Music Institute for over a decade, and founded the “Classics in Ellensburg” chamber music series in Washington State, as well as the Kairos Festival and Lyceum. Maria Newman’s Lux Aeterna was commissioned for Ms. Rehkopf by the Icicle Creek Music Center in 2001. The Icicle Creek Festival Orchestra joined Rehkopf in her world premiere of the concerto under the direction of the composer. Elise Christiansen, in whose memory Lux Aeterna was commissioned, was one of Rehkopf’s closest friends. Rehkopf’s ardent and genuine performance on this disc is played with sublime power, skill, depth and commitment on a deeply personal level. Tenor George Sterne is a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Opera. Mr. Stern is actively sought after as a recording musician in the Hollywood motion picture studios, and has toured with choral great, Roger Wagner. Tarn Travers is Professor of Violin at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has performed as a concerto soloist with major symphony orchestras and as a recitalist internationally, always presenting committed and passionate performances of modern and masterworks alike. Violinist Steven Zander has performed extensively as a valued member of the Malibu Coast String Quartet and as a frequent concerto soloist with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra. He has premiered works by Oscar-nominated film composer, Marco Beltrami, and Pulitzer\Grawemeyer nominee Maria Newman, and performs in the Hollywood studio orchestras. Mr. Zander is a soloist on the classic silent short film DVD set, “The Lost Art of the American Biograph Company,” starring the late great Mary Pickford. A Canadian treasure, soprano Melanie Conly performs regularly at international music festivals, and solos often with orchestral and choral organizations around the world. Ms. Conly is highly noted for her compelling stage presence and dramatic flare, and is a beloved soloist with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra with whom she performs frequently. ABOUT THE ARTISTS American composer, violinist and violist Maria Newman, was born into one of the most visible and influential musical families in Hollywood. As the youngest of the seven children of nine-time Academy Award-winning composer and celebrated Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor, Alfred Newman, Maria Newman has become a much-noted composer of concert music, music for the ballet, and silent film. Ms. Newman has been nominated for such commendations as the Pulitzer Prize and the Grawemeyer Award for music composition, and has received honors from the United States Congress. Maria Newman has garnered awards from such entities as the National Endowment for the Arts, serving as resident composer for many organizations around the globe. Her original music library consists of over 150 works, including a large number of vocal chamber music and choral works based on the poetry of her late maternal grandmother, Louise Moss Montgomery, esteemed poet laureate of Mississippi from 1974 – 1979. American conductor, violinist and violist Scott Hosfeld is the founder, music director and conductor of the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, and has won accolades from the United States Congress, and the California State Senate and Assembly for his work. He has conducted internationally for such concert soloist greats as Nathaniel Rosen, Camilla Wicks, Andrew Shulman, Paul Coletti, Steven Doane, Darol Anger, Hal Ott, Aimee Kreston, David Perry, Peter Longworth, Melanie Conly, Peter Longworth, Eric Kutz, Miko Kominami, Mike Marshall, Maria Newman, and many more. Mr. Hosfeld is conductor and music director of the Eastern Sierra Summer Chamber Symphony, and the Southern California Viola Choir, which boasts the finest Hollywood studio musicians among its elite membership. American violinist Carrie Rehkopf has served as Professor of Violin at Central Washington University since 1990. She is first violinist of the Kairos String Quartet, and often appears as a concerto soloist with orchestras across the nation. Ms. Rehkopf was director of the Icicle Creek Summer Chamber Music Institute for over a decade, and founded the “Classics in Ellensburg” chamber music series in Washington State, as well as the Kairos Festival and Lyceum. Maria Newman’s Lux Aeterna was commissioned for Ms. Rehkopf by the Icicle Creek Music Center in 2001. The Icicle Creek Festival Orchestra joined Rehkopf in her world premiere of the concerto under the direction of the composer. Elise Christiansen, in whose memory Lux Aeterna was commissioned, was one of Rehkopf’s closest friends. Rehkopf’s ardent and genuine performance on this disc is played with sublime power, skill, depth and commitment on a deeply personal level. Tenor George Sterne is a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Opera. Mr. Stern is actively sought after as a recording musician in the Hollywood motion picture studios, and has toured with choral great, Roger Wagner. Tarn Travers is Professor of Violin at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has performed as a concerto soloist with major symphony orchestras and as a recitalist internationally, always presenting committed and passionate performances of modern and masterworks alike. Violinist Steven Zander has performed extensively as a valued member of the Malibu Coast String Quartet and as a frequent concerto soloist with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra. He has premiered works by Oscar-nominated film composer, Marco Beltrami, and Pulitzer\Grawemeyer nominee Maria Newman, and performs in the Hollywood studio orchestras. Mr. Zander is a soloist on the classic silent short film DVD set, “The Lost Art of the American Biograph Company,” starring the late great Mary Pickford. A Canadian treasure, soprano Melanie Conly performs regularly at international music festivals, and solos often with orchestral and choral organizations around the world. Ms. Conly is highly noted for her compelling stage presence and dramatic flare, and is a beloved soloist with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra with whom she performs