Benjamin Lees' Symphony No. 5, "Kalmar Nyckel" Nominated for 2003 Grammy
Award in Best Contemporary Composition Category
Benjamin Lees' Symphony No. 5, "Kalmar Nyckel" has been nominated for
a 2003 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition by the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. You can find more information
about the nominations at http://www.grammy.com.
This performance, recorded by Germany's Staatsphilharmonic Rheinland-Pfalz,
conducted by the composers longtime musical interpreter and close
associate, Stephen Gunzenhauser, has been released as part of Albany
Records 2-CD set Troy 564-565, which also features Mr. Lees' Symphony
No. 2 and Symphony No. 3, both also performed by the Staatsphilharmonic
Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser and the composers
Etudes for Piano and Orchestra, with pianist James Dick and the Texas
Festival Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano. Special grants from the
Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Swedish Information Service helped
make this recording possible.
This set joins the acclaimed Naxos recording of Lees' Symphony No. 4
"Memorial Candles", performed by mezzo Kimball Wheeler, violinist James
Buswell and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Theodore Kuchar
conducting (Naxos 8.559002) to form the first integral recordings of the
composer's masterful symphonies.
It is especially appropriate that Stephen Gunzenhauser has recorded these
three works, as he has been a strong advocate of Mr. Lees' symphonies,
and it was the conductor's Delaware Symphony that commissioned Symphony
No. 5 to honor the founding of the city of Wilmington by Swedish
immigrants from the ship Kalmar Nyckel.
Benjamin Lees' works have been commissioned and performed by, among
others, the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra,
Chicago Symphony, NBC Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Detroit Symphony,
Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Dallas
Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, Texas Little Symphony, the Tokyo Quartet,
American Symphony, Williams Trio, Delaware Symphony, Aurora Quartet,
Pittsburgh Symphony, Sea Cliff Chamber Players, Louisville Orchestra,
Lancaster (PA) Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and
Portland (OR) Symphony. He is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Learn more about the Albany Records release at
http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/march03/BL_cd_030603.htm
You can find much more information about Benjamin Lees at his website -
http://home.dc.rr.com/bglees/. You can also read the latest edition of
his newsletter Perspective at
http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/feb03/BL_nws_021003.htm
For more information about the music of Benjamin Lees, please contact
Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-797-9166 - tel and fax or
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Jeffrey James Arts Consulting
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Website: http://www.jamesarts.com
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