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Boyer RHAPSODY IN RED, WHITE & BLUE to be premiered in all 50 states

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The Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue project by composer Peter Boyer and pianist Jeffrey Biegel continues to expand its reach, securing performance commitments from 54 orchestras in all 50 of the United States. In addition, reaching beyond the United States to achieve an international presence, Boyer and Biegel recorded the new Rhapsody with the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra for the acclaimed Naxos American Classics Series. Naxos will release this recording on February 23, 2024, with a two-week exclusive period for Apple Music beginning February 9, 2024.

Biegel, a prolific pianist with an extraordinary record of commissioning new works for piano and orchestra, commissioned Boyer to compose this new work in celebration of the centennial of George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue (premiered February 12, 1924). Since 2020, Biegel has pursued a highly ambitious “Rhapsody National Initiative,” with the goal of performing Boyer’s new work with at least one orchestra in each of the 50 United States. As of January 2024, this remarkable vision has been fulfilled, and Boyer’s new Rhapsody will be performed by orchestras in all 50 states by the 2026-27 season (details below). This is believed to be an unprecedented feat for a new concerto by an American composer.

The Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue was recorded with Biegel as soloist, and Boyer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the famed AIR Studios, Lyndhurst Hall on November 27, 2023. Simon Rhodes, Senior Engineer at Abbey Road Studios, known for his work on projects such as the first two Harry Potter film scores, the Avatar film scores, and hundreds of classical albums and other film scores, was producer and engineer for the recording. Naxos will release the Rhapsody recording on February 23, 2024.This is Boyer’s fourth recording for the American Classics Series, and his third recording with the LSO as composer and conductor. (Photos by Benjamin Ealovega)

Boyer’s ca. 18-minute Rhapsody was premiered on June 30, 2023, with Biegel and the Utah Symphony conducted by Benjamin Manis, on the opening night of the Deer Valley Music Festival in Park City, Utah. An outdoor audience of more than 3,000 rewarded the new work with a prolonged standing ovation — a reaction which has been repeated by audiences at each subsequent performance, by nine different orchestras to date.

The following orchestras and conductors are participating in the “Rhapsody National Initiative” (as of 1/17/24):

01 Aberdeen University/Civic Symphony (SD), Christopher Stanichar, conductor
02 Arapahoe Philharmonic (CO), Devin Patrick Hughes, conductor
03 Augusta Symphony Orchestra (GA), Dirk Meyer, conductor
04 Brevard Symphony Orchestra (FL), Christopher Confessore, conductor
05 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (NY), Stuart Chafetz, conductor
06 Butler Philharmonic (OH), Scott Woodard, conductor
07 Central Ohio Symphony (OH), Jaime Morales-Matos, conductor
08 Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra (MN), Dirk Meyer, conductor
09 East Tennessee Symphony Orchestra (TN), Jeremy Francisco, conductor
10 Endless Mountain Music Festival (PA), Stephen Gunzenhauser, conductor
11 Evanston Symphony Orchestra (IL), Lawrence Eckerling, conductor
12 Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra (ND), Christopher Zimmerman, conductor
13 Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (VA), Christopher Zimmerman, conductor
14 Greater Bridgeport Symphony (CT), conductor TBD
15 Gulf Coast Symphony (FL), Andrew Kurtz, conductor
16 Idaho State Civic Symphony (ID), Nell Flanders, conductor
17 Juneau Symphony (AK), Christopher Koch, conductor
18 Kamuela Philharmonic (HI), Brian Dollinger, conductor
19 Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra (WA), Michael Miropolsky, conductor
20 Las Cruces Symphony (NM), Ming Luke, conductor
21 Lubbock Symphony Orchestra (TX), David Cho, conductor
22 Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (DE, MD), Michael Repper, conductor
23 Mid-Texas Symphony (TX), Akiko Fujimoto, conductor
24 Missoula Symphony Orchestra (MT), Julia Tai, conductor
25 The Missouri Symphony (MO), Wilbur Lin, conductor
26 Montgomery Symphony Orchestra (AL), Jamie Reeves, conductor
27 Muscatine Symphony Orchestra (IA), Brian Dollinger, conductor
28 New England Music Camp (ME), Simon Gollo, conductor
29 New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra (NH), Mark Latham, conductor
30 New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJ), Helen Cha-Pyo, conductor
31 North Charleston Pops (SC), Nick Palmer, conductor
32 North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MS), Steven Byess, conductor
33 Orchestra Omaha (NE), Kenneth Meints, conductor
34 Pacific Symphony (CA), Carl St.Clair, conductor
35 Paducah Symphony Orchestra (KY), Raffaele Ponti, conductor
36 Peninsula Music Festival (WI), Rune Bergmann, conductor
37 Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (RI), Aram Demirjian, conductor
38 Rogue Valley Symphony (OR), Martin Majkut, conductor
39 Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra (WA), Juan Felipe Molano, conductor
40 Shreveport Symphony (LA), Michael Butterman, conductor
41 Signature Symphony (OK), Scott Seaton, conductor
42 South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (AK), Kermit Poling, conductor
43 South Bend Symphony Orchestra (IN), Alastair Willis, conductor
44 Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra (AZ), Linus Lerner, conductor
45 Southwest Symphony (UT), Lucas Darger, conductor
46 Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA), Peter Boyer, conductor
47 Traverse Symphony Orchestra (MI), Kevin Rhodes, conductor
48 UNLV Symphony Orchestra (NV), Taras Krysa, conductor
49 Utah Symphony (UT), Benjamin Manis, conductor
50 Vermont Youth Orchestra (VT), Mark Alpízar, conductor
51 Western Piedmont Symphony (NC), Matthew Troy, conductor
52 West Virginia State Philharmonic Orchestra (WV), Scott Woodard, conductor
53 Wichita Symphony Orchestra (KS), Daniel Hege, conductor
54 Wyoming Symphony Orchestra (WY), Christopher Dragon, conductor

