In my last post, I blogged about the evolution of a recording project. Today, I thought I'd report on how a current Cedille Records project came about.
The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, which owns and operates Cedille as a not-for-profit recording label, sometimes helps facilitate commissions to the Chicago composers we promote. About four years ago, we helped a patron commission a Magnificat for a cappella choir from renowned Chicago composer Easley Blackwood. In return for this, Cedille Records gets the right/option to make the first recording of the work.
After he composed the Magnificat, Blackwood suggested making it part of a disc program of previously unrecorded American works for unaccompanied chorus. He sent one of his former students, who is also a choral conductor, to local music libraries to find the best examples. Blackwood vetted the scores and found absolute gems by Alan Hovhannes (Four Motets, Op. 268) and George Rochberg (Behold, My Servant). To this was added a recent Stabat Mater by another former Blackwood student, Egon Cohen.
When he came to me with these works as the basis for a possible recording, Blackwood did not have a choir in mind. Happily this occurred just as Cedille was beginning its relationship with the acclaimed William Ferris Chorale, which has made performing and recording overlooked American masterpieces its trademark. (Last fall, we released the Chorale's amazing live performances of Masses by Menotti and Vierne on a mid-price label, and this November we will release our own production of the Chorale performing Christmas Music by William Ferris, including his Pulitzer-nominated Snowcarols.)
In addition to being the perfect choir to sing the pieces selected so far, the Chorale added to the list a deeply moving new work by its conductor, Paul French ("Who Am I?" to a text by German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer) and, of course, a piece by William Ferris. So this past Spring, the Chorale performed in concert and then recorded the works by Hovhannes, French, and Blackwood. The rest of the program (Rochberg, Cohen, Ferris) will be performed and then recorded next Spring.
I believe this project shows the value of a local, community-based, not-for-profit recording label. It was Cedille Records' Foundation that commissioned the work from Easley Blackwood (acting as a conduit between the patron and the composer). Blackwood, being a veteran Cedille artist, knew exactly what kind of program would appeal to us by making the most significant contribution to the record catalog (our other mission in addition to promoting the work of Chicago musicians and composers) and set about designing such a program. And it was Cedille's relationship with Chicago's finest mid-sized choir that provided the performers for the project -- and completed the repertory. Without Cedille's connections to patrons, composers, and performers -- and ability to put them together -- it's hard to see how this project would ever have come about.
Instead, six previously unrecorded American masterpieces for a cappella choir by six different recent or contemporary composers will be preserved for posterity in performances of the highest caliber and be made available to music lovers around the world.
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