Contemporary Record Society

Lukas Foss, Emma Lou Diemer, Wizards, William Anderson, Susanna Raymond

LUKAS FOSS
Composer/Conductor/Lecturer

Lukas Foss, born in Berlin on August 15, 1922, is considered an American composer, conductor and pianist of German parents. His study began with Julius Goldstein, who introduced Foss to the music of the masters studying piano and theory in Berlin. Foss studied piano in Paris from 1933 to 1937 with Lazare Levy, composition with Noel Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes and the flute with Marcel Moyse. He moved to the USA in 1937 and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Isabelle Vengerova, piano, Rosario Scalero and Virgil Thompson, composition, and conducting with Fritz Reiner. In addition, he studied with Koussevitzky during summer months at the Berkshire Music Center from 1939-43. He studied composition at Yale University with Paul Hindemith as a special student from 1939-40.

Foss is considered a genius by many of his colleagues. He began to compose music at the age of 15. At age 22 he received wide acclaim for his cantata PRAIRIE on Sandburg's poem. This work received the New York Music Critics' Award in 1944. Foss became the Boston Symphony Orchestra pianist from 1944 to 1950. In 1945 he was the youngest composer ever to receive a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1950-51 he became a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and in 1950-52 he was the recipient of a Fulbright grant. His global fame was augmented with the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in Venice on October 7, l951 as the piano soloist. The United States premiere of that work was under the direction of Munch with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with the composer at the piano. This performance took place in November of the same year. The Concerto was Revised in 1953 and received the New York Music Critics' Award for 1954.

Foss was given the position of professor of music (composition and conducting) at the University of California at Los Angeles in February 1953, where he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble in 1957. He became the music director and conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic in 1970.He founded the Center for Creative and Performing Arts, as it's director while at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1963. Foss has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras in the USA and Europe, and has lectured widely at colleges and universities in North America. He was appointed conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonia in 1971 and in 1972 he conducted the Kol Israel Orchestra of Jerusalem, holding both positions simultaneously. New York city became his home where he continued to serve as co-director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo. He was composer-in-residence at the Manhattan School of Music in 1972-73.

One may consider two periods of development in Foss's composition, separated by a transitional phase of 'controlled improvisation' during 1957-62. The first period from 1944-60 was mostly new-classical and eclectic, represented by such works as the Symphony in G, the concertos, various choral works and the orchestral Symphony of Chorales based on the music of Bach. Also present is an element of 'American popularism,' as in the PRAIRIE and the comic opera THE JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY, on the story by Mark Twain.

The transitional phase started in 1956 while he began to experiment with ensemble improvisation, for the benefit of his students at UCLA. In 1957 he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble consisting of clarinet, piano, cello and percussion and formulated what he called 'system and chance music', a form of controlled improvisation which made a profound change in Foss's compositional techniques: he abandoned fixed forms and tonality for the use of serialism, indeterminancy and graphic notation. Echoi for four soloists (the players of Foss's ensemble) marks the definitive beginning of his experimental phase. Used 'in free, wilful manner,' its point of departure is serialism, to provide material which the composer chooses. Although each performer has certain options- by skipping back and forth between pages of the score- and improvisatory moments, the performers freedom is limited and chance is never allowed to take over completely.

The compositions of this period - ELYTRES, FRAGMENTS OF ARCHILOCHOS, FOR 24 WINDS- 'are based on the idea of a score containing on every page a sum total from which a different selection is extracted for each performance'. In CONCERT FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA 1966, there is an unseen cello cadenza on pre-recorded tape played against the cello soloist being divided with a Bach sarabande and gradually being distorted. BAROQUE VARIATIONS on themes by Bach, Handel and Scarlatti include a surrealist element where the variations are 'dreams' in which the realism pervades Variation III, on Bach's Partita in E for solo violin; he described the effect he wishes to achieve as 'torrents of baroque semiquavers, washed ashore by ocean waves, sucked in again, returning... submerging into and emerging out of inaudibility'.. The xylophone's notations give way to 'Johann Sebastian Bach' in morse code as a joke. The percussionist smashes a bottle in a bag with a hammer for further effect.

In Foss's first decade as an 'experimental' composer, he assimilated most of the devices identified with the avant garde of the 1960s and added some variants of his own devising. As a conductor, performer and teacher he has contributed much to the diffusion and appreciation of the music of the 20th century.

