American Modern Ensemble – Winter Songs: Vocal Music of Robert Paterson

American Modern Ensemble, Robert Paterson

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About the Album

Winter Songs is the first album dedicated entirely to the vocal music of award-winning composer Robert Paterson. All works on the album are performed by the New York City based American Modern Ensemble and produced by multi-Grammy winning producer Adam Abeshouse. Each work features combinations of voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion. The featured vocalists are some of the finest in North America, including Jesse Blumberg, Robert Gardner, Nancy Allen Lundy, David Neal and Dimitri Pittas. All of the works on the album are world premiere recordings.

The works on this album are inspired by a variety of diverse subjects, and in many cases, use unconventional texts. CAPTCHA, sung by Jesse Blumberg, is the first work on the album for tenor and piano, and uses reCAPTCHA texts for each movement. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, and CAPTCHAs (or in this case, reCAPTCHAs) consist of combinations or real words and gibberish words. Selected reCAPTCHA texts were used for all of the movements.

Winter Songs for bass-baritone and chamber ensemble consists of settings of winter-themed poems by A.R. Ammons, Billy Collins, Robert Creeley, Wallace Stevens and Richard Wilbur, and is sung by David Neal. Eating Variations (sung by Robert Gardner) is scored for baritone and chamber ensemble, and is a setting of poems by New York City-based poet Ron Singer, and is a sendup on food faddism. The texts for Thursday for soprano and piano consist of fictitious answering machine messages and is sung by Nancy Allen Lundy. Batter's Box for tenor and piano is a series of texts inspired by legendary New York Mets baseball catcher Mike Piazza, and is sung by Dimitri Pittas.

About American Modern Ensemble

American Modern Ensemble (AME) joyfully celebrates and showcases American music, performing the widest possible repertoire, particularly by living composers. Our goal is to grow our audience base as far as possible beyond the music community. AME includes on-stage chats with featured composers, presents premieres, and conducts three annual competitions for young, emerging and professional composers. Receptions after each concert enable audience members to mingle with both composers and performers in an intimate, relaxed setting.

Founded in New York City in 2005, AME has been a dynamic, creative force in the American new music scene. With a world-class ensemble made up of NYC's finest musicians, AME is "simply 'first-rate" (The New York Times). AME has performed and premiered over 135 works by over 120 living American composers in venues ranging from Lincoln Center to Galapagos Arts Space, and has "consistently demonstrated a flair for inventive programming" (Steve Smith, Time Out New York). AME programs both cutting edge and traditional works, presenting unique, engaging events that encourage dialogue between artists and audiences. AME is committed to that connection: over 90% of the composers whose works have been programmed by AME have attended our concerts. Sold out crowds at Merkin Hall, Dimenna Center, the Rubin Museum, The TimesCenter and many other venues are a winning testament to AME's tremendous fan base and ever expanding popularity.

In 2012-13 AME was the ensemble-in-residence at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and AME tours and offers educational outreach programs. Recent collaborations include the Dance Theater of Harlem and Talujon percussion ensemble.

About Robert Paterson

Composer Robert Paterson continues to gain attention here and abroad for writing “vibrantly scored and well-crafted” music that “often seems to shimmer'“ (NewMusicBox). His works are praised for their elegance, wit, structural integrity, and a wonderful sense of color. Paterson was awarded Composer of The Year at Weill’s Carnegie Hall from the Classical Recording Foundation in 2011. The Book of Goddesses was included on the Grammy® ballot this past year for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and was named one of the Top 10 favorite pieces of the year by NPR’s Best Music of 2012.

Recent performances include Dark Mountains with Jaime Laredo and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the European premiere of Dancing Games by the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (France), and Eternal Reflections, commissioned for the San Francisco-based Volti choir. His works have been played by the Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, New York New Music Ensemble, BargeMusic, California EAR Unit, and Ensemble Adelph in Paris.

Upcoming engagements include a commission for Albany Symphony Orchestra, Dark Mountains with the Austin Symphony, and an album of Paterson’s choral works to be recorded with Musica Sacra and conductor Kent Tritle. Paterson won the Cincinnati Camerata Composition Competition for his setting of Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep (text by Mary Frye). The panel chose this work from his cycle Eternal Reflections for its “expressive choral writing, text painting and imaginatively beautiful textures.”

Awards include the 2014 Utah Arts Festival composer commission, the Copland Award, two ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a three-year Music Alive! grant from the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, the American Composers Forum, and ASCAP. Fellowships include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Born in 1970, Paterson was raised in Buffalo, New York, the son of a sculptor and a painter. Although his first love was percussion, eh soon discovered a passion for composition, writing his first piece at age thirteen.

