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American Gifts

Jack Van Geem and Nancy Zeltsman

American Gifts

Format: CD
Label: Bridge
UPC: 0090404953422
Catnr: BRIDG 9534
Release date: 22 January 2021
1 CD
 
Label
Bridge
UPC
0090404953422
Catalogue number
BRIDG 9534
Release date
22 January 2021
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

"American Gifts" features composer Michael Tilson Thomas's "Island Music" (2003), a charming and effervescent work performed by duo marimbists, Jack Van Geem and Nancy Zeltsman with members of the San Francisco Symphony percussion section. Van Geem and Zeltsman also give virtuosic readings of music by Irving Fine, Roger Sessions, and Joseph Brackett- American gifts spanning 155 years.
"American Gifts" zeigt die "Island Music" (2003) des Komponisten Michael Tilson Thomas, ein bezauberndes und spritziges Werk, das von den Marimba-Duos Jack Van Geem und Nancy Zeltsman mit Mitgliedern der Schlagzeugabteilung des San Francisco Symphony aufgeführt wird. Van Geem und Zeltsman geben auch virtuose Lesungen der Musik von Irving Fine, Roger Sessions und Joseph Brackett- amerikanische Geschenke aus 155 Jahren.

Artist(s)

Jack Van Geem (marimba)

Jack Van Geem has been the principal percussion and assistant timpanist of the San Francisco Symphony for 23 years. He has performed and recorded with the symphony as a mallet soloist, solo timpanist, snare drum soloist and featured solo percussionist. Before joining the Symphony in 1981, he performed for five years with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He studied in Germany with Cristoph Caskel on a Hertz Fellowship and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from California State University–Hayward, where he also taught. In addition to his work with the San Francisco Symphony, Van Geem has recorded and performed chamber music, music soundtracks and marimba and xylophone music. He recently finished recording a CD of marimba duets with Nancy Zeltsman and premiered Island...
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Jack Van Geem has been the principal percussion and assistant timpanist of the San Francisco Symphony for 23 years. He has performed and recorded with the symphony as a mallet soloist, solo timpanist, snare drum soloist and featured solo percussionist. Before joining the Symphony in 1981, he performed for five years with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He studied in Germany with Cristoph Caskel on a Hertz Fellowship and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from California State University–Hayward, where he also taught. In addition to his work with the San Francisco Symphony, Van Geem has recorded and performed chamber music, music soundtracks and marimba and xylophone music. He recently finished recording a CD of marimba duets with Nancy Zeltsman and premiered Island Music, a work written especially for them by Michael Tilson Thomas.

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Nancy Zeltsman (marimba)

Nancy Zeltsman is a leading marimba performer, teacher, and festival director. She has premiered over 125 solo/chamber marimba works including compositions by Paul Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gunther Schuller, Carla Bley, Louis Andriessen, Steven Mackey, Lyle Mays, and Robert Aldridge. Alejandro Vinao and Paul Lansky both wrote their first pieces for marimba for Nancy (which have been followed by many other works for marimba and percussion). From 1985 to 1996, Nancy was a member of the duo Marimolin with violinist Sharan Leventhal. (The duo has performed together again occasionally since 2015.) The 80 works they premiered probably stand as the largest body of pieces for marimba and another instrument.
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Nancy Zeltsman is a leading marimba performer, teacher, and festival director. She has premiered over 125 solo/chamber marimba works including compositions by Paul Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gunther Schuller, Carla Bley, Louis Andriessen, Steven Mackey, Lyle Mays, and Robert Aldridge. Alejandro Vinao and Paul Lansky both wrote their first pieces for marimba for Nancy (which have been followed by many other works for marimba and percussion). From 1985 to 1996, Nancy was a member of the duo Marimolin with violinist Sharan Leventhal. (The duo has performed together again occasionally since 2015.) The 80 works they premiered probably stand as the largest body of pieces for marimba and another instrument.

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David Herbert (percussion)

Tom Hemphill (percussion)

Composer(s)

Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1988, he co-founded the New World Symphony, an orchestral academy in Miami dedicated to preparing gifted music graduates for leadership roles in classical music. As Artistic Director, he works with NWS Fellows to further their artistic and professional development. Of the more than 1,100 NWS alumni, 90% maintain careers in music, often with major orchestras. Since 2011, the NWS campus has been the technologically advanced, Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. He was appointed Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, and his tenure has been a period of significant growth and heightened...
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Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra.
In 1988, he co-founded the New World Symphony, an orchestral academy in Miami dedicated to preparing gifted music graduates for leadership roles in classical music. As Artistic Director, he works with NWS Fellows to further their artistic and professional development. Of the more than 1,100 NWS alumni, 90% maintain careers in music, often with major orchestras. Since 2011, the NWS campus has been the technologically advanced, Frank Gehry-designed New World Center.
He was appointed Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, and his tenure has been a period of significant growth and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. In addition to exploring the standard repertoire, he has led SFS in championing contemporary and American music and enriching the concert experience through semi-staged performances. In 2020, he concludes his 25-year directorship and becomes SFS Music Director Laureate, continuing to lead the orchestra regularly in concert, as well as in special projects.
His guest conducting engagements have included the major orchestras of Europe and the United States, and he is also a two-time Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist, curating and conducting series from 2003 to 2005 and from 2018 to 2019.
Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, and his major works include From the Diary of Anne Frank, commissioned by UNICEF and premiered in 1991 with narrator Audrey Hepburn; Shówa/Shoáh, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing; and a setting of Carl Sandburg’s poem Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, premiered in 2016 by NWS and receiving its New York premiere during the current Carnegie Hall Perspectives series.

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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Sonata No. 1 for Piano: I. Andante
01:12
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
02.
Sonata No. 1 for Piano: II. Allegro
03:34
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
03.
Sonata No. 1 for Piano: III. Andante: Poco meno mosso: Tempo 1
01:36
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
04.
Sonata No. 1 for Piano: IV. Molto vivace
01:41
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
05.
Music for Piano: Andante
02:11
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
06.
Music for Piano: Allegro
01:28
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
07.
Music for Piano: Andante
03:10
(Irving Fine) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
08.
Music for Piano: Allegro
02:13
(Roger Sessions) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
09.
Music for Piano: Andante
05:31
(Roger Sessions) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
10.
Music for Piano: Lento Assai
04:17
(Roger Sessions) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
11.
Music for Piano: Interlude - Finale
06:09
(Roger Sessions) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
12.
Simple Gifts
02:14
(Joseph Brackett) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman
13.
Island Music: I. Introduction: Long Familiar Refrains
03:51
(Michael Tilson Thomas) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman, Raymond Froehlich, James Lee Wyatt III, David Herbert, Tom Hemphill
14.
Island Music: II. Part One: Thoughts on the Dance Floor
06:11
(Michael Tilson Thomas) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman, Raymond Froehlich, James Lee Wyatt III, David Herbert, Tom Hemphill
15.
Island Music: III. Part Two: In the Clearing
13:52
(Michael Tilson Thomas) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman, Raymond Froehlich, James Lee Wyatt III, David Herbert, Tom Hemphill
16.
Island Music: IV. Part Three: Ride Outs
06:57
(Michael Tilson Thomas) Jack Van Geem, Nancy Zeltsman, Raymond Froehlich, James Lee Wyatt III, David Herbert, Tom Hemphill
show all tracks

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