Three faculty members from Montclair State University\u2019s John J. Cali School of Music are featured on a trio of new music CDs being released in 2011.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are three fabulous CDs,\u201d enthused Ruth Rendleman, interim director of the Cali School of Music. \u201cThey really show the breadth and depth and the performing aspect of our faculty. It brings increased recognition to our school to have such different kinds of work going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meredith Monk, Songs of Ascension<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Composer and performing artist Meredith Monk joins with the Montclair State University Singers, conducted by Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music Heather J. Buchanan; Monk\u2019s Vocal Ensemble and M6; plus the Todd Reynolds Quartet, on a musically ambitious work that takes listeners on an unconventional performance journey.<\/p>\n \u201cI like that [Monk] stretches people\u2019s concepts of sound and music,\u201d noted Buchanan. \u201cShe really comes to it from a spiritual dimension that is non-traditional, and I like that enormously. She\u2019s never rigid; there\u2019s always a flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n The 55-member mixed-voice University Singers were excited about performing with an artist of Monk\u2019s caliber. \u201cThe honor of being included in an experience like this was tremendous for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The ensemble of undergraduate and graduate students, all of whom are experienced singers and musicians, normally focuses on a traditional classical chorale repertoire. The three tracks on which the University Singers perform were a challenge for the students, who more than rose to the occasion. \u201cMeredith Monk\u2019s music is very sophisticated. It\u2019s a lot more difficult than it looks on the page. There are lots of complicated musical lines,\u201d Buchanan said.<\/p>\n Monk\u2019s association with Montclair State dates back six years to when she was a guest artist-in-residence. The new CD is Buchanan\u2019s and the University Singers\u2019 third collaboration with her.<\/p>\n Nikolai Tcherepnin<\/strong><\/p>\n Witten happened upon the piano solos of Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873-1945), a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and teacher of Prokofiev, five years ago while scouring a library in Moscow. \u201cIf people know him at all, they know him as a ballet composer. It was so interesting for me to discover his piano music,\u201d he said. \u201cHis music is so varied. It has quicksilver changes. It has a drama that definitely matches the story line or descriptive element.\u201d Four generations of the Tcherepnin family are composers, starting with Nicolai himself. The late Ivan Tcherepnin, Nikolai\u2019s grandson, was a personal friend of Witten.<\/p>\n The CD reflects Tcherepnin\u2019s fondness for fairytales. He composed 14 piano sketches (\u201cFourteen Sketches on Pictures from the Russian Alphabet\u201d) to go with artist Albert Benois\u2019s Alphabet Book in Pictures,<\/em> in which letters of the Russian alphabet are illustrated with a scene from a Russian fairy tale or an image of an aristocratic childhood. All 14 sketches are on the CD. Tcherepnin\u2019s influences range from Chopin and Rachmaninov to the colors of French Impressionism, the latter of which Tcherepnin was exposed to after emigrating to Paris as a young man.<\/p>\n Witten plans to perform Tcherepnin\u2019s piano music at a concert he will be giving in Moscow in March, 2012. His international career has included numerous concert tours as well as solo appearances with the Boston Pops Orchestra and various chamber music collaborations with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n Elmer Gantry<\/strong><\/p>\n Turning Elmer Gantry<\/em> into an opera was an idea that first came to Aldridge in 1991. \u201cI\u2019m originally from the South and a minister\u2019s son so the idea of religion in America was interesting,\u201d he said, adding that he wanted to create a \u201cdistinctly American opera, not just an homage to the European form, but one that combines American vernacular, gospel music, and an operatic story.\u201d<\/p>\n After many starts and stops, the production (with libretto by Aldridge\u2019s long-time collaborator Herschel Garfein) premiered in Nashville in 2007 and at Montclair State in 2008 to glowing reviews. The opera\u2019s 16-year odyssey culminated in the 2.5-hour CD, featuring the Florentine Opera Chorus, the Florentine Opera Company and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n Aldridge has written over 60 works for orchestra, music-theater, chamber, string quartet, voice, and dance ensembles. Bitten by the opera bug, he is planning his second production, based on Theodore Dreiser\u2019s 1900 novel Sister Carrie<\/em>, about a young country girl\u2019s fall from grace in her quest for success as an actress.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost every composer thinks about doing an opera\u2019\u201d said Aldridge. \u201cHistorically, it\u2019s seen as the ultimate form in that it combines words, music, theater, and costumes. It\u2019s something I wanted to do for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three faculty members from Montclair State University\u2019s John J. 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