Eric Whitacre

An accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, Eric Whitacre is one of the bright stars in contemporary concert music. Regularly commissioned and published, Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association, the American Composers Forum, and last spring was honored with his first Grammy nomination (contemporary classical crossover). This year he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association; commercially he has worked with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch.

Born in 1970, Whitacre has already achieved substantial critical and popular acclaim. The American Record Guide named his first recording, The Music of Eric Whitacre, one of the top ten classical albums in 1997, and the Los Angeles Times praised his music as "electric, chilling harmonies; works of unearthly beauty and imagination." His Water Night has become one of the most popular choral works of the last decade, and is one of the top selling choral publications in the last five years. Ghost Train, his first instrumental work written at the age of 23, is a genuine phenomenon; it has received thousands of performances in over 50 countries and has been featured on 40 different recordings. His music has been the subject of several recent scholarly works and doctoral dissertations, and his 28 published works have sold well over 100,000 copies worldwide.

As a conductor, Mr. Whitacre has served as principal conductor of the College Light Opera Company, chorus master for the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as guest conductor with numerous professional and educational ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Gregg Smith Singers and the Kansas City Chorale. Last fall he conducted the first in an annual series of wind symphony concerts in Tokyo, Japan, where he has been named guest music director of the Tokyo Wind Symphony, and this summer he conducted and lectured extensively throughout Singapore. Eric received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winner John Corigliano.

BYU Singers

Eric Whitacre - The Complete A Cappella Works

Water Night Three Songs of Faith: - I Will Wade out - Hope, Faith, Life, Love - I Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day Cloudburst Sleep Three Flower Songs: -I Hide Myself -With A Lily in Your Hand -Go, Lovely Rose When David Heard Lux aurumque Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

A big seller at the recent ACDA Convention in New York City, "Eric Whitacre" is a stunning collection of songs composed in the classical style of Monteverdi, Debussy and Prokofiev, but with inspiration from such groups as the Beatles, Sting, Queen, Madonna and Peter Gabriel. His choice of texts also reflects a broad range of poets - Octavio Paz, Ogden Nash, James Joyce, e.e. cummings and Emily Dickenson, religious poets being conspicuous in their absence, although "three songs of faith" are included here. The mixed-voice Brigham Young U. Singers do justice to Whitacre's difficult, eclectic, wonderful, soaring compositions. 12 songs, "Water Night," the three songs of faith: "I Will Wade Out," "Hope, Faith, Life, Love," "I Thank You God for most this Amazing Day," "Cloudburst", "Sleep," "I Hide Myself," "With a Lily in Your Hand," "Go Lovely Rose," "When David Heard," "Lux aurumque" and "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine." "Beautiful" is an inadequate word to describe Whitacre's work and the BYU Singers' interpretation of it. "Amazing" works much better! Recommended.

6844 CD $15.98

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