Crawford Gates***

Crawford Gates saw his opera Joseph! Joseph!, based on the life of American Prophet Joseph Smith, performed twice on April 30, 2004, in Assembly Hall, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT. Eleven soloists were chosen by audition and joined by a chorus of 120 voices trained by Kelly DeHaan, a 27 piece orchestra, two grand pianos, and the Assembly Hall organ played by Tabernacle Organist Bonnie Goodliffe. The event was listed as “Highlights of Excerpts,” with a narrator bridging the passages of omitted libretto, and featured 72 minutes of highlights from the 135-minute work. Both performances, produced by David Warner, Director of Performing Arts and Music of the New Conference Center Theatre, were met with standing ovations. Dawn Phelps Neal of Los Angeles, CA, plans an April 2005 production of Joseph! Joseph! in Los Angeles, and three other major American cities are contemplating possible productions. Gates also contributed Winter Radiance to the new collection “Mormoniana,” which contains 16 new pieces by composers from Utah. Each composer was inspired by a painting by a Utah artist, and prints of the 16 paintings are included in the volume, along with a companion CD by pianist Grant Johannesen.

Premieres

Symphony No.7, A Triumphal Trilogy, for chorus, soprano, and orchestra, was first heard August 9, 2003, in a performance conducted by the composer in celebration of the Centennial of Mu Phi Epsilon in Cincinnati, OH. A program of excerpts and highlights from the opera Joseph! Joseph! was performed twice on April 30, 2004 at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT. O Rose Bouquet, a song cycle commissioned by contralto Doris Brunatti, was presented by Brunatti on November 13, in Washington DC; the performance also included another commissioned song cycle, and various chamber works.

Publications

Winter Radiance, for piano; “Mormoniana,” book and CD. Praiseworthy Singer Volume 12, six hymn arrangements for advanced voice and piano; Jackman Music Corporation. O Rose Bouquet, song cycle.

Recordings

Winter Radiance from “Mormoniana,” pianist Grant Johannesen. “Consider The Lilies” includes For I Am Called By Thy Name, orchestra and choir, commissioned and performed by Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra of Temple Square. directed by Craig Jessop. “American Tapestry;” Come, Come Ye Saints (from Pentameron: Piano Concerto No.2), pianist Jenny Richards.

***Sigma Alpha Iota National Arts Associate

Further Information

• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1997-1998 American Composers Update
• SAI's Composers Bureau Online
• SAI's Music for Young People section