Music of Johannes Somary

Johannes Somary has achieved international prominence as conductor, composer, and organist. He is now in his 44th season as founder and Music Director of AmorArtis in New York. As a composer, he has won critical acclaim for his oratorios Ballad of God and His People and The Ultimate Quest as well as his dramatic cantata Is This Life?, given its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in 1994. As an organist he has received critical acclaim for his recording of the Handel concerti. As a teacher, he served for nearly four decades as chairman of the arts-and-music department at Horace Mann School. He is currently artist-in-residence at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in New York City and in his 30th year as conductor of Connecticut's Fairfield County Chorale. He was born in Zurich, Switzerland and graduated from Yale University. The composer writes: "Taroko Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, is so named because much of the melodic material first came to me on walks with a friend in a little mountainous region of Taiwan called Taroko. It was composed during the two months following my departure as music director of Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York. It was completed in October, 2003 and is in four movements. Easter Fantasia was first composed as a sonatina for trumpet and organ. In this form it was frequently performed by Martin Berinbaum, with me at the organ. It was re-designed for trumpet and orchestra in February, 2004. Much of the thematic material is based on Gregorian chants proper to the Easter season. The ancient hymn of thanksgiving known by its first two words, Te Deum, is still sung at the end of Matins on Sundays and on major feast days in convents, monasteries, and some churches all over the world. It is a jubilant hymn of praise to the Almighty. The Te Deum for the Millennium, which was commissioned by the International Order of Benedictines, was composed in 1999 and premiered in New York on May 23, 2001. The work is a celebratory cantata scored for soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra."