BRAVI to …
Michael Dellaira … Mark Grant … Sean Hickey … Gene Pritsker … Melanie Mitrano … Joseph & Linda Pehrson … “Jimmy” Paulk … Richard Marshall … Carola van den Houten
Michael Dellaira , for his commission to compose an opera, The Secret Agent , based on Joseph Conrad, in collaboration with the outstanding librettist J. D. McClatchy. The assignment is a joint commission of The Center for Contemporary Opera, San Antonio Opera and Long Leaf Opera and is scheduled for premiere in 2009-10 … Mark Grant, for receiving a grant from the Eric Friedheim Foundation, its first for contemporary music since the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award competition was ended in 1994. The award funds a commission and performance of The Rose of Tralee, a 40-minute dramatic cantata that Grant is in the process of composing for Amor Artis, the New York-based chorus and orchestra. The performance, to be conducted by Amor Artis’ director Johannes Somary, is scheduled for spring 2007 at Blessed Sacrament Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the resident venue of Amor Artis since 2000 ….. Sean Hickey, for his being named composer-in-residence with the Metro Chamber Orchestra of New York, according to an announcement made by Maestro Phillip Nuzzo. “When I first heard Sean’s music I was taken by its transparent beauty. In Sagesse, I found a work layered with rich harmonies and melodic fragments which held my attention and whet my appetite for more. After one rehearsal of Sagesse I knew that Sean needed to be our first composer-in -residence. We eagerly look forward to the Clarinet Concerto we commissioned as well as a Mussorgsky arrangement.” ….. Melanie Mitrano & Gene Pritsker , 
for their participation in the Tom Tykwer film, Perfume, as soprano soloist and co-orchestrator (resp.) ….. Joseph & Linda Pehrson for hosting the annual holiday party of the New York Composers Circle. NYCC Executive Director John de Clef Piñeiro wrote: “Our NYCC spirits were not only raised but were exemplified by the generous hospitality of our dear hosts Joe and Linda. And for that convivial afternoon (and it wasn’t the first) we want to thank and acknowledge them as colleagues and friends!” ….. James “Jimmy” Paulk, on the occasion of his retirement both from his successful insurance business and the Center for Contemporary Opera, which was celebrated by director Richard Marshall and wife Maria at their apartment on Roosevelt Island. The good news is that Jimmy will be returning to his roots in Georgia, and continuing to enjoy the thing he loves dearly—attending opera performances—and still sending us his engaging reviews. ….. Carola van den Houten, on another of her fun soirées at her West Side apartment on January 19th, 2007, this time introducing us to some new works by composer-pianist Ronn Yedidia, for himself, cellist Wanda Glawocka and flutist Theresa Norris, with first-class performances all around.
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