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Bruce FANFARRON for the San Diego Symphony

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The San Diego Symphony recently premiered a new concert opener by David Bruce. The composer writes about his work:

I was honoured to be asked by San Diego Symphony to write a celebratory fanfare in honour of their departing maestro Jahja Ling, who conducted the premieres of my Night Parade and the Violin Concerto Fragile Light. The former of these pieces Jahja also brought to Carnegie Hall for the orchestra’s debut there, as well as on their tour of China in 2013. I enjoyed working with Maestro Ling, who had a firm but gentle approach, and the orchestra has clearly flourished under his tenure, with a raft of excellent younger players joining and creating his legacy for the future.

The fanfare is a 3 minute work for full orchestra. It’s called Fanfarrón, the Spanish word, said to be the origin of the word ‘fanfare’, which translates roughly as ‘show-off’ or ‘loud-mouth’ – a reference to the character of the music of course, rather than the man himself, who is anything but!

Kaminsky named one of the top 35 female composers

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The Washington Post has released a list of the top 35 female composers working in classical music. Laura Kaminsky made the list, citing her distinguished career and, most notably, her opera As One.

The list goes back to 19th-century-born composers like Florence Price and Cecile Chamanade, and is a striking reminder of the wide range of talent and stylistic variety among these brilliant composers.

Santa Fe Opera Commissions Reed & Kaminsky

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Opera for All Voices
Stories of our Time
a new initiative bringing stories with purpose to all audiences

Commissioned by a consortium of companies led by
Santa Fe Opera in association with San Francisco Opera:

• lyric opera of kansas city • minnesota opera • opera theatre of saint louis •san francisco opera • santa fe opera • sarasota opera • seattle opera

Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe Opera announces the launch of Opera for All Voices: Stories of our Time, a new initiative committed to telling wide-ranging stories that resonate with all audiences, regardless of age or previous exposure to opera. The seven companies currently in the consortium will work together to commission new works that are flexible in scope and scale, with the potential to be performed in smaller venues and off the main stage while striving for rich storytelling and artistic integrity. The first new work will receive its premiere in 2019 at Santa Fe Opera, composed by Augusta Read Thomas with a libretto by Jason Kim. The second commission will be composed by Laura Kaminsky with a libretto by Kimberly Reed and is slated to premiere at San Francisco Opera in 2020.

Opera for All Voices was born out of the need for works with outstanding artistic quality that can still reach broad-ranging audiences by both accessibility of subject material and budgets. The project also addresses the serious need to bring new audiences to opera by commissioning important works that speak to all voices, designed with modern attention spans in mind, and the need to break down pre-conceived notions that opera is antiquated or elitist.

The teams behind the first two commissions were selected through a rigorous process with feedback from the participating companies. Both teams embody the spirit of the initiative in their previous works, telling stories with purpose through music.

Boyer’s ELLIS ISLAND to be filmed for broadcast on Great Performances

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WNET. (PRNewsFoto/WNET)

Peter Boyer’s Grammy-nominated work Ellis Island: The Dream of America will be produced as a program for PBS’ Great Performances, America’s preeminent performing arts television series, with Pacific Symphony.

The Ellis Island performances with Pacific Symphony, conducted by Music Director Carl St.Clair, on April 7th and 8th, 2017 at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, from their annual American Composers Festival, will be filmed for a national broadcast debut on PBS’ Great Performances in the 2017-18 season, with subsequent broadcasts planned over the next three years.

The actors will be:

• Tony Award-winning Barry Bostwick (“Spin City,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the original Broadway “Grease”)
• Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Camryn Manheim (“The Practice,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Elvis”)
• Michael Nouri (“Flashdance,” “The Proposal,” “Finding Forrester,” “Damages”)
• Lesley Fera (“Pretty Little Liars,” “24,” “CSI: Miami”)
• Samantha Sloyan (“Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Hush”)
• Lucas Near-Verbrugghe (“Our Idiot Brother,” “Lazy Eye”)
• Kira Sternbach (“Neighbors,” “My Normal”)

Each of these actors will read the words from one of the real American immigrant stories which Boyer adapted from the Ellis Island Oral History Project. All the actors will participate in the reading of “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus (“Give me your tired, your poor…”), the sonnet associated with the Statue of Liberty, which serves as the work’s Epilogue.

The producer of Ellis Island on Great Performances is John Walker, who has received fourteen Emmy nominations and two Emmy wins for his remarkable body of work. The director is Matthew Diamond, whose directing credits range from The Metropolitan Opera HD Live to The Wiz Live. The recording engineer will be Shawn Murphy, renowned for his work for composers such as John Williams and James Newton Howard.

Orchestras included in PBS’ Great Performances series in recent seasons have included some of the world’s finest: The New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic (their John Williams tribute), and Vienna Philharmonic. With this filming and later broadcast of Boyer’s Ellis Island, Pacific Symphony joins this elite company. This will be the first-ever national television broadcast from the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Read The Orange County Register’s feature on Peter Boyer and Ellis Island.

