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Foreign Impressions
Other Perspectives Across Time and Space

A program of modern American and English songs performed on November 17, 2003 in Movimento, Munich.
The performers were:
Gregory Wiest, Tenor,
Nicole Winter, Piano,
Reinhard Schmid, Doublebass

Four Ben Jonson Songs

for Tenor and Piano
Texts by Ben Jonson
Music by Martin Hennessy
Hymn to Diana,
Echo's Song,
Kiss me, Sweet,

Sunrise

for Tenor and Piano
Poetry by Christina Rossetti
Music by Katherine Gilliam
Bird Raptures
Bread and Milk for Breakfast
O Wind, Why Do You Never Rest?
Heaven Overarches Earth and Sea
O Wind, Where Have You Been?
The Summer Nights Are Short
Baby Lies so Fast Asleep
Roses on a Briar
Who has Seen the Wind?
Advent

The Christmas of 1914

A narrative for unaccompanied Tenor
Texts and Music by
William Vollinger

Whimsical Songs

For Tenor and Double Bass
Texts by John Keats
Music by Armand Russell
Old Meg
The Dawlish Fair
An Interesting Place
Two or Three Posies

New Mexico

for Tenor, Double Bass and Piano
Text by Philip Sealey
Music by Martin Read

Martin Hennessy studied at Georgetown University and the Juilliard School with Samuel Sanders and Marshall. He describes himself as a composer, vocal coach and pianist. As an accompanist, he has travelled widely and received many awards. His opera, "A Letter to East 11th Street, will soon be premiered by Musician's Accord in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Katherine Gilliam has her Masters Degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where she studied with Dr. Nicholas Maw and her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Tulane University where she studied with Dr. Barbara Jazwinski.

William Vollinger is primarily a composer of vocal music, performed by groups such as the Gregg Smith Singers and New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, whose performance of his "Three Songs About the Resurrection" won first prize at the Geneva International Competition. "The Violinist in the Mall" won the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. "Sound Portraits", recorded by Capstone, features soprano Linda Ferreira, including "The Child in the Hole", the true story of a Jewish boy who was hidden for three years during the Holocaust. It was selected for the 2003 Contemporary Music Festival in Kearney, Nebraska, and the 2004 Society of Composers National Conference. Tennessee Technological University presented an entire concert of his music. His works have been performed and broadcast in Europe, United States, and Asia. NPR devoted an hour program to his music. He is published by Lawson-Gould, Laurendale, and Heritage, with four pieces featured as editor's choices in the Pepper Catalogue.
Writing in "Fanfare" (December 2003), Raymond Beegle writes, "I have known his work for years and believe, after much consideration, that there is genius in it. With astonishing depth and clarity, Vollinger brings his subjects to life. One finds a new musical language, not born out of a desire to be new, but a desire to be clear and to tell the truth. With all it's freshness, it is rooted in our past traditions, felicitously circumventing all the chaos, all the attitudinizing, and intellectualizing, and publicizing, that litter the present musical horizon."

Armand Russell has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Washington and his Doctorate in composition from the Eastman School of Music. His composition teachers were John Verall, George McKay, Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson.
Russell played double bass in several orchestras. Up until his retirement he was professor of music theory and composition at the University of Hawaii.
He lives and composes in Santa Rosa, California, USA

Martin Read studied music at the Colchester Institute, Goldsmiths College, London University, where he earned his Masters of Music in composition. In 1998 he became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music in London. He is currently Head the Music Department at Alton College.
In 2002 his opera, "dance to the end of time" toured Southern England to great acclaim.
He died in November 2012 at the age of 53.