Catalog

CONCORA - Connecticut Choral Artists, was founded in 1974 by Richard M. Coffey. CONCORA'S mission is to "perpetuate and perform with excellence choral music of the highest quality for the broadest possible audience." Since its founding, the all-professional chorus has built an extraordinary reputation for artistic excellence throughout New England. Mr. Coffey writes: "The challenge in preparing a recording of choral works of Ned Rorem is not in the selection of what to include but in the perverse necessity of selecting what to omit. For over a year I pored over Rorem scores, both published and unpublished, corresponded with the composer who had a few modestly proffered suggestions, and sat at the piano for many a happy hour playing and singing a treasury of anthems, canticles, motets, choral hymns, and choral songs. For every work presented here there is another, equally beautiful, awaiting its turn before the microphone. Ned Rorem's love for words is manifest well beyond his popular diaries and prose. He selects great texts and then wraps them in fine melodies, tunes which ennoble and illuminate. After only a few listenings to Love Divine or Come, Pure Hearts one may be tempted (don't resist) to whistle and hum them quite spontaneously. This disc is presented as a tribute to Ned Rorem on the occasion of his 75th birthday (October 23, 1998). The music in this collection is an eclectic grouping of works dating from 1955 through 1988 including pieces for a cappella choir, as well as others accompanied by Organ or piano, with texts (both prose and poetry) from religious, scriptural, and secular sources."

Stephen Paulus' Voices was premiered in November, 1988 by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Dale Warland Symphonic Chorus. Commissioned by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Paulus fund the most difficult part was finding words which would impart a spiritual message with power and purpose while not alienating anyone because of his or her own particular religious faith. He turned to the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, which seemed to him to impart both a timeliness and power that was fitting. Songs of Eternity was composed by James Hopkins in memory of David Lee Shanbrom whose life was tragically cut short in an automobile accident. The text is a poem by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. Although the poems relate to some aspect of death, the prevailing mood is one of subdued joy in eternal life. Commissioned by the Orange County Philharmonic Society to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pacific Chorale, the work was given its premiere by these forces. Two major choral-orchestral works by two very significant American composers.

The Negro Spiritual is still vibrant, popular and well-loved all over the world. The Georgia Spiritual Ensemble was formed to maintain the tradition of the Spiritual and to pass on to young singers the awesome power and beauty that is inherent in each melody. The George Spiritual Ensemble also wants to demonstrate through their performances the unyielding faith of the Africans who created these songs. The Spirituals became their voice of protest and their voice of endurance, strength, and courage.

Richard Wilson, like Robert Ward, was born in Cleveland, where he studied piano and cello. After graduation from Harvard, he received a grant which allowed him to study in Munich. Back in the United States he studied composition with Robert Moevs at Rutgers and then joined the music faculty of Vassar College where he holds the Mary Conover Mellon Chair in Music. He is also Composer-in-Residence with the American Symphony Orchestra. About this disc the composer writes: "This recording encompasses all of my choral music: from In Schrafft's, begun in 1966, to Poor Warren, composed in 1995. Ten works, spanning thirty years. Four poets are involved: W.H. Auden, Stephen Sandy, John Unterecker and John Ashbery. With each of them I have had some degree of personal association. W.H. Auden was friendly with individuals in Harvard's Quincy House, where I lived half my undergraduate years, and could often be seen in bedroom slippers, taking meals in our dining hall. I never summoned the nerve to meet him. Stephen Sandy was my English teacher in 1959 and was, in fact, the first college teacher I encountered as a fearful, insecure, unconfident freshman. Only later did I discover his poetry. John Unterecker worked on his Hart Crane biography at the artists' colony Yaddo when I was also a guest. We became friendly and enjoyed long talks together. Finally, John Ashbery teaches at Bard College just up the Hudson River from Vassar. We share an appreciation of Jack Benny's radio programs from the 1940's."

