This month brought the world premiere of Frankenstein by composer Mark Grey, with a libretto by Julia Canosa i Serra. Available online for streaming now.
Peter Boyer to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor
The Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) has announced that Peter Boyer will be among the recipients of the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a highly prestigious annual award which is officially recognized by the United States Congress.
As described on the website of the EIHS: “The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are presented annually to a select group of individuals whose accomplishments in their field and inspired service to our nation are cause for celebration. The Medal has been officially recognized by both Houses of Congress as one of our nation’s most prestigious awards, and is annually memorialized in the Congressional Record.”
Since the Ellis Island Medal of Honor was founded in 1986, it has been awarded to distinguished and diverse Americans, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, as well as five additional Presidents of the United States. Past Medalists have included Vice President Joseph Biden, Senators John Glenn and John McCain, Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and William Rehnquist, Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.
Other notable Medalists have included Buzz Aldrin, Muhammad Ali, Hon. Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Joe DiMaggio, Kirk Douglas, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Eisner, Gloria Estefan, Renée Fleming, Lee Iaccoca, Quincy Jones, Rita Moreno, Arnold Palmer, Rosa Parks, Gregory Peck, Itzhak Perlman, Chita Rivera, Martin Scorcese, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Eli Wallach, and Barbara Walters, among many others.
The group of 2019 Medalists will include Paula Abdul, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, former Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, The Coca-Cola Company CEO Muhtar Kent, and former Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO John J. Mack, among others.
The letter from the EIHS notifiying Boyer of his selection for the Medal of Honor specifically cited his work Ellis Island: The Dream of America, and its PBS Great Performances production with the Pacific Symphony.
The gala event will take place on May 11, 2019 at Ellis Island. More than 300 service members participate in an opening ceremony that includes a joint-service color guard representing all five branches of the military. The medals are presented during a black-tie dinner in the historic Great Hall.
Boyer stated: “I am truly overwhelmed to learn that I will be receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. I’ve long been aware of the many distinguished Americans who have received this special recognition, and it’s touching to learn that I will join this group. I’m most grateful to Chairman Nasser Kazeminy and all the members of the Board of the Ellis Island Honors Society for their support of my work, which is deeply meaningful to me.”
For more information, please click here.
Grammy Nominations
Congratulations to Jake Heggie, Laura Kaminsky, Robert Paterson and Kevin Puts for their Grammy Nominations. The recording of Heggie’s Great Scott (libretto Terrence McNally) was nominated for two awards: Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Producer of the Year (Blanton Alspaugh). Paterson’s Three Way (libretto David Cote) was also nominated for Producer of the Year (Blanton Alspaugh). And the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s Love Comes in at the Eye, (several Puts works) was nominated for Producer of the Year (Judith Sherman). Laura Kaminsky’s Undercurrents was also nominated for Producer of the Year (Judith Sherman).
You can see the full list of nominations here.
Kahane’s Book of Travelers
Gabriel Kahane’s new album, Book of Travelers, stems from an almost 9,000 mile journey by train where Kahane disconnected from digital life and connected with people, in person. Kahane was interviewed on PBS about the piece, and its genesis:
To hear samples of the recording, please click here.
Read The New Yorker’s Alex Ross about the piece.
A companion songbook is in preparation, and will be available soon.
Robert Paterson receives A.I. Dupont Composer’s Award
Robert Paterson joins a distinguished group of American composers that have received the prestigious A.I. Dupont Composer’s award. Given for recognition of a composer who has made “a significant contribution to the field of contemporary music” by the Delaware Symphony, the orchestra will perform Paterson’s Dark Mountains on Sept. 28 and 30.
“I am humbled and honored to receive this award, which has been presented to a diverse and distinguished group of composers that ranges from Elliott Carter to John Adams to Andre Previn. Hearing this outstanding orchestra play my music will be a thrill and delight.” Read more about the award’s history here. You can listen to Dark Mountains here.
Glen Roven
Musical polymath Glen Roven, an indefatigable composer of works for theater, opera, voice, orchestra and prolific record producer has passed away at the age of 61.
Roven first came to our attention with his charming settings of The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon. His imaginative settings and unique ability to partner with prominent actors/singers gave the works a high profile and they have been performed dozens of times by various groups.