The commission of Boyer’s Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue was made possible through a generous consortium of sponsors. The Billy Rose Foundation was the lead sponsor of the commission, and the exclusive sponsor of the recording.

The score is available for purchase here.

Fung “The Ice is Talking” featured in Best Classical Albums of 2023

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Steven Schick’s “Weather Systems II: Soundlines,” was featured in a NY Times article as one of the best Classical Albums of 2023. The recording includes Vivian Fung’s work for percussion and electronics, The Ice is Talking. This stunning work requires the performer to play on blocks of ice, and had a deep connection to the composer’s Canadian childhood in Edmonton.

For additional information, please click here. To purchase the score, please click here.

Kenneth Fuchs’ Cloud Slant receives Gramophone Critics’ Choice

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Chandos Records has released the first of two volumes devoted to the orchestral music of Kenneth Fuchs. The first, Cloud Slant, includes world-premiere recordings of four new works: Cloud Slant (Concerto for Orchestra, After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler), Pacific Visions (for String Orchestra), Quiet in the Land (Poem for Orchestra), and Solitary the Thrush (Concerto Flute and Orchestra) with soloist Adam Walker. Following its release, the album immediately hit the Top Ten of several UK and US classical charts and received a coveted “Critics’ Choice” for the December 2023 issue of Gramophone.

Reviewer Adrian Edwards wrote:

“If you haven’t before come across the name of Kenneth Fuchs, let me recommend him to you with all possible urgency, for here is a composer of contemporary music who brings to his compositions a winning combination of melody, dazzling orchestration, design and balance. Moreover, he could not receive greater advocacy than that accorded him by the Sinfonia of London and their conductor John Wilson. The recording by Chandos is something to live for!”

Chandos Records will release Light Year, Vol. 2 of the series, in June 2024. 

Fuchs states, “I am thrilled to be the first living American composer whose music John Wilson has recorded with the Sinfonia of London. The conductor, orchestra, and soloist are extraordinary performers, and the recorded sound is superb.” The album was recorded in Surround Sound, and is available as a Hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio. See also Gramophone magazine’s Classical Music Podcast, in which Kenneth Fuchs talks with Editor James Jolly about recording with the Sinfonia of London.

For more information, visit the album website at: https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205296

Torke SESSIONS, 3 A.M.

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Michael Torke’s newest recording is a unique set of pieces for solo piano, intermediate level, titled Sessions, 3 A.M. Recorded by the composer and now available on Ecstatic Records, the work brings the composer’s unique style to a set of pieces that can be played by a pianists and students of varying skill levels.

Order the sheet music here.

Order the CD here.

