https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-fjq77R3KU

Check out the link!!!

 

 

I recently had the honor of performing two world premieres, the first “Three Existential Songs” by Utah composer Steve Roens with Jeffrey Price at the Piano.

 


Composer Steve Roens

From the Intermezzo Concert Series program notes:

“Three Existential Songs, completed in 2016, was written for University of Utah tenor Robert Breault and pianist Jeffrey Price.  The title refers to the existential nature of the texts.  The first, Afterword to Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, reflects a concern with identity in the desperation with which the Thomas Malory of the Afterward wishes to make clear that it was he and not one of the other Thomas Malorys (there were, I think, three) who wrote Morte d’Arthur The second, 20 Questions, by University of Utah poet (and former Utah poet laureate) Katharine Coles, references the game of the same name to ask searching questions about an unknown entity; and the third, Winter Solstice, also by Coles, speaks of the weary sameness of years and the changes of moments.  The three songs act as a set, the long piano introduction to the first, serving as a kind of overture to all three.  Throughout, the vocal line expresses the text while the piano part often serves to comment.

About Steve Roens // A recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Composers’ Conference, Steve Roens has received commissions from the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, the NOVA Chamber Music Series, and the Intermezzo Chamber Music Series. In addition to teaching music theory and composition at the University of Utah, he has served as an Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts, a Senior Associate Dean of the University’s Office of Undergraduate Studies and Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. His music is published by the Association for the Promotion of New Music and is available on the Centaur label.”

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Composer James Demars

I also had the honor of premiering Arizona composer James Demars’ “Four Songs” which are based on the Sonnets of Shakespeare.   James wrote these with my voice in mind as an homage to his wife and son.   I met James 1996 when I had the honor to sing the tenor solos in his American Requiem which conducted with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Composer/conductor James DeMars belongs to a generation that is revealing a new integration of world music with the range, depth and stylistic variety of the classical tradition. His works include orchestral concertos for violin, piano, African drum ensemble, pow-wow singers, Native American flute, several cantatas, a requiem mass and an opera.

Ensembles that perform DeMars’ music include the New York Choral Society, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, California Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta,  Tucson Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, Choer et Orchestre Francais D’Oratorio (Paris), Wuppertal (Germany) Orchestra.

DeMars has received commissions from the NEA, the Heard Museum, Flynn Foundation, Art Renaissance Foundation, the Phoenix Symphony, Canyon Records, the European-American Foundation, the Phoenix Boys Choir, I Solisti di Zagreb, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

As a conductor, DeMars’ performances include the national premiere of his work, An American Requiem, at the Kennedy Center in Washington and nationally televised performances at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. In 1998 he conducted the European premiere of the requiem in Paris at Église La Trinité with Choer et Orchestre Francais D’Oratorio and was inducted to the French Order of Arts and Letters.

With Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai he has created four CDs for Canyon Records. Two World Concerto received two Native American Music Awards and led to the 2008 release of DeMars’ inter-cultural opera, GUADALUPE. In 2010 he received the Arizona Artist of the Year Governor’s Award.

Aesthetic influences include the writings of Joseph Campbell and Albert Camus. He holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches composition at Arizona State University in Tempe

 

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Both song cycles are significant works of art and I can’t express how much I appreciate the chance to make music with Jeffrey Price, music I could share with and for these two distinct and wonderful friends who just happen to be great composers.

Check out the link where you’ll hear Steve’s piece first, followed by the incredible Skryabin 6th played by the incomparable Jeffrey Price.  Jim’s songs close the recital in Libby Gardner Hall.