Annual American Composers Update

Premieres

SAI National Arts Associate Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe, an opera in three acts, had its German-language premiere with the Hagen Opera, Arn Goerke, conductor, Werner Saladin, stage director, September 15, 2001, with performances continuing through January 2002. In 2001, Lydia's Romance, from the two-act opera The Newport Rivals, was heard first in an SA version with viola with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Magen Soloman, conductor, and Geraldine Walther, in San Francisco. May 11; and in an SATB version with the Monte Vista Chorale, Bruce Koliha, conductor, in Dublin, CA, May 31.

Performances

Tartuffe has been produced by Eastman School of Music, April 5-8, 2001; the University of Iowa, April 27-29, 2001; Virginia Commonwealth University, April 28-29, 2001; and Brigham Young University, January 2001-February 2002, Lawrence Vincent, conductor; George Nelson, stage director. Songs of the Slave, the suite from the opera John Brown, heard with the Stanford University Chorus and Orchestra, Stephen Sano conducting, May 23-25, 2001, and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Leslie Dunner conducting, January 15, 2001, will be performed by the Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestra, Larry Granger, conductor, and the Santa Cruz Choral Society, Cheryl Anderson, director, February 16, 2002. In 2001, an all-Mechem concert of chamber and choral works took place at the Hagen Theatre, September 13; and a "Mostly Mechem" concert of opera arias and choruses was presented at the Pacific Opera Theatre, July 21.

Publications

Missa Brevis; SATB a cappella choir; G. Schirmer.

Further Information