frequently. LUX AETERNA (2001) Concerto for Solo Violin and String Orchestra Commissioned by the Icicle Creek Music Center for Carrie Rehkopf and the Icicle Creek Festival Orchestra In Memoriam Elise Christiansen Track I 11:16 Feroce Maestoso – Allegro – Cadenza – Come prima – Presto – Lontano Maria Newman’s vivid “Lux Aeterna” (“Light Everlasting”) Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, , was composed in memory of violin great, Elise Christiansen who in her prime, passed to the next world after a fierce fight for her life. Christiansen was an intensely joyful, dazzling light on this earth, and a wonderful and inspiring leader in music and to all who knew her in life. Lux Aeterna opens with all the forceful pain, anger and pleading that Christiansen surely felt in the baring of her illness. Swift memories of Christiansen’s fun-loving and carefree moments comprise the large allegro portion of the concerto. Following a feverish cadenza, the thematic material reminisces of the weeping outset, while changing and wondering on an intimate level. The rush of a presto codetta is followed by a representation of the protagonist’s last labored and weary breaths. The toggled and pulsating chords of the final measures may represent to the listener a luminescent star that rhythmically twinkles its solitary retreat into the night sky, as our brave heroine peacefully fades away. SHIRAT HAYAM (2006) Extols for Tenor, String Orchestra and Harp Commissioned by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. Dedicated to Noreen Green, and Cantor Marcelo Gindlin. Track 2 Extol I 3:55 Track 3 Extol II 5:45 Maria Newman’s compelling “Shirat Hayam,” Extols for Tenor, String Orchestra and Harp, is set in two movements (Extols). Extol I presents an internally fervent through-composed narrative, sung primarily in English, with the exception of a Hebrew prayer sung at its conclusion. This ardent song relays the story of the Jewish exodus from captivity in Egypt, and an avid reliance on God. The subsequent Extol II, a zealous expression of praise sung entirely in Hebrew, emerges nimbly and joyfully. The slow evocative central section, featuring solo viola and then solo double bass, develops previous subject material from Extol I, but decidedly returns to its own fabric. Here the music presents itself much like an Israeli circle dance or hora, becoming insensibly faster as the work whirls to a breathless and satisfying finish. Textually speaking, “Shirat Hayam” (“Song of the Sea”) is a poem that appears in the Book of Exodus (15:1-18). The poem was reputedly sung by the Israelites after they crossed the Red Sea in safety, and celebrates the watery destruction of the Egyptian army, who attempted in vain to cross the Red Sea in pursuit of their freed Hebrew slaves. Extol I: English translation: Blessed are You, Adonai, our God. Redeem Israel! Extol II: English translation: I will sing unto the LORD, for He is highly exalted. Who is like unto Thee, O LORD, among the mighty? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness? Thou in Thy love hast led the people that Thou hast redeemed. LE LIVRE D’ESTHER (2009) Four Tone Poems for String Orchestra Commissioned by Los Angeles’ Azusa Pacific University Grand Orchestra Festival Track 4 The Purification 5:08 Track 5 Mordecai 3:35 Track 6 The Decrees of Esther 5:11 Track 7 Purim 4:22 Set in four tone poems, Maria Newman’s, “Le livre d’ Esther” tells of the Biblical Esther in her rise to the throne (The Purification) as queen of Shushan. With the help of her elderly cousin (Mordecai), Esther pleases King Ahasuerus with her elegance, beauty, goodness and grace, even while the king is unaware that she is a Jewess. Esther’s influence over the king as his beloved and respected queen (The Decrees of Esther) ultimately results in the final and fatal persecution of Ahasuerus’ evil prime minister, Haman, who threatens death for all Jews in the kingdom. Subsequent to Haman’s death at the angry hand of Ahasuerus, who acts in defense of his queen, the festival of Purim (Purim) celebrates the freedom and safety of the Jews over Haman, as well as their induction into roles of honor in society. Newman’s satiny string orchestrations richly illustrate the story of Esther. Her setting of The Purification presents a mesmerizing and hypnotic backdrop as the opening tone poem. Mordecai emerges wiry and quick in its use of right and left hand pizzicato, while a sensual dance is presented as its provocative central section. The Decrees of Esther offers Newman’s wordless yet highly syllabic setting of the Jewish sacred Seven Blessings text. Purim imparts joy, release of tension, and a celebration of freedom in a virtuosic allegro tour de force for the string orchestra, dancing in both melodic antiphon and short cell motivic declamation. The latter measures portray an almost drunken strut, ultimately ending in frenetic joy. TRINITAS ET UNITAS (2003) Concerto for Three Violins, Soprano and String Orchestra Commissioned by the Ramiro Cortés Festival and Stephen Stefanides, for violinists Tarn Travers, Carrie Rehkopf, Marcia Kaufmann, and soprano Diane Thueson Reich. Track 8 Trinitas 9:56 Track 9 Unitas 3:20 Maria Newman’s bewitching “Trinitas et Unitas” (“Three and One”), a two movement concerto for three solo violins and string orchestra, was commissioned by and premiered at the Ramiro Cortés Festival in Washington State. Newman’s wild Trinitas portion of the triple concerto presents elements of the folk vernacular mariachi, in its alternately polyphonic and largely homophonic setting of the three violins as protagonists. A solo soprano joins forces in culminating the highly sacred, slowly haunting Unitas movement, declaiming the last words of the Biblical John’s Book of Revelations, (“I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, for they shall have right to the Tree of Life, and shall enter in through the gates into the city. May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”) Newman’s inscription on the written score reveals it as a personal reverence to her love for her husband Scott Hosfeld, dedicating this concerto with great unrelenting passion, to him.