Annual American Composers Update
William Mayer
William Mayer has homes in New York, NY and Springfield,
VT. Awards won recently include Composer of the Year from
the Vermont branch of the National Music Teachers Association,
and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Contemporary
Opera. In addition, he received The Sonneck Society's
subvention for a recording project featuring his works
and the music of Amy Beach. He has been profiled in articles,
including the cover article of the Fall 1995 newsletter
of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music's Institute
for Studies in American Music. In progress are recordings
of his works from Newport Classics (music by Amy Beach
and Mayer), Arabesque (
Ae Fond Kiss, for choir,
Robert De Cormier, conductor), and
CRI
(all-Mayer CD on its American Masters Series).
Premieres
The Gregg Smith Singers introduced
The Negro Speaks
of Rivers (text by Langston Hughes) in New York, NY.
Also in New York, as part of the Lincoln Center Great
Performer Series, Christine Brewer presented
Last Song
(derived from the opera
A Death in the Family).
Scott Wheeler led Dinosaur Annex in the premiere of
Distant
Playing Fields, for tenor, flute, clarinet, French
horn, cello, and piano, in Boston.
Performances
Distant Playing Fields is to be performed in February
1998 by the St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra. At the Piccolo
Spoleto Festival, Donald Portnoy conducted
Scenes from
the Snow Queen.
Publications
Enter Ariel; Dream's End; Fern Hill; Passage; Abandoned
Bells; Appalachian Echoes; all by
Theodore
Presser.
Further Information
