Abbie Betinis
Acclaimed as “most audacious… edgy and thrilling” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) and "superb… whirling, soaring" (Tacoma News Tribune), the music of Abbie Betinis is being performed increasingly in the United States and abroad. At age 28, Betinis has been commissioned by more than 40 music organizations including the American Suzuki Foundation, Cantus, Cornell University Chorus, Dale Warland Singers, Minnesota Music Educators Association, The Rose Ensemble, The Schubert Club, and the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus.
Always an enthusiast of language, Betinis enjoys delving into ancient and modern texts in the hope of inspiring greater cultural literacy and exchange. She has set texts in English, Gaelic, ancient Greek, Latin, Norwegian, medieval Persian, Spanish, Tang-era Chinese, and gibberish. Her text setting has been called imaginative and sensitive, even while pushing performers to explore extended vocal techniques such as yodeling, crying, spitting, whistling, glottal grunting, or bird-calling.
Betinis has won a Jerome Composers Commissioning Grant (2007), the Esoterics’ Polyphonos Young Composer Prize (2006), Craig and Janet Swan Composer Prize (2005), and awards from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, Cambridge Madrigal Singers, Minnesota Music Educators Association, and the Young New Yorkers Chorus. Her work is represented on six commercially-available recordings, and is published by Augsburg Fortress, Graphite Publishing, Kjos, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and in G. Schirmer’s Dale Warland Series. In 2006, Betinis launched a self-publishing company, and now markets and distributes her own scores internationally.
Since 2001, Minnesota Public Radio has partnered with American Public Media to record and premiere Betinis’s annual, original Christmas carol (in the tradition of her great uncle, Alfred Burt) to an estimated listening audience of 800,000. National Public Radio and Public Radio International have aired her performances by the Dale Warland Singers, Philadelphia Singers and The Rose Ensemble in national broadcasts.
Betinis holds a B.A. in music with a linguistics concentration from St. Olaf College, and M.A. in music composition from the University of Minnesota where her primary teacher was Judith Lang Zaimont. Upon twice receiving the Cynthia Lilley Scholarship from the European American Musical Alliance, she spent two summer sessions in Paris, France, where she studied harmony and counterpoint in the tradition of Nadia Boulanger with faculty from The Juilliard School and the Paris Conservatory.
Since 2005, Betinis has served as Composer-in-Residence for The Schubert Club in Minnesota. She has also held residencies with The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists and The Rose Ensemble. She lives in Saint Paul.
~from www.abbiebetinis.com home page
More information about Abbie Betinis and her compositions - choral, vocal solo and instrumental - is available on her website at www.abbiebetinis.com. Included are complete details regarding each work (date, text, translation, comission/award information, and program notes), PDF preview scores, and complete audio recordings of each composition. All scores are available for purchase from the composer on her web site.
SAMPLE COMPOSITION
Cedit, Hyems (Be Gone, Winter!) 
Voicing: SATB div., flute
Text: Prudentius & Carmina Burana ms.
Language: Latin
Duration: 3 min.
Commissioned: for The Dale Warland Singers by Brian and Jackie Steele, to celebrate the life of Arthur Benjamin Jacobson
LISTEN TO "CEDIT, HYEMS" PERFORMED BY THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS HERE
Moira Smiley
Writing music since the age of six, Moira focuses on voices-as-instruments, and in harmony. She recently won a Meet the Composer GranMoira Smiley works internationally as a composer-vocalist. Traveling from her hilly Los Angeles perch, she leads her fiery roots vocal-band, moira smiley & VOCO, travels the world as a soloist in early and traditional music and creates new work with dance, theatre and film. Moira was born in rural Vermont, moved to Indiana to pursue a piano performance degree at IU School of Music, and finished with a degree in Early Music Vocal Performance and several recordings for Harmonia Mundi USA with Paul Hillier. Moira fell in love with Bloomington, traveling by music and the art of performance whilst at IU, and toured with her vocal quartet, VIDA, singing a cappella folk song from Eastern Europe and various other vibrant harmony traditions. VIDA came to be represented by IMG Artists, recorded three CDs of folk and original songs, and had an exciting seven year career that culminated in concerts at Lincoln Center and other prestigious fine arts and folk venues in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