In 2005, Paterson founded the American Modern Ensemble (AME), which spotlights American music via lively thematic programming. He serves as artistic director for AME as well as house composer, frequently contributing new pieces to the ensemble, and he directs the affiliated record label, American Modern Recordings (AMR), which will be distributed by Naxos in 2014.

He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). Paterson has given master classes at numerous colleges and universities, most recently at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, Ithaca College, the Cleveland Institute, and the Eastman School of Music. He resides in New York City with his wife Victoria, and son, Dylan, and summers at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Colorado where he is composer-in-residence.

About Jesse Blumberg

Baritone Jesse Blumberg is equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages, performing repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque to the 20th and 21st centuries. His performances have included the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath at Minnesota Opera, Niobe, Regina di Tebe at the Boston Early Music Festival, Bernstein’s MASS at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and appearances with New York City Opera, Pittsburg Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. Recital highlights include appearances with the Marilyn Horne Foundation and New York Festival of Song, and performances of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise with pianist Martin Katz. He has performed major works with American Bach Soloists, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Oratorio Society of New York, Apollo’s Fire, and on Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series.

Jesse has given the world premieres of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers, Lisa Bielawa’s The Lay of the Love and Death, Conrad Cummings’ Positions 1956, and Tom Cipullo’s Excelsior. He also works closely with several other renowned composers as a member of the Mirror Visions Ensemble.

Jesse has been recognized in several competitions, and was awarded Third Prize at the 2008 International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American prizewinner in over thirty years. He received a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and received undergraduate degrees in History and Music from the University of Michigan. Jesse is also the founder and artistic director of Five Boroughs Music Festival, which brings chamber music of many genres to every corner of New York City. For more information, visit jesseblumberg.com.

About Robert Gardner

Since winning the Boulanger Prize in 2007, baritone Robert Gardner has been in high demand among living composers. Pieces composed for his voice include the hour-long Symphony of Meditations by Aaron Jay Kernis, an evening-length song cycle by Gabriele Lena Frank entitled Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea, and an opera by Robert Paterson called Invisible Child, among several others by living composers.

He has appeared with numerous opera houses in the U.S. and Europe, including New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, and Bavarian National Opera, and has sung with some of the major symphony orchestras, including Pittsburgh, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, San Diego and many others. Recital appearances have been equally successful in Carnegie Hall, as well as in Boston, Marseilles, Paris, Dallas and Denver, among others.

His honors include the Pro Musicis International Award, the Gerda Lissner Award and the Sullivan Foundation Award. His opera and concert characters include Marcello in La Boheme, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Germont in La Traviata, the title role of Eugene Onegin, John the Baptist in Salome, Elijah, as well as solo work in several symphonic works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar. Robert Gardner is a graduate of the Yale School of Music.

About Nancy Allen Lundy

Described as “enthralling” (Opera News), soprano Nancy Allen Lundy has enjoyed a varied career in contemporary and standard repertoire on the stages of opera houses and concert halls in Europe, Asia, and the US. She is best known for her work with Oscar-winning composer, Tan Dun, for whom she originated lead roles in Tea (DVD, Deutsche Grammophon) and The Gate. For Tan Dun she also sang in Peony Pavilion, Marco Polo (DVD, Opus Arte), Red Forecast, On Taoism, Water Passion and Silk Road with such orchestras and festivals as NHK Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Flemish Radio Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, BAM, and Pacific Music Festival. Originating the role of Zina in Simon McBurney’s production of Alexander Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart, she sang the role with Netherlands Opera, English National Opera, La Scala and Lyon Opera. Other contemporary roles she has interpreted include Claire in Peter Bengtson’s The Maids, Caroline Gaines in Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, Pat Nixon in John Adams’ Nixon in China, and Singer #1 in Conrad Susa’s Transformations. She has sung major leading roles with such opera companies as Houston Grand, Philadelphia, Hawaii, Washington, Minnesota, New York City, Cincinnati, Portland, and Vancouver, at Spoleto (USA), St. Louis Opera Theater, and Bregenzer Festpiele, and with such orchestras as Montreal Symphony at Carnegie Hall (Charles Dutoit conducting), Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony of Norway (Bergen), and Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Lundy holds a master’s degree from Eastman School of Music and was a member of The Juilliard Opera Center. For more information, visit nancyallenlundy.com.

About Blair McMillen

Blair McMillen has established himself as one of the most versatile and sought-after pianists today. The New York Times has called his playing “lustrous,” “riveting,” and “brilliant… prodigiously accomplished and exciting.” Known for imaginative and daring programming, he plays a repertoire that spans from late-medieval keyboard manuscripts to the 21st-century.

