Visit his web site for more information.

Annual Updates

2010

PERFORMANCES

Sterne und Stein, a song cycle after Rudolf Gelpke, was presented October 13, 2008, by baritone Donnie Ray Albert and pianist Seth Carlin, Washington University, St. Louis, MO; on the same concert, Being Beauteous, after Rimbaud, was performed by soprano Tamara Miller Campbell, pianist Carlin, and cellist Elizabeth Macdonald.

2008

 
Harold Blumenfeld is a composer given to language, opera, and the human voice. His Vers Sataniques (Satanic Verse, after Baudelaire), for large orchestra with baritone and mezzo coloratura, was recorded by the National Radio Orchestra of Poland during the first week of November 2007 in Katowice, Poland. The half-hour work is a life cycle embracing the sensual “Le Jet d’eau,” the terrifying death-poem “L’Horloge,” and – after a magical bell interlude – “La Vie anterieure,” a wistful recalling of life from the far side of the tomb. The texts are garnered from the poet’s once-censored Fleurs du mal. Drafted in France, the work was revised and completed in 2007 in St. Louis, MO. The recording, conducted by Joel Suben, featured baritone Donnie Ray Albert and mezzo-soprano Christine Schadeberg; it will be distributed to the stations of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and thereafter in the U.S. Vers Sataniques is to be the central work of a 2008 Centaur Records compact disk titled Cycles, also incorporating works based upon Byron and Rimbaud. Blumenfeld’s newly completed comprehensive American Music Center websiteoffers soundexcerpts, 200 score pages, and notes for 34 works including operas. (Visit www.amc.net, click on “explore,” and enter his name.)