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Randol Alan Bass Sir Derek Jacobi Luretta Bybee Tallis Chamber Choir National Symphony Orchestra |
Mr. Bass has achieved an impressive array of performances by orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra,
the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Active for more than two decades as an arranger,
Mr. Bass is now focusing his talents on original compositions,
largely due to the demand for his music.
His transcription of Conquest of Paradise, can be heard on the April 30, 1996 release from the
Boston Pops, Summon the Heroes which celebrated the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Mr. Bass grew up in Midland, Texas, studying piano and singing with local choral ensembles. A longtime student of choral conducting, Mr. Bass earned his Master of Music degree at The College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Cincinnati. His doctoral work includes both choral and wind conducting at Ohio State University's Robert Shaw Institute and at The University of Texas at Austin.
Mr. Bass, the composer, has been commissioned by numerous prestigious orchestras throughout the country, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Orchestra to prepare symphonic works for various special events. His Gloria! had its premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1990 by the New York Pops Orchestra, becoming the fourth of his works to be performed there. In addition, his compositions have been performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Grand Rapids Symphony and Chorus, the Dallas Symphony Chorus and many other orchestras and choruses throughout the United States and Europe.
Mr. Bass makes his music available to the public through his own publishing company, Randol Bass Music (www.randolbassmusic.com). A Feast of Carols represents his first recording devoted entirely to his creative efforts, both as composer-arranger and conductor.
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A brilliant English stage actor who has made occasional screen appearances.
He studied at Cambridge and trained at the Birmingham Repertory Company until
Laurence Olivier saw him perform and eventually invited him to join the National Theatre Company.
Jacobi performed in a myriad of roles and was featured in the Olivier produced films of Othello (1965, as Cassio)
and Three Sisters (1970, released here in 1974). He has also been featured in The Day of the Jackal (1973),
The Odessa File (1974), The Medusa Touch (1978), The Human Factor (1979), Enigma (1982), Little Dorrit (1988),
and the Kenneth Branagh films Henry V (1989, as the Chorus) and Dead Again (1991, in an amusingly flashy part).
Jacobi won a Tony Award for his role as Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing,"
and may be best known in the US for his stunning TV work in the BBC series "I, Claudius" and
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Luretta Bybee, Mezzo-soprano
American mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee has proven herself to be an artist of remarkable range and versatility
in her performances throughout the world in a wide variety of repertoire.
International recognition came early in her career when she sang the title role in
the world tour of Peter Brook's La Tragedie de Carmen. Bizet's heroine has since figured heavily in
Ms. Bybee's schedule, having taken her to several companies both in the U.S. and abroad and
marked her debut at New York City Opera as Carmen. Anthony Tomasini of the New York Times wrote,
"Ms. Bybee's Carmen is an earthy, buxom, and blithely willful woman who is utterly confident
that she is completely attractive to men….She doesn't have to transform herself into Salome
when she dances at the tavern for the vanquished soldier Don Jose.
Just a few well-turned steps, some rippling rhythms of the castanets,
and a mellow voiced rendition of a gypsy tune will do.
Ms. Bybee brings a dusky-colored, vibrant voice to the role.
This was a strongly sung and engaging portrayal". She joined the Metropolitan Opera roster in 1998,
and in the fall of the following season she again enjoyed great critical acclaim for her reprise of Carmen at NYCO.Ms. Bybee's interpretations of Rossini characters have garnered widespread recognition and praise. In addition to her appearances as lsabella in L'Italiana in Algeri at NYCO, she has sung the role in Cologne, Dublin, and at the Festival International de Santander. Last season she made her Frankfurt Opera debut in concert performances of Tancredi. She sang the role of Falliero in the American premiere of Bianca e Falliero in Miami, and enjoyed great success as Farnace in Mozart's Mitridate, Re di Ponto at the Wexford Festival and in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
Highlights of recent seasons include performances as the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Dinah in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Tina in Dominic Argento's The Aspem Papers, Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, both Meg Page and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Dalila in Samson et Dalila, and Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino.
