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 RenĂ©e 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