Catalog

Jeff Manookian's Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra was written in mid-year of 2002, and premiered on November 29, 2002 in Yerevan, Armenia with the same soloists as heard in this recording. The work engages the soloist and a large orchestra in a quasi chamber ensemble-like fashion. Despite this balancing act, there are many moments when the full forces of the symphony orchestra are brought to the fore. Its three movements are played without pause. Six authentic fragments from Armenia's rich folk musical heritage (with two original motifs by the composer as counter-subjects) are cast for viola and orchestra in the tradition of Khachaturian and Bartok, to become a bona fide concerto. The Improvisations on Armenian Folk Songs for Viola and Orchestra were first performed on April 30, 2000 in Salt Lake City. The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra was composed in the summer of 2002, and also received its world premiere at the November 29, 2002 concert. The concerto is an unabashed programmatic tone-poem. A khachkar is an ornately carved stone cross. These icons are found in abundance throughout the countryside and mountainous terrains of Armenia. Armenia is the oldest of Christian nations on earth, accepting Christianity as its national religion in the year 301 AD. Khachkar, an instrumental prayer, is based on two borrowed religious tunes. It was first performed on June 1, 2002 in Salt Lake City with Laurel Ann Maurer as soloist.

Three concerto-like works by Jeffrey Mumford are offered on his newest recording for Albany Records. Mumford is the recipient of numerous awards, commissions, fellowships, and grants including the American Academy of Arts & Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation, among many others. His music has been performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Mumford was on the faculty at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and is currently Distinguished Professor at Lorain County Community College. In his music, Mumford cultivates rich connections between the aural and the visual, creating intricate, profoundly expressive music directly influenced by the people with whom he works over his long career. Noted soloists Christine Lamprea (cello); Winston Choi (piano); and Christine Wu (violin) are joined by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazem Abdullah; Ensemble Dal Niente conducted by Michael Lewanski; and the Chicago Composers Orchestra conducted by Allen Tinkham.

John Duffy, considered "one of the great heroes of America music," has composed more than 300 works for symphony orchestra, opera, theater, television and film. He is a two-time Emmy winner and the recipient of the American Music Center's Founder's award for Lifetime Achievement. Critics call his work "...haunting...memorable...and brilliant." It is American music of authentic vim and vigor.

The Albany Symphony conducted by David Alan Miller offers a recording of major works by the illustrious American composer John Harbison. The Great Gatsby Suite comes from Harbison's opera and concentrates on the instrumental music. Darkbloom: Overture for an imagined opera comes from material for an opera project that Harbison decided not to continue. The newest work on the recording, Closer to My Own Life, uses texts extracted from stories written by Alice Munroe, Harbison's favorite prose writer. Acclaimed soprano Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie joins Maestro Miller and the Albany Symphony for this work.

The music on this disc came to be out of a unique collaboration between three artists spanning three generations: José Limon, Jon Magnussen and Carla Maxwell, the artistic director for the Limón Dance Company. After Limón's death, the ballet Winged was revived. There was a need for a new score and Magnussen was chosen from a pool of graduate students at Juilliard to write the music. Because that collaboration proved so successful, Carla Maxwell asked Magnussen to write a new score for Psalm when she revived the dance.

This is the first major release devoted to the African-American composer Ulysses Kay. Encouraged by William Grant Still, he would study under Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson at Eastman, and his works are distinctively American in spirit and strength. Of special interest is his music to The Quiet One, one of the first major film scores by a Black composer.

Originally from Texas, Turner has resided in Luxembourg for more than 25 years. He is a member of the world-famous American Horn Quartet and a member of the Luxembourg Philharmonic. Turner has been composing since the age of 10. His principal successes as a composer have been in the chamber music genre, more specifically for brass. The works recorded here were all composed by Kerry Turner in the mid-1990s and represent four of his major works Ñ in gorgeous surround sound.

The Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra was commissioned by Percussion Projects for Thomas Akins and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The premiere took place March 9, 1984, with John Nelson conducting and subsequently won the second prize in the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards. The music was composed during 1983 at the MacDowell Colony. About his Piano Concerto William Kraft writes: "In 1971, the Ford Foundation announced its second round of grants to soloists who, in turn, were to select composers of their choice. One of the recipients was the young and very dramatic pianist Mona Golabek. After nearly a year of searching, listening and interviewing, Ms. Golabek called me to discuss the project, and eventually offered me the commission." The concerto was written during 1972-1973 and then revised in 1989. It was John Cerminaro who asked William Kraft to write a piece for him. Evening Voluntaries was composed in 1980, but sat unplayed because Mr. Cerminaro felt it was unplayable. Mr. Kraft prevailed and the piece was given its premiere by Jeff von der Schmidt on May 16, 1983, at the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles. It was Jeff von der Schmidt who this time commissioned Veils and Variations. It was completed in May, 1988. It was first performed by the forces heard in this recording on January 27, 1989. It won the first prize in the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards.

This disc includes a premiere recording made in 1992 with Leon Kirchner conducting his Music for Orchestra with the orchestra he founded at Harvard along with two historic releases from the SONY Columbia catalog, both featuring Leon Kirchner, as a pianist in his Piano Concerto No. 1 with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting, recorded 1956 and as a conductor in Lily (for soprano and chamber ensemble), recorded 1973. Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist, was recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in 2009, and an Honorary Doctorate at Harvard in 2001. He received the New York Music Critics Circle award, the Naumburg Award, Pulitzer Prize, and the Freidheim Award, and commissions from the Ford, Fromm, and Koussevitzky Foundations, the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Symphony, Spoleto and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, the Boston Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Kirchner studied with Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions, and Ernest Bloch. He was composer-in-residence and a performer at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Tokyo Music Today (Takemitsu Festival), and the Spoleto, Charleston, Aldeburgh, and Marlboro Music Festivals.

Daring and energy are the two basic elements with which Leonardo Balada approaches his very personal compositions. This total musician has blended his strong vocation with his teaching since 1970 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he is University Professor of Composition. He started his piano and theory studies in his native Barcelona, finishing in 1953. Then he studied composition at the New York College of Music and the Juilliard School. The fact that he finished his studies in 1960 could suggest that he was part of the so-called "generation of '51" of Spanish composers. Because of geographical distance he did not participate in the early activities of that group, which was so important to the Spanish music of the sixties. This does not mean he did not identify with them esthetically and ideologically. At the beginning, his compositional direction did not conform to that of his contemporaries, who generally followed the paths of Paris or Darmstadt. The almost obligatory twelve-tone style was not attractive to him. Having left the European continent allowed him the possibility of approaching other musical languages. This he did as one will hear in the broad selection of his orchestral music presented on this disc.

Lynn Klock has been an enthusiastic participant in new music for the saxophone for more than 40 years, with dozens of composers having written new works for him. This recording features Klock with conductor Dennis Zeisler and the Virginia Wind Symphony in new concertos for soprano and alto saxophone and wind ensemble. It follow a previous recording on Albany Records of new music written for Lynn Klock for baritone saxophone and piano. Lynn Klock has appeared as a soloist throughout North America as well as in Russia, Europe, South America, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada. Klock has presented master classes at national and international conferences as well as at educational institutions across the United States and overseas. He is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Here is another remarkable release in our ongoing survey of the music of David Maslanka, a composer best-known for his output for wind ensemble, including his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th Symphonies and major concertante works, most of which can be found on the Albany label. This recording presents a less-familiar side of the composer: music for symphony orchestra. Of these works, Maslanka has written, "My first diary entries on 11:11 are from 1998. It was then that I began noticing the time 11:11 on digital clocks. For no apparent reason, and far more often than might be coincidence, my eye would be drawn to a clock and it would read 11:11. At first I thought it was amusing, and then it became a bit spooky, as if something were trying to get my attention. I began to meditate on 11:11 and received images of impending crisis, and even disaster. Then I decided to write a piece out of those feelings. Surprisingly when the music did finally come out it was not in crisis mode. It is for the most part filled with a bright and hopeful spirit, a "new dance at the edge of the world"...I now believe that the earth is a living thing, and that humans are one part of its consciousness. I have been aware of a powerful "voice of the earth" for many years, and especially in my adopted western Montana...One of my life axioms is that there is no progress without crisis, and there is crisis to go through before we come to a right relationship with the planet. The new Symphony is the expression of hope for that right relationship."

The music of the outstanding American composer Peter Lieuwen has been described by The New York Times as "an attractive array of shimmering, shuddering sonorities." This recording explores 20 years of music-making in four different genres: large orchestra, small ensemble, solo concerto and chamber concerto.

Dan Locklair, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, holds a Master of Sacred Music degree from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. Presently, he is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In its centennial year, Dr. Locklair was named 1996 AGO Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists, a distinguished honor awarded yearly to an American composer who has not only enriched the organ repertoire, but who has also made significant contributions to symphonic and concert music. His 1995 composition, Since Dawn (A Tone Poem for Narrator, Chorus and Orchestra based on Maya Angelou's On the Pulse of Morning), is the first musical setting of Maya Angelou's well-known and important poem commissioned for the 1993 Inauguration of President Clinton.

