Seán conducted the choruses and taught musicianship at the University of the Arts when I was an undergraduate there in the 1980′s. He also founded and conducted both the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and the Music Group of Philadelphia. He allowed me to sing in the former, which meant I got to perform and record with the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the likes of Riccardo Muti, Charles Dutoit, Erich Leinsdorf, Jessye Norman. I did not sing with Music Group, but in 1996 Seán gave me the honor of using hard-won grant money to commission my chorus/orchestra piece Cycle of Friends which was given a stunning premiere by The Music Group.

Seán spent most of the 1970′s studying conducting, chamber music and pedagogy at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. When he returned he became a prominent pioneer in bringing what’s known as the Kodály Method to the United States and was a sought-after clinician for many years. He made frequent guest conducting appearances in Hungary and around Europe throughout his career, and was a great ambassador for American music there. Likewise, he generously performed the work of living Hungarian composers with his groups in Philadelphia, and in 1998, he received the Medal Pro Artibus, Artist of Outstanding Merit for promotion of Hungarian music abroad by the Hungarian Ministry of Cultural Arts.

Like many of my fellow students, I became friends with Seán during those four years of the Late 80′s. He was very generous with his free time and spent many hours with us individually and in groups of various sizes. Just hanging out, listening to music, talking about music and everything else. I dare say I learned more about music (and everything else) sitting across the table from Seán at Day’s Delicatessen or Little Pete’s than in any classroom. When it was time to figure out what to do after college, Seán had many suggestions, composers he knew at this or that graduate school, but ultimately I ended up doing exactly what he had done: studying in Budapest, Hungary at the Franz Liszt Academy.

Please read Seán’s obituary that was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Also, in 1989, Seán made a rare appearance as a baritone soloist and performed a work of mine on my senior recital, which was recorded on video. 

[video src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFch6315fdk" width="600" height="400" title="Sean Deibler sings Heavn Is Here by Michael Kaulkin"]Here he is in his prime.[/video]

With this site, Mark joins the world of Composers Who Blog, and there are already a number of intresting posts about the Israel première of Little Women and many other topics. I’ve known Mark for almost 25 years, and if anyone ought to be blogging, it is he. Mark is well known as a composer, particularly of opera, but he is also a wonderful writer (with a wicked sense of humor, by the way). I’m looking forward to his writings on opera and theater.

Also of interest is a trove of information on the operas Little Women and Lysistrata as well as his gleaming Harp Concerto and several choral works.

Congratulations, and welcome, Mark!

Mordake is a very beautiful work, both musically and visually, performed most courageously by the amazing John Duykers. It’s very difficult to describe, so I’ll just tersely say that it’s a one-man show about a guy with two faces.

The visual element is a brilliant, dynamic video background, similar to the one used for Berkeley Opera’s Bluebeard’s Castle, described earlier. It is full of surprises but any scent of gimmicky is trumped by Duykers’ performance, which never loses focus. Erling’s music has a harmonic sense that is personal and unique without sacrificing beauty or transparency. The synthesizer-based score is full of timbral surprises.

Anyone in the Bay Area with the slightest interest in music theater should try to see this. Here are details on how to do that.

Peter Furniss (clarinet) and David Leiher Jones (piano) will be holding a recital to celebrate the recent Clarinet Classics CD release, Time Pieces, 60 years of American music for clarinet and piano. The recital will take place on Wednesday, 24th October at 7:30pm. The Warehouse, 13 Theed Street, London, SE1 8ST.

Georgianna’s work is on display this weekend, Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm at Fort Mason Building C, room 375.

Here’s more information, including a downloadable map to artist exhibits.

D’Arc offers a surreal inquiry into the costs of dreams, lived and unlived. Weaving the threads of the Dark Ages with our own dark times, D’Arc depicts a present-day intercession by Saint Joan of Arc. We meet Joanne. Home alone, she fixates on letters from her daughter who vanished while working abroad in a war-torn region. Raging against loss, Joanne begins to receive bizarre visions through the cold flame of her television set. It is Saint Joan, burning through the TV twilight to answer her grief. Relating tales of her own battles and trials, Joan teases and admonishes Joanne, disrupts her obsessions and challenges her to listen anew to the call of her own life.

