COMMISSIONS AND PREMIERES

Noted in Upcoming News but worth repeating here: the Hopewell Valley Chorus commissioned In The Arms of Music, a six movement, half-hour ode to music for soloists, chorus, children's chorus and chamber ensemble The premiere will be on Sunday, May 23rd, at 3pm at the Princeton Performing Arts Center.

Amuse, who commissioned Women in Love, recently commissioned a women's chorus arrangement of three Shakespeare Songs. They premiered the work in January in New York City.

Voce Chamber Singers, ("Northen Virginia's premier choral ensemble" — Washington Post), premiered the work they commissioned, Shakespeare Songs, Book VI, in May. They have also commissioned a piece for the 2010-2011 season, and are currently putting together an album of the complete Shakespeare Songs.

Director Daniel Beal and the York (PA) Suburban High School Concert Choir premiered My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, which was commissioned in celebration of the school's 50th anniversary. In a second performance, Harris conducted his works.

Robert Drafall premiered the piece he commissioned from Harris, If Music and Sweet Poetry Agree, with his State College High School Chorus in Pennsylvania.

PERFORMANCES HERE AND ABOUT

Shakespeare Songs Sightings: San Francisco Lyric Chorus and Da Camera Singers (Amherst, MA) in April; Dallas Chamber Singers, Voce Novae (Louiville, KY) and Carroll U. Vocal Collective (Waukesha, WI) in March. Earlier this season: Concora's 35th Anniversary Gala (New Britain, CT), and the Virginia Chorale.

From the Holiday Season: North Country Chorus (Vermont and New Hampshire), Buck's County Choral Society (Pennsylvania), and Village Voices (New York State) performed A Child's Christmas in Wales, and Acappellago (Chicago) performed On This Starry Night. And what is now a twelve-year tradition, Western Wind (NYC) sang little tree at their annual holiday concert.

Live from New York (and environs): The Walt Whitman High School Choir, directed by Jeff Davidson, gave the New York premiere of Fear No More from the new Book VI at Carnegie Hall on April 24th. Angelica, an ensemble of women's voices led by Marie Caruso, performed How Like a Winter Hath My Absence Been; Western Wind performed Sweet and Low around town; Judith Clurman guest conducted an honor choir at the New Jersey State Music Association conference in a performance of O Sacrum Convivium in Secaucus; and the above-mentioned women's vocal ensemble AMUSE, led by Guest Conductor Steven Fox, performed How Like a Winter Hath My Absence Been.

From Sea to Shining Sea: Macalester College and the Festival Chorale: Minn., Musica Sacra: Cambridge, Ma; Amare Cantare: Exeter, NH.; George Fox University Chamber Singers: Newberg, OR; University of Virginia Chamber Singers: Charlottesville; and De Angelis Vocal Ensemble (see above for their upcoming concert).

And Across the Pond: Romulus Singers in Hale Barns, Yeovil Chamber Choir, Somerset Chamber Choir, The Levens Choir in Kendal, and The Nonesuch Singers at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

DIVERS AND SUNDRY

Sounds Choral, the radio show mentioned above, featured Anne Matlack, Director of the Harmonium Choral Society, talking about her experience commissioning and premiering A Child's Christmas in Wales, and Thomas Lloyd, director of the Buck's County Choral Society, talking about his upcoming performances of the work. In 2007, Sounds Choral devoted a show to Harris's music.

2008 & 2009

Center for Contemporary Opera performed a reading of scenes from Harris's libretto for his opera Tess (based on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles) at The Cell in New York City in January. Harris introduced the work beforehand and joined a panel discussion afterward. At the end of the evening the audience heard a musical recording of the excerpt that was read earlier.

In November, Harris was invited to Galway, Ireland by the Cois Cladaigh Chamber Choir to coach and attend the premiere performance of the work they commissioned from him, Three Plums.

The Phoenix Chorale's 50th Anniversary celebration concerts in October and November included the Harris pieces they recorded on their first Chandos album.

Jazzica, a women's choir in Germany performed How Like a Winter Hath my Absence Been at various dates throughout the country.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, the 13-composer collaboration headed by Harris, was accepted for publication by Walton Music.

The Southern Oregon Repertory Singers sang Harris at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on July 14th in Ashland.

NPR stations around the country broadcast The Western Wind performing Sweet and Low on the Fourth of July. The special program on American music also included an interview with Harris. Sweet and Low will later be released on an upcoming Western Wind CD.