It is a mistake to generalize about the music of a composer with an oeuvre as broad as Lowell Liebermann's--and not only because his music ranges from a body of widely performed piano works and chamber music, to a pair of acclaimed operas, to the body of works for large orchestra of which this recording presents just a selection. In a single piece, we can hear the centuries of music history absorbed into his omnivorous style, from the lyrical melodies and expansive, chromatic harmonies associated with the music of the so-called Romantic period, to non-tonal, atonal, and even twelve-tone elements. Brilliantly performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grant Llewellyn, this recording illuminates Liebermann's compositional voice. One of America's most frequently performed and recorded composers, Lowell Liebermann has served as composer-in-residence for many organizations, including the Dallas Symphony and was the first composer to win the Composers' Invitational Award of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

Following the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's rousingly successful premiere of Lucas Richman's piano concerto in 2013, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where Richman was resident conductor and a frequent guest conductor, was approached about a recording of the piano concerto; a concerto for oboe and orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and his Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra. With world-class soloists, the famed Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Lucas Richman conducting, the recordings are brilliant and authoritative. Lucas Richman is music director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and was music director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. His music has been performed by more than 200 orchestras across the United States. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel, principal oboe of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida and Israeli-American cellist Inbal Segev are the soloists.

Shirl Jae Atwell earned a bachelor of music education degree from Kansas State Teachers College and master of music theory/composition degree at the University of Louisville and completed four years of post-graduate work in composition at the University of South Carolina. An active composer, she still finds time to serve as a full-time string orchestra educator with the Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky. She is currently serving as President of the Kentucky Cello Club. Her ballet, Lucy, with music by Ms. Atwell and choreography by Alun Jones, was premiered by the Louisville Ballet in January 1999. The ballet was inspired by the discovery of the 3.2 million year old skeleton in 1974. The ballet was the subject of a Kentucky Education Television documentary that was aired on November 10, 1999. In June 2000, the televised production of Lucy was awarded the Arts & Culture Emmy by the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Thomas Ludwig's Violin Concerto is a lovely work. There is a reason why a violinist of the caliber of Mark Peskanov is attracted to it. The slow movement is gorgeous and the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra accompanies him as if it were a major Orchestra. It is a live performance, but very well recorded. Thomas Ludwig was born in Detroit, Michigan. He studied first with his father and then entered Juilliard on a full scholarship to study violin. At the age of 20, he was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the New York City Symphony. He studied conducting with Bernstein, von Karajan and Jean Morel. He also studied composition with John Corigliano. Today, he pursues a career as both a composer and conductor. He has served as resident conductor for the American Ballet Theater and Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Metropolitan Opera House and on tour. He has also been Music Director of the Atlanta and Washington Ballet Companies. About Ludwig and his Symphony, The New York Times wrote: "Ludwig is perfectly talented. His Symphony is vividly Orchestrated, possesses tremendous emotional intensity and yet is succinct and skillful in its control of form." Ludwig's music is immediately accessible and should appeal directly to the listener who enjoys romantic American music. Both performances are world premieres.

This is one high-class kid's record! Actually, the subtitle is Ballets for Children of All Ages, and both scores take an off-beat spin on two familiar storylines (somehow, the Red Sox get involved with Cinderella's family). Bernard Hoffer, born in Switzerland, studied at Eastman with Louis Mennini, Wayne Barlow and Bernard Rogers. Even if you've never heard of him, you've heard his music for his specialty over the years has been commercial music for such clients as McDonald's, Ford, and Chevrolet. He was nominated for an Emmy for his theme for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour on PBS. For the past fifteen years he has devoted his time to concert works. These two delightful scores (featuring small instrumental ensembles) are performed by none other than famed new music specialists Boston Musica Viva and Richard Pittman and the one-and-only Bob McGrath, who has just celebrated his 35th year on Sesame Street.

This CD presents a beautifully balanced program of fine American Chamber compositions. From Carter and Fine to Coleman and Ruehr, there is something here to appeal to every taste; beautifully performed and recorded. Metamorphosen is a Chamber Orchestra composed of the country's leading young musicians assembled with the goal of presenting a fresh approach to music making. The Orchestra was founded in October 1993 by Richard Lim and Scott Yoo in their belief that innovation need not come at the expense of substance. Along with performances of the classics from the repertoire, the group commissions new works from emerging composers and premieres at least one new piece each concert. Metamorphosen combines the intimacy of Chamber music with the technical virtuosity of the best of today's young musicians.