Jay Cloidt’s haunting music drives this D’Arc night of the soul. Integrating Moody’s mercurial vocalizations with acoustic and processed cello, the composition features original songs, underscoring, and sound design. His composition spans 14th century hymns, post-Romanticism, aggressive electronic music and heart-thumping gospel to evoke the strange dream of Joanne and Joan’s collision-course.

I haven’t seen it yet, but I can vouch for Amanda as a really interesting dramatic writer, and a powerful performer.

As someone with a new opera idea in the pipeline, I’m keenly interested this topic and Karren was kind enough to let me read an advance copy of the book. I’m not a critic, so I’m unable to offer an in-depth review, but I thought I should at least call readers’ attention to it.

The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas uses Karren’s own project as a frame of reference throughout, but she also wisely sought input from other professionals in the field, including the likes of Placido Domingo, Mark Adamo, Libby Larsen and Ned Rorem. Every aspect of making a new opera is discussed: collaboration, finding an audience, finding a commission, working with singers, working with directors, critics and more.

As far as my own project is concerned (it’s a secret), reading this book has given me a good picture of the various ways to pursue it, and what to expect if and when I do. My favorite chapter title: “Hubris, Vanity, Rejection”.

What’s really fun about this book is the structure. Karren’s own opera is a result of many years studying the work of Gertrude Stein, and the book is organized in what might be described as a “cubist” way. In a sense, it’s really two books in one: one is about her own background leading up to the creation of her opera and its production, and the other is a more general look at the world of American opera. But, the two books are presented simultaneously in layers.

Any composer or writer who is not already intimate with the vagaries of the American opera world would surely learn something from this book, but also the tone of the book is light and sharp, and so I imagine it would be enjoyable for anyone who is peripherally interested in the topic. The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas is not yet in stores, but it’s available now from the publisher’s web site.

Not only that, but Steven and Slovene composer Urška Pompe have a delightful daughter just about Philo’s age, and it was great to see them become friends.

This town we were in is about forty minutes north of the capital city Ljubljana at the edge of the mountains and near much natural splendor, such as Lake Bled.

Ljubljana itself is a very charming city I would like to see more of. I had an unexpected opportunity to walk around for about two hours…

…because we stayed an extra day so that I could go see Steven conduct a concert of new music presented by the new music ensemble MD7. This is an interesting ensemble indeed, founded by Slovene composer Pavel Mihelčič. They only play music written expressly for them, and the instrumentation is as follows: flute, clarinet, trombone, percussion, piano, viola, cello. It’s actually a pretty good combination. A little weird, but not bad. I wonder about the trombone, but it worked well in the pieces on this concert. Highlights were “Pas de Sept – Hommage à Stravinsky” by Belarus composer Dmitri Lybin and particularly for me, “The Team from the Flower Shop” by Slovene composer David Beovič.

Whether or not you have any interest at all in the harp as an intstrument, this is a worthwhile thing to read. It’s a great example of how a smart composer starts a new project by asking questions. Mark’s approach here reminds me of thorough advance work he puts into his stage works. (More on that here.)

1.) Since the harp is, by design, more impressive spelling out harmony than theme—but I want a theme with a real authority on which to organize the piece—can I come up with a melody that’s all harmony and all line at the same time, and yet is still versatile enough to express whatever I need?

2.) Are there unusual technical or timbral resources the harp can muster that are theatrical (read: loud) enough to hold their own in an orchestral texture? Can I design a movement to ask a question to which these timbres would be the answer?

3.) And how do I make this piece not just an orchestra score which happens to have a very large harp part, but a true concerto: one which sounds as if all of its gestures and materials are generated by the soloist? In other words, how do I keep the orchestra, with its limitless melodic potential, from upstaging the harp?

Mark’s Four Angels will receive its premiere at the Kennedy Center on June 7 – 9, 2007 performed by Dotian Levalier and the National Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor.