:: Anthony Newman ::

I listened to The Requiem. This is gorgeous music, expertly performed with both reverence and passion. What a beautiful union of Baroque grandeur and Romantic drama, written by a composer with an ear for the tonalities of our own time.

St. Paul Pioneer Press
“With the ‘Great Hymns of Awakening,’ composer and organist Anthony Newman has reached for the highest rung. The five-movement, 40-minute choral composition is a huge piece that in content and scale aims for the rarefied heights occupied by the masterpieces of Western choral music.
Hymns’ premiered Sunday at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, with the composer conducting.”
“In each case, Anthony has sought the moment of awakening, which he feels ‘speaks of a unity with God and the cosmos.
This is not trivial stuff, and I think it is safe to say there is not a trivial note in the entire piece.

From the opening ‘Hear, O Israel,’ the piece draws its text from Judaism, the Hindu Vedas, the Islamic Book of Mirdad, the Buddhist Universal Manta (Om mani padme hum) and Heart Sutra, concluding with St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. Throughout, the music fairly teems with intensity, with the understanding that this is important, joyful, mysterious material.
The music consists of tonal, mostly flowing melodies enriched with rhythmic detail and staccato/legato contrasts. The quartet of soloists provides dynamic contrast, because the chorus is invariably singing at full tilt. The orchestra, which is almost operatic in its building of suspense and dramatic underlining, relies heavily on brass and percussion for coloring. At the conclusion, when the chorus marches to ‘victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ it is led into battle by Highland war pipes.

The performance was exemplary. To begin with, the Minnesota Chorale demonstrated its elevated status since the appointment of Joel Revzen by its ability to take on such a complex work and communicate its musical and narrative depth. The soloists and orchestra worked hard and with great success to realize the work’s power and intensity.”

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Anthony Newman in Concert with the Robert Schumann Philharmonic, Chemnitz Germany
“Anthony Newman is a man of today. Without any doubt, he is an excellent and fluent musician.
Newman began the evening, his conducting debut with the orchestra, with one of his own compositions. A composer earns one’s esteem and appreciation when a composition reflects and is a commentary on an actual event. It is not really important to what extent the musical remembrances of the terrible killings of innocent people and the political uproar are literally realized in the composition, for Newman has written a remembrance in sound. He has achieved an artful result: Newman, in his tonality, is expansively prudent and exotically gratifying, important, traditional. The large, effectively used orchestra, reached its high point of the evening in the big organ chords towards the end of the piece.

To sum up: a work that draws out one’s associations and makes one experience, recognize and appreciate the historical event.”

Anthony Newman
Music Department, SUNY Purchase
Purchase, NY 10577

Thank you so much for sending ‘For God and Country.’ How wonderful to hear familiar hymns arranged and performed so beautifully and furthermore to be able to read all about them. The CD/B is a terrific idea. As one who is always interested in music education and new developments within the field, I was thrilled to see that such creative products are becoming available.

It was wonderful to see you at the Tully Gala. I look forward to our next meeting.

“Amid the proceedings are a few quite lovely pieces with no satirical intent whatsoever. There are stand out numbers: ‘Take The Hand Off,’ wherein OJ (Tello) watches old videotapes of his football career, ‘Nicole’s Rage,’ a sweet quartet setting of the ‘Our Father,’ and ‘I Am The Master,’ OJ’s song of gloating after beating the rap.” – Opera News

A chromatic opening and men’s chorus kick off the prelude.

Thanks so much for sending the “Nicole” Opera to me. No one recreates the Baroque with your ease and musicality, modernizing it. A perfect crossover to the 20th c. …Very daring, very adventurous. Bravo!

Ever, your old friend

“Familiar from television to depict the archetypes. The overtones of mythic tragedy are both enhanced and parodied by a format that echoes Stravinsky’s ‘Oedipus.’ The result is a blend of the comic and serious on a media event that did indeed combine farce with tragedy.”