Annual American Composers Update
Katherine Danforth Fisher
On the Rochester, NY classical radio station, WXXI-FM
on Sept. 25, 2000, a recording of SAI Patroness Katherine
Danforth Fisher's
The Beatitudes for SATB choir
and organ was played on the Sunday morning With Hearts
and Voices program. Richard Gladwell, host of the program,
remarked on the history of this composition. Notably,
in the late forties, the work was commissioned by Ted
Hollenbach, director of the Rochester Oratorio Society.
Fisher used the Sermon on the Mount text because of the
tumultuous events occurring in the Post-War Middle East,
as Christ's words were a call for peacemakers. The 250-voice
Oratorio Society gave the world premiere at the University
of Rochester in the spring of 1949. A year later, the
work was performed under the stars in their amphitheater
by the Chautauqua (NY) Institute Choir.
The Beatitudes's
1999 performance, featured on the radio program, was sung
by the choir of the Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester
with organist Peter DuBois, baritone Mario Martinez, and
tenor John Denison. Fisher's CODA CD's (see Recordings)
includes many performances by SAI's, including Sigma Theta
Chapter in 1956 at the fraternity's National Convention
in Washington, D.C., and a coaching session taken from
a taping in 1988 involving SAI's. "(Thanks for the memories!)"
Recordings
18 songs, choruses and instrumental works; Coda double
CD.
Further Information
