|
|
| Craig Bohlmer and Signe Boyer work with Cantabile Chamber Choir in preparation for Sisters |
Sisters, a work for orchestra, adult chorus, and children’s chorus celebrating the city of San Jose and her many sister cities, had its world premiere on February 8. In preparation for that event, composer Craig Bohmler, a tall, thin, vibrant, and muscular man of considerable kindness, came to work with the Cantabile Chamber Choir at their rehearsal on January 13. He encouraged and laughed with the singers even as he explained in considerable detail the nuances of his piece, and they really liked him.
When I spoke to him afterward, he told me that the process of conceptualizing takes him considerably more time than the actual writing and that his pieces are generally two years in the making. As Emily Ray, Music Director of the Mission Chamber Orchestra, had first approached Bohmler in 2000 about a commission to write Sisters, he would ordinarily have completed it in late of 2001. Then 9/11 happened, an event so staggering that, he says, “Artists were required to respond.”
Working with Mary Carol Warwick, with whom he wrote The Achilles’ Heel, winner in the National Opera Association Competition, Bohmler sought to discover the role that children play in the sister cities and found that each of the sisters has a special relationship to violence. The result is a 25-minute cantata, in which Cantabile’s Chamber Choir was the voice of San Jose, the youngest of the sisters. The piece opens violently with the explosions of 9/11 and a devastated San Jose asking her sisters for help.
Explaining how he became a composer, Craig Bohmler told me that Aida was the first opera he ever saw. He was 13 at the time, and it was performed at the Houston Grand Opera “with all the bells and whistles.” A few years later, he saw Carlisle Floyd’s opera Of Mice and Men, and it changed his life. It so moved him that he wanted to work with Floyd, and he did so for seven years at the Houston Grand Opera, eventually becoming Opera Master and even working with Leonard Bernstein on his last opera, A Quiet Place.
Bohmler describes Bernstein as “generous,” which is the same word that Cantabile Artistic Director Signe Boyer used to describe Bohmler when presenting his Sisters to the singers. She has found it an interesting work and very well thought out, pointing in particular to the resonant, brooding Russian melody and to the jig-like music woven into the haunting sounds of India.
A piano player from the age of six, Bohmler had composed more than 150 pieces for piano when he realized that he was more at home with vocal music and texts. In addition to his three operas, he has written successfully for musical theater. This year his Gunmetal Blues, 1940s jazz musical, enjoys its hundredth production. And Sam Mendez of American Beauty fame and Andrew Lloyd Webber recently produced Bohmler’s Enter the Guardsman in London and Broadway bound.
When speaking of his operas and musicals, Bohmler jokes that he “straddles both fences” and describes his work as “writing for the singing theater.” Like Ravel, he firmly believes that the key skill for a modern composer in the 20th century is the ability to write what is needed. Also eclectic in his musical taste, his favorite 20th-century composers are Bernstein, Floyd, and Stephen Sondheim.
Craig Bohmler has not only inspired our Cantabile youth but has touched the soul of our whole community. We are most grateful for his talent and his contributions to the world of music.
Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410
|
home
|
about
|
concerts
|
chorus
|
cantabile
|
|
workshop
|
hire us
|
news
|
join
|