As the music director for both inaugurations of President Bill Clinton, Roven expected to repeat the task for the inauguration of Hillary Clinton. Shocked by the turnout of the 2016 election, Roven set some of Hillary Clinton’s speeches to music: The Hillary Speeches. It has consistently been one of his most performed works, coupled with a recording and video featuring two dozen prominent singers.
Roven’s recent works include his Symphony No. 2, a choral spiritual setting I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Three Paintings by Agnes Martin. A memorial concert is planned for the fall of this year.
Great Performances presents Ellis Island
THIRTEEN’s Great Performances Presents the U.S. Broadcast Premiere of Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” with Pacific Symphony Friday, June 29 on PBS in Honor of Immigrant Heritage Month
Features dramatic performances by Barry Bostwick, Camryn Manheim, Michael Nouri and other guest stars
THIRTEEN’s Great Performances and Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, pay tribute to America’s history with a performance of composer Peter Boyer‘s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” a Grammy-nominated contemporary classical work celebrating the historic American immigrant experience. Great Performances – Ellis Island: The Dream of America with Pacific Symphony premieres nationwide Friday, June 29 at 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month. It will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps.
Using texts from the Ellis Island Oral History Project and historic Ellis Island images in combination with an original orchestral score, “Ellis Island” features seven, first-hand stories of immigrants dramatically interpreted by guest stars Barry Bostwick, Camryn Manheim, Michael Nouri, Lesley Fera, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Samantha Sloyan and Kira Sternbach. Over 40 percent of the U.S. population can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island, and immigration remains at the forefront of global news. Great Performances – Ellis Island captures the emotions, elation and uncertainties of America’s epic immigrant experience.
The special was recorded by Great Performances at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in 2017 during Pacific Symphony’s 17th American Composers Festival. Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” premiered in 2002 to great acclaim. It has since received nearly 200 performances by more than 80 orchestras, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 2005.
A co-production of Pacific Symphony and THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET in association with PBS SoCal, Great Performances – Ellis Island: The Dream of America with Pacific Symphony was directed for stage and television by Matthew Diamond and produced by John Walker; with Shawn Murphy as audio producer, production design by Matt Steinbrenner, lighting design by Bob Barnhart and projection design by Perry Freeze. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.
Major funding for the program is provided by The Ellis Island Honors Society, The Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation, the Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County, Nasser and Yvonne Kazeminy, and Seth & Yasuko Siegel and Blossom Siegel. Major funding for Great Performances is provided by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Irene Diamond Fund, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Abra Prentice Foundation and PBS.
Great Performances is produced by THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. Throughout its more than 40-year history on public television, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America’s most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.
“A work of rare authenticity and directness”
Los Angeles Times
“A sweeping opus…Boyer’s masterwork”
The Buffalo News
“A searing emotional experience”
The Hartford Courant
Interested in performing Ellis Island? Request a rental quote here.
You can purchase a score here.
AS ONE most-produced opera in North America by a living composer
Opera America has posted a list of the top 25 operas performed in North America. Number 14 on the list is As One, (Kaminsky, Campbell, Reed) making it the top opera performed in 2016/17 by living writers. Dead Man Walking (Heggie, McNally) comes in as number 23.
Congratulations to Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, Kimberly Reed, Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally! You can see the full list here.
Danielpour and Heggie nominated for Grammy Awards
The 60th Grammy Award nominations were announced this week, and we are delighted to receive nominations for recordings by Richard Danielpour and Jake Heggie.
Best Engineered Album, Classical
Danielpour Songs of Solitude & War Songs
Production, Classical
Heggie It’s a Wonderful Life
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Danielpour Songs of Solitude
The awards will be telecast on Sunday, January 28.
The recordings are available on Amazon
Heggie It’s a Wonderful Life
Danielpour Songs of Solitude
Fung commissioned by the National Arts Centre
Vivian Fung has been commissioned by the National Arts Centre of Canada to write a new work for the National Arts Centre Orchestra – premiere to take place on March 22, with subsequent performance in Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. For the 2017-18 season, her orchestral works will be performed across North America including with the Toronto Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Stamford Symphony, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
Dust Devils will have its West Coast premiere at the Cabrillo Festival this coming summer. Listen to the work here.
