BIOGRAPHIES
Sergio Cervetti
SERGIO CERVETTI is a Uruguayan-born American composer who came to the U.S. in 1962 to study composition. In 1966 he attracted international attention on winning the chamber music prize at the Caracas, Venezuela Music Festival. After studying with Ernst Krenek and graduating from Peabody Conservatory, he was invited by the DAAD to be composer-in-residence in Berlin, Germany in 1969-70. From 1972 to 1997 and 2007-08 Cervetti was Master Teacher of Music at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. During this time he composed over one hundred works for the concert stage, dance, theater, and film; many commissioned, recorded and performed in venues and festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Cervetti’s works range from acoustic to electronic and blend European tradition, folk elements, and minimalist aesthetics. After an early brush with twelve-tone and minimalism his current approach is free and flexible. As much a traditionalist as innovator, he straddles musical worlds with new works that showcase a post-modern synthesis of techniques from diverse periods and sources. Many reflect his South American heritage as well as interest in literature, painting, dance, and socio-political topics. Critics summarize that he is markedly independent, almost an outsider, spanning distant musical worlds of distinct originality and poetry. As a boundless creator and master at his craft, he combines elements from classical, dance and electronic that show his essential qualities as melodist and colorist, rhythmic vitality, and harmonically modern sophistication which was recently described as “contemporary baroque.”
In the early 1970’s Cervetti’s contributions to the minimalist movement included Guitar Music (the bottom of the iceberg), Madrigal III, …from the earth…, and Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Timpani. Three Next Wave Festivals at the Brooklyn Academy of Music featured his extensive collaborations with New York City’s dance world. The Alicante Festival in Spain commissioned the harpsichord concerto Las Indias Olvidadas; and the opera Elegy For A Prince was premiered in excerpted scenes by New York City Opera/VOX 2007. Among other career highlights were two tours in Spain with Joven Orquesta Nacional de España (JONDE); and sections of The Hay Wain, an electroacoustic symphonic poem inspired by the Bosch triptych, are heard in Oliver Stone’s film Natural Born Killers. Starting in 2009 PARMA Recordings has recorded thirteen works composed from 1972 to 2015 for six exclusive albums released on Navona Records. http://www.sergiocervetti.com/
craig madden morris
Craig Morris has composed music since the age of eleven. He studied composition with Shirley Bloom, Kevin Scott and Joelle Wallach and also studied violin, piano and voice. He played violin with the Bronx Symphony Orchestra for over forty years and presently plays with the Ridgewood Symphony. He has sung professionally as a cantor for over thirty years. His music has been performed by the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, the CETA Orchestra of New York, the North Jersey Symphony, the Fifth International Music Festival of Buenos Aires, the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, the Chamber Music Society of Formosa, the Amasi Trio, the Gregg Smith Singers and the Nyack College Chorale. His compositions include three piano sonatas, piano suites, orchestral suites, a clarinet concerto, a cello rhapsody for cello and orchestra, a concert duet for soprano and tenor, choral compositions and a sacred service for the Sabbath (published in the Journal of Synagogue Music). “Arise My Love” and “The Rubaiyat” were chosen as finalists in the 2010 Meistersingers Choral Competition. His choral music, released last year by Parma Records, titled Circle of Love. Craig Madden Morris album “Dreams” consisting of chamber music for piano, violin and cello, was released by Parma Records in 2011 to critical acclaim. His music has been hailed as “extremely intelligent, complex and powerful” by Daniel Shaw, artistic director of the Composer’s Choir, and “beautiful, lively and moving” by Jennifer Whiting, conductor of the DeKalb Festival Chorus. Gapplegate Classical Reviews commented “There are times when music may not be ultra-advanced categorically yet be so captivating that one doesn’t care. The composer Craig Madden Morris and his chamber music on the album Dreams (Ravello 7813) gives us such a time. There is lyricism, formal heft, beautifully played parts and an idiomatic craftsmanship/inspiration that makes it all a joy to hear.” His orchestral overture, “Lullaby” was selected as a winner in the international Ablaze Records Orchestral Masters Competition and was released on December 1, 2013 as part of a CD recorded by the Brno Philharmonic, Mikel Toms, conductor. It has been described as “fetchingly beautiful, redolent of Bernstein and Copland, and driven with a sure melodic and harmonic hand, this deeply American score paints a lovely and melodic world that is very effectively orchestrated and affectively captivating despite its brevity.” His Benjamin Overture for concert band was recorded by the West Point Band, Lt. Col. Jim Keene, conductor, and was premiered by the SUNY Orange Symphonic Band, Kevin Scott, conductor, on December 14, 2013. His violin concerto was premiered by the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra on October 18, 2014, with Francisc Restesan, soloist and Paul John Stanbery, music director, and released by Parma Records in February 2016. He recently completed a commission by the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra for a companion piece to the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, to be premiered in May 2017. Dr. Morris is a child psychiatrist and a native New Yorker who lives in New City, NY with his wife, Nancy
Betty R. Wishart
Described as “a composer possessed of a distinctive and worthwhile compositional voice” (Fanfare), Betty R. Wishart’s music has been performed in Europe, Russia, South Korea, and throughout the United States at diverse venues including Ural State University (Russia), Nacoochee Presbyterian Church Chamber Music Series (GA), Women Composers Festival of Hartford (CT), Le Prieuré (France), Schacknow Museum (FL), Christ and St. Stephen’s Church (NYC), University of California (Los Angeles), American Swedish Institute, and conferences of the Southeastern Composers’ League, Society of Composers, Inc., Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers, and the National Association of Composers, USA. She has received awards from American Pen Women, American College of Musicians, Composers Guild, Broward County Music Teachers Association, ASCAP, Regional Project Support Grants from the Arts Council of Fayetteville and Cumberland, and has been Composer-in-Residence at Weymouth Centre for the Arts.
Her debut solo album Piano Sonorities released by Ravello Records has been described as “challenging and intellectual” (MainlyPiano.com), and “demands attention and holds it because the ideas behind it are strong and supple….” (Fanfare). Music from the album been featured on numerous radio broadcasts and performed on concert tours by Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi.
A member of the music faculty at Campbell University, Wishart received degrees from Queens College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursued additional studies in New York City. http://www.bettywishart.com/
Daniel Crozier
Described as “harmonically lush and lyrically soaring” by the New York Times, and as having “abstract elegance, structural coherence, and tender feeling” by the Wall Street Journal, music by Daniel Crozier has been preformed or recorded by the Fort Worth Opera, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the New York City Opera, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Songfest 2004, Winsor Music, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, oboist Peggy Pearson, and pianists Heidi Louise Williams and Vivian Choi. His operatic, orchestral, and solo works have been recorded for release on the Albany, ACA Digital, PARMA Recordings, and MARK labels. His awards include a fellowship from the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Grant, four nominations for awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, first prizes in the National Opera Association Chamber Opera competition and Fresh Ink, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s commissioning competition for Florida Composers, and ASCAP Special Awards annually since 1996. Daniel Crozier holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He currently serves as Professor of Theory and Composition at Rollins College.
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