Celebrating the American Spirit - Adler, Muhly, Babbitt, Heggie, Moravec, Berlin, ...

O'Hara, Kelli

DSL 92162

Sono Luminus proudly presents Celebrating the American Spirit, performed by Essential Voices USA and directed by <b.Judith Clurman, which reconfigures musical expressions of nationhood. EVUSA comes together with guest soloists and instrumentalists, including singers Kelli OHara and Ron Raines, and composer-arranger Larry Hochman. There is even a new lyric by Sheldon Harnick, the famed lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof. From beginning to end, EVUSA delivers imaginatively conceived performances that articulate new visions of community and civic responsibility in the 21st century. • At the core of the CD is Sing Out Mr. President, a series of sixteen newly commissioned works set to quotations by U.S. presidents stretching from George Washington to Barack Obama. Judith Clurman initiated this inventive project in response to 9/11, after she conducted the Juilliard Choral Union in a wrenching memorial concert at a firehouse in New York City. She felt a need to contribute creative responses to the tragedy, and she commissioned a cross-generational group of composers to set presidential texts. Her purpose was at once educational and artistic. Clurman observes, I wanted a project where high school kids could learn music by living composers at the same time as they studied a president. The composers involved in the project represent a refreshingly flexible range of aesthetic orientations, stretching from Broadway to the concert hall. Some wrote canons, others ranged freely. The list of composers is a whos-who of modern composers including Nico Muhly, Samuel Adler, Paul Moravec, and many more.

CD x 1

Dorian

27.10.2012

53479216229