Recent appearances include Carnegie Hall, the American Symphony Orchestra, and Bang on a Can’s 25th Anniversary Marathon. Performance highlights from recent seasons include the Prokofiev Concerto No. 1 at the Bard Music Festival, Walter Piston’s Concertino at Carnegie Hall, nearly a dozen performances of John Cage’s landmark Sonatas and Interludes, and numerous appearances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Dedicated to new and groundbreaking projects, Blair McMillen is committed to performing the music of today. Known for adventurous and imaginative programming, he has premiered hundreds of solo and chamber works. He is the pianist for the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, the American Modern Ensemble, Perspectives Ensemble, and the six-piano super-group Grand Band. McMillen also co-founded (and co-directs) the Rite of Summer Music Festival on Governors Island, an outdoor alt-classical festival.

Blair McMillen holds degrees from Oberlin College, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School. He resides in New York City and serves on the piano faculty at Bard College and Conservatory. For more information, visit blairmcmillen.com.

About David Neal

Praised by the Syracuse Post Standard for his “resounding bass voice,” bass-baritone David Neal has performed with many companies in a wide range of repertoire. He has premiered several works by leading American composers, including Lowell Liebermann and Robert Paterson, whose Winter Songs he commissioned with The Arts at Grace concert series in upstate New York, of which he is Artistic Director. A member of the American Modern Ensemble, he has performed with AME at Bargemsuic and The TimesCenter, and has also performed in numerous concerts with the Society for New Music in Syracuse. He created the role fo the Commissioner in Michael Dellaira’s and J.D. McClatchey’s The Secret Agent in a March 2011 production by the Center for Contemporary opera, which received additional European performances at the Armel Festival in Szeged, Hungary and the opera Theatre of Avignon. He returned to Szeged the following season, again with CCO, as John Henry in William Mayer’s A Death in the Family.

Neal has appeared in recent seasons with Lake George Opera, Syracuse, Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Opera Vivente, and the Kitchen Theatre, in such roles as Simone in Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost, Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Colline in La Bohème, Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Kolya in the silent movie opera Bed and Sofa. Concert appearances have been with Symphony Syracuse, the Hamilton College Chorus and Orchestra, the Ithaca Community Choruses, and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. He lives in Groton, New York, with his wife, Gailanne Mackenzie, and is on the faculty at SUNY Cortland. For more information, visit davidnealbassbaritone.com.

About Dimitri Pittas

Dimitri Pittas has appeared on leading opera stages throughout North America and Europe, including debuts with the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Canadian Opera Company. He is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and has been heard on the Met stage as Rodolfo in La Bohème, Macduff in Macbeth, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. For his debut with Canadian Opera Company as the Duke, the Toronto Star said, “Dimitri Pittas comes off the best as The Duke of Mantua, with a flexible voice that can express real love and shallow desire with equal conviction.”

In the 2012/13 season, Mr. Pittas begins with Oper Frankfurt as Rodolfo, before his return to Houston Grand Opera and his house debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in the same role. Further performances include roles with the Bavarian State Opera, and the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, France. Mr. Pittas has a close association with the Santa Fe Opera, having been an apprentice artist with that company, and has worked with the Seattle Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opera Bordeaux, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montreal, Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the UK’s National Opera.

On the concert stage, Mr. Pittas has worked with numerous world-class orchestras and conductors, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This past season, he was presented at Carnegie Hall at the annual recital of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. For more information, visit dimitripittas.com.

Tracks

Captcha
1. I. duchenp fled
2. II. Henry falutch
3. III. youJusto nicely
4. IV. Voix gustroor
5. V. Secretary metadon

Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Blair McMillen, piano

Winter Songs
6. I. Icicles Filled the Long Window
7. II. Dark Day, Warm and Wind
8. III. The Snow Man
9. IV. Boy at the Window
10. V. Old Store
11. VI. Neither Snow

David Neal, bass-baritone
American Modern Ensemble

Eating Variations
12. I. My Body, a Temple
13. II. The Hog
14. III. Even the Dyspeptic Must Eat
15. IV. The Dietary Moralist
16. V. The Happy Medium

Robert Gardner, baritone
American Modern Ensemble

Thursday
17. I. Introduction
18. II. 9:15 a.m.
19. III. 10:42 a.m.
20. IV. 5:09 p.m.
21. V. 6:05 p.m.
22. VI. 6:15 p.m.

Nancy Allen Lundy, soprano
Blair McMillen, piano

Batter’s Box
23. I. Batting Practice
24. II. Catching
25. III. Rain Delay
26. IV. At Bat
27. V. Postgame Interview

Total Time 75:01

World Premiere Recordings

Recording dates: June 9-11, 2011; June 12, 2012; April 25, 2013

Release date: September 23, 2013

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