PRESENT MUSIC RELEASES
“HAUNTED
AMERICA” CD
Featuring works by
JEROME KITZKE, MICHAEL TORKE
& KIMMO HAKOLA
(Milwaukee, WI) Present Music, Milwaukee’s nationally acclaimed new music
ensemble, has released its eighth recording entitled HAUNTED AMERICA on the
innova label (#590). The CD’s featured
works include Jerome Kitzke’s Haunted America, Michael Torke’s Song
of Isaiah, and Kimmo Hakola’s Chamber Concerto. The disc can be
purchased directly from innova recordings www.innova.mu,
or from Present Music by e-mailing info@presentmusic.org.
.
Tom Strini, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel comments
“Present Music brings to Milwaukee and the wider world an abundance
of smart and passionate new work filtered through the open mind and discerning
taste of artistic director Kevin Stalheim.
Present Music plays a broad spectrum of contemporary styles, but the
focus has been on the generation that came of age since 1980. The composers Stalheim favors often have
common influences and philosophies, but no two of them sound alike. The selections on this disc, all commissioned
for the group’s 20th season, attest to the high quality and dizzying
variety of Present Music.”
Haunted America by Milwaukee-born Jerome Kitzke is a response to the
atrocities of September 11th. Kitzke describes his piece as “being
basically about going on and living, but also asking questions about how we
live and how we think of ourselves.” Song of Isaiah, by another
Milwaukee-born composer Michael Torke, was written in honor of Archbishop
Rembert G. Weakland O.S.B. for his 25 years of service to the Milwaukee community. Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola’s Chamber
Concerto grew into a substantial concerto-for-mini-orchestra that assumes
virtuoso skill on the part of every player.
Present Music is one of the
leading ensembles that commission, record and perform
the music of today’s composers and has firmly established a large audience for
new music in Milwaukee that is
nationally recognized. Programs include
concert series in Milwaukee and Madison,
education programs for K-12 children, and regular broadcast opportunities. Present Music has toured extensively
throughout the United States
and has participated in major international music festivals in Japan
and Turkey, and
plans to tour to China
in May of 2004.
The innova label under the direction of Philip Blackburn is
a program of the American Composer Forum based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The innova label
catalog currently has of 95 titles, representing over 250 composers.
The HAUNTED AMERICA disc can be purchased at www.innova.mu, or from Present Music (newmusic@presentmusic.org or
414-271-0711). The HAUNTED AMERICA disc
will also be available at all Present Music concerts and at its office at 1840 N. Farwell
Ave, Suite #301,
Milwaukee, WI
53202.
There is a $2.50 charge per disc for mail orders from Present Music
Direct funding for this recording has been provided by the A
McKnight Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the American Composers
Forum, Richard & Suzanne Pieper, Arthur and Nancy Laskin, Robert &
Denise Jacquart, Ronald and Bett Jacquart, the Present Music Board of
Directors, and individual Present Music audience members.
Other funding for this project came from The Greater
Milwaukee Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Wisconsin Arts Board,
Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee Arts Board and the Milwaukee’s United
Performing Arts Fund.