Listen to the complete work here:

Heggie’s 23/24 Season is Packed with Premieres

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Dead Man Walking Opens Metropolitan Opera Season

Simulcast Worldwide to Cinemas Live in HD

September 26 – October 21, 2023

World Premiere Intelligence Opens Houston Grand Opera Season

October 20 – November 3, 2023

World Premiere & Global Tour of Joshua Bell Commission The Elements

Hamburg, Hong Kong, New York in September 2023
Chicago, Seattle in June 2024

World Premiere & U.S. Tour of Before It All Goes Dark

Music of Remembrance in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago in May 2024

DEAD MAN WALKING

Recognized by the Wall Street Journal as “arguably the world’s most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer,” Jake Heggie is set to deliver a 2023/24 season filled with high-profile premieres and top-tier artistic collaborations. From a pair of opening night galas at the Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera to orchestral premieres with superstar violinist Joshua Bell in Hamburg, Hong Kong, and New York, Heggie’s works will offer audiences a wide range of perspectives and possibilities.

INTELLIGENCE

Created with director/choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and librettist Gene Scheer, Intelligence is based on the little-known true story of two women who infiltrated the Confederate White House during the American Civil War. The work receives its world premiere on opening night of Houston Grand Opera’s 23/24 season, conducted by Kwamé Ryan and starring Jamie Barton, Janai Brugger, and J’Nai Bridges. Brooklyn-based dance troupe Urban Bush Women infuses African ancestral dance, an art form rarely experienced in grand opera, in five performances through November 3, 2023.

THE ELEMENTS

Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell commissioned five renowned American composers – Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery,and Kevin Puts – to dedicate themselves to the five Elements that form the basis of Aristotle’s Greek philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine: Fire, Air, Water, Ether, and Earth, respectively. Each composer has contributed one movement to this suite, which will tour major orchestras around the globe. The Elements receives its world premiere with Alan Gilbert conducting the opening night of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra season in Hamburg on September 1-2, 2023; the Asian premiere takes place September 8-9, 2023, with opening night of the Hong Kong Philharmonic season conducted by Jaap van Zweden; and the U.S. premiere will be given by the New York Philharmonic, also led by van Zweden. Subsequent performances include the Midwest premiere with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Juraj Valčuha, June 13-15, 2024, and the West Coast premiere with Seattle Symphony, led by Marin Alsop on June 20 and 22, 2024.

BEFORE IT ALL GOES DARK

Based on a compelling true story first reported by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune, this one-act opera follows Mac, a disabled Vietnam veteran who learns that he is the heir to a priceless art collection, stolen by the Nazis from an ancestor he didn’t know he had. Before It All Goes Dark is Music of Remembrance’s fifth commission of Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. The duo’s artistic partnership with MOR began in 2007 with For a Look or a Touch, believed to be the first major musical work to explore the Third Reich’s persecution of gay people. Before It All Goes Dark receives its world premiere at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on May 19, 2024, starring bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and mezzo Megan Marino, with members of the Seattle Symphony under the baton of Joseph Mechavich. The Erich Parce production travels to San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre on May 22, 2024, and concludes with two performances at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater, presented in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater May 25-26, 2024.

“I’m overjoyed – and a bit overwhelmed – by the extraordinary convergence of so many special projects this season,” said composer Jake Heggie. “These works feature some of my favorite colleagues, as well as remarkable new collaborators. I’m especially moved that my first opera, Dead Man Walking, will open the Metropolitan Opera season, while my most recent opera, Intelligence, will open the Houston Grand Opera season. It’s genuinely beyond what I could’ve imagined, and I’m so grateful to be able to share these important stories with audiences around the world.”

“My Life Online” debuts at Edinburgh Fringe

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Scott Eyerly’s tour-de-force one-woman show was featured at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. A unique comedic musical/opera starring Sarah Minns, directed by Oliver Platt, with Lana Bode piano, My Life Online tells the story of Kay, who hasn’t left her apartment for a year. She sees her shrink on Skype, does the cardio carioca workout virtually, and orders everything online. Yet she was once a dynamic immigration lawyer. What happened? Is it agoraphobia? Or something else? This all-sung, one-woman comedy reveals why Kay’s shut herself in… and what it’ll take to get her out.

The reviews are stellar:

The Scotsman “Smart, witty one-woman contemporary opera!”

The Telegraph on Sarah Minns: “It’s hard to imagine anyone doing it better!”

EdinburghFringeGuide

The Edinburgh Reporter

Rating: 3 out of 5.

You can purchase the score here.

Peter Boyer commissioned to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III

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Peter Boyer has been commissioned to compose a new work to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III. The commission is from ORA Singers and their Artistic Director and founder, Suzi Digby OBE. The premiere will be part of a Coronation Celebration at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden (“The Actors’ Church”), London, on May 3, 2023, three days before the Coronation.

