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University of Miami
Symphony Orchestra
Thomas M. Sleeper
conductor
University of
Miami Chorale
Jo-Michael Scheibe
conductor
Timothy A. Sharp
conductor
Robert Xavier Rodríguez (1946)
Robert Xavier Rodríguez is one of the most significant and often-performed American composers of his generation. His music has been described as “Romantically Dramatic” (Washington Post), “richly lyrical” (Musical America) and “glowing with a physical animation and delicate balance of moods that combine seductively with his all-encompassing sense of humor.” (Los Angeles Times). “Its originality lies in the telling personality it reveals. His music always speaks, and speaks in the composer's personal language.” (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters). Rodríguez has written in all genres—opera, orchestral, concerto, ballet, vocal, choral, chamber, solo and music for the theater—but he has been drawn most strongly in recent years to works for the stage, including music for children.
Rodríguez received his early musical education in San Antonio and in Austin (UT), Los Angeles (USC), Lenox (Tanglewood), Fontainebleau (Conservatoire Americain) and Paris. His teachers have included Nadia Boulanger, Jacob Druckman, Bruno Maderna and Elliot Carter. Rodríguez first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace at the Palais Princier in Monte Carlo. Other honors include the Prix Lili Boulanger, a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from ASCAP and the Rockefeller Foundation, five NEA grants, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a 1999 Grammy nomination. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Dallas Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, Bennington College, Bowdoin College and The American Dance Festival. He is currently a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas and active as a guest lecturer and conductor.
Rodríguez' music has been performed by conductors such as Eduardo Mata, Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard and Leonard Slatkin. His work has received over 2000 professional orchestral and operatic performances in recent seasons by such organizations as The National Opera of Mexico, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theatre, Orlando Opera, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Toronto Radio Orchestra, The Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Knoxville, Milwaukee, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. Rodríguez' chamber works have been performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague and other musical centers. His music is published by G. Schirmer and is recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Urtext and CRI labels.
Cantata for the Next Millennium
Forbidden Fire, Cantata for the Next Millennium (1998) is scored for bass-baritone, double chorus and orchestra. The work was commissioned by the University of Miami School of Music (Abraham Frost Commission Series) and received its world premiere October 17, 1998. Conceived as a companion piece to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Forbidden Fire is a 22-minute exploration of dangerous or forbidden knowledge, as represented by the Promethean metaphor of stealing fire from the gods. Fragments of works by Aeschylus, Lucretius, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Schiller, Beethoven, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and Edna St. Vincent Millay are intercut with writings from an Egyptian temple, the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible to trace the exhilaration as well as the serious consequences of man's eternal quest for knowledge.
In Forbidden Fire the bass-baritone soloist personifies the seeker of secret truth. His part, primarily taken from the words of Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein, expresses the fearless optimism of one who is determined to seize the fire. The two choruses, on the other hand, offer more complex reactions to his quest. Sometimes they echo him; sometimes they cheer him on; sometimes they warn of disastrous results, as in Robert Oppenheimer's words at the first testing of the atomic bomb, “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” More often, the choruses express contrasting aspects of the same scene, as in the simultaneous settings of William Blake's two visions of the Industrial Age: “Tyger, tyger burning bright” and, appropriately for recent cloning technology, “Little lamb, who made thee?.”
While Beethoven's setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy embraces a better world where “all men will be brothers,” Rodríguez' Forbidden Fire celebrates the utopian ideal of man's mastery, not only of the secrets of life and death, but of what Beethoven expressed in his diary as humanity's ultimate challenge, “O God, give me the strength to conquer myself.” Beethoven's words are sung at the work's climax and at its close.
Musically, Forbidden Fire reflects its Beethovian roots. At the intervallic core (or what Rodríguez calls “the musical DNA”) of the work are two three-note motives from Beethoven's last String Quartet, Op. 135. In the cantata, as well as in the quartet, the two motives are set to Beethoven's fateful question and answer, Muss es sein? (Must it be?) Es muss sein. (It must be.). Two additional quotations from the quartet are a fiery ostinato passage from the development of the scherzo and the cantante e tranquillo opening of the slow movement. These sounds are fused into Rodríguez' characteristic “richly lyrical atonality” (Musical America) in a style “romantically dramatic” (The Washington Post).
