FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA–“Gallery” for baritone and piano, composed by Deon Nielsen Price, with words by James Morehead (from his poem of the same name), will be world premiered Sunday November 14 – 4pm PST, as part of the free ICP Sunday Concert series. “gallery” will be performed by Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams, accompanied by Paula Fan on piano. James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin, California and author of “canvas: poems”) will recite his poem “Gallery” before the performance. The program also features pieces set to poems by Dana Gioia (Poet Laureate – State of California), Charlene Derby and E. E. Cummings, and songs by Welsh and American composers. Free tickets are available.
Signed copies of “Gallery” and Morehead’s book “canvas: poems” will be available for sale at the event with a portion of each sale being donated to the Interfaith Center at the Presidio.
“I’m thrilled that my poem ‘Gallery’ has been set to music by Dr. Price”, said James Morehead, “Both my poem and Deon’s music will premiere, together, at the Presidio Chapel. The acoustics, the location with the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco National Cemetery in view, is spectacular. ‘Gallery’ was the most challenging poems I’ve written this year, requiring multiple revisions and edits. I look forward to being in the audience and hearing ‘Gallery’ performed by two wonderful musicians, baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and pianist Paula Fan.”
The ICP Sunday Concert series, in its 5th year, recently returned to in-person performances after transitioning to virtual concerts during the pandemic. “We love to have people come in person,” said Deon Price, “We do them as a service to the community, we’d built up a nice audience and then the pandemic it. We have just completed 15 concerts online, and that has spread our audience geographically, and our artists geographically. We had one concert that came to us from Japan, another one from Boston, and that was really quite exciting. We had, overall, successful productions. We’re back in person in the Chapel, but we’re also streaming the concerts.”
Event details:
- Date / Time: Sunday November 14, 4pm
- Location: Presidio Chapel 130 Fisher Loop, San Francisco)
- Tickets: Free and available on Eventbrite
- Ample metered parking
- Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination required
- Free tickets on Eventbrite
- RSVP for livestream link: presidiointerfaith@gmail.com
The program includes:
- All Saints Day (2021) – Richard Derby, text by Charlene Derby
- Between Sunsets – Hilary Tann, text by E.E. Cummings
- The Golden Wheat – Alun Hoddinott, traditional, Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn
- Gallery (2021) – Deon Nielsen Price, text by James Morehead
- Prayer – Morten Lauridsen, text by Dana Gioia
- Longing – Grace Williams, traditional, Hiraeth
More on the performers, composers, and poets:
In over 100 recitals together since 2013, baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and pianist Paula Fan have engaged audiences in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, India and the Far East with their creative and communicative presentations of classical song. Together they have recorded 10 CDs.
Deon Nielsen Price, (BA Brigham Young University; MM University of Michigan; DMA University of Southern California) is an internationally recognized composer, award-winning pianist, recording artist, conductor, author, church musician, veteran educator, and advocate for women in music and for living composers. James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, California. “canvas: poems” is his debut collection, and he hosts The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning hand drawn animated short film, and his poems have appeared in Wingless Dreamer and Prometheus Dreaming.
The music of Morten Johannes Lauridsen, composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994–2001 and professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than thirty years, occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the twentieth century. Michael Dana Gioia, born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent.
Richard Derby has a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California Santa Barbara. In 1977-78 he held a Fulbright Fellowship to study composition with Justin Connolly at the Royal College of Music in London. “All Saints Day” was written for the prominent Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams in January 2021. It sets a poem by the composer’s wife, Charlene Derby, in which she remembers her deceased mother on All Saints Day.
Welsh-born composer, Hilary Tann, lives in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she is the John Howard Payne Professor of Music Emerita at Union College, Schenectady. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Marsyas Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. e e cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays. He is often regarded as one of the most important American poets of the 20th century.
Grace Mary Williams (19 February 1906 – 10 February 1977) was a Welsh composer, generally regarded as Wales’s most notable female composer, and the first British woman to score a feature film. During and after World War II, Williams experienced depression and other stress-related health problems. Grace Williams died at the age of 70 in February 1977, in Barry.
Excellent Press Release! See you at the concert!