Boyer’s new work, titled Today We Ask, sets text written specially for the occasion by Welsh poet Grahame Davies, known for his collaborations with composers such as Karl Jenkins and Paul Mealor. In addition to ORA Singers, Boyer’s new work calls for brass quintet and timpani.

The concert will feature music from Coronations and Royal occasions through four centuries, including works by Byrd, Purcell, Handel, and Vaughan Williams, and such contemporary masters as John Rutter, Judith Weir, James MacMillan, and Bob Chilcott. ORA Singers will be joined by the renowned actor Simon Callow CBE (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love), reading first-hand accounts of Coronations across the centuries.

More information is available from St. Paul’s, Covent Garden and ORA Singers.

2023 Grammy Nominations

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We are delighted to announce Carlos Simon and Kevin Puts have been honored with 3 Grammy nominations for their recent work.

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Puts Contact (Time for Three, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Letters for the Future)

Best Contemporary Classical Composition–WINNER

Puts Contact (Time for Three, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Letters for the Future)

Simon/Pave Requiem for the Enslaved (Hub New Music)

Order the CD here.

The Grammy Awards will take place on Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

New Boyer CD instantly hits the top of the charts

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Naxos Releases Recording of Composer Peter Boyer with the London Symphony Orchestra

Boyer’s fourth album features Balance of Power, commissioned by the Kennedy Center; Fanfare for Tomorrow, commissioned for President Biden’s inauguration; and other premiere recordings, conducted by the composer.

On July 8, 2022, Naxos releases American composer/conductor Peter Boyer’s newest recording, with the London Symphony Orchestra under his direction. The album includes eight of Boyer’s works, with six world premiere recordings.

The centerpiece of the album is Balance of Power, a three-movement, 19-minute work commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in honor of the 95th birthday of Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State. The National Symphony Orchestra premiered Balance of Power at the Kennedy Center in September 2021. The recording also features Fanfare for Tomorrow, commissioned and premiered by the U.S. Marine Band at the inauguration of President Joseph Biden, in a new orchestral version.

The album includes two works originally commissioned and recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the Cincinnati Pops: Rolling River (Sketches on “Shenandoah”), a setting of the American folk tune, and In the Cause of the Free, on the theme of Veterans Day. Additional works include Curtain Raiser, an exuberant opener; Elegy for English horn, harp and strings; Fanfare, Hymn and Finale, originally commissioned for the 220th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Band; and Radiance, a string orchestra work composed especially for this recording.

“It was truly a thrill to record this new album of my music with the London Symphony Orchestra, one of the world’s greatest orchestras,” said Boyer. “Speaking as both a composer and conductor, one could not ask for a finer or more versatile ensemble. The glorious sound of the LSO has been part of my life since I was young, both through their work on iconic film scores including Star Wars and so many others, and through their incredible legacy of recordings.”

This is Boyer’s third album in the Naxos American Classics Series, following his GRAMMY-nominated Ellis Island: The Dream of America with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and his Symphony No. 1 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Boyer stated: “I’m delighted to have my work included again in a series which features many of the greatest American composers—from Copland, Gershwin, Barber, Bernstein, Ellington, and Ives to contemporary giants such as Adams and Corigliano. It’s certainly meaningful to be in such musical company.”

Recorded at London’s Henry Wood Hall with more than 90 musicians, the album was produced by Simon Rhodes, Senior Engineer at Abbey Road Studios and four-time GRAMMY winner, whose credits include some 200 film scores for composers including John Williams, James Horner, and Thomas Newman.

Boyer’s debut recording as composer/conductor was with the LSO at Abbey Road Studios in 2001, for The Music of Peter Boyer, originally released by Koch International Classics. After more than twenty years, tracks from that recording continue to be broadcast widely on American classical radio.

Photos by Benjamin Ealovega

Order the CD here.

Boyer’s ELLIS ISLAND 20th Anniversary

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20 years after its premiere performance, Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America has established itself as an enduring tribute to the foundation of America and its multi-national roots. With text compiled by Boyer from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, Ellis Island is a 45 minute work for 7 actors and orchestra, with stunning visual projections that are used in conjunction with performances. The work has had over 250 performances by more than 100 orchestras throughout the country, has been recorded with the composer conducting, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006, and has featured some of our country’s greatest actors.

In 2017, the Pacific Symphony gave a unique performance, conducted by Carl St. Clair, that was broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances.

For further information about the work, please click here.

To request a rental quote, please click here.

To purchase a score, please click here.