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Four Folk Songs Out Now Arranged By David Chase, With Violinist Tessa Lark And Essential Voices USA
By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 24, 2020
Judith Clurman commissioned Broadway arranger David Chase to arrange folk music for mixed chorus and violin. Chase, who comes from a long line of West Virginians, combined the Appalachian folk traditions together along with musical elements of Sacred Harp singing in the four-movement work, I This Old Hammer, II Pretty Saro, III Down In A Coalmine, and IV Who Will Come and Go With Me.
Clurman conducted her Essential Voices USA in the premiere recording of the work in June 2019, at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, The chorus was accompanied by Tessa Lark on violin, who grew up in Kentucky steeped in the traditions of Appalachian fiddling. For the recording, Tessa improvised extended musical introductions before the notes published in the score, an old custom for Appalachian fiddlers. The album was produced by multiple GRAMMYTM-award nominee engineer, Silas Brown. The scores are published by Hal Leonard.
Conductor Judith Clurman says, "What a great collaboration! I loved working on this project with David and Tessa. My Essential Voices USA sang, clapped, and stomped and enjoyed making music with Tessa. Her improvisations were terrific."
Appalachian Stories can be streamed on numerous platforms: ITUNES, AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC, and CDBABY.
Listen at essentialvoicesusa.hearnow.com.
Notes and Lyrics are available at acisproductions.com/Appalachian-stories-evusa/.
Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York's preeminent choral ensembles. The ensemble performs regularly with the New York Pops in its Carnegie Hall subscription series, at Lincoln Center. Judith Clurman is an Emmy (2X) and Grammy nominated musician. She currently conducts Essential Voices USA, the Singing Tree Float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, teaches solo voice and ensemble singing on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and presents her Choral Initiative Project for composition students, at The Juilliard School. Judith has conducted over commissions from over 60 American composers and has collaborated with the world's major symphony orchestras.
She has served as Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School and was the vocal/choral faculty specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical. Tessa Lark, a recently Grammy nominated artist, is the recipient of a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medalist in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory with an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School. She plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago. David Chase has been Music Director, Music Supervisor and/or Arranger for numerous Broadway musicals, as well as for productions in London's West End. He continues his longstanding associations with the Boston Pops, Radio City, and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has written and arranged numerous choral works that have been recorded by Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA and published by Hal Leonard. He is a guest conductor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Musical Direction for NBC's TV musicals.
Chase has written arrangements and orchestrations for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Acis Productions is a critically acclaimed boutique label with a roster that boasts both emerging and Grammy-nominated classical artists. Acis was founded by the record producer and conductor Geoffrey Silver, who hails from the UK where he trained in the choral tradition in London and Cambridge.
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