Montage performed Starry Night on Sunday, May 19th in Dedham, MA.

Anne Matlack and the Harmonium Choral Society included Shakespeare Songs Book IV on their final concerts of the season on Saturday June 7th and Sunday June 8th in Madison, NJ.

On May 16th, Winchester Musica Viva performed Harris's Love Songs at Trinity Episcopal Church, Upperville, VA.

Jeff Davidson and his Walt Whitman High School Chorus in Bethesda, MD, premiered Break, Break, Break, a piece they commissioned to honor the memory of a recent graduate.

The Hopewell Valley Chorus sang Sweet and Low on May 9th in Pennington, NJ.

The Masterworks Choral in San Carlos, CA perform Harris at their "Serenade to Shakespeare" on March 15th & 16th.

The New Amsterdam Singers sang Innocence & Experience and Love Songs in New York City on March 7th and 9th at The Church of the Holy Trinity.

Voce (see above) performed a set of Shakespeare Songs on February 23rd & 24th in the D.C. area.

Harris and choral director Joseph Ohrt led a 13-composer commissioning project where each composer set a stanza from Wallace Stevens's iconic poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird for men's chorus and piano. Harris set the opening stanza and coordinated the work from the aesthetic side, while Ohrt chose a stellar cast of choral composers from around the world. Dr. Ohrt and the Central Bucks West High School Men's Chorus premiered the work at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. on January 27th and at the American Choral Directors Association conference in Hartford on February 14th.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale included O Mistress Mine on their recently-released "Live from Loretto Chapel," a 2-disc album on Clarion Records. Matthew Tresler conducted the work.

THE ARCHIVES

2007

The classical radio show Sounds Choral, on WWFM in New Jersey, featured an hour-long interview with Harris on November 25th. Host Marjorie Hellerman also played recordings of Harris's choral music.

The Ebor Singers (York, England), Directed by Paul Gameson, sang selections from Shakespeare Songs, Books 1-4 on November 10th at The Chapter House in York Minster.

On November 4th, Charles Bruffy led the Phoenix Bach Choir in a performance of O Mistress Mine at the Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix.

The Americas Vocal Ensemble – Nelly Vuksic, director – sang Crotalo from Harris's Two Lorca Songs on their “Crossing Cultures in the Americas" concerts in October. The performances took place at various venues in Queens and Manhattan.

Dr. John Pretzet's dissertation, "A Conductor's Guide to the Shakespeare Songs of Matthew Harris" was approved by Texas Tech University in June and copies were printed in August. He reports it will be available online in the near future.

A small sampling of Shakespeare Songs performances from the summer of 2007: the Romulus Singers, led by Jon Henderson, in Halebarns, England; Pizzicante, under the direction of Christiana Duyck, in Turnhout, Belgium; the Monmouth Civic Chorus, under Mark Shapiro, in Red Bank, New Jersey.

The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble performed Sweet and Low Friday June 8th, 8pm at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City. The concert also included premieres by Meredith Monk and Tania León.

On June 6th at St. Vibiana's Cathedral, the Los Angeles Chamber Singers premiered Fantasy on La Bamba at the opening concert of the Chorus America Conference 2007 in L. A.

The Kennedy Center presented a complete evening of all five Books of Harris's Shakespeare Songs as part of their Shakespeare In Washington festival. The Voce Chamber Singers, under Kenneth Nafziger, performed at two locations in the D.C. area on May 11th and 12th.

The Amherst College Concert Choir, under Mallorie Chernin, performed works by Harris on May 5th at the Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center.

Cois Cladaigh (Brendan O'Connor, Director) performed It Was a Lover and His Lass at the Cork International Choral Festival on May 4th at St. Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, Ireland. They also commissioned a new work from Harris, to be performed next season.

The festival for the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown, VA, presented the Selinsgrove Area Honors Choir performing Innocence & Experience on May 11th.

Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, led by Kristina Boerger, premiered Sweet and Low in three concerts in the New York area on May 13th, 19th and 20th.

The Alaska Chamber Chorale presented Las Seis Cuerdas and Innocence & Experience on their farewell concert on May 6th, in the Davis Concert Hall at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

On April 27th, the Shakespeare Festival in Washington D.C. performed the first of two events featuring Harris's Shakespeare Songs (see above for the other): Joseph Ohrt's Central Bucks West Choir at St. Matthew Cathedral.

