Announcing World Premiere CD Release of Michael Daugherty's Letters from Lincoln

Jan 18, 2010

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7041

FEATURING BARITONE THOMAS HAMPSON

SPOKANE – The Spokane Symphony and E1 Music are please to announce the release of Letters from Lincoln, the world-premiere recording of a work by composer Michael Daughertyfeaturing the world-renowned baritone Thomas Hampson and the Spokane Symphony under the direction of Music Director Eckart Preu.  Letters from Lincoln for baritone and orchestra will be released Jan. 26 with a special presale at the Symphony’s Jan. 23 and 24concerts. 

This new work was commissioned by the Spokane Symphony in celebration of the 200^th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (1809-1865) and premiered on Feb. 28, 2009.  Also included on the CD are two early lyric works by Anton von Webern, Im Sommerwind and Langsamer Satz.

The CDs will be available for sale at the Spokane Symphony ticket office, 1001 W. Sprague after Jan. 26.

Michael Daugherty is one of the most commissioned, performed and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today.  With compositions rich with cultural and political allusions and bearing the stamp of classic modernism, his melodies are eloquent and stirring.  As someone who has composed works focused on pop culture (Superman, UFOs, Liberace), he was the perfect choice to explore Lincoln the man and not just Lincoln the icon.  In addition, he has written music about other political figures: J. Edgar Hoover, Rosa Parks and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.  Daugherty notes, “In Letters from Lincoln, I create a musical portrait of a man who expressed his vision with eloquence, and with hope that the human spirit could overcome prejudice and differences of opinion in order to create a better world.  I discovered ways to bring his historic greatness into the present.”

Eckart Preu adds, “Symphony audiences know Lincoln from Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait.  That’s Lincoln the statue …, Lincoln the monumental figure.  For this commission, we wanted to take Lincoln down from that pedestal and show him on a more human scale, someone we could recognize as flesh and blood.”

Spokane native Thomas Hampson complimented Daugherty’s “lyricism, which just jumps out of his music.”  Moreover, by having chosen to set texts taken from throughout Lincoln’s life, Daugherty has created a contrast, Hampson says, “between the chatty stuff and the big, lyrical stuff.”

Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.”  He first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994 and the Houston Grand Opera premiered his opera Jackie O in 1996.  Since that time, his music has entered the orchestral, band, opera and chamber music repertory and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most performed living American composers.

Historians and the general public generally regard Lincoln as America’s greatest president who successfully led the United States through the Civil War and initiated the end of slavery.  His life, which was full of spectacular opposites, ironies, contradictions and pathos, provided Daugherty with abundance of musical dramatic possibilities.

Lincoln’s impassioned writings, from his youth as poor boy in the backwoods of Kentucky to his tragic death as President of the United States, have moved Daugherty to take Lincoln’s own words, both public and private, and set them to a song.  In Letters from Lincoln, Daugherty creates a musical portrait of a man who expressed his vision with eloquence, and with hope that the human spirit could overcome prejudice and differences of opinion in order to create a better world. 

About the Spokane Symphony

The Spokane Symphony,the regional professional orchestra for the Inland Northwest, has been presenting concerts since 1945.  Since 2007, the Spokane Symphony has made its home in Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, a recently renovated exciting performing arts center that blends 1930’s ambiance with 21^st century technology and acoustics.  Under the direction of Music Director Eckart Preu, the 70-piece orchestra performs for more than 150,000 listeners each season and provides a wide variety of exceptional educational experiences.  The orchestra presents critically acclaimed performances featuring some of the world’s most-respected soloists.

About E1 Entertainment

E1 Entertainment (AIM: ETO) is a leading independent entertainment content owner that acquires film, television and music rights and exploits these rights in all media in more than 190 countries.  The company currently operates in Canada, the U.S., the UK, Holland and Belgium through its four primary businesses units: E1 Television, E1 Films, E1 Music and E1 Distribution.  These businesses collectively represent E1’s extensive expertise in film distribution, television and music production/distribution, Kids content, Licensing and Distribution.  E1’s content library includes more than 3,700 feature films, 2,700 hours of original television programming and 15,000 music tracks.