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Songs for the Harvester of Dreams
Grasshopper composed by Howard Rovics
sung by Christina Rovics
Songs for the Harvester of Dreams is a song cycle by Howard Rovics which he composed in 1984 for the New York City based group Continuum in celebration of its twentieth anniversary season. It was premiered at Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center) in 1986. The work was commissioned by the New York State Council for the Arts. This set of six poems by the native American poet Duane Niatum was set for two pianists (piano four-hands), clarinet and soprano.
Christina Rovics and Howard performed it in concert years later and in 2000 recorded it under a grant from C.W. Post College where Howard taught for 35 years. This recording with Christina Rovics as soloist, Richard Goldsmith on clarinet, and Howard together with Helen Lin at the piano was professionally recorded at his college under the supervision of Max Lifchitz, director of North/South Recordings.
Connecticut Composers Inc. (CCI), the official state-wide composers organization has been producing an ongoing a series of CDs presenting concert music by Connecticut Composers for years. This latest release called Spectra: A Concert of Vocal Music by Connecticut Composers, Inc. includes five contemporary Connecticut composers, Elizabeth R. Austin, Allen Brings, Dave Brubeck, Howard Rovics, and Michael Slayton. Howard was president of CCI from 1990 to 1994. At present our own Meg Stoop is president of the organization. It's interesting to note that the celebrated jazz musician Dave Brubeck (who lives in Wilton) and still pursues an active career as a jazz performer at age 90) also composes "serious" concert music and has long been a dedicated supporter of the composer's art.
Here is the opening track from Songs for the Harvester of Dreams. It is called Grasshopper, the title of a poem inspired by this little creature. Each poem that follows evokes a nature image -- Loon, Squirrel, Spider, Crow, and Wolf.
To purchase this CD one can search for it through Amazon, iTunes or directly from Arizona University Recordings, LLC. It's AUR CD 3148.
To find more recordings by Howard and Christina Rovics go to CDBaby.
Ashley Villodas: 4 Recordings
Ashley Villodas sings Love You, I Do
"Love You I Do" is a song performed by American R&B singer Jennifer Hudson in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. The music for the song was written by Henry Krieger, composer of the original Broadway play, with lyrics by Siedah Garrett. It is one of the four songs featured in the film that are not present in the original Broadway play. I(from Wikipedia)
Ashley sings The Climb
The Climb was created by songwriters: jessi Alexander and John Mabe. It was made famous by Miley Cyrus as a hit single.
Ashley sings Listen
"Listen" is a 2006 R&B, soul song recorded by American singer Beyoncé Knowles. The song was written by Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, and Knowles. "Listen" is one of four compositions written specifically for the Dreamgirls film. (Wickipedia)
Ashley sings Summertime
Summertime by Ira and George Gershwin was originally a soprano aria from their opera Porgy and Bess but it lends itself to jazz and cabaret styling. Ashley tries her hand at the latter.
About Recording Day, Feb 15, 2010
All of the Feb 15, 2010 entries were recorded by Rob Volpintesta at Angel Thorne Music, LLC. These are commercial quality, studio recordings. The student provides a karaoke accompaniment. Many hours of instruction and practice went into the preparation of these performances including a chance for the students to perform before a live audience the prior week. It seemed timely to take ttheir work into the recording studio. The results have been very gratifying. Now, with the addition of an mp3 utility built right into our website we can readily share our work with one another.Recordings 2/15/10 at Angel Thorne Music
My Funny Valentine sung by Kelly Aaronson
This karaoke accompaniment to My Funny Valentine is the one that is in the style of Kristin Chenoweth to music and lyrics composed by Rodgers & Hart.
Jimmy as sung by Kelly Aaronson
Jimmy is from the show Thoroughly Modern Mille. The original music and lyrics copyright 1967 was by Jay Thompson. The book of vocal selections to this show credits Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan with additional music and lyrics, copyright 2001.
Come to Your Senses sung by Sharon McCarthy
The words and music to Come to Your Senses were composed by Jonathan Larson.
Gimme Gimme sung by Sharon McCarthy
Gimme Gimme, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, music by Jeanine Tesori is from the show Thouroughly Modern Millie.
Hold On sung by Sarah-Kate Chiovitti
Hold On is from The Secret Garden Marsha Norman (Book and Lyrics), Lucy Simon (Composer). Copyright 1991.
Jimmy sung by Sarah-Kate Chiovitti (see Kelly Aaronson (above) for notes on Jimmy)
Yesterday Once More by The Carpenters is sung by Maria LoStocco. Maria, one of our younger students (just turning 13) is most comfortable singing in her low voice or extremely high one which you can hear in her rendition of Schubert's Ave Maria.
Ave Maria by Franz Schubert
Sung by Maria LoStocco
