HEGGIE'S ROMANTIC, SEARING HOLOCAUST SONG CYCLE NOW ON CD

Music of Remembrance's Commissions Tell Tragic, True Story of Gay German Teens, Horrors of Vilna Ghetto, and of a Seattle Musician's Legacy

SEATTLE, WA-May 21, 2008- Seattle's Music of Remembrance (MOR) is adding a new entry to their unique CD repertoire: their latest CD, For a Look or a Touch, the world premiere recording of a trio of MOR commissions, was released on classical music label Naxos on April 29.

MOR's first chamber music CD, Art from Ashes, Vol. 1, included a 2003 Pulitzer Finalist, Paul Schoenfield's Camp Songs; their second starred international opera star Jane Eaglen; and their third recording, Hans Krása's children's opera Brundibár, was named one of the top ten opera CDs of 2007 by Opera News.

The new CD takes its title from the theatrical song cycle from young American opera composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking, The End of the Affair) and his librettist Gene Scheer, For a Look or a Touch. Filling out the hour-long CD are two more works by contemporary American composers: Lori Laitman's song cycle The Seed of Dream, and composer (and Seattle Symphony conductor) Gerard Schwarz's In Memoriam.

With three all-new works, the CD emphasizes two aspects of the mission of the 10-year-old Seattle chamber music organization-to remember the musicians and artists of the Holocaust era through commissions and recordings of new works. "For a Look or a Touch incorporates the poetry of a German 17-year-old; The Seed of Dream, the poetry of ghetto escapee and resistance fighter," says Mina Miller, MOR's artistic director, "and In Memoriam commemorates the life of the brilliant Seattle Symphony cellist and friend and inspiration to MOR, David Tonkonogui (1958-2003)."

While the Holocaust was primarily an assault on Jewish culture, MOR is committed to providing a musical witness to all those who suffered in its totalitarian suppression of intellectual and creative work. The Nazis targeted more than one million German gay men, and 100,000 were arrested. There is documented evidence for the deaths of 15,000 male homosexuals (which does not include anyone who was both gay and Jewish, or gay and Communist).

Composer Heggie says, "One of the most meaningful projects of my career was the creation and realization of For a Look or a Touch. To be able to put my heart and soul into a project that was not only meaningful to me, but to everybody involved, and to feel such support and enthusiasm was extremely gratifying. And then to have it leap off the page and move audiences to tears with the wonderful musicians of Music of Remembrance and the dynamic duo of Morgan Smith and Julian Patrick was a dream come true."

The title For a Look or a Touch is taken from the documentary Paragraph 175, which explains that the laws against homosexuals were so far-reaching, you could literally be arrested "For a Look or a Touch." That is what happened to the real-life teenager Gad Beck, who became a character in Jake Heggie's piece. Beck survived; his lover Manfred Lewin, a Jew, did not. Lewin's journal, which Heggie and Scheer relied on, recounts the events leading up to Lewin being murdered at Auschwitz with his entire family.

On the CD, up-and-coming Seattle baritone Morgan Smith sings the role of Manfred's ghost, who visits an elderly Gad Beck (Seattle Opera Ring veteran Julian Patrick, in an acting role) to spark his memory of their love. At its world premiere in May 2007, the work, scored for a piano quintet (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano) drew praise for its musical and emotional range, from giddy cabaret and jazz influences, to its stark exposition of the horrors of concentration camp life.

The Seattle Times applauded its "deeply moving music and lyrics that pull no punches" and the "first-rate ensemble" of musicians who reassembled for the recording: Zart Dombourian-Eby, Laura DeLuca, Mikhail Shmidt, and Amos Yang. Craig Sheppard-the Seattle pianist who has recorded the masterworks of everyone from Bach and Beethoven, to Rachmaninov-was at the keyboard.

In Memoriam represents Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz's return to composition; the work, for solo cello and string quartet, was written for his son Julian Schwarz, when he was chosen to be the first recipient of MOR's David Tonkonogui Memorial Award.

As Schwarz explains: "David meant so much to all of us in our household and was such an inspirational teacher for Julian, fostering his passionate love of music [that] I suggested that perhaps I could write something." The Seattle Times called the result, "tonal, technically assured and beautiful to hear." Julian Schwarz, on solo cello, was 15 at the time of the recording.