The second half of the 20th-century saw a great blossoming of choral singing in America, from the emergence of the great choral singing schools to increased professionalism in church music programs and the founding of major professional choral groups and associations. One result of this overall rise in choral excellence was an expansion to the body of sophisticated, secular art-music for choruses as American composers responded to the increasingly skilled, nonreligious choral ensembles practicing the craft. This recording, expertly performed by the Washington Master Chorale, offers some of the best of this art-music. Founded in 2010, the Washington Master Chorale is a semi-professional chorus in Washington, D.C., conducted by Thomas Colohan. Their purpose is to advance American choral excellence by combining skilled vocal artistry with superb poetic choral literature; to contribute to the choral canon through commissioning leading American composers and to present choral works in the context of their culture and time.

When the planning for this set of recordings first began, the driving concept was to revive interest in the American choral repertoire of the middle of the 20th century as represented by recordings made by the Gregg Smith Singers. With the death of Gregg Smith on July 12, 2016, these recordings also serve as a memorial to the career of a man whose devotion to choral music in general, and especially American choral music "of every time and place," was greater than that of almost any other of his generation. Smith had an uncanny gift for seeking out and nourishing the talent of lesser-known American choral composers—both young and old—showcasing their works through concerts and recordings. Gregg Smith was founder and conductor of the Gregg Smith Singers; conductor of the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association; and composer-in-residence for Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in New York, as well as being an accomplished, prolific composer. No other conductor did as much to raise the standards of choral singing in the second half of the 20th century, or was as influential on other American choral conductors and composers. The full array of mid-twentieth century American choral music is presented here—all coming from the archives of the Gregg Smith Singers.

This recording continues the tradition of the New York Latvian Concert Choir soon after its founding in 1975 of commissioning cantatas for their annual holiday concerts. The music presented on this CD, all new works by Latvian composers, is written in a great variety of styles, uniting the worlds of Latvian folklore and Christianity--that of Valdis Zilveris is written in a romantic tradition with simple, memorable melodies; while Ingmars Zemzaris has used a neo-baroque style; Ilona Rupaines' is much more complicated, intertwining folkloric and Christian worlds; and Larkis Lacis employs jazz harmonies but not jazz rhythms. This is the third recording of Latvian music for the Christmas season by the New York Latvian Concert Choir.

This selection of choral music by Viktors Bastiks (1912-2001) is drawn mainly from his rich output of sacred works. His almost 300 compositions in this genre form a substantial cornerstone of Latvian sacred music. Even though his compositional output is impressive, Viktors Bastiks is one of Latvia's most ignored composers, which makes this recording all the more significant. The musical language of Viktors Bastiks is clear and tightly knit, concentrated in form and expression, whether it be a simple folk song setting or the extended forms of his many cantatas. It is heartfelt music, natural and unaffected with a strong spiritual aura.

Michael Horvit is Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. For 25 years he served as music director at Congregation Emanu El, Houston, Texas. During his studies at Yale University, Tanglewood, Harvard University and Boston University, where he received his DMA degree, Dr. Horvit's composition teachers were Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Walter Piston, Quincy Porter and Gardner Read. In turn, Horvit has taught two generations of music students at the University of Houston. Commissioned by Congregation Emanu El, The Mystic Flame chronicles in words and music the Jewish experience in the 20th century. Texts are drawn from many sources: poets, novelists, historians, ministers, rabbis, major actors upon the world stage and ordinary people. This vast canvas of words and music, arranged in three large sections, mirrors the historical shape of the 20th century. Here we have the chronicle of one people, the Jewish people, in their struggle to be free from persecution, subjugation and bigotry. It is, however, symbolic of the struggle of all the diverse immigrants who came to our great nation. They came, and still come, to find freedom from oppression, be it religious, economic or political. They come "yearning to breathe free."

The big draw for this disc is the fact that Robert J. Lurtsema from WGBH' s Morning Pro Musica does the narration. For 27 years he has been known to classical music lovers everywhere. Ronald Perera was born in Boston and studied with Leon Kirchner and Randall Thompson. Today he is Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor at Smith College. The text of The Outermost House is taken from Henry Beston's A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod written in 1928. Though the book produced only modest initial sales, its readership continued to grow, and after World War II it began to achieve something of a cult status. Rachel Carson said that it was the only book that influenced her writing. Today it is generally acknowledged as a classic of American nature writing, and many of Beston's words have become part of the modern environmental credo: "The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things." "Creation is here and now." "Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth." Ronald Perera's The Outermost House received its premiere on November 16, 1991 with the Chatham Chorale. Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi was commissioned for the one hundredth anniversary in 1984 of Groton School, a venerable independent secondary school in Massachusetts with a religious affiliation symbolized by a splendid gothic chapel in which the piece was premiered on April 21, 1985.

