ELFMAN, D.: Violin Concerto, "Eleven Eleven" / HAILSTORK, A.: Piano Concerto No. 1 (S. Cameron, Goodyear, Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta)
This recording presents brand new concertos from two vibrant and contrasting American composers. Adolphus Hailstork’s First Piano Concerto draws on his African American heritage to create a work brimming with energy and high spirits, reflecting the rich traditions of jazz and blues. The Violin Concerto “Eleven Eleven” by Danny Elfman – renowned for his many film scores – has its roots in the composer’s rock, film and television background, but also illustrates his love for the music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. In keeping with his famous Batmanscore, this work is a true violin concerto noir that is both haunting and compelling.
Violinist Sandy Cameron is one of the most strikingly unique and versatile artists of her generation.
As a soloist, she performs extensively throughout the world, including appearances at the White Nights Festival, the Kennedy Center, David Geffen Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Sydney Opera House.
In 2017, Cameron gave the world premiere performance of Eleven Eleven, the violin concerto written for her by Danny Elfman. In 2018, she recorded the piece for Sony Classical with John Mauceri and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Other special stage appearances include Bach by Beltrami, Cirque du Soleil, Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy, Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, global tours with Chris Botti, and a number of Disney productions at the Hollywood Bowl and in international arenas. Cameron is also featured as a soloist on a number of soundtracks for film, television, and video games.
The outstanding violin used by Cameron, crafted by Pietro Guarnerius of Venice, c. 1735, is on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
For more information, visit www.sandycameron.com.
Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser, and composer.
He has performed with many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world, including the Chicago Symphony under Daniel Barenboim, The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Christoph Eschenbach, and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jun Märkl and Kristjan Järvi.
Some of the orchestras and chamber music organizations that have commissioned Goodyear are the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Orchestre Metropolitain.
Goodyear’s discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rachmaninov, and four albums of solo works. His recordings have been released on the Marquis Classics, Steinway & Sons, Orchid Classics, and Bright Shiny Things labels.
Highlights of the 2022–23 season include performances with the Nashville, Colorado, Baltimore, and Vancouver symphonies.
For more information, visit www.stewartgoodyearpiano.com.
Founded in 1935, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) is Buffalo’s leading cultural ambassador, presenting more than 120 classics, pops and youth concerts each year. Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall. In 2022, it made its 25th appearance at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the life and works of former BPO music director Lukas Foss.
Over the decades, the BPO has matured in stature under leading conductors William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov and Maximiano Valdés.
During the tenure of JoAnn Falletta, the BPO has rekindled its distinguished history of radio broadcasts and recordings, including the release of over 60 albums of diverse repertoire on the Naxos and Beau Fleuve Records labels. The Philharmonic’s recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (Naxos 8.559331), featuring soprano Hila Plitmann, received GRAMMY Awards for Best Classical Vocal Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and its recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua (Naxos 8.559885–86) with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus received a GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance.
Multiple GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) and music director laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She has guest conducted many of the most prominent orchestras in America, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American ensemble.
She has a discography of over 125 titles, and is a leading recording artist for Naxos. Her GRAMMY-winning Naxos recordings include Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua (8.559885–86) and John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (8.559331), both with the BPO, and Kenneth Fuchs’ Spiritualist with the London Symphony Orchestra (8.559824).
Falletta is a member of the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has served as a member of the National Council on the Arts, is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards and was named Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year 2019 and one of the 50 great conductors of all time by Gramophone magazine.
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Danny Elfman, born in 1956, was a composer and multi-instrumentalist in his brother Richard’s performance art/new-wave rock band The Mystic Knights of Oinga Boinga (progressive shortenings of the name left only the last word before dissolution in 1995). One of his biggest influences is Bernard Herrmann, as reflected in the driving rhythms and dark, glittering orchestration of Spider-Man (2002). Elfman has scored several comic-book adaptations and sees Spider-Man as an “American” score, in contrast to the more Prokofiev-like Batman (1989).
Elfman is also famous for composing scores and songs for Tim Burton’s films, composing The Simpsons Theme, and many other film scores extensively since 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won a GRAMMY Award for Tim Burton’s Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. Elfman also wrote the theme for the video game Fable.
Composer and college professor Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork, born April 17, 1941 in Rochester, New York, began his musical studies with piano lessons as a child. He studied at Howard University and Manhattan School of Music, spending the summer of 1963 at the American Institute at Fontainebleau, France. After service in the US Armed Forces in Germany (1966–1968), he returned to the United States and pursued his doctorate degree at Michigan State University in Lansing. He also attended the Electronic Music Institution at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (summer, 1972) and the Seminar on Contemporary Music (summer, 1978) at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His principal teachers were H. Owen Reed (Michigan State University), Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond (Manhattan School of Music), Mark Fax (Howard University) and Nadia Boulanger (American Institute at Fontainebleau). His career as a teacher includes graduate assistantships at Michigan State University (1969–1971), and professorships at Youngstown State University in Ohio (1971–1977), Norfolk State University in Virginia (1977–2000), and Old Dominion University, also in Norfolk, Virginia (2000–present), where he is Eminent Scholar and Professor of Music.
Adolphus Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. Among his early compositions are Celebration, and Out of the Depths (1977), and American Guernica (1983), two band works which won national competitions. Consort Piece (1995), commissioned by the Norfolk Chamber Ensemble, was awarded first prize by the University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary Music. Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been directed by leading conductors, including James de Priest, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel. His Second Symphony and second opera, Joshua’s Boots, both had their premières in 1999. Hailstork’s Violin Concerto had its première in November 2004 with the Berkshire Symphony, and Mark Peskanov as soloist. His cantata Crispus Attucks was first given in October 2005, in Norfolk, Virginia. Other new commissions include Earthrise, a large scale choral work for James Conlon and the 2006 Cincinnati May Festival, Three Studies on Chant Melodies for the American Guild of Organists 2006 national convention, and We Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story for the Cincinnati Opera. Whitman’s Journey had its première with the Master Chorale of Washington, DC at Kennedy Center in April 2006.