This recording features three imaginative and dynamic works by GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty. The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra gives exciting performances under the baton of long-time music director Neal Gittleman, joined by classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, electric guitarist D. J. Sparr, and narrator Michael Lippert. Bay of Pigs for Classical Guitar and Strings evokes the bittersweet and turbulent events of past and present Cuba. Gee’s Bend for Electric Guitar and Orchestra is a tapestry of syncopated grooves, slow blues and spirituals inspired by the quilts and African- American women quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. TROYJAM for Narrator and Orchestra, with a poetic libretto by Anne Carson, retells the story of the Trojan War from Homer’s Iliad, but with a twist: the Greeks, led by the “lyre-strumming” Achilles against the Trojans led by Hector, decide to play the instruments of the orchestra in a wild jam session to make music, not war.

In this third release with the Dvorak Orchestra (the previous discs are TROY687 and TROY704), Julius Williams again displays his enthusiastic and original approach to American orchestral works. Composer/conductor Williams has been Music Director of the Washington Symphony Orchestra and has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the United States. He has held faculty positions at Wesleyan University, the University of Hartford and the University of Vermont. He has received multiple ASCAP awards in composition over the years. As a native New Yorker, his memorial piece to the September 11, 2001 tragedy is obviously heartfelt, with a suggestion of optimism. McQuillan, a native of Amsterdam, New York, reveals strong lyrical gifts in Seasons of Gold. Brooklyn-born Qualliotine paints an expressive picture of the changing seasons around his Massachusetts home in Mystic Valley Autumn, and Berklee School of Music teacher Hojnacki reveals a strong narrative drive in his neo-Romantic Symphony No. 1. This disc is a perfect demonstration of the diversity that exists in modern American music.

The Augusta Symphony, conducted by Dirk Meyer performs five works by Miguel del Aguila. Del Aguila's music exudes an exuberance that immediately grabs the ear upon first listening. Infectious Latin rhythms add a propulsive drive, while lush melodies are instantly memorable. Three-time Grammy nominated American composer Miguel del Aguila was born in Uruguay and has more than 130 compositions to his credit. There are more than 50 of his works that have been recorded. The Augusta Symphony is the premier professional orchestra for Augusta's River Region in Georgia and South Carolina. Led by German conductor Dirk Meyer, the orchestra presents classical, pops, and family concerts. Violinist Guillermo Figueroa is one of the most versatile and respected musical artists of his generation, renowned as a conductor, soloist, and concertmaster.

The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra celebrates its history, growth, and development with this recording of four new works. A fitting tribute to longtime music director Kirk Trevor who retires in 2015 after a 27-year tenure, the four works by James Aikman (commissioned by the ICO), Christopher Theofanidis, Derek Bermal and Michael-Thomas Foumai (winner of the 2014 ICO Contemporary Music Competition) were all recorded live in concert. The ICO is to be commended for its efforts to add to the body of music literature in the 21st century. Founded in 1984, the ICO is comprised of 34 professional musicians who perform an annual concert series, and sponsor a composition competition, collaborating with the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival.

2013 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jerome Moross, an American original. Best known for his outstanding motion picture scores, he considered himself primarily a composer of concert music and this recording, originally released by Koch, demonstrates his considerable contribution to American music. Writing for the theatre remained Moross' first love as a composer. Frankie and Johnny, written in 1938, was one of a number of works he wrote for this medium. The recording spans his compositional output from his earliest work, Biguine, written in 1934, to his last completed work, Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra, written in 1978.

Jerome Moross (1913-1983) was in the vanguard of composers who realized that there was a music of America, and for America written by Americans. This recording, originally released by Koch, offers three major scores by this major American composer. Moross grew up with and listened to jazz bands, played in theatre pits and found that his own composing style was totally, spontaneously conditioned by it. Having found his métier relatively early in life, he stuck to it through thick and thin to the end. And perhaps because he was so young when he found his voice, his music sounds young--always, early and late. His music is exciting and always sounds fresh, but uniquely his own.

This recording offers a tantalizing sampling of Morton Gould's work from the vibrant decade of the mid 1930s and '40s, featuring two of his trademark Symphonettes, the gutsy Concerto for Orchestra and his earliest big orchestral work -- Chorale and Fugue in Jazz -- presented in full for the first time since its 20-year-old composer wrote it with Interplay, the diminutive concerto holding center stage.