Unified by Beethoven's two motives, the five movements of Forbidden Fire cast the same musical material into five different textures:
(I) impressionistically wistful at the beginning to depict the mysteries of the universe (All that is, all that was, and all there is to be…);
(II) intense and agitated at man's defiance of the gods by taking the fire into his own hands (Now men are masters of their minds!);
(III) serenely tonal in quiet awareness of his new power (O brave new world…);
(IV) heroically rising to the challenge of controlling his own destiny (Bring me my chariot of fire!); then
(V) ending in a glistening synthesis of styles as baritone and chorus sing Schiller's ecstatic Homage to the Arts (No bonds can hold, no bounds can stay my flight. My endless realm is thought, my throne is light…).
Con Flor y Canto is a narrative cantata, the central portion of Rodríguez' Adoración Ambulante (1994), a full-evening multi-media Mexican folk celebration. Conceived, commissioned and directed by Brooks Jones, Adoración Ambulante is dedicated to the village of Tepoztlán, Mexico, near Cuernavaca. The premiere production, in October 1994, combined soloists, chorus, children's chorus, orchestra, mariachi band, church bells, conch shells, percussion ensemble, dancers, puppets, slides, candles, flowers, fireworks and audience participation in locations throughout Tepoztlán's cathedral square.
The title, Con Flor y Canto, refers to the ancient Nauhuatl saying, in xochitl, in cuicatl (by flower and song), a metaphor for the search for the eternal through the perishable: “flowers” (which fade as quickly as they bloom) “and songs” (which cease the instant they are sung) “will never die.” Two performing groups illustrate the Indian/European duality of post-Colombian Mexican culture. Bass and children's chorus sing the traditional Aztec and Mayan story of the creation of the world from the ancient Mayan Popol Vuh. At the same time, tenor and mixed chorus sing the Biblical account. Colorful invocations of the Deity are then followed by philosophical expressions of the certainty of death, as expressed in the writings of both cultures. At the end, the two groups join in an exuberant hymn of praise combining an Aztec poem (We praise Thee, O Lord, with the flower-decked drums) and Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise unto the Lord). The Spanish texts are adapted by the composer and Josefina Barrera de García. The music unites echoes of ancient Mexico with Gregorian chant in a radiant synthesis of the two hemispheres.
Scrooge (1994), Concert Scenes from “A Christmas Carol” for Bass-Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra is based on the Charles Dickens' classic for the Christmas season. The work was commissioned by Bass-Baritone Charles Nelson, who sang the premiere performance in 1994 under the composer's direction. In Scrooge, Rodríguez has telescoped the actions and myriad characters of Dickens' story into an 18-minute tour de force of five short scenes featuring the single character of Scrooge accompanied by a chorus of ghosts and holiday revelers:
Scene One - Scrooge on Christmas Eve
Scene Two - Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past
Scene Three - The Ghost of Christmas Present
Scene Four - The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
Scene Five - Scrooge on Christmas Morning
Scrooge is scored for a Mozart-sized orchestra of winds by twos, timpani, harp, piano (doubling harpsichord and celesta) and strings, plus three percussionists playing an extensive battery of atmospheric instruments, including chimes, sleigh bells, crotales, whip, slide whistle, thundersheet, ratchet and, appropriately for Scrooge, the jawbone of an ass, a pitcher of coins (to be poured into a tambourine) and a cash register. Rodríguez's music blends traditional English carols and London street cries with mischievous winks at Handel's Messiah, Verdi's Don Carlo (linking the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come with Verdi's Grand Inquisitor) and The Beggar's Opera.
(Wife of Bath's tale) Geoffrey Chaucer:
Forbede us thyng, and that desiren we.
