : Obituary, Seattle Times (19 April 2001) by correspondence with Serge Rachmaninoff were fol- RICHARD SWIFT/R lowed by studies with R.O. Morris in London and ZOLTÁN KODÁLY in Budapest. He attended the Minneapolis Verrett [Carter] , Shirley (b New Orleans, LA, 31 May 1931; School of Music (1929 ) and the d Ann Arbor, MI, 5 Nov 2010). Mezzo-soprano , later (BA 1934) and continued his studies with AARON C OPLAND soprano. She studied in Los Angeles with Anna Fitziu (at the Berkshire Music Center), ROY H ARRIS , and FREDER- and Hall Johnson. After winning a television talent ICK J ACOBI . Verrall taught at Hamline University (1934– show in 1955, she attended the . While 42), Mount Holyoke College (1942–6 ), and from 1948 at a student there she sang the solo in Manuel de Falla’s the , from which he retired as El amor brujo under and made professor emeritus in 1973. His students included ALAN her professional operatic debut, as Lucretia in Yellow B. S TOUT and WILLIAM B OLCOM . He received numerous Springs, Ohio, in 1957 . A courageous African American awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1947 ) and artist, she battled and spoke out against racial prejudice a D.H. Lawrence Fellowship (1964 ). From the late 1940s, within the operatic world. The following year she he used as the tonal basis for his music a nine-pitch played (under the name Shirley Carter) Irina in Kurt scale consisting of two tetrachords on either side of a Weill’s Lost in the Stars at the New York City . central pitch, itself alterable (C–D ♭–E ♭–E, F, or F ♯, G–A ♭– Concerts and recitals preceded her European debut in B♭–B). This collection lends itself to symmetrical har- Nicolai Nabokov’s Rasputins Tod (1959 , Cologne). In monic formations and melodic contours which, with 1962 her remarkable Carmen was " rst seen at the Spo- equivalent rhythmic and metrical formations, generate leto Festival; it was later repeated at the Bol ʹshoy (1963 ), the global and local pitch and rhythmic relations in his the (1964 ), her (1966 ) music. He wrote a choral symphony in honor of Chief and (1968 ) debuts, and Covent Joseph for the Washington Centennial Celebration Garden ( 1973 ), where she had " rst appeared as Ulrica ( 1989 ). His papers are held by the University of Wash- ( Un ballo in maschera ) in 1966. Her other notable roles ington Libraries Special Collections. include Christoph von Gluck’s Orpheus, Gaetano Doni- zetti’s Elizabeth I (Maria Stuarda ) and Léonore (La fa- WORKS vorite ), ’s Amneris, Eboli, Azucena, and Dramatic: Minnesota Document (" lm score), 1941 ; The Cowherd and Lady Macbeth, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Delilah, and Selika the Skymaiden (op, 2, E. Shephard, after Chin. legend), 1951 , U. of in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s L’africaine . At the " rst Metro- Washington, Seattle, 17 Jan 1952; The Wedding Knell (chbr op, 1, after N. Hawthorne), 1952 , U. of Washington, Seattle, 5 Dec 1952; 3 politan performance of Les Troyens in 1973 she played Bind Mice (chbr op, 1, G. Hughes), 1955 , U. of Washington, Seattle, both Cassandra and—because of Christa Ludwig’s ill- 22 May 1955 ness—Dido. Her voice was richly burnished with an Orch: Sym. no.1, 1939 ; Concert Piece, hn, str, 1940 ; Portrait of Man, even range of more than two octaves, used with the 1940 ; Vn Conc., 1947 ; Prelude and Allegro, str, 1948 ; Sym. no.2, utmost intelligence. In the late 1970s she began to 1948; Sym. for Young Orchs, 1948 ; Variations, 1955; Portrait of St. Christopher, 1956 ; Passacaglia, band, 1958 ; Dark Night of St. John, assume soprano roles, most notably Tosca and Norma, 1959; Pf Conc., 1959 ; Suite, 1959; Sym. no.3, 1968 ; Va Conc., 1968 ; while retaining most of her mezzo ones. On stage, es- Radiant Bridge, 1976; Rhapsody, hn, str, 1979 ; Lyric Sym., 1990 pecially as Delilah, Eboli, or Azucena, she fused word, 7 str qts: 1941 , 1942, 1948, 1949 , 1952, 1956 , 1961 tone, and gesture into an unforgettable characterization Other chbr and solo inst: Sonata no.1, va, pf, 1939 ; Divertimento, cl, hn, bn, 1941 ; Sonata, hn, 1941 ; Trio, 2 vn, va, 1941 ; 2 Serenades, while possessing a regal presence. She recorded several wind qnt, 1944 , 1950 ; Pf Sonata, 1951 ; Pf Qnt, 1953 ; Duo Sonata, pf of her roles, most memorably Orpheus, Lady Macbeth, 4 hands, 1954 ; Sketches and Miniatures, pf, 1954 ; Autumn Sketches, Ulrica, and Eboli. Her large recital repertory included