Sleeper, Ticheli, Van der Slice: Orchestral Music

Thomas Sleeper enjoys as active career as both a composer and conductor. He began his professional career as a member of Fermata, a group of composer/performers who presented annual series of interdisciplinary concerts throughout the state of Texas. At age 22, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Dallas Civic Symphony and the SMU Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theater. "Hauntingly Mysterious," "Richly Lyrical," "Soaring Melodies" - all phrases used to describe the music of Thomas Sleeper. His output includes three operas, four concerti, an orchestral suite, three orchestral song cycles, works for chorus with orchestra, two string quartets and numerous other vocal and instrumental chamber works. Sleeper has developed a unique compositional voice whose vocabulary is clearly from, but not limited to, this century. Currently he is Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater and Music Director of the Florida Youth Orchestra. About Specters John Van Der Slice writes: "The title, Specters, reflects two aspects of the work. First, it uses a "spectrum" of thirteen pitches, descending from small intervals to large, which provides the genetic material for harmonic and melodic organization. (This serves as a surrogate overtone series and betrays my admiration for the natural sonic beauty of French "Spectral" music). Secondly, the work is a kind of abstract ballet of sound involving a mysterious play of "ghostly" timbres and textures, occasionally disturbed by sudden, more violent apparitions." Frank Ticheli joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in 1991, where he is Professor of Composition. From 1991 to 1998 he was the Composer-in-Residence of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. He received his doctoral and masters degrees in composition from the University of Michigan where he studied with William Albright, Leslie Bassett, and William Bolcom. He began his Symphony No. 1 in the fall of 2000 in Pasadena, California, and completed it the following year at the MacDowell Colony. Its four movements represent a kind of journey of the soul - from innocence, to introspection, to darkness and finally to enlightenment.