Pianist Lara Downes will release her new album For Lenny, a tribute to Leonard Bernstein in honor of his centennial celebration, February 9, 2018, on Sony Classical. The program spans the landscape of American music from the past, present, and future, presenting a portrait of Bernstein the man, full of boundless curiosity and a fervent belief in the power of music to change our world for the better.
The recording will center around his aptly-named Anniversaries for Piano, musical portraits he composed for his family and friends, new arrangements of his songs, and works dedicated to Bernstein by leading American composers such as Stephen Sondheim, John Corigliano, Stephen Schwartz, Ned Rorem and others. The album will also be introduced by a liner note by acclaimed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik. Taking her inspiration from Bernstein's boundary-breaking approach to music-making, Lara will be joined by a selection of guest artists from across the spectrum of genres and generations: opera legend Thomas Hampson, roots singer Rhiannon Giddens (recently named a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow), superstar beatboxer Kevin "K.O." Olusola (a member of the chart-topping a cappella group Pentatonix), and Mexican/American clarinet prodigy Javier Morales-Martinez, whom Lara discovered through the national Young Artists program she founded at the Mondavi Center, UC Davis.TRACK LISTING
Bernstein: Something's Coming - with Kevin "K.O." Olusola
John Corigliano: Anniversary for Lenny
Stephen Schwartz: Anniversaire for Lenny
Eleonor Sandresky: Romance for Lenny
Michael Abels: Iconoclasm/for Lenny
Bernstein: Big Stuff
Bernstein: Anniversary for Johnny Mehegan
Bernstein: Anniversary for Aaron Copland
Bernstein: Anniversary for Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim: I Remember
Bernstein: Cool - with Javier Morales-Martinez
Bernstein: The Story of My Life
Bernstein: Greeting (from Arias and Barcarolles)
Marc Blitzstein: Innocent Psalm, for the Bernstein Baby
Bernstein: Anniversary for Nina
Bernstein: Anniversary for Felicia on our 28th birthday & her 52nd
Bernstein: So Pretty - with Rhiannon Giddens
Daron Hagen: Anniversary in Memoriam
Bernstein: Anniversary for Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss: For Lenny, Variation on New York New York
Ricky Ian Gordon: What Shall We Remember?
Bernstein: A Simple Song - with Thomas Hampson
Shulamit Ran: Exuberance/for Lenny
Bernstein: Anniversary for Craig Urquhart
Craig Urquhart: Remembering Lenny
Theo Bleckmann: Goodbye Chorale/For Lenny
Ned Rorem: Youth, Day, Old Age and Night
Bernstein: Some Other Time
Tour Dates
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