Lori Laitman's song cycle draws upon the work of Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever, who was imprisoned in the Vilna Ghetto with his wife and mother. He joined the Vilna Ghetto Underground and smuggled weapons and taught Yiddish poetry, before escaping the Ghetto in 1943 and joining a partisan fighters unit. The cycle's title, The Seed of Dream, comes from Sutzkever's poem "To My Child," written after his son was murdered. The five poems are translated by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams (except for "Beneath the Whiteness of your Stars," translated by Leonard Wolf).

Laitman says, "As soon as I came across the poetry of Abraham Sutzkever, I immediately knew that I needed to set his words to music. His poems were so true, and so beautifully written-and often they were written quickly-which I know because there were dates attached to all of the poems. And even though he touched on the most unimaginable of circumstances-from hiding in a coffin, to spying his mother's shoes in a cartload of shoes taken from murdered Jews, to having his infant son die in his own arms-Sutzkever somehow was able to transcend the horrors of his world to create beauty from chaos."

Since its world premiere at MOR in 2005, the work has been performed across the U.S. and in Europe. On the CD, Seattle baritone Erich Parce is the vocalist; with Amos Yang, cello; and Mina Miller, piano.

For a Look or a Touch (Naxos: www.naxos.com)

Jake Heggie: For a Look or a Touch (2007)
Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Mina Miller, Artistic Director World premiere recording

Morgan Smith, baritone; Julian Patrick, actor; Zart Dombourian-Eby, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Amos Yang, cello; Craig Sheppard, piano

Gerard Schwarz: In Memoriam (2005)
World premiere recording

Julian Schwarz, cello; Jeannie Wells Yablonsky, violin 1; Leonid Keylin, violin 2; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Mara Finkelstein, cello

Lori Laitman: The Seed of Dream (2004)
Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Mina Miller, Artistic Director
World premiere recording

Erich Parce, baritone; Amos Yang, cello; Mina Miller, piano

Artist Biographies

Jake Heggie, composer, was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and raised in Ohio and California. He has made his home in San Francisco since 1993. A composer and pianist, Heggie is best known for his hit operas Dead Man Walking (libretto by Terrence McNally, based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean) and The End of the Affair (libretto by Heather McDonald, based on the book by Graham Greene). Besides playing in major houses, both operas have received live broadcasts on National Public Radio. The recipient of a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2004 Meet-the-Composer Grant, he has composed nearly 200 songs as well as concerti, orchestral works and chamber music. Heggie has been resident composer for the San Francisco Opera, EOS Orchestra, Vail Valley Music Festival, and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival; and his operas have been performed at Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, and Houston Grand Opera, among many others. Recordings include Dead Man Walking (Erato), The Faces of Love (RCA), My Native Land (Teldec), Holy the Firm: Essay for Cello and Orchestra (Oakland East Bay Symphony), and The Deepest Desire (Eloquentia). In 1999, 50 of Heggie's songs were published by Associated Music Publishers in three books titled "The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie" (distributed by Hal Leonard, Inc.). Most of his compositions are published by Heggie's own company, Bent Pen Music, Inc. His 2007 theatrical song cycle, For a Look or a Touch, commissioned by MOR, can be heard on the 2008 MOR recording of the same name (Naxos). Upcoming are the premiere of a new chamber opera, Three Decembers (originally titled Last Acts, with libretto by Gene Scheer, based on a play by McNally) at Houston Grand Opera; a new cycle of songs for tenor and piano titled Friendly Persuasions (original poetry by Scheer) at Wigmore Hall; an epic opera based on Melville's Moby-Dick (libretto by Scheer) for spring 2010 with tenor Ben Heppner as Ahab, commissioned by Dallas Opera for the first season in the new Winspear Opera House, co-commissioned by San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera and Calgary Opera; and a new music theater work for the Metropolitan Opera in association with Lincoln Center Theatre.

Lori Laitman, composer, is an acclaimed creator of art songs, performed in the United States and abroad. Laitman received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters in music from Yale University. Since 1991, Laitman has worked with many contemporary poets, as well as setting classic poets such as Emily Dickinson. Her three CDs are available on Albany Records: Mystery-The Songs of Lori Laitman, Dreaming, and Becoming a Redwood. The Cleveland Opera presented the world premiere of her opera Come to Me in Dreams in 2004. Several of Laitman's song cycles have had their world premiere at MOR: Holocaust 1944 (November 2000), Fathers (April 2003), and The Seed of Dream (May 2005, a MOR commission). Her arrangement for soprano (Maureen McKay) and clarinet (Laura DeLuca) of I Never Saw Another Butterfly accompanies MOR's 2007 recording of Brundibár (Naxos); her song cycle The Seed of Dream, based on the poetry of Vilna Ghetto survivor and resistance fighter Abraham Sutzkever, appears on MOR's For a Look or a Touch CD (Naxos).

