July 27, 2007 Jan Hus Church 351 East 74th Street New York, New York 10021

Vox Novus joins with Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan hus Church to present Composer's Voice, a monthly concert series championing the work of living composers.

Title Composer Performer I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tungfrom Nixon in China John Adams Tanying Dong- soprano Sara’s Vocalise David Wolfson Sara Paar - vocal dancer Experience Bryon - choreographer Lvieaeohn Christian McLeer Christian McLeer - piano Driving Home (from your house) Jay Sorce Jay Sorce - guitar Chris Dragotta - electronic wind instrumentr You Certainly Do Not After You Hear Me Out from Glory Denied Rodney Sharman Scott Roche - baritone Gretchen Mundinger - piano

Performers Gretchen Mundinger is finding early success as a young soprano with a big voice. Miss Mundinger most recently performed the role of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) with Satori Opera and helped to co-produce a fundraiser concert with her company Musical Offerings to benefit Water is Life, Kenya. Upcoming engagements include her role debut of Mimi (La Boheme) with dell'arte Opera, The Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro) in the Bechstein Vocal Artist Series, Songs for Shoes (a fundraiser concert produced by Musical Offerings for an Orphanage in Camichines, Mexico) and the role of Deborah in the professional premiere of The Veil of Forgetfulness with Susan Stoderl. Other operatic roles performed include Old Alyce (Glory Denied-both world and professional premiere) The Mother (Amahl and The Night Visitors), Amor (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), The 1st Lady (The Magic Flute), Frasquita (Carmen), Bridget O’Malley (A.F.R.A.I.D-World Premiere), and Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus). In addition, Miss Mundinger has sung the Soprano Solo in Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms). A proponent of new music, she is a member of Remarkable Theater Brigade, touring with the company and performing for special events. She created the role of Old Alyce, in the original college production of Glory Denied at Brooklyn College for which she received a positive New York Times review. She was the single original cast member that composer, Tom Cipullo, chose for the professional premiere that was conducted by former Metropolitan Opera conductor Steven Crawford. She sang the 3 Goddesses in the International Electro Acoustic Music Festival’s staged production of The Tempest Project, based on the 2 CD set to be released by POGUS Productions and that was broadcast on CUNY television. Written for her, she premiered the piece entitled Summoning by George Brunner, in New York City in 2007 and is featured singing it on the upcoming CD. She also sang 2 world premiere compositions in the Emerging Composer’s Concert for International Electro Acoustic Music Festival. Miss Mundinger’s private vocal studio is very active and her students have performed off-Broadway, in the Fringe Festival and in the Cabaret circuit. Currently, she is on the faculty at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. Scott Roche Graphic Designer, Director, Baritone, recently made his Lincoln Center solo debut with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall in April of this year. Recent credits include Jim Thompson in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, Ottone in L'incoranazione di Poppea, Papageno in die Zauberflote, der Vater in Humperdink's Hansel und Gretel, and Jack in RTB's Outreach production of Christian McClear's Shot! Scott has been doing graphic design for RTB since the production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, which he directed.

