RNO

Joan and the Bells

Gordon Getty, composer
Joan and the Bells

Lisa Delan, soprano
Vladimir Chernov, baritone
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Stockholm

Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2
Russian National Orchestra
Alexander Vedernikov, conductor

Pentatone Classics CD: PTC 5186 017


Gordon Getty

Born in Los Angeles in 1933, Gordon Getty has lived in San Francisco since 1945. He graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1956 with a B.S. degree in English literature, having meanwhile studied piano with the late Robert Vetleson and voice with Easton Kent. Following six months of active duty in the army and four years in family businesses, he studied music theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Today, Getty is a frequent visiting composer at colleges and universities across the country and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Maryland, Pepperdine University, the University of California San Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Mannes College of Music. His works includes Plump Jack, which has a number of performances as a work in progress and in semi-staged concert versions, by such distinguished orchestras as the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic in London, among others.

Concert performances by the late Kaaren Erickson and others of Getty's Emily Dickinson song cycle, The White Election, were highly praised, presented by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Morgan Library and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Etherredge Center in Aiken, S.C., Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Harvard, Yale, the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana Opera Theater, and the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Victorian Scenes, the composer's choral settings of poems by Tennyson and Housman, and a setting for men's voices of Poe's Annabel Lee, had their first performance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia in the Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center.

Three Waltzes for Piano and Orchestra - Tiefer und Tiefer, Madeline, and Ehemals were performed by André Previn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1991, orchestral arrangements of the Three Waltzes were performed both at Tanglewood under the baton of Zuohang Chen, and by the California Symphony conducted by Barry Jekowsky.

Getty's chamber works include Ewig Du, The Fiddler of Ballykeel, and Ehemels (scored for both string quartet and string chamber orchestra). Five short piano pieces published by Belwin in 1954 are now available as Homework Suite. Three Diatonic Waltzes, Tiefer und Tiefer, Madeline, Ehemels, Waltz of the Ancestors, Gothic Waltz, Zwei Ländler, First Adventure and The Fiddler of Ballykeel round out his compositions for piano. The composer has also penned new settings of the traditional Welsh folk songs Welcome Robin, Kind Old Man, and All Through the Night.

Rork Music now publishes all works by Gordon Getty, Theodore Presser Company, distributor.

Click here for hi-res photo of Gordon Getty.

Lisa Delan

American soprano Lisa Delan has won acclaim as an outstanding interpreter of a vast repertoire. She is recognized for her versatility and breadth of accomplishment in opera, song and recording.

Ms. Delan's interpretive and technical skill in art song brought her to the finals of the 1999 Naumberg International Vocal Competition. Other recognition came from singing the title role in the world premiere of Gordon Getty’s Joan and the Bells in 1998, a role she has since reprised in France, Germany, the US and Russia, and in the 2002 recording for PentaTone Classics. Critics have praised her depiction of Joan of Arc as "beautifully sung" (International Record Review), "refreshingly unpretentious" (Gramophone Magazine), and "a role she has made her own, with the kind of pure tone one expects of a saint-to-be and the passion one expects from a 19-year-old girl going to her death. Miss Delan is exceptional" (Nevada Events).

Lisa Delan has performed on some of the world's leading concert stages including Lincoln Center, the Auditiorio Nacional in Madrid, the Moscow Conservatory, and in special appearance at Windsor Castle. Her festival appearances include the Bad Kissingen Festival in Germany, the Colmar Festival in France and the Rachmaninoff Festival in Novgorod, Russia, the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley, California and at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy in 2007.

As a recital artist, her repertoire encompasses from the Baroque to the contemporary and she is privileged to collaborate with composers whose musical lives are still works in progress: Ms. Delan has performed and recorded the music of William Bolcom, John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie, Andrew Imbrie, and Luna Pearl Woolf, among others. Her debut solo recording with pianist Kristin Pankonin and guest artists Matt Haimovitz and Susanne Mentzer will be released by PentaTone Classics in June of this year followed by her new recording of Gordon Getty’s The White Election scheduled to be released in the fall of 2008.

Click here for hi-res photo of Lisa Delan.

Vladimir Chernov

Vladimir Chernov is renowned throughout the operatic world for his beautifully bronzed baritone, impressive stage presence and dramatic insight. Trained in both Moscow and Milan, his repertoire includes many of the bel canto and Verdi roles as well as Russian, English and other roles.

Vladimir Chernov has appeared in all the major opera houses including Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Colon, Paris Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Los Angeles Opera and Vienna State Opera. He has a long relationship with the Metropolitan Opera and has appeared there in many of the great Verdi baritone parts. He is also an active recitalist having performed at the Wigmore Hall, New York's Lincoln Center, Vienna Konzerthaus and other venues.

As a recording artist, Vladimir Chernov has recorded both Conte di Luna in Il trovatore and Posa in Don Carlo for Sony Classics, Yeletsky in Pique Dame for Philips Classics, the title role in Rigoletto for Deutsche Grammophon, and Renato in Un ballo in Maschera for Teldec. His performances of the title role in Simon Boccanegra and Stankar in Stiffelio from the Met were both recorded for video by Deutsche Grammophon. His most recent recording is the part of Cauchon in Joan and the Bells with the Russian National Orchestra for PentaTone Classics.

Purchase recordings by Vladimir Chernov