EMMA LOU DIEMER
Composer/Lecturer

Emma Lou Diemer is an American composer born in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her degrees in composition from the Yale School of Music (BM, MM) and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D.) and had further composition study on a Fulbright Scholarship in Brussels, Belgium, and at the Berkshire Music Center. She is a keyboard performer (piano, organ, harpsichord, synthesizer).

She has received awards in composition from the National Endowment for the Arts (in electronic music), the Ford Foundation, the Kennedy Center (Friedheim award for her 1991 piano concerto), ASCAP (annual award since 1962 for performances and publications), the American Guild of Organists (1995 Composer of the Year), Yale School of Music (Certificate of Merit), and many others. She has been the recipient of numerous commissions and most of her music has been published, ranging from orchestral works and concertos to solo and chamber works and choral music. Seven doctoral dissertations have been written on her music to-date.

Diemer's music has been recorded by CRS (including a CD recording of Variations for Piano, 4 Hands), Living Artists Recordings (String Quartet No. 1), Vienna Modern Masters (Encore for Piano), Master Musicians Collective (Concerto in One Movement for Piano and Santa Barbara Overture), and others.

Principal positions have been Composer-in-Residence in the Arlington, VA schools under the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project; Composer-in-Residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony; Professor of Theory and Composition, University of Maryland; Professor of Theory and Composition, University of California, Santa Barbara (now Professor Emeritus); resident organist in various churches (presently First Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara).

Possible lecture topics:

1. The Woman Composer --- 2. Composing for Voices --- 3. Composing for Keyboard --- 4. Composing for Something Other Than the New York Philharmonic or the Vienna Boys Choir

WIZARDS!

Not all wizards use potions and spells to entrance their audiences. Some use chamber music to make their magic! WIZARDS! offers a tour of chamber music featuring the oboe, bassoon, English horn, oboe d'amore, contra bassoon and piccolo oboe. Mark Weiger, Andrea Gullickson, S. Blake Duncan, and Greg Morton make up this quartet touted as "the World Series of double reed playing" (Iowa Hawk Eye News, Mt. Pleasant, IA).

WIZARDS! captures the imagination of young audiences and puts them "... at ease from the very first notes" (Director of Bands, Doylestown, PA) while offering "... a wise blend of humor and facts" (Director of Bands, Fairfax, VA). Their programs are celebrations of chamber music, richly diverse in repertoire spanning four centuries. WIZARDS! was recently featured as the chamber music group in residence for the educational component of the Great Music West Festival. Reviewers remarked that "The audience was 'spellbound' by their uniqueness and quality" (Uinta Herald, Evanston, WY), and that they offer "Marvelous music making ... a dazzling performance!" (Star Valley Independent, Afton, WY) and "... an outstanding musical adventure for all" (Gazette, Montpelier, ID). Established in 1993, their tours through 16 states to include the fair cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Washington D.C. has led to the commissioning of works by such composers as Scott Miller (MN), Tedrow Perkins (OH), Greg Morton and Marilynn Etzel (IA), Steve Heineman (IL), James Chaudoir (WI), Michael Curtis (OR), Warren Gooch (MO), Terry R. Everson (KY), Phillip Schroeder (TX), and Lars Michnevich (WY), Graham Powning (Australia).

WIZARDS! has developed innovative educational programs such as Reed My Mind, a mystery in which young audiences discover the keys to musical mastery and the map to creative freedom. Their Double Talk program is a fun foray into a fabulously flamboyant feast of filigree that invites audiences to explore the double reed instruments, their double reeds, and their music. Wizards! has established two three year educational residency programs

Their first CD (CRS 9460) received critical favor from Ray Still, former principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony "Fascinating, delightful and expertly put together ... a great CD" and from Felix Kraus, English hornist with the Cleveland Orchestra, "The level of ensemble and purity of intonation achieved by the WIZARDS! is remarkable." Matthew Colucci of the Philadelphia Society News writes "... an excellent CD which exhibits the many facets of double reed instruments. As an ensemble they achieved a perfect blend of instruments. They proved that the diversity of three centuries of styles can be performed equally well on double reed instruments. This is a unique recording which should be in everyone's collection."