Composers Composer Tom Cipullo's works have been heard at major concert halls on four continents, from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, from Stockholm to LaPaz. He has received commissions from SongFest at Pepperdine, the Mirror Visions Ensemble, the Joy in Singing, Sequitur, Cantori New York, tenor Paul Sperry, soprano Hope Hudson, mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, the Five Boroughs Music Festival, pianist Jeanne Golan, and the New York Festival of Song; and he has received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Copland House, the Oberpfaelzer Kuenstlerhaus (Bavaria), and ASCAP. The New York Times has called his music "haunting," and The Boston Globe remarked that his work "literally sparkled with wit." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has called him "an expert in writing for the voice." Recent honors include the Minneapolis Pops New Orchestral Repertoire Award (2009) for Sparkler, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Award (2008) for the song-cycle Of a Certain Age, the Aaron Copland Award from Copland House (2007), and the Phyllis Wattis Prize for song composition from the San Francisco Song Festival (2006-07). Mr. Cipullo recently completed his first opera, Glory Denied. The work, after the book by journalist Tom Philpott, is based on the true story of America's longest-held prisoner of war. The piece was premiered by the Brooklyn College Opera Theater in 2007 and was given its professional premiere by the Remarkable Theater Brigade in New York in June of 2008. Writing for The New York Times, Anne Midgette said of the work: "It is tonal, melting into aching lushness,…propelled by driving Bernstein-like syncopations, with a bite to its harmonies where different versions of the same truth converge." Excerpts from Glory Denied were presented by New York City Opera at its Vox 2004 festival. In its review of that presentation, The New York Times called the piece "intriguing and unconventional," and cited the work's "teeming, hard-edged Neo-Romantic style." Tom Cipullo's song cycles A Visit with Emily, Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House, and Of a Certain Age are published by Oxford University Press. Other works are distributed by Classical Vocal Reprints. His music has been recorded on the Albany, CRI, PGM, and Capstone labels. Mr. Cipullo's upcoming projects include commissions from the Lilac Trio, a song cycle for soprano Martha Guth, and a new work for baritone Dominic Young and chamber orchestra based on historical American texts from the year 1859. A new recording of Mr. Cipullo's vocal works, featuring mezzo Mary Ann Hart, soprano Monica Harte, bass-baritone Robert Osborne, and tenor Paul Sperry was issued on the Albany label in the fall of 2009. Mr. Cipullo received his Master's degree in composition from Boston University and his B.S. from Hofstra University, Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in music. He studied composition and orchestration with David Del Tredici, Elie Siegmeister, and Albert Tepper. Mr. Cipullo is a founding member of the Friends & Enemies of New Music, an organization that has presented more than 80 concerts featuring the music of over 200 different American composers. Christian McLeer, an American Composer is a graduate of the Juilliard Conservatory Pre-College, and Manhattan School of Music. At the age of fourteen he received his first major commission for the American Cancer Society for which he wrote and performed Hope in concert. Since then, he has composed a number of works that have been commissioned and recorded including his one-act opera House of Comedy , an avant-garde piece entitled Feedback Parade, the ballet The Grandfather Clocks,and the opera Haibo. His composition Musing is included on acclaimed flutist Sophia Anastasia's CD of the same name and Hope is included on the CD Encores 2 by the world-renowned pianist Anna Marie Bottazzi. His work, Black Lung was included on the 60x60 project. As a concert pianist Christian has performed at many respected venues including Weill-Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Concert Hall and the New Orleans Astro Dome. He has also performed as a conductor with the New Music Consort. Christian is an accomplished classical, jazz, pop & rock musician and is recognized as having the ability to unite these genres in his compositions. He co-founded the Remarkable Theater Brigade, he is the musical director at Jan Hus Presbyterian Church, and co-directs the Composer's Voice Concert Series in New York City with Vox Novus. On his free time, he plays piano at the after-school rehearsals for the Fort Hamilton High School chorus and National Chorale program, where they are singing "Meaningful", from Mr. McLeer's musical "G Train", under the direction of Mr. Robert Lanaghan. Jay Sorce is a classical guitarist noted for his "unique blend of refinement, intensity, and virtuosic technique"*. An accomplished soloist and ensemble musician specializing in contemporary music, Jay has been featured in concerts and festivals in the US, Canada, and Europe. Jay teaches both privately and through SUNY Suffolk where he teaches the undergraduate guitar students. He is currently persuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University, with Jerry Willard. He earned his MM from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, where he studied with Tom Patterson, and BM from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Oren Fader and David Starobin David Wolfson is an eclectic, versatile composer of songs, concert music and music for theatre, as well as other genres. The New York Times has called his work "musically inventive" and "theatrically forceful." He has written art songs, theatre songs, comedy songs, pop songs and songs for big-headed-costumed-character amusement parks shows; he has written music for bassoon quartet, percussion ensemble, SATB chorus and cello quartet; he has composed incidental music for plays and done sound design for Macy's display windows. The menus at the top of the site will take you to pages with audio clips, video clips and excerpts from the scores, as well as David's bio and blog. On certain pages you can purchase sheet music from my load.cd page or repertwa.com. Enjoy the music! send David an email—ask a question, make a comment, commission a new piece! Please note: if you are having trouble viewing the Flash content on this site in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, please try the 32-bit version. Audio Clip of the Month (posted 6/7/11): The Unmade Bed from Interior Life Recently completed: Petroglyph for solo clarinet; Deep Woods for soprano and string orchestra, on a poem by Peter Beagle; Interior Life for mezzo and piano, on poems by Joy Katz; a 10-minute opera for Remarkable Theatre Brigade's Opera Shorts program '

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