ABBA

Arranger, artistic director, bass singer, composer, conductor, oboist and organist from New York, New York, who attended Harvard where he studied with Walter Piston, Randall Thompson, and G. Wallace Woodworth. He advanced his education at the Longy School of Music, under the watchful eyes of Mme. Olga Averino and Mme. Mascia Predit. To top it off, he went to France and learned more about conducting and composing from Nadia Boulanger.

His early compositions include “In Memoriam Vincenzo Pezzi”, “Odysseus”, “Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet”, and “Sonata for Bass Viol and Piano”. On 1^st April 1969, at the 1^st Annual Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Choral Arts Society of Washington premiered his “Once: In Memoriam Martin Luther King, Jr.” at The Church of the Epiphany. A recording of the work was released on the Turnabout/Vox album, The Contemporary Composer in the U.S., in 1975.

In 1987, he appeared on The Philadelphia Singers’ Christmas album, Gloria! Gloria!, the New Mexico Brass Quintet released Beveridge: Magic Flute Fantasy; Cheetham: A Brass Menagerie, the Augustana Concert Band performed his “Sinfonia Concertante”, and the New Amsterdam Singers premiered his “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun”. Another recording on which his work appeared was The New York Camerata’s 1993 disc, Songs from Another Time.

In 1994, he conducted the New Dominion Chorale at St. Mark’s Catholic Church, Vienna, at the premiere of his own “Yizkor Requiem”, a work that is lauded for its blending of themes both Jewish and Catholic.

He has also conducted the Washington Men’s Camerata, as he did on their 1990s CDs, Masters in this Hall: Christmas Music for Men’s Chorus, Over the Sea to Skye: Folk Songs from around the World, and The Spirit of Freedom: Patriotic Songs & Service Hymns.

In November 1999, the Cantate Chamber Singers premiered his “Verses from Endymion”, a piece they commissioned from him, at the Western Presbyterian Church in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. At the time, he was also serving as choirmaster and organist at the church.

On 19^th May 2000, he conducted a double orchestra and chorus consisting of over 185 musicians, among them the Langley High School Women’s Select Treble Choir, at Fairfax High School in a performance of the “St. Matthew Passion” by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The New Dominion Chorale premiered his “Symphony of Peace” on Veterans Day in 2002 at Northern Virginia Community College’s Schlesinger Hall in Alexandria, Virginia.

On 18^th October 2005, Milken Archive released his aforementioned “Yizkor Requiem” on CD, performed by the Academy-of-St.-Martin-in-the-Fields under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner.

The Longy School of Music gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006. On 15^th February 2009, he won a Wammy! (Washington Area Music Award) in the category of Classical Composer.

The Philadelphia Singers recordings

Adeste Fidelis (Frederick Oakeley/John Francis Wade)

RCA 6559-2-RC (Gloria! Gloria!)

Soprano – Benita Valente

Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

Conductor – Michael Korn

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