| SONYA
BAKER, VICKI BERNEKING AND JEANNIE LITTLE IN PERFORMANCE |
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This
vibrant new recording features art song literature
by five American Women composers. The composers
represented on the disc are Florence Price, Margaret
Bonds, Lori Laitman, Ruth Schonthal and Libby Larsen.
The first two composers were African-Americans
whose accomplishments are not generally well known
beyond the African-American community, but whose
contributions to music are significant. Ruth Schonthal
is an exile from Germany whose family fled the
Nazi party in 1934. Both Lori Laitman and Libby
Larsen are native-born Americans actively composing
and promoting their music today. In this group
of women, there is a wonderful representation of
the "melting
pot" of the United States of America. Similarly, the music these
women write and the texts they set vary as widely as human emotions, ranging
from the piety of "Feet O' Jesus" to the indignation of
gender descrimination experience by impressionist painter, Mary Cassatt.
It is time to celebrate this diversity of American women in song! |
SHE
SAYS
Sonya Gabrielle Baker, Soprano
Vicki Berneking, Piano
Jeannie Little, Trombone
Featuring Art Songs of American Composers Florence Price, Margaret Bonds,
Lori Laitman,
Ruth Schonthal and Libby Larsen
1
Song to the Dark Virgin (1:45)
2 Feet O’ Jesus (2:41)
3 Night (1:43) |
(pub.
Edward B. Marks)
(pub. Southern Music Company)
(pub. Edward B. Marks)
|
Florence
Price
1888-1953
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Three Dream Portraits
4 Minstrel Man (1:48)
5 Dream Variations (2:04)
6 I, Too (1:37)
From Days and Nights
7 Along with Me (2:48)
8 They Might Not Need Me (2:08)
9 The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (2:50)
10 Over the Fence (1:53)
11 Wild Nights (2:24)
12 - 17 Six Times Solitude (9:50) |
(pub.
Edward B. Marks)
(pub. Merion Music, Inc.)
(pub. Furore Verlag) |
Margaret
Bonds
1913-1973
Lori Laitman
b. 1955
Ruth Schonthal
b. 1924 |
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
18 To Be a Painter (1:51)
19 Travels (3:57)
20 Europe Again (1:46)
21 Early Work (5:35)
23 Maturity (4:44)
22 Degas (4:16) |
(pub.
Oxford University Press) |
Libby
Larsen
b. 1950 |
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| Sonya Gabrielle Baker, soprano,
noted for her performances of American music, has been heard in concert
both nationally and internationally, including recent appearances in Newfoundland,
Canada, Charleston, West Virginia, and New York City. In 2003, Dr. Baker
made her Carnegie Hall debut with renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas
singing music of Aaron Copland, and she appeared as soloist on the Yale
Alumni Chorus tour to Moscow singing at the Kremlin. Highlights of Dr.
Baker’s operatic roles include Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo,
Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Monisha in Joplin’s Treemonisha,
and the title role in the U.S. premiere of Mascagni’s Pinotta. Dr.
Baker is currently a member of the voice faculty at Murray State University
in Kentucky. Along with a Doctor of Music from Florida State University,
she holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University and a Bachelor’s
of Arts in American Studies from Yale University. Her voice teachers have
included Yvonne Ciannella, Rita Patanè, Lili Chookasian, and Virginia
Zeani. Dr. Baker has also worked with well-known teachers, coaches and
directors such as Frank Corsaro, Evelyn Lear, Jerome Hines, Douglas Fisher,
Michael McConnell and Craig Rutenberg. Dr. Baker’s lecture recital
on Marian Anderson’s historic 1939 Easter concert has been presented
at several universities and conferences and is often performed in celebration
of Black History Month. Her newest project, a lecture recital entitled
“Creating the Best of all Possible Worlds” features songs
by Ruth Schonthal and Libby Larsen. Dr. Baker has received numerous academic
and vocal awards and is a frequent guest artist and teacher, having taught
at Governor’s School for the Arts programs in both Kentucky and
Virginia. This recording was made possible in part by grants awarded
from Murray State University and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. |
| Vicki Berneking is Professor
of Music Emeritus at James Madison University in Virginia and was formerly
in charge of the accompanying program. She studied piano and coaching with
Wesley True, Thomas Mastroianni, John Wustman and Dalton Baldwin. for its
dynamic, deeply inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Her
music has been commissioned and premiered internationally by major artists
and orchestras including soprano Benita Valente, the King’s Singers
and the Minnesota Orchestra. In April 2003, the Library of Congress announced
Libby Larsen’s appointment as the first holder of the Harissios Papamarkou
Chair in Education and Technology in the John W. Kluge Center. Larsen’s
awards and honors are numerous including a 1994 Grammy as producer for the
CD The Art of Arleen Auger, a recording featuring Larsen’s Sonnets
from the Portuguese. Larsen is an active advocate for contemporary music
and musicians. In 1973 she co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now
the American Composer’s Forum. The first woman to serve as a resident
composer with a major orchestra, Larsen has held residencies with the Minnesota
Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony and the Colorado Symphony. Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926) is a portrait of the impressionist artist. The cycle, commissioned
by the Keller Foundation was originally set for voice, trombone and orchestra
with fifteen projections of Cassatt’s paintings. The chamber reduction
heard on this recording was created later by Larsen. The libretto was compiled
from Cassatt’s letters, articles written by her contemporaries and
some material Larsen wrote based on her own research. About the cycle, Larsen
writes, “What I am drawn to in Mary Cassatt is her extraordinary paintings
and her strong voice. Here is a Victorian woman who painted, wrote and spoke
with a clear, single-minded purpose—to paint...I have combined the
mezzo-soprano as the embodied character of Cassatt with the trombone as
Cassatt’s spirit to created a fuller understanding of the artist.” |
| Jeannie Little received her
degrees from Northwestern University and Florida State University. Her principal
teachers include Jay Friedman, Frank Crisafulli, Charles Vernon, Arnold
Jacobs, John Marcellus and William Cramer. Ms. Little has served as principal
trombonist of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Charlottesville Symphony
Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Elgin
Symphony orchestra. In addition, she has performed with the Detroit, Honolulu,
Alabama, and New Mexico Symphony Orchestras, and has toured and recorded
with the Chicago Symphony under Leonard Bernstein. Ms. Little was a founding
member of the highly acclaimed, award-winning trombone quartet, PRISMA,
which toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and has
been featured at International Trombone Workshops, the International Women’s
Brass Conference. As a clinician, Ms. Little is active presenting recitals
and master classes throughout the country. She has also appeared as guest
conductor and performer in the International Women’s Trombone Choir
at the International Trombone Workshops in 1992 and 1995. Having served
as the trombone professor at James Madison University, the Interlochen Arts
Academy and the University of Hawaii, Ms. Little is currently a free-lance
artist and elementary orchestra teacher in Los Angeles, California |
| Recorded at the Performing Arts Hall on the Campus
of Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky. Recording Engineer and Graphic
Design: John Whitmer, Angelus Productions, Birmingham, Alabama. Photography:
David Celaya, Wells Studio, Mayfield, Kentucky. This recording copyright
© 2004 Sonya Gabrielle Baker, Murray, Kentucky. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized duplication or broadcast is a violation of federal copyright
law. |
$15.OO
PLUS $2.00 SHIPPING
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
SONYA BAKER
1605 PEACH GROVE DRIVE
HARRISONBURG, VA 22801 |
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