John Pretzet, the Texas Tech University doctoral student whose thesis is on Harris's five Books of Shakespeare Songs, gave his Lecture-Recital at the school on April 22nd.

Anne Matlack's Harmonium Choral Society performed Oceanic Eyes, a large work for chorus, guitar and string quartet, and Two Lorca Songs in Morristown, NJ on March 3rd and 4th.

Shakespeare Songs were performed around the world in March: in Indonesia with the Musicanova Chamber Choir under the baton of Ivan Yohan; in Galway, Ireland with Cois Cladaigh, directed by Brendan O'Connor; and in the US at the Music Educators National Conference in Connecticut with the Central Bucks West Choir, led by Joseph Ohrt.

C.F. Peters recently released their publication of Harris' "Love Songs" for a cappella men's chorus. "Women in Love" and will be released soon.

2006

The Manchester Choral Society, directed by Daniel R. Perkins, presented A Child's Christmas in Wales on December 2nd & 3rd, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A Child's Christmas in Wales was also performed by The West Side Singers, directed by Gayle Swymer, on December 14th in New York's Greenwich Village. The concert included On This Starry Night as well.

The Western Wind sang little tree at their annual New York Holiday Concert on December 23rd at The Church of St. Paul in New York City.

University of Arizona's Kantorei, led by Adam Eggleston, sang Two Lorca Songs on November 19th.

The Danbury Concert Chorus performed Shakespeare Songs, Book V in Danbury, CT on November 12th.

The Los Angeles Chamber Singers, directed by Peter Rutenberg, performed Shakespeare Songs, Books I & II on June 16, 17 & 18, each date in a different space in the LA area. The program was entitled "The Poet's Art IX: American Serenade."

Amuse, a Women's vocal ensemble directed by Kristina Boerger, premiered Women in Love in New York City on June 11th. The work was commissioned by Amuse. Harris had conducted excerpts from it, as well as other works of his, at the Amuse Benefit on April 25th.

On June 11th, Jeremy Faust directed International Orange in a performance of three Shakespeare Songs in San Francisco.

The Monmouth Civic Chorus, directed by Mark Shapiro, performed Shakespeare Songs, Book I on June 10th at Two River Theatre in a concert called Sounds Like Shakespeare.

Cerddorion, also led by Kristina Boerger, performed Shakespeare Songs, Books I & V on their May 13th concert in Greenwich Village.

Clara Longstreth led The New Amsterdam Singers in Object Lesson on May 18th in Manhattan.

Anne Matlack's Harmonium Choral Society performed Shakespeare Songs, Book V in Madison, NJ on June 3rd and 4th. The chamber singers did it in Basking Ridge, NJ in April.

Laurence Smith conducted the Interlochen Arts Academy Choir in a concert version of Act II, Scene One of Harris' opera TESS on Friday, April 21st at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

The American Choral Directors Association's Eastern Division convention in New York City included a performance of O Mistress Mine by the New Amsterdam Singers, conducted by Clara Longstreth; and a reading of Shakespeare Songs, Book V, conducted by Steven Bell.

The Klein Collins Chorale performed Crotalo at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio in February.

Harris was a guest composer in January at the St. Andrew's Performing Arts Series in Wellesley, where MONTAGE performed Starry Night: Seven Paintings for Violin, Cello and Piano.

2005

The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble performed Harris's setting of the e.e. cummings poem, little tree at their "Holiday Lights" concert in New York in December.

A Child's Christmas in Wales was recently performed in Doylestown, PA. The amazing Joseph Ohrt conducted his award-wining choir plus a reduced orchestra.

Chicago A Cappella released an album on Cedille Records, “Shall I Compare Thee,” which includes Harris’s And Will a’ Not Come Again?; It was a Lover and his Lass; Take, O Take Those Lips Away and Who is Silvia? from his Shakespeare Songs. They will perform all the works from the album in April.

The Aaron Copland Fund awarded a grant to the Los Angeles Chamber Singers to record Harris' choral works. Last summer they gave the West Coast premiere of Innocence and Experience on three concerts around Los Angeles celebrating their 15th anniversary season

The New Amsterdam Singers (see above) toured Eastern Europe last summer with a collection of Shakespeare Songs, which they had just performed New York City. (Read the New York Times review.)