It is the intention of this disc to change dramatically music lover’s opinions of the American composer Morton Gould. For those who know him as the composer of “light” music; American Salute, The American Symphonette, The Latin-American Symphonette, or as an arranger of other composer’s music, or just as a fine conductor – get ready. There is no doubt in this listener’s mind that StringMusic ranks with the greatest string music written in this century and yes I am including Elgar, Vaughan-Williams and Britten. In fact StringMusic is a masterpiece, richly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize for music it won in 1995. And the Piano Concerto composed when he was just in his early twenties. Sure, there are hints of Shostakovich, but the music is Gould, right from the start, all Gould. Showpiece was commissioned by Columbia Records. It was intended to show off the modern Orchestra and how well it could be captured in recording with the best of the Columbia engineers’ talent. And while Ormandy and the Philadelphia, for whom the work was written, recorded it, the work was never approved for release. David Alan Miller feels it was because the music is so fiendishly difficult. The Orchestra simply did not have enough rehearsal time. This disc should find a audience because none of the works has ever been available before in any format.

Alison Young, the flutist on this recording, writes: "Two years ago, conductor Charles Anthony Johnson approached me with the idea of producing a recording of flute concertos together. We decided to concentrate on American music, exploring new territory by locating works that had never been recorded or were currently unavailable on CD. Our decision to record the particular four works on this recording was based on the music's unique American characteristics, defined by their compelling individualism. They are products of this century, but their composers chose to use more traditional styles, utilizing familiar rhythmic patterns and tuneful melodies. It was a sad discovery for us that these exceptional pieces were not only unavailable on recordings, but had also seen little performance exposure. As I began studying and practicing, I realized that this was a great injustice to the composers themselves as well as a loss to musical audiences. The four works on this CD represent some of the finest flute music written in this country." Alison Young graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She also holds a degree from the University of Southern California. Currently Principal Flute of the Houston Ballet Orchestra, she has performed and recorded as Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Memphis and Toledo Symphonies.

An American born B.C. - which in the present context means "before Copland" - had a hard time of it if he wanted to become a composer. The job, rather like that of an actress in the 18th century, was not considered quite proper for a gentleman. By virtue alike of his talent and international recognition, of his character, and of his dedication to the support and encouragement of his colleagues, Aaron Copland changed all that in the public mind, and already by the time Elie Siegmeister, Norman Dello Joio, and Jacob Avshalomov came on the scene, composing was beginning to be seen as a perfectly feasible and respectable, if not necessarily lucrative, profession. Thus it was that even a musician who came to be as widely admired as Converse, after graduating in 1893 from Harvard College with high honors in music, tried for some months to be a businessman, in accordance with his father's wishes, before an irresistible inner need compelled him to turn to music; and Tuthill pursued a similar course for much longer, despite having a father, William B. Tuthill, who was the architect of Carnegie Hall, and a mother, Henrietta Corwin Tuthill, who was a professional organist. It is a real treat to have the fine American conductor, JoAnn Falletta conducting the equally fine American clarinetist Robert Alemany and the Czech National Symphony in these wonderful performances.

Karl Boelter's music ranges from contemplative to visceral, from serious to playful. He was born in Milwaukee and studied composition at Ball State and the University of Michigan. He has studied with William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett and William Albright. For several years, he resided in Atlanta where he served as music curator at the High Museum of Art. This experience provided direct involvement with performances by some of the 20th century's greatest artists as well as a personal exploration into the diversity of artistic expression: classic blues and jazz, Cajun two-steps, the music of Africa, and Cowboy poetry. Dr. Boelter is professor of music composition at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, where he currently serves as Chair of the Department of Music, Theater and Dance.

John Biggs was born in Los Angeles, the eighth of 11 children. His father was organist-composer Richard Keys Biggs and his mother was singer-conductor Lucienne Gourdon. During his youth he received training in acting, singing, piano, bassoon, and violin, and was a member of his father's church choir. He received his Masters Degree in composition from the University of California at Los Angeles, with further study at the University of Southern California and the Royal Flemish Academy in Antwerp, Belgium. His teachers were Roy Harris, Lukas Foss, Ingolf Dahl, Flor Peeters, and Halsey Stevens. "I received a Fulbright Grant in 1964 to study composition with Flor Peeters at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, Belgium. I was 32, and eager to write a large work. I used October, November, and the first part of December to write the symphony. The premiere of the work took place on May 15, 1965, with me conducting the Antwerp Philharmonic. My Symphony No. 2 was commissioned by the York Symphony of York, Pennsylvania and premiered on April 26, 1992, with Robert Hart Baker conducting. While attending a concert at the University of Southern California in 1958, I heard a composition by Halsey Stevens based on the epic poem The Ballad of William Sycamore by Stephen Vincent Benet. I was so moved by the music, and especially by the text, that I decided I would someday set the very same poem. The opportunity came 36 years later, when I was commissioned by the New West Symphony of Ventura County, California, to compose a piece for the opening of their inaugural season. The premiere took place on October 6th and 7th , 1995. The conductor was Boris Brott, and the narrator was Michael Gallup."