Mina Miller, Music of Remembrance Artistic Director and concert pianist, was born in New York, NY, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. She earned her Ph.D. in Music from New York University. She performed solo recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, the Tivoli International Music Festival (Copenhagen), and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland); concert engagements took her throughout North America, Great Britain, Europe, and Scandinavia. In 1998, her career as a recitalist and concerto soloist metamorphosed when she founded Music of Remembrance and began serving as the organization's president and artistic director. A central artistic participant-she was the pianist in the world premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Camp Songs, Thomas Pasatieri's Letter to Warsaw, and Lori Laitman's The Seed of Dream-Miller's bold leadership has made Music of Remembrance the home of "some of Seattle's best musicians" (Seattle Times), drawing national attention by engaging guest artists such as soprano Jane Eaglen, tenor Vinson Cole, and Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz. Recognized for her musical advocacy of Holocaust musicians and of new, Holocaust-related chamber works, Miller has lectured in Seattle and internationally on the Holocaust's cultural and artistic legacy. She received the Pathfinder Award from The Puget Sound Association of Phi Beta Kappa in May 2003. In 2006, the Women's Endowment Foundation (a supporting foundation of The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle) named her a Phenomenal Woman honoree. As a pianist, Miller enjoys an international reputation for her interpretations of the music of Carl Nielsen. Under the sponsorship of the Danish Government and the Danish Cultural Institute, she made extensive tours of Denmark. A reissue of the original double CD (for Hyperion Records/London) of Nielsen's complete piano music is available on Danacord, while her CD of Janá?ek's major piano works is available on Ambassador. Most recently, she can be heard on the 2008 MOR recording For a Look or a Touch (Naxos) as the pianist in Lori Laitman's song cycle, The Seed of Dream.

Erich Parce, baritone/stage director, is a frequent guest vocalist at Music of Remembrance. He has performed and recorded MOR's world premieres of Paul Schoenfield's 2003 Pulitzer-Finalist Camp Songs (on MOR's first CD, Art from Ashes, Vol. 1, on Innova) and Lori Laitman's Holocaust 1944 and The Seed of Dream (this last appearing on MOR's For a Look or a Touch CD on Naxos). He staged MOR's sold-out 2006 production of the children's opera Brundibár and the subsequent MOR recording (Naxos), the first to feature playwright Tony Kushner's English adaptation of the original Czech libretto. (MOR's Brundibár CD went on to be named one of the top ten opera recordings of 2007 by Opera News.) He has also directed productions of La bohème, La Traviata, The Magic Flute, Gianni Schicchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Susannah. As a baritone, Parce has sung at opera companies throughout North America and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Greater Miami Opera, L'Opera de Nice and L'Opera de Montreal. His repertoire ranges from the dramatic lead roles of Carlisle Floyd's operas The Passion of Jonathan Wade and Of Mice and Men (at Miami Opera and San Diego Opera), to the comedy of Dandini in La Cenerentola and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro (at Italy's Spoleto Festival and Charleston). Seattle Opera highlights include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and the father in Hansel and Gretel. A regular guest of the Seattle Symphony, Parce was heard recently in Handel's Messiah and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. Past seasons have included Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and David Diamond's On Sacred Ground (recorded on the Delos label), and he has performed Carmina Burana many times with the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Seattle Chorale Company.

Julian Patrick, actor/baritone, has had a career that has encompassed virtually every style of musical theater, from opera to Broadway musicals and nightclubs. He made his acting debut with Music of Remembrance in the May 2007 world premiere of Heggie's For a Look or a Touch, for which he created the role of Gad Beck. He is heard on the CD recording of the MOR commission, now available on Naxos. Patrick has performed leading roles with every major opera company in the United States. In Europe, he has sung with the Netherlands Opera, Lyons Opera, Opéra Marseille, Thé?tre de Genève, Brussels Opera, Opéra du Rhin, and the Vienna Volksoper. His repertoire consists of over 100 major roles, ranging from Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia to Dr. Schon in Alban Berg's Lulu; he is celebrated for his interpretation of Alberich in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen He is equally at home on the concert stage, having sung with most of the major symphony orchestras in the U.S. He has recorded for RCA, Columbia, Desto, and various other labels. Patrick's numerous television appearances include Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Belcore in The Elixir of Love, and Marcello in Puccini's La Boheme. Recently he returned to his first love, Broadway musicals, and performed with the 5th Avenue Theatre as Benjamin Franklin in 1776, Tony in The Most Happy Fella and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd. He teaches privately and enjoys giving master classes. He is Professor Emeritus of the School of Music of the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