No mortal has ever known.
From Henry V, Prologue, William Shakespeare:
O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention.
From Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley:
I sought to unfold to the world
The secrets of heaven and earth,
The deepest mystery of creation,
The mystery of life itself.
From De Rerum Natura, Book 1, Lucretius:
And eyeless night will not sway you from your path
'Till you have looked into the heart of nature's darkest mysteries.
(Frankenstein, continued)
The mystery of life itself…
…I pondered the mystery …the mystery…
From Genesis 2: 7, 8, 16, 17:
And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the
(Frankenstein, continued)
Suddenly, from the midst of this
darkness a light broke in upon me —
A light so brilliant… wondrous,
And God commanded the man,
saying, “Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat;
But the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not
The study and desire of the wisest men
since the creation was now within my grasp!
Like a magic scene, it all opened upon
me at once. From the thunders of
heaven came flashes of lightning,
From De Rerum Natura, Book III:
A golden glow of liquid fire leaps
For in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.”
From Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus:
Now the Earth is staggered
With the secret spring of fire.
From Bhagavad Gita, quoted by Robert Oppenheimer after the first test of the atomic bomb:
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
From Euclid Alone has Looked on Beauty Bare, Edna St. Vincent Millay:
O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day…
(Frankenstein, continued)
Had I uncovered the mystery?
The creature lay still at my feet.
Had the fire of my engine sparked the cradle of life?
Then, in the fading light, I saw the
dull yellow eye of the creature open!
From String Quartet, Op. 135, Ludwig van Beethoven
Muss es sein? (Must it be?)
From The Tempest, Act V, Scene 1, William Shakespeare:
How beauteous Mankind is!
O brave new world, that has such people in it.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.
(The Lamb), William Blake:
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
(The Tyger), William Blake:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night…
From Milton, William Blake:
Shining on our clouded hills
Among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
And after the fire, a still small voice…
From The journals of Ludwig van Beethoven, 1812-13:
O Gott, gibt mir die Kraft dass ich mich selber überwinden kann!
(O God, give me the strength to conquer myself!)
From Prometheus Unbound, Percy Bysshe Shelley:
…And with this law alone, “Let man be free.”
Es muss sein. (It must be.)
From Homage to the Arts (Poesie), Friedrich von Schiller:
No bonds can hold, no bounds can stay my flight.
My endless realm is thought, my throne is light.
I'll lift the veil upon the secret birth
Of all that moves in heaven and on earth.
Inscription on an Egyptian Temple (Reprise):
De Rerum Natura, Book I (Reprise):
…the heart of nature's darkest mysteries.
The journals of Ludwig van Beethoven (Reprise):
…dass ich mich selber überwinden kann!
(In Xochitl, in Cuicatl / By Flower and Song)
Bass Soloist, Children's Chorus: Tenor Soloist, Mixed Chorus:
This is the story of how it was in the beginning:
All was still and in silence.
The surface of the earth had not appeared,
neither man nor any living creature,
neither flowers nor mountains.
There was nothing brought together,
Nothing was standing in the darkness,
…Only the Heart of Heaven,
which is the Name of God.
And in the stillness the Heart of Heaven gave the word:
Let there be life upon the earth!
Like a mist, like a cloud of dust, there appeared a thin
Line between the sky and the water.
And the line was the land,
And again the Heart of Heaven gave the word:
Let there be dawn in the sky and upon the earth,
and let there be all manner of living things —
and keepers of the thickets.
Let man appear upon the face of the earth.
And of the corn of the earth formed He men,
the flesh of our first fathers.
And as they had the appearance of men,
and the men moved and talked
For great was the wisdom of our first fathers.
Their sight reached beyond the forests,
the rocks, the lakes, the seas,
the mountains and the valleys.
They knew all upon the face of the earth:
what was, what is and all that was to be.
And when He saw the great wisdom of the men,
The Heart of Heaven blew into their eyes,
and the mist clouded their sight
And their eyes were covered
and could no longer see what was to be.
