Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ CineMedia Promotions) Los Angeles-based composer Lior Rosner announces the release of his first classical CD Awake and Dream, by NY-based Bridge Records. The recording was performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony conducted by Rosner, and features soprano Janai Brugger, violinist Katia Popov, and pianist Steven Vanhauwaert.
"Awake and
Dream brings together a collection of works I've written for violin and poems I've set to music for soprano voice," said Rosner.
The album features five pieces, "Awake and Dream" (for violin and orchestra), "Three Poems by Sappho" (for soprano and orchestra), "In Time of
Silver Rain:
Seven Poems by Langston Hughes" (for soprano and piano), "Innerscape" (for violin and piano), and "G-Pull" (for solo violin).
Lior Rosner is a versatile television, film, and classical music composer, conductor, and branding expert who created the theme for THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW. A 2008 Film
Music Composition of the Year nominee by the International Film
Music Critics Association for his end title piece "They'll Remember You" from the movie VALKYRIE, Lior won critical acclaim for this orchestral accompanied choral showpiece.
A graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of
Music and Dance, he studied composition and theory with composers Haim
Alexander and Mark Kopytman. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a film composer. During his many years of success in this medium, he has continued to compose classical music, including chamber works that have been played by various ensembles, among them the Armadillo String Quartet and the Pacific Composers Forum.
Rosner's recent film work includes the scores for the upcoming film SINS OF OUR YOUTH and THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB (2013), directed by Gary Entin. Other recent credits include music and arrangements for the upcoming X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and The CBS Show 'Battle Creek'. In 2010 Lior scored Antonio Negret's film SECONDS APART, co-composing THE LOSERS for producer Joel Silver, music for the HBO special THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW ON BROADWAY and work on the Universal Film LITTLE FOCKERS.
Rosner turned to soprano Janai Brugger to perform on the recording. A former winner of Placido Domingo's prestigious Operalia vocal competition and of the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions, both in 2012, American soprano, Miss Brugger, begins the 2013-14 season as Liu Turandot at Hawaii Opera Theatre. She returns to Los Angeles Opera to make her debut as Pamina Die Zauberflote and in the
Spring she continues to the Metropolitan Opera to sing the role of Helena The Enchanted Island. Later in Denver she makes her debut as Michaela in Carmen with Opera Colorado.
Award winning Katia Popov is the violinist. Popov has held the positions of Concertmaster of the
Sofia Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of
Music Chamber Orchestra. Continuing her studies in the Paris Conservatory, she became a Concertmaster of the European Symphony Orchestra with whom she recorded and traveled extensively throughout Europe. After moving to the United States, Katia became a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Principal II Violin of the Long Beach Symphony, and Concertmaster of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
"The pieces on the album came to life thanks to the great artistry of soprano Janai Brugger and violinist Katia Popov," said Rosner.
Of special note on the album is the seven movement piece, "In Time of
Silver Rain:
Seven Poems by Langston Hughes." "One of America's greatest poets, Langston Hughes was a social activist and early innovator in jazz poetry," described Rosner. "I composed the piece to liberate Hughes' words from the boundaries of historical context. I decided to set his work in a modern musical approach so that we might consider the contemporary relevance of Hughes' frank and often searing meditations on the universal themes of oppression, loss, frustration and love."
Bridge Records presents Lior Rosner Awake and
Dream on May 1, 2014.
https://rosnermusic.com/awakeanddream.html