Annual American Composers Update
Jack Gottlieb
In 1999 Jack Gottlieb completed his book
Funny, It
Doesn't Sound Jewish (How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue
Melodies Influenced American Popular Music). He is
revising his six-character musical theater piece
After
the Flood. Editor of the Bernstein newsletter
Prelude,
Fugue and Riffs, he assisted the New York Philharmonic
on its CD set
Bernstein Live!, for which he also
contributed an essay; and he is preparing a Bernstein
discography. In Nov. 2000, he was Composer in Residence
at the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music, in
New York, NY, where he heard a recital of his sacred music
and gave a talk. He has commissions for a hymn,
Your
Hand, O God, Has Guided; and
A Rag, A Bone and
A Hank of Hair, for piano. At St. Bartholomew's Church,
New York, NY, on Feb. 2000, he spoke after a service of
Jewish music, mostly his own.
Premieres
2000 premieres occurring in New York City included
Grant
Us Peace, for SATB choir, and organ, at St. Bartholomew's
Church (Feb.); and
May the Words, for SATB a cappella
choir, with the Amor Artis Chamber Chorale, Johannes Somary
conducting, at St. Jean Baptiste Church (Mar.). At the
Spoleto Festival, in Charleston, SC, the Carolina Chamber
Chorale, Timothy Koch, conductor, introduced
R'stei
Vimnuchateinu, for a cappella SATB choir, June 2000.
Downtown Blues for Uptown Halls (revised), for
female voice, piano and clarinet, had its first performance
with Mary Carewe, Phillip Mayers, and Christian Balcke,
at the Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) Festival, Aug. 2000.
Yes is a pleasant country (poems by e. e. cummings)
was presented by Gregory Mercer, tenor, and Mimi Stern
Wolfe, piano, at Wave Hill, in the Bronx, NY, Nov. 2000,
to be repeated in May 2001 with Downtown Music Productions
at the Kosciuszko Foundation, in New York, NY. In 2001,
the
The Silent Flickers, for piano four-hands,
will have its American premieres at the Garden State Academy
of Music, in Rutherford, NJ (Feb.); and at Weill Recital
Hall, in New York, NY, with Bernadette Hoke and Eric Birk,
and choreographers-dancers Angela Jones and Noel MacDuffie
(Mar.).
Performances
Heard in 2000 were
The Silent Flickers excerpts
in Kennett Square, PA (Oct. and Nov.), and in Lambertville,
NJ (Nov.). New York City area performances in Apr. 2000
included
Hatsi Kaddish, with the Zamir Chorale
and Brass Sextet, Mati Lazar, conductor, at Avery Fisher
Hall, and with the Kol Dodi Chorale, Joshua Jacobson,
conductor, in South Orange, NJ; and
Letting Go,
for soprano saxophone and piano, with Josh O'Donnell and
Joseph Li at the Manhattan School of Music, (Apr.), and
with O'Donnell and Wolfe at New York's Middle Collegiate
Church (June). The Carolina Chamber Chorale, led by Koch,
sang
Presidential Suite at the Spoleto Festival,
June 2000.
Recordings
Love Songs for Sabbath (
Friday Evening Service
selections), for choir, solo, organ and percussion;
Set
Me As A Seal, for choir, solo violin, and piano; both
by the Texas Tech University choir, Kenneth Davis, conductor,
Oct. 99;
Torah Service from New Year's Service For
Young People, for two-part choir, solo trumpet, percussion,
and piano; Finchley Children's Choir of London, Vivienne
Bellos, conductor; all by Milken Archive.
Presidential
Suite, for SATB a cappella choir; Carolina Chamber
Chorale, Koch, conductor;
Albany
Records.
Further Information