The Verdi Requiem marked the mezzo's debut in Carnegie Hall. She appeared again in Carnegie Hall in Handel's Messiah, which she also sang with the Colorado and Houston Symphonies and has performed with the New York Festival of Song. She sang Bernstein's Songfest to open the 1996-97 season at the 92nd St. Y in New York, and again in 1998 with Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood festival at the Leonard Bernstein celebration.
Ms. Bybee made her Seattle opera debut singing Princess Maria in Prokofiev's War and Peace, which was recorded on video on the Sony label and is on the Gloria dei Cantores label as the Mezzo soloist in Aaron Copland's In the Beginning. She also created the role of Joanna in Carly Simon's children's opera Romulus Hunt in its world premiere in New York and at the Kennedy Center, which she then recorded for Angel Records.
Lucretia in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia marked her debut with L'Opera de Montreal last season, along with her Seattle Symphony debut singing the mezzo solos in Handel's Messiah. She also added the role of Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo In Maschera and took part in the opening of Seattle's new opera house as The Voice From Above and a flower maiden in Parsifal by Wagner.
Though Ms. Bybee is a newly appointed member of the voice faculty at the University of Michigan, she will sing Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony and Beethoven's Ninth with the Springfield Symphony and debuts the role of Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold in New Orleans. She also looks forward to her first collaboration with Martin Katz singing Two Songs for Contralto and Piano with Viola by Brahms this winter.
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The Tallis Chamber Choir was formed by Philip Simms in 1982 and quickly established itself
as one of the leading British choirs, numbering between 12 and 60 singers.
TCC has sung at many English and European Festivals, at all London's major concert halls
with most of Britain's leading orchestras as well as ones from Paris, Budapest, Perugia, Tel Aviv, Moscow and Gothenburg. Conductors have included Ashkenazy, Bruggen, Domingo, Harnoncourt, Hickox, Jarvi, Leonhardt, Leppard, Mackerras, Malgoire, Mehta, Menuhin, Norrington, Sacher, Spivakov, Tate, Tilson Thomas and Viotti.
TCC has a number of commercial recordings to its credit, including several with the English Chamber Orchestra. They have appeared on British and Irish TV, made several documentaries, broadcast for the BBC many times and also for French, German and Irish radio, made commercial "backing tracks", and performed twice at Buckingham Palace. With their conductor, Philip Simms, the choir has also sung in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey Belgium and Poland.
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The history of the National Symphony Orchestra began in the 1940s, when it was making an average of 10 records a year for DECCA with great artists such as Dr. Malcolm Sargent, Fistoulari, Boyd Neel, Moura Lympany, Clifford Curzon and Ida Haendel. This fine orchestra also recorded the music for many films including the cult film Brief Encounter, and Love Story which contained the famous Cornish Rhapsody.
One of the main things which distinguished the NSO from the other orchestras during the war years was that almost all its musicians were serving in the forces, and therefore unlike the LSO and LPO of the day (who relied on those who were too old or unfit for military service) were composed of young men such as Gareth Morris, Dennis Brain and Norman del Mar. The records made between '44 and '46 are considered by experts to be outstanding, especially when compared with pre-war orchestras.
During this time the Leader of the Orchestra was David MacCallum, (father of the star of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and there were many other great names in its ranks, such as Douglas Cameron, Alec Whittaker and James Blades, who describes in his autobiography a notable tour of Switzerland in 1946, culminating in the entire Orchestra being presented (after the performance) to a very impressed Richard Strauss!
During the 1980s the orchestra owed much of its increasing reputation and high standards to Perry Montague-Mason, who for more than ten years was Leader and Joint Artistic Director with Anne Collis. The National Symphony Orchestra chooses its players not only for their musical talent and technical ability, but also for their desire to give of their best at all times and to enjoy doing it! This enthusiasm conveys itself very clearly to audiences, who always respond positively.
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