New American Song Cycles

Paul Sperry is recognized as one of today's outstanding interpreters of American music. He has premiered works, many written especially for him, by more than 30 American composers, including Leonard Bernstein's Dybbuk Suite with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic (1975), Jacob Druckman's Animus IV for the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou at Beaubourg in Paris (1977), and Bernard Rands' Pulitzer Prize-winning Canti del Sole with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta (1983). A passionate advocate for American music, Sperry works to insure that the wonderful works he has unearthed will be easily available to others. He has compiled and edited several volumes of American songs for a number of American publishers. In 1989, Sperry became the first non-composer to be elected president of the American Music Center, a 58 year old national organization that provides information about American composers and their music throughout the world. Born in Chicago, Sperry graduated from Harvard and the Sorbonne. He worked extensively with such masters of art-song as Jennie Tourel and Pierre Bernac. Today Sperry is widely appreciated for his own master classes at the Eastman School of Music, the Peabody Institute, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music and many others. Since 1984, he has taught 19th and 20th century song repertory and performance at the Juilliard School, creating there what many believe to be the country's only full-year course in American song.