Two Portland Premieres for Bunch

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This Spring, Oregon will enjoy two world premieres by composer Kenji Bunch. The Oregon Symphony will premiere Aspects of an Elephant on March 11-13, and the Eugene Ballet will premiere the full evening ballet The Snow Queen in April. Bunch’s first full-length ballet with orchestra, it’s an ambitious project undertaken by Eugene’s Artistic Director, Toni Pimble, based on the traditional Hans Christian-Andersen story.

The Oregonian interviews Bunch.

Tales of Hemingway scores big at the Grammys

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Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway earned three Grammy awards this year, “Best Classical Compendium” “Best Classical Contemporary Composition” and “Best Classical Instrumental Solo.” The album includes several Daugherty works besides Tales Of Hemingway; American Gothic and Once Upon A Castle. Featuring the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, it was produced by Tim Handley. Order the CD here:

For a rental quote, please click here.

To order the full score or piano reduction, please click here.

To order the CD, please click here.

Roven THE HILLARY SPEECHES

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Glen Roven conducted the concerts for both of Bill Clinton’s inaugurations, and has set two of Hillary Clinton’s speeches for voice and piano. On 1/20/17 a film will be broadcast of The Hillary Speeches performed by the following singers:

Glenn Seven Allen, Dominic Armstrong, Jonathan Blalock, Lawrence Brownlee, Donna Lynne Champlin, Blythe Gaissert, Andrew Garland, Eve Gigliotti, Carin Gilfrey, Nathan Gunn, Michael Kelly, Chilina Kennedy, Kyle Ketelson, Isabel Leonard, Lester Lynch, Gilda Lyons, David Adam Moore, Sidney Outlaw, Matthew Polenzani, Patricia Racette, Daniel Sumegi, Laquita Mitchell, Camille Zamora, and Arianna Zukerman

Wikipedia has listed it as one of the major musical events of the season.

Read the New York Times feature on artists reckoning with the Trump inauguration.

Purchase the score.

Some Light Emerges premieres at Houston Grand Opera

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The team that created the stunning new opera As One has reunited to create Some Light Emerges for Houston Grand Opera’s HGOCo. Premiering in March 2017, the opera celebrates the unique and enduring impact of Houston’s Rothko Chapel, which was created by painter Mark Rothko. A stunning octagonal structure that serves as a non-denominational chapel, the structure is filled with 14 paintings by Rothko, and was completed in 1971.

Houston Grand Opera shines “Light” on Rothko Chapel

A review from the Houston Chronicle, following the premiere of the new Kaminsky-Campbell-Reed opera, writes:

“Some Light Emerges, the new opera commissioned by Houston Grand Opera through its community collaborative initiative, dives right into Rothko and de Menil’s shared spiritual vision with plaintive, purposefully meandering music by Laura Kaminsky and an audacious libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. The 75-minute chamber piece–written for seven singers and seven instruments–just might be the best articulation of the Rothko Chapel’s purpose in modern times … it’s nothing short of a pronunciation of American ideals. The piece remained sublime, a testament to both the performers and the writing.”

View excerpts from the premiere production.

2017 Grammy Nominations

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Image result for grammys 2017

The nominees for the 59th Grammy Awards were announced this morning (Dec. 6), with last year’s Best New Artist winner Meghan Trainor unveiling the contestants for the marquee categories live on CBS. Bill Holab Music is proud to receive 5 nominations for works by Michael Daugherty, Joel Puckett, and Christopher Theofanidis.

Tune in on Feb. 12, 2017 for the ceremony.

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Puckett’s Shadow of Sirius — Silas Brown & David Frost, engineers; Silas Brown,

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Daugherty: Tales Of Hemingway — Zuill Bailey; Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor (Nashville Symphony)

Best Classical Compendium

Daugherty: Tales Of Hemingway; American Gothic; Once Upon A Castle — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Daugherty: Tales Of Hemingway — Michael Daugherty, composer (Zuill Bailey, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)

Theofanidis: Bassoon Concerto — Christopher Theofanidis, composer (Martin Kuuskmann, Barry Jekowsky & Northwest Sinfonia)

Heggie/Scheer It’s a Wonderful Life

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bedford-falls2

Bedford Falls came to the opera stage last December in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera It’s a Wonderful Life, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera. Partially based on the classic Capra film, Heggie and Scheer bring their own unique perspective to the story, enriched by Heggie’s lyrical music.

Starring William Burden as George Bailey, Talise Trevigne as Clara, and Andrea Caroll as Mary, the cast is rounded out with operatic stalwarts Anthony Dean Griffey as Uncle Billy and Rod Gilfrey as Mr. Potter and Mr. Gowers. Patrick Summers conducted, and Leonard Foglia directed the production.

Co-commissioned by Indiana University and San Francisco Opera. (Nov.-Dec. 2018)

For additional information, please click here.