William McClelland grew up near Goodison, Michigan, and received a degree in composition from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His works have been commissioned and presented by ensembles and organizations throughout the US and internationally. As a performer McClelland has played keyboards for productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival and Dance Theater Workshop, and has premiered works by composers including Carl Ruggles and John Cage. He has taught piano at the University of Massachusetts (Boston) and was director of the music program at the Elizabeth Seeger School in New York City. He is leader of the jazz septet The Feetwarmers for which he writes, plays piano and sings. He lives in North Bergen, New Jersey, and, in addition to music, has been active in many environmental efforts.

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, called the Shakers, came to the New World in 1774. Ann Lee Standerin, called Mother Ann by her followers, traveled to America with seven disciples to establish the Shaker religion in the New World. The group was so named because of fervent prayer rituals in which they entered into trance-like states Ñ twitching, shaking, whirling, singing and dancing, seeking transcendence from the burdens of sin. A gentle, highly ethical people there were, at the height of the movement in 1850, 6,000 Shakers, a number that began to decline after industrialization took over. Because the Shakers believed the human voice to be the perfect instrument for the expression to God, they were prolific composers. It is said that there are over 10,000 hymns in existence. This unique disc presents both original hymns and modern American works based on the materials. Fittingly, the first of these is one that is beloved by many: Aaron Copland's setting of Simple Gifts.

This is a wonderful collection for fans of American composers and choral works alike. Stephen Shewan writes music in all media but has a special affinity for vocal and ensemble works (these can be heard on an earlier Albany release, TROY149). The Celebration Overture, written in honor of the 50th anniversary of KUHF-FM, Houston, Texas, is both celebratory and optimistic. Much of the same spirit carries over to For Dancing Hearts and Tunes while the two other choral pieces reflect a more meditative mood. Randall Thompson didn't compose a particularly large catalog of works but his choral works (which can be heard by these same forces on TROY362) and his beloved Symphony No.2 have assured him a place in the American repertoire. Frostiana, based on Robert Frost poems, is as perfect an example of his charm and nationalistic spirit as one could hope to hear. Ron Nelson writes some of the most exuberant music for band ever composed, and you might remember his wonderfully breezy Savannah River Holiday recorded so many years ago by Howard Hanson. The Te Deum was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants. It is a work full of color, splendor and rich sonorities. Finally we have a work by the Czech-born Nelhybel, a truly prolific composer (over 400 published works) who really deserves greater exposure. The Psalm 150 is a rich, reverent work. The Roberts Wesleyan College Chorale is noted for its unique sound and performs regularly with the Rochester Philharmonic in a wide-ranging repertoire.

In the compositions here, composer Graham Gordon Ramsay aims to rethink a variety of familiar sacred texts in a fresh way. His music not only challenges but also welcomes the listeners, stimulating as well as being provocative and engaging. Born in California in 1962, Ramsay received musical training at the Tanglewood Institute, Boston University and the Fontainebleau School in France. This recording represents a two-year collaboration between the composer and conductor/organist Heinrich Christensen. Christensen has been a longtime advocate of Ramsay's music and has premiered several of the pieces on this recording. Known for his modern yet tuneful style, Ramsay writes predominantly for solo voice, chorus, solo instruments and chamber ensembles. His music has been performed in settings ranging from the Chapel at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark to the Basilica of San Simpliciano in Milan, Italy.