Then the Heart of Heaven spake,
Let women appear upon the face of the earth.
From the corn of the earth formed He women,
the flesh of our first mothers.
And as they had the appearance of women,
and the women moved and talked
And the hearts of the people were filled with joy,
and they called upon the Heart of Heaven and sang:
Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth,
Lord and Lady of Duality,
Master of the Close Vicinity,
Bringer of Night and Wind,
Lord of the Sun and the Moon,
and of the Flaming Robes,
Lord of the Shining Skirt of Stars,
Lord who Conceived Himself,
Lord of the Living and the Dead,
Lord of the Place of the Waters
Lord of the Region Beyond the Heavens,
Bring joy upon the earth Thou hast made.
We know that, like flowers, we must wither and fade.
Like songs our voices will cease.
Yea, though we must follow the House of the Sun,
shall remain upon the Earth.
Our flowers and songs shall shine back to the Sun,
the sunlight which never shall fade.
Accept our delights, O Giver of Life.
Accept the pleasures we offer to Thee:
to the sound of the drum.
with the flower-decked drums.
We invoke Thee by flower and song.
We lift up our hearts to the sound of the drums.
We bless Thee by flower and song.
Hear now our songs to the flower-decked drums.
We invoke Thee by flower and song.
round the flower-decked drums.
We praise Thee by flower and song.
By flowers and songs we shine back to the sun
the sunlight which never shall fade.
Our flowers and songs shall blossom anew.
Only flowers and songs shall remain.
…Only flowers and songs shall remain.
This is the story of how it was
In the beginning God created the heavens
And the earth (Genesis 1:1)
And the earth was without form and void;
and darkness was upon the face of
And the spirit of God moved upon the
Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters. (1:6)
And God called the dry land earth. (1:10)
in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth. (1:14, 15)
Let the earth bring forth grass and
the tree yielding fruit (1:12)
Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life,
and fowl that fly above the earth. (1:20)
Let us make man in our image:
dominion over all the earth. (1:26)
And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground
and man became a living soul (2:7)
In the image of God created He them. (1:27)
Male and female created He them. (1:27)
And the morning stars sang together,
shouted with joy. (Job 38:7)
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name
in all the earth (Psalms 8:1)
Most High God, (Genesis 14:18)
God of Heaven, (Chronicles II 36:23)
God of Glory, (Psalms 29:3)
Living God, (Deuteronomy 5:26)
Merciful God, (Deuteronomy 4:30)
Mighty God, (Genesis 49:24)
From everlasting to everlasting,
Thou art God. (Psalms 90:1)
Look upon us! (Deuteronomy 26:15)
Forsake us not. (Psalms 38:21)
Make us full of joy with Thy countenance. (Acts 2:28)
Deal bountifully with Thy children. (Psalms 119:17)
Fill our mouths with laughter. (Job 8:21)
Bless Thy people with peace. (Psalms 29:11)
Teach us, O Lord, to number our days. (Psalms 90:12)
…that will pass away as a tale that is told. (90:9)
Yea, though we walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, (23:4)
…let thy beauty ever be upon us (90:7)
…and receive us, O Lord, in glory. (73:24)
For lo the winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth.
The time of the singing of birds is come,
and the song of the dove is
heard in our land. (Song of Songs 3:12)
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,
Serve the Lord with gladness:
Know ye that the Lord He is God:
It is He that hath made us and
not we ourselves; we are His people
and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise:
His mercy is everlasting;
and His truth endureth to all generations
…to all generations. (Psalm 100)
Concert Scenes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for Bass-baritone, Orchestra and Chorus
(In front of the orchestra is a small table containing an unlit candle, matches, a stack of gold coins, a long grey muffler and a top hat. Behind the table is a chair with a Victorian swallow-tailed coat draped over it.)
Ha'ye any ends of gold or silver?
Carries that upon his back…
…and a very fine marking stone…
(Gasping as Scrooge suddenly appears)
(Scrooge, brandishing a cane and wearing a long, white, tasselled nightcap and dressing gown, enters, sits down, and begins to count his money.)
