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BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the opera

The Fort Worth Opera presented the world premiere of my opera Before Night Falls in their 2010 spring season. The production was directed by David Gately with stage design by Riccardo Hernandez, lighting by Harry Frehner, projections by Peter Negrini, costumes by Claudia Stephens and choreography by John de los Santos. Conducted by Joe Illick with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Look for the RECORDING on Albany Records in the fall!

Some reviews: Gay City News (David Shengold), the National Review (Jay Nordlinger), Fort Worth Weekly (Anthony Mariani), the Rutland Herald (Willie Docto), El Nuevo Herald (Daniel Fernández, in Spanish), D Magazine (Wayne Lee Gay), Theater Jones (Gregory Sullivan Isaacs), Rosebrook Classical (David Weuste)

BLOG! Visit Music by Jorge Martín, relating the history of how the book Before Night Falls became an opera, and stories related to the preparation of the production in Fort Worth. Join in!

World famous blogger OperaChic said Before Night Falls was one of five "must see" operas this spring! See the article in Wmagazine. And Wes Mason, the young star singing the role of Reinaldo Arenas, is officially a barihunk!

Ardea Arts in New York City presented Jorge in a Salon on April 28 at 463 Broome Street from 7 to 9 p.m., talking about and playing bits from the opera.

Read an excellent article about Before Night Falls on AARP's online "Segunda Juventud" magazine, in both English and Spanish. Don't miss the sidebar article!

OTHER NEWS

Close Encounters With Music has named me "Composer in Residence" for their upcoming 2010-11 season and has programmed two works: a revival of their commissioned suite "Ropa vieja" for cello, accordion and percussion, anad the world premiere of the cello sonata "Four Noble Truths." Dates and details will follow.

Conductor Lou Kosma will lead "Toccata for Orchestra, City Lights, Country Sun" on February 13, 2011 as part of the Northern New Jersey Youth Orchestra concert. Details will follow.

RECENTLY RELEASED! Mezzo-Soprano Mary Nessinger and pianist Jeanne Golan's new recording on Albany "Innocence Lost" featuring my song "La Soga" as part of their "Berg-Debussy Project" is now on sale.

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2010 events:

Soprano Elizabeth Caballero, with Elaine Rinaldi at the piano, performed the Florida premiere of my song cycle "A Cuban in Vermont" on June 12, 2010 at the First Presbyterian Church of Miami. Read a review in English and another in Spanish.

Pianist Jeanne Golan performed the world premiere of the "Piano Fantasy on Sredni Vashtar" at the Stone in New York City on Friday March 12, 2010. Ms. Golan has recorded the work on the Albany label.

The Yale Alumni Association, in association with Yale GALA and the Yale Latino Alumni Association, hosted a mini-tour of Yale School of Music students (Vince Vincent, baritone, Chrystal Williams, mezzo, and Eric Barry, tenor) singing arias from Before Night Falls with me at the piano, with discussion, in events in New York City (March 9 at the NYU Tisch Theater), Los Angeles (March 10 in a rehearsal room hosted by the LA Opera) and San Francisco (March 11 at the University Club).

Conductor Lou Kosma, the double-bass player in the Met Opera orchestra who leads the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra, led the Central New Jersey Youth Orchestra in the Watchung Hills High School auditorium in a program that included "Toccata for Orchestra, City Lights, Country Sun" on January 30, 2010. There were 86 strings, and a total of 135 players!

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2009 events:

Baritone Jonathan Hays and pianist Craig Ketter performed The Glass Hammer again in Harrisburg, PA on Friday November 6, 2009 at Rubendall Recital Hall in Dickinson College. Read the smashing review they got from their performance last year.

Continuum reprised "Conjuration" for piano, violin, cello and clarinet on Sunday October 25 at the Howland Chamber Music Circle in Beacon NY.

The Vermont Philharmonic too celebrated an anniversary, its 50th, by commissioning a new work to celebrate next season in 2008-09. The festive "Toccata for Orchestra, City Lights, Country Sun," was performed at each of the concerts this season. The World Premiere was on Oct. 18, 2008 in Barre at the Opera House, then on Oct. 19 at the Hardwick Town Hall. Two more concerts featuring the Toccata were on February 7, 2009 (at the Dibden Center in Johnson) and Feb. 8 (at the Barre Opera House). The final two performances were on May 30 at the Elley-Long Music Center, Colchester and on May 31 in the St. Johnsbury School Auditorium.

Mezzo-soprano Desirée Halac will perform my song cycle "A Cuban in Vermont" as part of her recital at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City on Sunday March 29 at 5 p.m. The museum is at 319 West 107th Street.

Cantori NY gave the world premiere performance of "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," a setting of Walt Whitman's great poem, for chorus, soprano soloist, clarinet, string quartet, piano and percussion on Saturday March 7, 2009 at Holy Trinity Episcopal on East 88th Street in Manhattan. This major work was written to celebrate the group's 25th anniversary.

Tobermory was produced by the Oberlin Opera Theater in Oberlin, Ohio. The performance took place on January 30 at Warner Concert Hall, Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, OH on a double-bill with Robert Ward's "Roman Fever."

