northwestartists.org - the blog

Naxos Release, Locklair Named Composer of the Week

Janeanne Houston — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:09:46 +0000

This week Dan Locklair’s symphonic CD Symphony of Seasons was officially released by Naxos. Dan was named composer of the week (August 27, 2007), and his photo and CD appear on their front page. A very exciting time for him. Last night I listened to the entire disk for the first time, and sent these comments to him this morning:

“Dan, it is a very lovely thing. Your symphonic music is so full of color, texture, emotion, and your trademark rhythms. Each work has its own emotional climax and tug to the heart. My husband Mark loved the entire recording, and asked that I send you big congratulations from him.

I believe that Lairs of Soundings will be the most challenging listen for the CD’s audience, but I also think that it offers another side of your composer personality. It provides contrast to the lushness of the CD, and expresses determination, strife, and release of emotion. The poetry harks back the feminist movement… I remember posters of GOLDA MEIR from that period, that read “but can she type?” … It has a lot of youthful energy and defiance…important to chronicle that.”

He let me know that all the music from the recording has now been engraved and is available through Subito, and thanked me for working from manuscript for the recording. It was very clear manuscript, but I will be anxious to see how it looks!

As I listened to the CD, I was again made aware that this composer is an organist, and master colorist. Congratulations, Dan!

Hope is the thing with feathers

Janeanne Houston — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:02:24 +0000

Last week my birder photographer friend Marv Breece took this photo of a Mountain Bluebird on Naches Pass, a mountain area in King County, Washington. The concert I have been preparing for October 12 in Brooklyn, NY is titled Songs of of Hope. One of the songs is a setting by Seattle composer Carol Sams of the Dickinson poem Hope is the thing with feathers. Nothing described the word hope to me more than this photo. Marv has given us permission to use it as a program cover.

Naxos Release

Janeanne Houston — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:11:32 +0000

Dan Locklair wrote that his new symphonic disk, Dan Locklair: Symphony of Seasons, went up on the Naxos website August 1, 2007, as promised. I am so happy for him. It is wonderful that this enormous project is now ready to meet the public. It was quite an adventure for all of us. Composer, Harpist, Conductor, and Soprano all came to Europe from various points in the United States. I flew to Europe from Seattle via London, on September 11, 2006, at the height of the liquid bomb scare. There will be a few stories to tell when I write my memoirs. Symphony of Seasons was recorded with the Slovak Radio Orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia in September, 2006. The soprano feature is the work Lairs of Soundings, for soprano and string orchestra.

Here are some pictures I took from last September’s recording sessions with the Slovak Radio Orchestra, Kirk Trevor, Conductor.

Slovak Radio Orchestra in the recording studio. Perhaps the largest in the world. The studio can also double as a performance space.

Dan Locklair in the recording booth.

Dan, Emile (producer), Hubert (engineer) in the booth.

In the old city, Bratislava

Bratislava Opera House at night

Presidential Palace, Bratislava

Bratislava’s Castle

The Danube

Jerry Hadley

Janeanne Houston — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:49:28 +0000

I have been reading the news about Jerry Hadley with disbelief and sadness. I never met him, but would know his voice anywhere. I love his singing on the Shaw recording of Verdi’s Requiem, and it is his sound that always comes into my head with the phrase “Qui ad Mariam absolvisti.” (score is marked poco meno mosso, and dolce con calma, then dolciss. morendo…he got it just right!) His voice was distinctive, clean and clear, and a very American tenor sound, with excellent diction. But reading the script to the last act of his life is more high dramatic opera than Illinois farm boy. Perhaps our error is to think that there is any difference.

Jerry’s story has caused me to reflect on the pitfalls that can be more like canyon falls, in this singing profession. Sometimes a fall is too much. We have much to learn from his life story.

Most of us will never know the kind of fame and success Jerry had. We have simply been plugging along, loving the music and trying to make a difference. Jerry Hadley’s real tragedy, other than losing his own precious life too soon, is that he won’t be teaching the next generation of Jerry Hadleys. The invaluable collection of knowledge and experience that only he possessed is gone. The next generation will have to learn from his recordings and from what others say about him.

I’ve read a lot in the news about what an upbeat guy he was, and that he had his eyes on the future. I have a photograph of him with my mother in law at a benefit he sang at their church in Manchester, CT. He wore a smile as wide and more winning than Tom Cruise. The mid-western way is to be a little full of bluster and backslapping fun. Difficulties are often more private. I am truly sad for him and his family.

I don’t have anything wise to say about what we should all learn in response to this tragedy, but I picked up a quote from Jerry himself that was part of a commencement address at his alma mater Bradley University, in 2004. (This is taken from an article in the Peoria Journal Star). “When I’ve stepped back and surrendered and trusted…things just fell out the sky and into my lap.”

Networking

Janeanne Houston — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:00:20 +0000

Northwest Artists has been around since 1993, a networking organization and management alternative for artists working in the field of classical vocal music. This is the first post I have written for the blog that Mark set up for us. It is my goal to use this space as a way of sharing information, ideas, and reflections; for announcing concerts, and brainstorming for the future.

I will begin by announcing a concert that I will be singing in Brooklyn, NY, on October 12, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. I will be joined by organist/pianist Paul Richard Olson and oboist Shannon Spicciati. The concert will be at Grace Church in Brooklyn Heights, 254 Hicks Street. We will repeat the program at Union College in Schenectady on October 14 at 3:00 p.m. Concerts in the Puget Sound region will be in Seattle on February 10, 2008, 2:00 p.m., at Plymouth Congregational Church, and at Pacific Lutheran University on February 12, 8:00 p.m. Featured is the world premiere of the song cycle Cummings’ Suite by North Carolina composer Dan Locklair. This work was a commission, and includes the beloved text I thank you God for most this amazing day. Also programmed on the concert are works by Carol Sams (NY premiere, and a world premiere for soprano, piano, and oboe),NY premiere of Hilary Tann’s cycle Songs of the Cotton Grass for soprano and oboe, and songs by Simon Sargon, Lori Laitman, and Bern Herbolsheimer. The title of the concert is Songs of Hope.

Photo by: Andrea Olsheskie

L-R, Shannon Spicciati, Janeanne Houston, Paul Richard Olson