Their second CD, Fantasy for Wizards! (Crystal 872) was released in January 1998 to terrific reviews. Jeff Lyman writes in the Double Reed Journal "The ambitious double reed consort Wizards! has released a collection...[that] is sure to please... It is both exotic and vituosic, and deserves to be widely-known." The American Record Guide states "..the players produce beautiful, flavorful, colorful sounds. Each [player] is worth the demand made of your listening time...this faultless playing will not disappoint."

Mark Weiger, Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn S. Blake Duncan, English horn Andrea Gullickson, Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn Greg Morton, Bassoon ___________________________________________________________________

SAMPLE PROGRAM

Fantasy for WIZARDS! (1995) Greg Morton Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn, Bassoon (b. 1957)

A Klezmer Wedding (1994) Michael Curtis 2 Oboes/Oboe d'amores, English horn, Bassoon (b. 1955)

Divertimento, Op. 39 (1981) Michael Kibbe Oboe, English horn, Bassoon (b. 1945) Adagio Allegro Adagio Presto

INTERMISSION Tri Stavka Mladen Pozajic 2 Oboes, English horn, Bassoon (1905-1979) Andante Largo Allegretto

Suite for Double Reed Quintet (1973)* John H. Corina 2 Oboes, English horn, 2 Basoons (b. 1928) Slowly Fast Slowly

Danza, Op. 33 Louis Moreau Gottschalk 2 Oboes, English horn, Bassoon (1829-1869) arr. Greg Morton

Mark Weiger, Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn S. Blake Duncan, English horn Andrea Gullickson, Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn Greg Morton, Bassoon

ATTRACTION:
William Anderson, Guitarist

"William Anderson is one of our finest guitar players", says The Music Connoisseur. The New York Times described Anderson as "first rate" (Bernard Holland)... "a sensitive, thoughtful player"(Allan Kozinn). Thomas May, in The Washington Post, praised his "technical and expressive virtuosity", and his "quasi-orchestral palette of coloristic effects...deftly realized as he shaped each entry with eprigrammatic concentration." While his repertoire encompasses the entire guitar and lute literature, his chief interest is in the music that is coming next, and he continually astonishes his audiences with surprising new works by composers young and old from all over the world. "Anderson astonished everybody with his ability to deal with a great variety of musical idioms, his skill in utilizing the entire range of tones and moods. He stretched himself from abstract concentration...through serenity and humor...to meditative melancholy."...Magdelene Dziadek, Ruch Muzyczny, Warsaw.

Mr. Anderson has been a soloist for the Tanglewood Festival, the Bang on a Can Festival; the Europe-Asia Festival; the Theater Chamber Players of Washington D.C.; the Brooklyn Philharmonic; the Festival International de Guitarra in Morelia, Mexico, and Die Rotenburger Guitarwoche in Germany, among many others. He has given solo recital tours in the United States, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Poland, Russia and Holland, playing classical and contemporary music including works of his own. Anderson's first solo recital in New York City was presented by The League of Composers/ISCM at Weill Hall in 1990. In 1994 he was presented by Music >From Japan in a recital at the Asia Society in New York City.

Anderson is now co-director of the CYGNUS Ensemble, which he founded in 1985 as a means of presenting new works for guitar and other instruments. Cygnus is continually receiveing rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently from Paul Griffiths, in the New York Times, who praised Cygnus for its "excellent concert" in January of 1998.

Anderson has recorded three CD's for Titanic and Soundspells Productions. He appears on seven other CD on various labels. His performances have been broadcast on Performance Today; WNYC's Around New York, and New Sounds; WGBH, Boston's Chamber Works; German National Radio, Polish National Radio, and Danish National Radio. Anderson teaches guitar at Sarah Lawrence College. --Review Excerpts

...seemingly modest dimensions can trick the ear into an impression of vaster scale. Guitarist William Anderson brought both technical and expressive virtuosity to his accounts of Falla's Ommage to Debussy and of excerpts from Robert Martin's Diary of a Seducer...calling for a quasi-orchestral palette of coloristic effects. They were deftly realized by Anderson as he shaped each entry with epichromatic concentration.

Thomas May The Washington Post

--William Anderson is one of our finest guitar players, and this recital showed not only his virtuosity but also his commitment...Three recent works benefitted from his brilliant and sonorous playing.