. . . Writing music since the age of six, Moira focuses on voices-as-instruments, and in harmony. She recently won a Meet the Composer Grant, an American Composers Forum "Subito" grant, and Durfee Foundation grant for her composing work. In 2007, her song "Stand in that River" won Best Original Song in the National Harmony Sweepstakes (at the same time that moira & VOCO became National A Cappella Champions). Several of Moira's songs are sung around the world, and even passed into the oral tradition - coming back to Moira as "an old song she might like"! Moira’s soundtracks for St. Louis dance-theater company GVDT and AnnonyArts have produced two lush CDs called “Sacred Ground and “Changing Woman” – the latter written for Masked Choir and dancers. (moirasmiley.com)
Many of Moira Smiley's compositions are availabe for purchase from the composter on her web site. Many of the works listed include links to audio clips. All works are sent as pdf files via email. GO TO MOIRA SMILEY'S SHEET MUSIC STORE
Moira Smiley and VOCO
Moira smiley & VOCO, vocal-band from Los Angeles, is the energy of street singing, the risks of improvisation, precision of a string quartet. Sounds like sweet, hard-driving Americana, crooked eastern European dance - body-stompin' and voices soaring! Joyous, rebellious, hair-raising harmonies - music that mourns and dances at the same time. Called "a truly phenomenal act" by Folkworks Magazine, "fascinating and multi-lingual" by the LA Times and racking up festival mainstage performances from Planet Bluegrass's Rocky Mountain Folks Festival to California WorldFest, LOTUS World Music Festival, Live Oak Festival...fine arts venues from The Getty Center to the Cerritos Center and FORD Amphitheater. They've won Folk Alliance awards, A CAPPELLA awards, and headlined legendary folk venues like Freight & Salvage, McCabes and Ten Pound Fiddle. They've also been featured on nationally-syndicated show, "Folkscene" and California's NPR show "Insight".
Nobody does vocal music like VOCO - their voices are instruments, creating post-folk vocal symphonies! (sonicbids)
WATCH MOIRA SMILEY AND HER VOCAL BAND, VOCO,
PERFORM HER MUSIC:
"Dance with S'lyfn, S'yogn"
new crooked tune (in 9/8, by moira)
paired with a beautiful, old Yiddish song
DISCOCGRAPHY
blink: moira smiley & voco
Post-folk vocal symphonies with the energy of street singing and the precision of a string quartet. Original music with roots in E. Europe & Appalachia.
Moira Smiley 2006
rua: moira smiley
Irish, Appalachian, original, solo vocals.
Moira Smiley
vida (eponymous)
4-part a cappella traditional songs from E. Europe, S. Africa and more.
in bloom: in bloom
4-part a cappella traditional songs from E. Europe, S. Africa and more.
Moira Smiley
Sacred Ground: moira smiley
Found sounds and improvisations for dance theatre.
Moira Smiley
changing woman: moira smiley
Found sounds and improvisations for dance theatre.
Moira Smiley
Terra (eponymous)
A cappella traditional songs from E. Europe, S. Africa and more.
Moira Smiley
GO TO THE MOIRA SMILEY/VOCO WEB SITE
Peteris Vasks
"Music is the most powerful of all the muses, since it reaches the divine most easily. Yes, music is an abstraction, but sounds are able to express the spirit. That cannot be expressed in words. All around me the flesh is spoken about, but I want to shout: Where is the spirit, the soul? Souls are as overgrown as the jungle. That is why in my sounds I try to uphold a beam of light." (Peteris Vasks)
Latvian composer, Pēteris Vasks was born in 1946, the son of a Baptist minister. He studied contrabass at the Lithuanian State Conservatory and subsequently played professionally in several Latvian orchestras. Once freed of Soviet repression against the church, Vasks returned to the State Conservatory to study composition. He taught music for a number of years, and is now a free-lance composer in Riga. In 1996, he was appointed "Main Composer" of the Stockholm Festival of New Music. His music was not known outside of Latvia until the 1990's.
A peer of such composers as Arvo Part and Henryk Gorecki, Vasks' compositional output ranges from solo and chamber works; to a cappella and accompanied choral compositions, and concertos and sympnonies for full orchestra.
In his creative work, Pēteris Vasks tends to speak about global and timeless problems. Birth and death, hate and forgiveness, harmony and dissonant chaos are themes that are represented in many different sonic forms in all of the composer’s works. Though the composer has mastered and in his own language synthesized many different 20th century compositional techniques, the dominating musical expression is a desire to certify the necessity of a harmonic world feeling, to renew the worth of the classical music and bestow upon it a new sound. Altogether, neoromanticism is clearly sensed in Vasks’s works and an echo of a new expression of the spiritual aesthetic. (Latvian Music Information Center)
BIOGRAPHY, COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS AND DISCOGRAPHY AVAILABLE AT LATVIAN MUSIC INFORMATION CENTER.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Pater noster - Latvian Radio Choir, Sinfonietta Rīga – 2007, Ondine, ODE 1106-2
Māte saule - Latvian Radio Choir - 2001, BIS, BIS-CD-1145
Second Symphony and Distant Light - Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra - 2003, Indine, ODE 1005-2
Peteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4 - Kronos String Quartet - 2003, Nonesuch
Kenzi Bunch
Heralded as “A Composer to Watch” by the New York Times, Kenji Bunch has quickly emerged as one of the most prominent American composers of his generation, appealing to audiences and performers alike with a distinctive, vibrant voice in contemporary American music.(kenjibunch.com)
Kenzi Bunch is a young, American composer (and professional violist), who's music is fresh, lyrical, and contemporary. Known especially for his close association with and compositions written for the popular piano trio, the Ahn Trio, Bunch's music combines elements of classical, popular, and even rock idioms. He has written numerous vocal and especially instrumental works for large and small ensemble, from full orchestra to solo piano. His compositional titles alone suggest his imaginitive approach to composition - Shout Chorus (woodwind quintet), Cookbook (clainet and piano), Floating Alone (solo percussion), Crawl Space (solo cello), There Will Come Soft Rains (baritone and piano), Swing Shift (piano trio), Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac (piano trio and voices), and Arachnophobia (chamber orchestra).
GO TO THE KENJI BUNCH WEB SITE
LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF KENJI BUNCH - WORKS FOR INSTRUMENTS (Click "Listen" on menu at the top of the page to open a free-standing media player.)
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac - Ahn Trio
Ahn-Plugged - Ahn Trio
Works for Viola and Piano
Works For Violin and Orchestra - Ittai Shapira
Ritual Protocol - Koto Nakura
Harpsichord Alive: New York City Music: Elaine Comparone & The Queens Chamber Band
Paul Schwartz
Schwartz brings a wealth of experience and a rich musical vocabulary to his projects. Born in New York City, Paul is the son of famed Broadway and film composer Arthur Schwartz, whose credits include "Dancing in the Dark," "That's Entertainment" and "The Band Wagon." Paul's mother, Mary, was an actress and dancer. Paul began music lessons at age four and formal piano lessons at six.
Paul's family moved to London when he was 12 and he soon came under the influence of what was, to him, an ancient and unfamiliar culture steeped in tradition. He traces his interest in Latin texts back to singing in Westminster Abbey, where he participated in services every morning for four years while attending the school next door. He balanced his classical music studies with listening to the progressive rock of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Brian Eno and Roxy Music in high school, and Kraftwerk, Blondie and Television in college. In addition, every few weeks Paul attended either a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company or the National Theatre, or a musical performance by the Royal Opera or the English National Opera. "By the time I was 19 I had seen most of the major operas as many as four or five times. I really soaked it up." (paulschwartz.com)
Schwartz's style blends classical, contemporary, and popular musical idioms, often including electronica and "ticks." His works range from those for solo piano and voice and piano (as in his most recent song cycle/CD, Glimpses of Sappho); to compositions for various combinations of solo voice, chorus, strings, harp, percussion and electronica as in his two highly regarded series of recordings, State of Grace I, II and III (sacred) and Aria 1, 2 and 3 (secular). Compositions for voices include arrangements of well-known classical works such as Monteverdi's Lasciatemi morire, Handel's Ombra mai fu, and arias and overtures from the operas of Verdi, Puccinni and Mozart scored for strings, piano, other instruments, and electronic, dance-like, percussion tracks.
Other vocal works are newly composed using contemporary poetry as well as traditional Latin texts such as the "Magnificat" or "Ave Maria." They are set set for solo voice, mixed chorus, strings, harp, piano and/or and electronica (again, with percussion tracks). There are also stricly instrumental works - solo and ensemble instrumental pieces from solo piano and piano and violin
to full orchestral compositions such as those in Aria 3: Metamorphosis and Glimpses of Sappho (the latter comprising much of his most creative, expressive and sophisticated work).
LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF PAUL SCHWARTZ.
"Christe Redemptor" and "Listen" from State of Grace III
"Lauds"
"Ave Maria" from State of Grace II
NOTE: Sound clips of all of Paul Schwartz's CD's are available on his web site. Also available on his web site are several of his scores - Go to Paul Schwartz's Sheet Music Store. Additional scores can be obtained by contacting Schwartz directly - paul@paulschwartz.com.
