Annual American Composers Update

SAI Friend of the Arts P. Peter Sacco lives in Ashland, OR. He was commissioned by the Siskiyou Singers, David Marston, director, to arrange his O, My Lovely Child for SA children's choir with SATB choir and piano/organ, for a Dec. 1999 performance. Recently, Jefferson (OR) Public Radio KSOR-FM has aired Four Sketches on Emerson Essay and Flying Saucer Overture some six times. He has been Master Teacher and Adjudicator for the Oregon Music Teachers Association and sang Gershwin songs at its May 1999 meeting. In Mar. 1999, he played his piano works Partita and Finale and Arches for the first time, at his home. Planned releases by Swan River Press are Night Goes on Silent Steps, for SA choir; That Great Hour, versions for solo or SATB choir and piano; O, My Lovely Child, version for choirs and piano/organ; My Fairest Treasure, versions for solo or SATB a cappella choir; All Religions Lead to God, for SA, SAB, and SATB choirs; Lord Have Mercy Upon Us, for SATB choir and piano/organ; and Osaghalie Tyee (Chinook poem), for voice and piano. A simpler version of the last one will appear in an anthology for college voice classes, compiled by James Stanard.

Under Kurt Berentsen, the Concordia Univ. Choir premiered Truly My Soul Waiteth Upon God, for SATB a cappella choir, May 1999 at the Lutheran Church of Ashland and then took it on its 16-concert tour of Western states. The Concerto No. 1 was played first by pianist Alexander Tutunov and the Prague National Orchestra, Paul Freeman, conductor, Nov. 1998. Works heard first in June 1999 were The Lord is My Shepherd, for SATB choir and piano, with the Siskiyou Singers, led by Marston, at Southern Oregon Univ.; works introduced in June 1999 in the Eugene (OR) area were Sea Whispers, for violin, clarinet, and piano, with the Oregon Mozart Players; and Summer Parting, with the composer singing. Under Freeman, the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra gave the first performance of The Hypocrites (based on the words of Christ), Dec. 1999. Anna Winthrop presented Myself, for voice and piano, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Mar. 1999.

At the same recital, Winthrop sang Deceive Me Once Again, She Walks in Beauty, and Let There be Music in my Heart. Orlando Tognozzi conducted the Shasta Symphony Orchestra in Contemplation for Orchestra, Mar. 1999. The Siskiyou Singers, led by Marston, gave a performance of O, My Lovely Child, Dec. 1999.

O, My Lovely Child, solo/SA choir and piano; My Gift to Jesus, S/SA or SSA/SAA choir and piano; Lefse -- Lefse, two-part choir and piano; all by Swan River Press.

Meditation No. 1; Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Robert Tomaro, conductor; MMC Recordings Orchestral Miniatures, Vol. IV. Piano Concerto No. 1; Tutunov, piano, and Freeman, conductor; Contemplation for Orchestra; Violin Concerto No. 1; Lydia Forbes, violin, and Vladimir Valek, conductor; Symphony No. 1, in one movement; The Hypocrites; William Brown, tenor, and Freeman, conductor; all with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra by Albany Records. Winthrop's recital; Oberlin Conservatory CD. Truly my Soul Waiteth upon God, version for a cappella choir; Concordia Univ. Choir, Berentsen, conductor; Concordia Univ. CD.

• 1997-1998 American Composers Update
• SAI's Composers Bureau Online.
• SAI's Music for Young People section.