This disc features concert recordings of performances given between 1986 and 1995, including the historic 90th birth celebration "Remembering Leo" held on February 21, 1986. The Throne of God, Interlude, and God Mounts His Throne are all world premiere recordings (The Throne of God lasts over 45 minutes). William Ferris, a student and dear friend of Leo Sowerby writes: "Leo Sowerby is remembered today as America's foremost composer of Organ and liturgical music, but during the first part of the century he was among our most often performed symphonic composers. His intensely personal and highly individual style requires a long familiarity and sensitivity in performance, and when such care is expended, a compelling, powerful, daring and original music emerges. The Throne of God has proved to be the towering masterwork of Sowerby's mature period. Filled with brilliant choral and Orchestral writing, it is in many ways a perfect summation of the daring inventiveness and heartfelt sincerity found in Sowerby's previous compositions, both sacred and secular. After its premiere on November 18, 1957, Paul Hume, the music critic for the Washington Post wrote: "applause contrary to all tradition, shattered the sacred precincts of Washington Cathedral last night to honor a great living composer. Sowerby, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has given Washington Cathedral a worthy momento of its anniversary." The Throne of God is a huge work, certain to change people's impression of Sowerby and his music.

" In Canada, Schafer has won national and international acclaim not only for his achievement as a composer but also as an educator, environmentalist, literary scholar, visual artist and provocateur. Through his unique explorations of the relationships between music, performer, audience and setting, he has expanded the potential and appreciation of music and its place in the arts and culture of our time. The texts of the songs in A Medieval Bestiary are based on T.H. White's translation of a Latin bestiary dating from the 12th century. In the Middle Ages bestiaries were serious works of natural history. They were anonymous compilations of what was known or presumed about the characteristics and habits of animals, both real, and mythological. Because they were compiled by churchmen, the behavior of animals frequently seemed to point up an instructive moral for humans. The highlight of this disc is Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore. Here is one of Menotti's most accomplished works. It was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and calls for chorus, dancers and nine instrumentalists. The text focuses on a well-to-do, but eccentric man in a castle and presents his life in three stages, his youth, middle and old age. Three unusual pets symbolize these stages - a unicorn, a gorgon and a manticore. Today, in his 90th year, Gian Carlo Menotti is one of the world's finest composers. It is a pleasure to welcome this delightful music back to the catalog.

Robert Maggio is a composer of concert music, and scores for ballet, modern dance and theater. He is Professor of Music at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, his music has been performed nationally and abroad. Aristotle was commissioned and first performed in 1999, by the Ithaca College Choir. Billy Collins' text is often funny, sometimes poignant, and in certain moments sharply haunting. The Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote his poetic vision, The Wishing Tree, after the death of his mother. The imagery of envisioning his mother as a wishing tree lends itself naturally to a musical setting. The work was commissioned in 1999 by Donald Nally and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia. The music evokes both the serenity of the dream-state and the ecstasy of the vision itself. Jacklight was commissioned by the West Chester University Concert Choir in 1997. The title of Louise Erdrich's poem refers to a torch or a light used to attract fish or game at night, holding them in thrall so they might be more easily killed. Rachel and Her Children - Small Hands, Relinquish All was commissioned by the Bucks County Choral Society for its 30th anniversary in 2002. Inspired by the relationship of sacred and secular texts in The Wishing Tree, the libretto combines the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay with David Rosenberg's poetic transformation of verses from the book of Jeremiah, and the Psalms. Rachel's lament for her children, found in the account of the slaughter of the innocents in the second chapter of the gospel of Matthew, here provides the anchor for reflection on mortality and renewal, hope and fear from the contrasting perspectives of adults and children.

Bonhoeffer was conceived as a concert work in a theatrical context by composer Thomas Lloyd. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was one of the most influential Christian theologians of the 20th Century. He returned to Germany from the United States to become an active leader of the Confessing Church, which actively resisted the capitulation of the establishment Lutheran and Catholic churches to the fascist leadership of Adolf Hilter. He was involved in the unsuccessful plot to assassinate Hitler and suffered imprisonment and death, being hanged at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp a few weeks before Germany's surrender. He fell in love with Maria von Wedemeyer and was engaged to her shortly before his arrest. The text for Bonhoeffer is adapted from the writings of both Bonhoeffer and von Wedemeyer. Thomas Lloyd is on the faculty at Haverford College; the artistic director of the Bucks County Choral Society; and director of music at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. His music has been performed by many choirs — professional, collegiate, community, and high school. The Crossing is a professional chamber choir based in Philadelphia conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to the commissioning and performance of new music. They have collaborated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can, and the American Composers Orchestra, among many others. They premiered John Luther Adams' Sila: the breath of the world in collaboration with the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2014. Their discography includes six recordings and they have been hailed in reviews as "superb" (New York Times) and "ardently angelic" (The Los Angeles Times). Under conductor Donald Nally's leadership, The Crossing has commissioned and premiered more than 50 works for chorus.

