Artburst: music, dance, theater, etc

The Birmingham Art Music Alliance is an autonomous nonprofit organization with the twofold mission of promoting music by Alabama composers and presenting concerts of recently created art music to communities in Birmingham and beyond.  Members include local composers, professional performers, students, and enthusiasts who wish to preserve and maintain the long tradition of music as a living art form. 

Kim Bain, Lori Ardovino, Sallie White, Jon S. Remley

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BACKGROUND to CD: Pianist Heather Coltman and Soprano Diane McNaron presented the US premieres of Cuatro Canciones, Dos Canciones and Piezas Breves, by Argentine composer Valdo Sciammarela, on the Dorothy F. Schmidt College Chamber Music Series at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, on October 28, 2007. His song cycle Cantigas de Amigo, also featured on the recital, has been performed by McNaron for years, after Austin, Texas choral arranger Howard Burkett discovered a rare copy in a Birmingham, Alabama music store. Recently establishing contact with the composer, following a search also involving colleagues at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, McNaron and Coltman will release an album of his works, including songs, piano solo and chamber music, late in 2008. This marks the first time most of this music, largely unpublished, has been recorded. The vocal and piano portions will be recorded at Florida Atlantic University recording studios.

COMPOSER’S BIO Argentine composer Valdo Sciammarella began his prolific career as a concert pianist in Buenos Aires.

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Karen Bentley-Pollick, Violin
Grant Dalton, Percussion

In recital

Sunday, May 4
3:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham

Djembach:  Suite for Solo Violin & Percussion (1997) Christian Woehr (b. 1951)
Commissioned by Kathleen Mattis Dedicated to a busload of Violists with one empty seat

• Prelude for Tom Dumm:  Allegro
• Allemande for Bill Martin:  Andante
• Courante for Susan Kier:  Moderato
• Sarabande to LIbba & Wolf:  Adagio
• Gavotte for Mo Jacob:  Moderato con maestoso
• Trio for Leonid Gotman
• Gigue for Katy Mattis:  Allegro Vivo

March for Solo Timpani (1950) Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi for Solo Violin (1984)

Impossible Animals (1989 version for Violin and Synthetic Voices) David Jaffe (b. 1955)

Salsa for Karen for Violin and Percussion (1998) Ole Saxe (b. 1952)

Satumaa:  Finnish Tango (Fairytale Land, 1955) Unto Mononen (1930 - 1968)

Fanitullen for Norwegian hardangerfele Odd Bakkerud (1931 - 1989)

Poem by Jorgen Moe (1813 – 1882)

Orange Blossom Special (1936) Ervin T. Rouse (1917 – 1981)