Gene Scheer, librettist, has written three song cycles with Jake Heggie, Statuesque, Rise and Fall, and the 2007 theatrical song cycle, For a Look or a Touch (commissioned by MOR, now available on the 2008 MOR recording of the same name on the Naxos label). Currently Scheer is working with Heggie on the libretto for a new chamber opera, Three Decembers (based on a play by McNally); a new cycle of songs for tenor and piano titled Friendly Persuasions (based on original poetry by Scheer); and the libretto for an epic opera based on Melville's Moby-Dick. In 2006, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performed the premiere of a lyric drama by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer titled To Hell and Back. Scheer also wrote the libretto for a children's opera called The Star Gatherer, with composer Stephen Paulus, and worked as librettist with Tobias Picker on An American Tragedy, which had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Their first collaboration, the opera Therese Raquin, had its premiere at the Dallas Opera in 2001. A recording of the opera, available on Chandos, was cited by Opera News as one of the ten best recordings of 2002, and in March 2006 a new production opened at Covent Garden. Scheer's songs have been performed Renee Fleming (with Christoph Eschenbach), Denyce Graves, Sylvia Mcnair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore and Nathan Gunn, among others. Ken Burns featured Norah Jones singing Scheer's "American Anthem" in his documentary about World War II. In 2006 Scheer collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on a new piece called "It never goes away," which was featured in Marsalis' work Congo Square.

Gerard Schwarz, conductor/composer, has been Music Director of the Seattle Symphony for over 20 years. A frequent guest conductor with Music of Remembrance, he was a founding member of MOR's Advisory Board. Schwarz has helped to build numerous orchestras including Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. Among his guest conducting engagements during the 2006 season are the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Czech and Dresden Philharmonics, and Seattle Opera. His nearly 100 recordings with the Seattle Symphony alone have resulted in 11 GRAMMY nominations, three ASCAP awards, and Record of the Year and Stereo Review Awards, and have been mainstays on the classical Billboard charts. Born to Viennese parents, Schwarz is a graduate of The Juilliard School. He is a recipient of the Ditson Conductor's Award from Columbia University and was named 1994 Conductor of the Year by Musical America. He holds honorary doctorates from The Juilliard School, Seattle University, the University of Puget Sound, Cornish College of the Arts and Fairleigh Dickinson University, as well as an Honorary Fellowship from John Moores University. He is a member of the National Council on the Arts. His 2005 composition In Memoriam, recorded on MOR's CD For a Look or a Touch (Naxos), was his first MOR commission. In 2007 he composed his second, Rudolf and Jeanette, which had its world premiere at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, on November 4, 2007.

Morgan Smith, baritone, made his Music of Remembrance debut singing the title role in the 2006 MOR production of Brundibár, and has appeared frequently at MOR since. He created the role of Manfred Lewin in the May 2007 world premiere of Heggie's For a Look or a Touch, by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer; he is heard on the CD recording of the MOR commission, now available on Naxos. Smith made his professional opera debut in 2001, in the role of Donald in Britten's Billy Budd with Seattle Opera. There he has also sung Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly (a role he has also sung at San Francisco Opera), Capt. Peter Niles in the revised world premiere of Mourning Becomes Electra, Morales in Carmen, and Sonora in La Fanciulla del West, the title role in Don Giovanni, Silvio in I Pagliacci, and Riccardo in I Puritani. Smith has also performed Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at Austin Lyric Opera, Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims and Dandini in La Cenerentola at Portland Opera, and created the role of Ted Steinert at the world premiere of Pasatieri's Frau Margot at Fort Worth Opera. He is performing in Los Angeles Opera's Carmen in November-December 2008, and will co-star with Ben Heppner in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera Moby Dick (Dallas Opera, 2010). The baritone has also appeared with many symphony orchestras, including those in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Hartford, Seattle, and St. Louis.

About Music of Remembrance
Music of Remembrance (MOR) fills a unique spiritual and cultural role in Seattle and throughout the United States by remembering Holocaust musicians and their art through musical performances, educational activities, musical recordings and commissions of new works. Since its 1998-99 inaugural year, MOR has presented two major concerts annually at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) each fall and Holocaust Remembrance Day each spring. More information available at www.musicofremembrance.org.