Here is an important 20th century American choral work in a premiere performance. James Yannatos was born and educated in New York City. He attended the High School of Music and Art and the Manhattan School of Music. He then studied with Nadia Boulanger, Luigi Dallapiccola, Darius Milhaud and Paul Hindemith. He studied conducting with William Steinberg and Leonard Bernstein. While composition is the dominant theme of his career, he has consistently resisted the tendency towards specialization, believing it necessary for a composer to explore and participate in music as broadly as possible. He has earned his living first as a violinist, then as a teacher and conductor. He has been the Music Director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra since 1964. Trinity Mass uses the requiem mass as a musical and inspirational framework. The libretto blends prose and verse from 33 sources and several languages. Poems, children's words, public speeches, words of Hiroshima survivors, and scientists' accounts of the first atomic test explosion are combined with passages from the Bible and the mass text. The libretto was written in the spring of 1983, and the music was completed and Orchestrated in March 1984. The work was premiered in April 1986 with a pair of performances at Harvard and in New York City at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The title of the work is derived from the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert, which J. Robert Oppenheimer code named "Trinity" after reading John Donne's sonnet: "batter my heart, three-personed God; for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend."

The conception of this recording, Veiled Light, was inspired by the desire to advance the male choral art through superb repertoire written in the 21st century. This innovative and ambitious recording features 13 works by living composers, capturing a wide range of artistry and musical emotions with great spirit, sensitivity, and sincerity. Five works were specifically written for the Miami University Men's Glee Club in its mission to promote and foster the creation and development of new choral works for male choir. Founded in 1907, the Miami University Men's Glee Club has maintained a tradition of musical excellence throughout its storied history. For more than a century, the Glee Club has presented concerts to countless audiences on their campus, around the state, nation, and world. They have toured internationally, performing in Belgium, England, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, and Wales. Conductor Jeremy D. Jones has led the Glee Club in performances at the American Choral Directors Association Central Division Conference as well as several Intercollegiate Men's Choruses National Seminars. The Glee Club was awarded first place and overall grand champion awards at the Concours Européen de Chant Choral in Luxembourg in 2014.

Herbert Bielawa earned his degrees in piano and composition at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculties of Bethany College and San Francisco State University where he founded the Pro Music Nova and created the electronic music studio and courses for the Computer Music Major. He has written music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band and orchestra. His much-performed Spectrum for Band and Tape was composed during his Contemporary Music Project residency in Houston from 1964 to 1966. Other residencies were with the San Francisco Summer Music workshop in 1976 and with the San Francisco Choral Artists in 2000. Since 1991, he has been a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo and founding director of Sounds New, a Bay Area new music ensemble.

Like a book, this CD is divided thematically into four parts: Music of the Great Poets, Our Sacred Heritage, Holocaust Suite and Music of the People. The composers represented range from the young American, Eric Whitacre to the old - Norwegian Alfred Jansen. Situated in Coral Gables, the University of Miami is the most comprehensive private research university in the southeastern United States. Its School of Music ranks among the most innovative in the nation. While building on the classical tradition, the School incorporates a contemporary approach to learning and creatively responds to the changing needs of the world of music. The Chorale is one of nine choral ensembles in the School of Music and it was founded in 1993. It has quickly established itself as one of Florida's leading collegiate choral ensembles. The voices of the chorale are chosen from across the campus, drawing both music majors and majors outside the School of Music. Note that Peter McGrath helped with the engineering of this recording.

A major historical recording featuring George Walker as composer, with the 1977 recording of his Mass by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Comissiona and George Walker as pianist in a live concert from 1956 with the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson. In addition there are two works for choir performed by the Morgan State College Choir conducted by Dr. Nathan Carter.