Leo Kraft The Music Connoisseur

--Anderson astonished everybody with his ability to deal with a great variety of musical idioms, his skill in utilizing the entire range of tones and moods. He stretched himself from perfect,almost abstract concentration in pieces by Brickle and ter Veldhuis, through the serenity and humor of DeFalla and Sauguet, to the meditative melancholy of the Schubert songs. Magdelene Dziadek, Ruch Muzyczny, Warsaw

--The mindful voice of Ives, or Stravinsky and of Mr. Wuorinen's music would not seem to be implied much by such a song as "Night and Day," but Mr. Anderson's extraordinary arrangements of numbers by Jerome Kern and Richard Rogers set them squarely and astonishingly in the same tradition. Paul Griffiths, The New York Times

--a sensitive, thoughtful player. Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

--first rate player Bernard Holland, The New York Times

--played with virtuosity and a close attention to style. Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

Sample Program:

Three Schubert Leider--guitar solo versions by Johann Kaspar Mertz (b.1806) Fantasy -- Anthony Holborne Fantasy -- John Dowland Theme Variations and Finale -- Manuel Ponce Intermission Strumming -- Meyer Kupferman Mazurkas and Polonaises, op. 3 -- Johann Kaspar Mertz Soliloque -- Henri Sauguet Invocation and Danse -- Joaquin Rodrigo

SUSANNA RAYMOND
Dramatic Soprano

Now managed by CRS Artists, Wagnerian soprano Susanna Raymond is preparing for the orchestral premiere in Europe of "Token," a work for dramatic soprano by Doug Davis. She will record this work and Brünnhilde's ImmolationScene under the CRS label. Other upcoming performances include the Siegfried Brünnhilde for the West Side Opera next spring and a guest appearance singing Wagner's Wesendonk Lieder with the Auburn University Symphony on Memorial Day 2000.

In 1998, Ms. Raymond performed and recorded Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene in the Czech Republic with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic. Her conductor was Martin Braun, the current conductor of the Olomouc Opera, and former music director of the Vienna Academic Festival Orchestra. Last year in New York, she performed the Walküre Brünnhilde with the West Side Opera. In addition, she has sung Brünnhilde excerpts with Potomac Valley Opera, St. Peter's Noontime Concerts, and New York Vocal Artists over the past two years, and for a program sponsored by the Wagner Society of Vienna, later broadcast on Austrian television, in 1995.

Other Wagner performances include Isolde in the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic in 1998, the Wesendonk Lieder for St. Peter's Noontime Concerts in 1999 and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer with the West Side Opera in 1995.

Additional orchestral appearances include the title role in Aida with Brooklyn Lyric Opera in 1994 and the soprano solo in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Doctors' Orchestral Society of New York in 1993. She has also guested with the Slavic Arts Ensemble, premiering several songs by the group's pianist, Finnish-American composer Eero Richmond.

In the summer of 1998, she was invited by Symphonic Workshops Ltd. to collaborate with student conductors in a workshop taught by Frantisek Vajnar and Ottokar Trhlik in the Czech Republic. Other recent activities include participation in Mannes College of Music's Wagner performance class in 1998 and in Wagner and Strauss master classes offered through Potomac Valley Opera's Singer Development Program in 1997.

Ms. Raymond currently coaches with James Harp, artistic administrator of Baltimore Opera, and with concert pianist Dan Franklin Smith. She has also coached with conductors Lucy Arner, John Balme, Elizabeth Hastings and Ted Taylor in New York, and Tomoko Okada in Munich. She has been a student of Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox, whose seminar "The Art of Singing Wagner" was renowned throughout Europe.

REPERTOIRE LIST, SUSANNA RAYMOND, Soprano Opera, Composer, Role/ Elektra, Strauss*, Elektra*/ Die Walküre,Wagner Brünnhilde/ Siegfried, Wagner, Brünnhilde/Götterdämmerung, Wagner, Brünnhilde*/ Tristan und Isolde, Wagner, Isolde*/ Turandot, Puccini, Turandot

Solo Orchestral:

Ninth Symphony, Beethoven, (soprano soloist)/ Immolation Scene, Wagner/ Liebestod, Wagner/ Wesendonk Leider, Wagner/ Altenberg Lieder, Berg/ Der Wein (concert aria), | Berg/ Three Fragments from Wozzeck, Berg/ Erwartung, Schoenberg/ *Token, Doug Davis/ Final Scene from Salomé, Strauss

*In preparation