John Clare's Composing Thoughts LIVE: Composing Thoughts Gordon

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Composing Thoughts Gordon

I recently had the chance to speak with composer Ricky Ian Gordon. Gordon (pictured right rehearsing at TLU) has emerged as one of the most successful writers of a kind of vocal music that straddles the world of theater and art song. His unusual ability to find the musical core of a poem or lyric and express that essence in an appropriate musical style, has given his songs great appeal to singers of all styles and persuasions. Mr. Gordon’s songs have been performed and or recorded by Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Andrea Marcovici, Melanie Helton, Harolyn Blackwell, Betty Buckley, Margaret Lattimore, Stephanie Novacek and Mary Philips, among many others.
His accomplishments in musical theater are also very notable, with shows such as My Life with Albertine, Dream True, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Only Heaven and Morning Star having been successfully performed. In 2010 a new musical, Sycamore Trees, will debut with the Signature Theater, for whom it was written with the generous help of the Shen Family Foundation. Ricky Ian Gordon has recently been commissioned by both the Minnesota Opera, for a second time (a work to be based on the novel, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) and the Metropolitan Opera (the story of Victor Hugo’s daughter, Adele, in Nova Scotia).
Composer website: http://www.rickyiangordon.com/

Coming up in March 22, 2010 you can catch The Grapes Of Wrath at Carnegie Hall!
World Premiere Two Act Concert Version with Narrator
Collegiate Chorale, Chorus
conducted by Thomas Bagwell
American Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Ted Sperling
Directed by Eric Simonson

Cast:
Narrator-Jane Fonda
Ma-Victoria Clark
Pa-Peter Halverson
Tom-Nathan Gunn
Al-Steven Pasquale
Noah-Andrew Wilkowski
Rosasharn-Elizabeth Futral
Ruthie-Madeline Gunn (Nathan's Daughter)
Winfield-TBA
Uncle John-Stephen Powell
Casy-Anthony Dean Griffey
Ragged Man/Connie/Trucker-Matthew Worth
Mae The Waitress-Christine Ebersole

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Composing Thoughts LIVE

Composing Thoughts LIVE covered the world premiere of Souviners by Richard Danielpour in June 2009.
John Clare's Composing Thoughts LIVE was presented twice with the Cypress String Quartet and composer Kevin Puts in the Bay area in April 2009.
When the Austin Symphony gave the world premiere in May 2009 of Dan Welcher's Symphony #5, John had his cameras rolling at the composer's studio at UT Austin.
Composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez's Musica pur una tiempo got coverage by Clare when SOLI Chamber Ensemble premiered the work in March 2009.
Composer Jennifer Higdon joined in a conversation at WITF's Public Media Center, Saturday March 8th, 2008 from 3 to 5 p.m.
Higdon spoke with WITF host John Clare about her music, creativity, and answered questions from the audience.
Her Percussion Concerto, as well as String Poetic, were on the program.

About the host

John Nasukaluk Clare is a classical music enthusiast. A broadcaster for National Public Radio, Voice of America, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and stations in Texas, Kansas, Nevada, California and Pennsylvania, programs and interviews by John have been heard around the world.
Clare accepted the 38th Annual Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP in December 2005. In 2004 Mr. Clare received the Electronic Media Award for Best Radio Show in Las Vegas, and the same evening, the award for Best OnAir Talent. The following year, John was a finalist for Best Radio Show and for Radio Manager of the Year.
He has played the violin for over twenty eight years, from New York to Nevada, including performances with tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli. He has also been a member of the Nevada Chamber Symphony, Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society, Glen Willow Symphony Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic and Wichita Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber music lover, John founded the Las Vegas Chamber Music Society in 2004.
John is a new music aficionado and Polish Music Scholar who is also a webmaster for ClassicallyHip.com and WalterMays.com. Currently Clare works at Texas Public Radio ands serves as a media consultant to New Music USA; he was the Executive Director of SOLI Chamber Ensemble, on the board of the American Music Center and the San Antonio Chamber Music Society. He plays with the Mid Texas Symphony.