<<  -- 8 --  Carson P Cooman    LETTING THE MUSIC GROW

CC: Although a few full-disc surveys of your choral music have been available for sometime, there had not previously been many recordings of your chamber and orchestral music. However, within the last few years, a few single-composer discs have been released with your orchestral and chamber music Tell me a bit about these projects.

DL: With over 25 commercially recorded CDs containing my music now, I have been fortunate to have had a number of artists record individual pieces of mine on their own. Just last night I was listening to wonderful new Arsis CD featuring Rodney Wynkoop's first-rate Vocal Arts Ensemble. On this recording they performed two of my choral works, Pater Noster and Create in Me a Clean Heart. That recording marked the third time this year that Pater Noster had been commercially recorded. One of those, by The Choir of The Abbey School of Tewkesbury, England, on the Priory label, was a total surprise to me when it was released some months ago, for I didn't even know that the choir was learning the piece, much less recording it. That sort of recording surprise is sheer delight!

But single composer CDs are a much more efficient way for the composer to get the music 'out' and I have been behind the four all-Locklair discs that you speak of. I believe these single composer discs are a better way, too, for the listener to hear the music and, thus, gain a wider scope of the composer's music. The downside is that such projects are expensive, and especially orchestral ones. Granting sources are few and far between as well. I think it so sad that, due to very expensive union scale in the US, orchestral CDs have to be recorded abroad. Dan Locklair: Orchestral Music [listen to 'When Morning Stars Begin to Fall'], on the Albany label, featured the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Their conductor, Kirk Trevor, had long championed my music and I think both he and the Orchestra did a splendid job with the recording. I went over to Bratislava to oversee the recording and it was a very positive experience. But I still find it unfortunate that an American composer must go to Eastern Europe in order for his or her orchestral music to see the light of day on recording!

As you know, Dan Locklair: Chamber Music (also on Albany) [listen to '... the moon commands ...'] was released during the autumn of 2004. Unlike the orchestral CD, though, the chamber CD was all done in the US. Costs are less with a chamber CD largely because union scale doesn't apply and the number of players are fewer in number. This recording features a variety of American chamber groups and solo performers. I was very pleased with the results of this 2-CD set!

The two volumes of my choral music on the Gasparo label were from the 90s. Both have been very important toward helping bring my choral music more attention. Now, though, with many newer choral works, it will soon be time to do a third!

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