GO TO THE PAUL SCHWARTZ WEB SITE.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Rovolution (Arrangements of Beatles songs, 1998)
Earthbound (2002)
Aria (1997)
Aria 2: New Horizon (1999)
Aria 3: Metamorphosis (2004)
State of Grace (2000)
State of Grace II: Turning to Peace (2003)
State of Grace III (2006) Glimpses of Sappho (2007)
Eric Whitacre
[Eric Whitacre] “is probably quite typical of the younger generation of ‘classical’ composers, raised on an omnivorous musical diet and with less of an old-school sense of high art/low art hierarchy.”
(Meurig Bowen, 2006) His choral (and to a lesser degree band) music is well-known and revered by conductors, performers and audiences alike. In a relatively short amount of time his works have become firmly established within the choral music repertoire. The music is well-crafted, harmonically rich, and expressive.
In his most recent work, "Paradise Lost," Whitacre goes in a distinctly new direction by including
electronica - an element not often heard in choral/vocal classical music. The “opera/musical" as Whitacre calls it, is scored for soloists, chorus, electronica, and world/orchestral instruments. It has been described as “a strange and beautiful hybrid of musical styles, combining opera, cinematic music, and music theater with the electronic sounds of trance, techno, and ambient"
(http://www.paradiselosttheopera.com/).
GO TO ERIC WHITACRE'S WEB SITE
LISTEN TO MUSIC BY ERIC WHITACRE
"Sleep My Child" and "What If" from PARADISE LOST, "Lux Aurumque," "Animal Crackers Vol. 1.," "A Boy and a Girl," and "Sleep."
Hila Plitman
LISTEN TO PERFORMANCES BY SOPRANO, HILA PLITMAN (WHITACRE'S WIFE)
"Forgotten" and "Butterflies" from PARADISE LOST.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Eric Whitacre: Cloudburst and other choral works, Polyphony, Stephne Layton, conductor, Hyperion Records CDA67543, 2006.
Meredith Monk
"I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema." (Meredith Monk)
MEREDITH MONK is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater works, films and installations. A pioneer in what is now called 'extended vocal technique' and 'interdisciplinary performance,' Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. She has alternately been proclaimed as a 'magician of the voice' and 'one of America’s coolest composers.' During a career that spans more than 40 years she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts. (www.meredithmonk.org)
Meredith Monk has startled and enthralled audiences since the early 1960s. Her visionary work as composer, playwright, choreographer, filmmaker, singer, and dancer has helped to define the American avant garde and earned numerous honors and awards -- including the culminating honor of a MacArthur fellowship in 1995. In Meredith Monk, Deborah Jowitt brings us an absorbing portrait of an artist whose career spans three decades of American avant-garde performance. Collecting writings by Monk herself, along with significant reviews, essays, interviews, and photographs of Monk's unique performance events, the book establishes her as one of the great treasures of contemporary American culture.
With other radical artists of the 1960s, Monk pioneered the use of multi-media in performance, and she continues to experiment with new technologies and materials to create powerful images in her work. Inspired by cultures where performance is considered a spiritual discipline with healing and transformative power, she has sought to re-establish the unity that underlies music, theater, and dance.
. . . Whether presenting epics like Quarry (1975) and . . . Atlas (1991), small music theater pieces like The Plateau Series (1978) and Facing North (1990), or solo vocal recitals, Monk remains firmly situated in the bardic tradition. Her forms may be wholly contemporary, but her images, her voices, and her themes resonate with the power of myth and legend.
GO TO MEREDITH MONK'S WEB SITE
LISTEN TO MUSIC BY MEREDITH MONK
Meredith Monk's Web Site. At the bottom of the page click ">> Launch Meredith Monk Audio Player <<"
"Gotham Lyllaby" for solo voice and piano; "Do You Be" for solo voice and piano; "Urban March Light" for solo clarinet, bass clarinet, vibraphone, percussion and piano; "Braid and Leaping Song" for solo voice, mixed voices, clarinet, percussion and piano.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
mercy, ECM New Series, CD 472468, 2002.
VOLCANO SONGS, ECM New Series, CD 289453539-2, 1997.
MONK AND THE ABBESS: The Music of Meredith Monk and Hildegard von Bingen - Musica Sacra, BMG/Catalyst, 1996.
ATLAS: an opera in three parts, ECM New Series, CD 289437773-2, 1993.
FACING NORTH, ECM New Series, CD 437439-2, 1992.
BOOK OF DAYS, ECM New Series, CD 839624-2, 1990.
DO YOU BE, ECM New Series, CD 422831782-2, 1987.
TURTLE DREAMS, ECM New Series, CD 422811547-2, 1983.
DOLMEN MUSIC, ECM New Series, CD 825459-2, 1981.