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, celebrating its 75th anniversary brought back the score it commissioned, "Romance," in a program titled — "Romance" (!) — on their Masterworks Series January 24, 2009 at the Flynn in Burlington and January 25, 2009 at the Paramount in Rutland. For the occasion the VSO asked me to expand the orchestration, and I complied. The work was originally performed ten times around the state as part of the "Made in Vermont" tour, and featured a Mozart-size orchestra. This time Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" is on the program ("Romance," get it?!) and although I didn't use all the instruments Sergei did, I did avail myself of several of them, beefing up the work for a larger hall, and even adding a few measures.... Visit the VSO website, and read the review in the Times-Argus.

Baritone Marcus DeLoach made a demo recording with Warren Jones of the song Marcus commissioned, "Spoken With the Hands," (poem by Dan Bellm) as a first step towards making the recording of all ten or so songs he commissioned for a performance project. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

2008 events:

My one-act chamber opera Tobermory was revived at the Boston University Opera Institute last fall on their Fringe Festival. There were four performances at the Studio in the Huntington Theater. This was the second time BUOI has presented Tobermory!

On August 29 at 8 p.m. the Seagle Music Colony presented one performance of a staged workshop production of Before Night Falls with their young artists. The colony is on Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. To purchase tickets, call 518-532-7875.

Read the SMASHING REVIEW of The Glass Hammer at the Long Leaf Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina last June!

Continuum performed "Conjuration" at the Americas Society in New York City (680 Park Avenue, at 68th St.) On May 7, 2008 at 7 p.m. on a program called "The Latin Legacy" celebrating the younger generation of Latin-American born composers in the U.S.

Mssrs. Jonathan Hays and Craig Ketter reprised their tour-de-force performance of the hour-long song cycle "The Glass Hammer" as part of the Long Leaf Opera Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on June 28, 2008. This is a very exciting young festival that is devoted to new American work in English. Read the rave review!

Close Encounters With Music presented "Recuerda" (for solo cello, world premiere) Saturday March 15, 2008 at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, MA; and also in Scottsdale AZ on Saturday April 12 at 8 p.m. at Theater 4301. Yehuda Hanani performed the 10-minute work.

"The Glass Hammer" was performed by baritone Jonathan Hays on March 6, 2008 at Brooklyn College, with pianist Craig Ketter.

2007 events:

On November 2: mezzo-soprano Jessica Grigg sang "Frutas" and "Before Words" with Jennifer Matthews accompanying at 46 Barrow Street, the Greenwich House Music School in NYC, on a program of new American art songs, "8 singers, 13 composers, 15 poets and 25 songs."

Clarinetist Eric Mandat and pianist Jeanne Golan went on a southern tour with "Three Nocturnes" — Sept. 30 at Columbus State University in Georgia, Oct. 3 at the University of Florida at Tallahassee and Oct. 5 at the University of North Florida at Jacksonville.

Pianist Jeanne Golan and violinist Margaret Leenhouts tried out "Carnaval, a Cuban Suite" at the Eastman School on Monday July 30 in Kilbourne Hall.

Close Encounters With Music performed the work they commissioned from Jorge, called “Ropa Vieja,” for cello, accordion and percussion in Great Barrington MA on Saturday March 17 and in Scottsdale AZ on Saturday March 24. The commission stipulated that the music should have a cross-over feel between classical and Latin music.

The Monmouth Civic Chorus performed the world premiere of “Stronger Than Darkness,” a cantata of music from Jorge’s opera Before Night Falls, on Sunday March 18 in Red Bank NJ at the Count Basie Theatre. Barbara Dever, a Met Opera singer, and Angela Meade, who went on to win the Met Auditions, were among the soloists.

Pianist Jeanne Golan has been quite busy with Jorge’s music, accompanying mezzosoprano Mary Nessinger as part of their “Cycles and Sequels” project, for which Jorge wrote the song “La Soga,” and accompanying clarinettist Eric Mandat in “Three Nocturnes,” which they performed in Victoria last October. Jeanne and Eric performed the Nocturnes on Sunday March 4 in Summit NJ at the Unitarian Church. Please visit Jeanne’s website for upcoming concerts including these works, and for updates on the release of the recording with Mary on the Albany label.

Award-winning soprano Elizabeth Caballero sang the West Coast premiere of the song cycle "A Cuban in Vermont" on May 20 in Berkeley, CA at St. John's Presbyterian Church. Elizabeth has been singing leading roles with the Met and New York City Opera, and will be starring with Florida Grand Opera and Seattle Opera as well. Keep an eye out for this Cuban-American soprano!

The Sequitur concert on January 8 featuring the music of composers awarded a Cintas fellowship included Jorge’s work, “Conjuration” for piano, clarinet, violin and cello. The New York Times published a review on January 10 with a big photo from the performance. The musicians of Sequitur were hugely impressive.

Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With an Urban Complexity
By ALLAN KOZINN, New York Times
Published: January 10, 2007

If you've been curious about the state of new music in Cuba, Sequitur offered an answer of sorts in its program at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday evening. But it was an answer with an asterisk, for although the six composers on the program were all born in Cuba, and most began their musical training there, they live elsewhere now.

Still, most of the music keeps its Cuban roots clearly in focus, even when techniques and textures are as eclectic as can be. In ''Conjuration'' (2003), Jorge Martín begins with an alternation of slow, tolling sections and bursts of manic energy, but the score melts into an essay in transformed folk melody. Lyrical clarinet lines and rustic violin themes are accompanied by piano and cello figures steeped in Latin rhythms, yet the more acerbic writing of the opening section is always close at hand.....