Choral Booklet

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Chorale Booklet: N.M. Hoffman wrote the poems used in the choral work entitled Requiem Before the Times of Peace composed by Jeffrey Schanzer. The Requiem was performed at St. Peter's Lutheran Church (1999) and, in part, at Merkin Hall (2005) by the New York Virtuoso Singers under the directon of Harold Rosenbaum.Chorale Booklet: N.M. Hoffman wrote the poems used in the choral work entitled Requiem Before the Times of Peace composed by Jeffrey Schanzer. The Requiem was performed at St. Peter's Lutheran Church (1999)  and, in part, at Merkin Hall (2005) by the New York Virtuoso Singers under the directon of Harold Rosenbaum.

Notes on the Requiem:

In memory of Walter Winika, Sculptor

Three of the five movements of the Requiem memorialize specific catastrophes of the 20th century.  The first movement mourns the life, times and brutal murder of Steven Biko, the South African leader of the Black Consciousness Movement.  Movement II addresses the unspeakable losses of the Holocaust.  Movement IV mourns the loss of our many friends to AIDS.  In the manner of liturgical requiems, this secular requiem also sounds notes of hope. The third movement, based on an observation in the I Ching that no storm can last all day, indicates that healing is possible, in spite of the recurrence of evil. The final movement memorializes the heroic gesture of the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, who played for 22 days at the killing site of 22 civilians in Sarajevo; his name is silently embedded in the first letter of each line of the poem on which the movement is based.

About the Composer:

Jeffrey Schanzer is a composer and guitarist involved in a wide variety of music, ranging from fully notated to fully improvised.  He has studied composition with Morton Feldman and Anthony Davis and guitar with Oswald Rantucci.  No More In Thrall, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, where his father was a prisoner, performed by the Sirius String Quartet with percussionist Kevin Norton, has been released on the CRI label.  The Schanzer/Speach Duo, in which he performs with his wife, composer/pianist Bernadette Speach, has performed across the U.S., as well as in Puerto Rico and Europe. 

About the Conductor:

Recognized among the premier interpreters of choral music, Dr. Harold Rosenbaum is the founder of The New York Virtuoso Singers (“New York’s outstanding concert choir” - NY Times), and The Canticum Novum Singers (an elite choir” – NY Times). He is the recipient of many awards including Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award. Through his wide range of conducting activities, Harold Rosenbaum continues to be a vital and influential force on the American choral music scene. 

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