One of nine choral ensembles in the University of Miami Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music, the University Chorale was founded in 1993, by the current Director of Choral studies, Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe. The Chorale has quickly established itself as one of Florida's leading collegiate choral ensembles. The voices are chosen from across campus, drawing both music majors and students from outside of the Frost School of Music. Jo-Michael Scheibe has degrees from California State University at Long Beach, and from the University of Southern California. He held positions in California and Arizona prior to his arrival at the University of Miami. He has served as artistic and music director of the Florida Philharmonic Chorus and is currently the artistic and musical director of the Master Chorale of South Florida. He also serves as Director of Music Ministries at the historic Coral Gables Congregational Church.

You might still hear Yiddish songs today, in concert or at social gatherings of Yiddish speakers. But their natural venue was the village or shtetl of Eastern Europe or America where you could hear them through open windows in courtyards, or from busy people humming their way from place to place. They were born and flourished in a world that is no more. They represent the joys and sorrows, dreams and aspirations of ordinary folk, the Jewish mother's dreams for her child, the poverty of the rebbe, the Jewish teacher, the freshness of young love and revolution, the joy of Jewish holidays which provided a welcome respite from the drudgery and hardships of daily life for Eastern European Jewery. Yiddish song reflects the richness of Jewish folklore, as old, vast and varied as the numerous regions which the thousand-year-old language and culture inhabited. It reached its greatest artistic expression in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. There are songs of work, love and lullabies; songs about great Jewish heroes and parodies about the same, songs about Hassidic rabbis, pogroms, the Messiah, the longing for redemption and the return to Zion, and of revolution. Political parodies abounded in the 20th century as did Yiddish theater songs in various genres: operetta, art song and Vaudeville. There were writers, poets and musicians throughout the ages who created this treasure trove, much of it still waiting to be culled. The Yiddish street singer was a common sight in the cities and towns of Eastern Europe, well into the 20th century. The broder zinger from Galicia heralded in an age of Yiddish folksong creativity that reached every continent on which Jews lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The poet Itzik Manger and, of course, Mordechai Gibertig, the most famous and popular of the Yiddish folk-poets, were heirs of that tradition. Gibertig "S'Brent," a vision of burning cities and a call to arms, written in 1938, proved to be all too prophetic. During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews were confined in ghettos across German occupied Eastern Europe. In the ghettos and even concentration camps, members of the terrorized Jewish population engaged in remarkable, organized acts of defiance. Determined to leave a record of their history for posterity, they secretly created archives, diaries, drawings, photographs and songs to document Nazi crimes against their communities. During the same period many European Jews defied their Nazi oppressors by actively taking part in an underground war of resistance. This partisan warfare, carried out by clandestine, irregular forces operating inside enemy territory, was particularly widespread in the dense forests and nearly impassable marshlands of Eastern Europe. In 1942, the Supreme Partisan Headquarters in the Soviet Union extended its authority over the majority of partisan units in Eastern Europe and young Jewish fighters who escaped the ghettos joined the Russian partisans. Jewish partisan units were established in 1943, and the Yiddish language was now used for military communication, as well as for cultural and folkloric expression, such as poetry and song. This is a delightful album, full of energy and wit. The singing is magnificent and infectious. The CD booklet contains full texts of each song in English.

Women of Valor, an oratorio, is a celebration of women from the Old Testament, inspired by a midrash (biblical commentary) on Proverbs, where each line of the biblical text from Proverbs 31 represents a strong, resourceful woman. Texts for Women of Valor are drawn both from the Bible and from modern poems and prose. Women of Valor highlights the stories of Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Jocheved, Miriam, Hannah, Jael, Michal, Ruth, and Esther. The work was premiered in 2000 by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony conducted by Noreen Green. Composer Andrea Clearfield's music has been praised by the New York Times for its "graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing" and the Los Angeles Times for its "fluid and glistening orchestration." Her awards include a Pew Fellowship in the Arts as well as fellowships at the American Academy in Rome, the MacDowell Colony, and the Rockefeller foundation's Bellagio Center, among many others. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony is the only orchestra outside of Israel dedicated to the performance and preservation of orchestral works of distinction that explore the Jewish experience. Founded in 1994 by Noreen Green the LAJS has presented more than 20 world premieres of works by contemporary Jewish composers.