Ah!…Five…ten…twenty…thirty…
(He hears carolers and street noises.)
God rest ye, Merry gentlemen,
Remember Christ, our Saviour,
Was born on Christmas Day.
What's that?…”Merry gentlemen”…
(He gets up and shakes his fist.)
Bah! “Christmas day?”…Humbug! Out upon your Merry Christmas!
What right have you to be merry?
What's Christmas-time to you but a dozen months of bills?
Bills with no money…a harvest of foreclosures!
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.
Why must I live in such a world of fools at Christmas?
…fools like my nephew, married (mocking) “for love,”
to a girl without a penny to her name!
“Oh, won't you come keep Christmas with us, dear uncle?”
Bah! Humbug! Let them keep it, and let me leave it alone!
Fools come collecting (again mocking) “money for the poor”
— a poor excuse to pick a person's pocket every
I can't afford to make idle people merry.
Let them mind their own business.
Are there no prisons for debtors? …
the Treadmill and the Poorhouse?
If the poor would rather die, they'd better do it,
and decrease the surplus population!
It's not enough I'm obliged to close
my counting house for Christmas.
Bah! I even have to pay my clerk to spend the day at home!
Why must I live in such a world of fools at Christmas?
every idiot who goes about with
“Merry Christmas” on his lips
should be boiled with his own pudding
and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!
(He bangs his fist on the table.)
(continuing his counting)
Thirty-seven…forty-three…
(suddenly bells ring out, growing louder and louder)
What's that? Bells…Clocks…Lights…Chains…
Howling winds…Footsteps…Phantoms…
Jacob Marley! My old partner…how can it be?
These seven years you've been dead as a doornail!
Are you a ghost, or just my indigestion?
What do you want with me?
Why those frightful cries?…those awful chains?
Spare me!…Speak…Answer me!
Three spirits will haunt you, Ebenezer Scrooge…
…haunted by three spirits! Have mercy!
Without their visits you cannot escape the path I tread.
No! Marley, don't leave me!
First, the Ghost of Christmas Past.
The Ghost of Christmas Past? Bah! Humbug!
There I am…a boy at school…alone at Christmas
O, Spirit show me no more!
There's my sister, Fan, running to embrace me.
(overjoyed) Father says I may come home?
And look…my first employer…old Fezziwig…alive again?
There was laughing and dancing and dancing and laughing
at Fezziwig's feast every Christmas.
The happiness he gave was like a fortune!
(He picks up a handful of gold.)
…a fortune of friendship.
(He looks at the gold for a moment, then stops.)
No, Spirit! Do not show me that Christmas!
No!…Those tears in her eyes…(reaching out to her) Belle!
We were to be married…but I waited…and again I waited!
(He lets the coins fall through his fingers.)
She said I worshiped an Idol of Gold.
O, Spirit! Take these visions away!
Why do you delight to torture me?
No more! I cannot bear it! No! Enough!
Now, behold the shadows of Christmas Present…
(Annoyed) Here…What's this?
Who lives in this wretched little house?
Why, there's my clerk, Bob Cratchit!
I see his wife and his children…close and warm by the fire.
Is that the youngest boy…Tiny Tim?
(suddenly agitated) The child is so pale…
so weak, he can hardly move.
Without the proper care he'll die! Hear me, spirit!
“If the boy is going to die, he'd better do it,
and decrease the surplus population!”
No! This boy must be spared! Hear me, Spirit!
(Sounds of clapping and laughter are heard.)
What's this? I've never heard such merriment!
Look! There's Fred, my nephew, his wife…and such a
company of cheerful friends.
It's like Fezziwig's all over again: dancing and games and singing and laughter!
More, O Spirit, show me more!
Let this vision stay a little longer.
…For it's your wassail, and it's our wassail.
And it's joy be to you, and a jolly wassail!
(Scrooge sways to the music)
Look, spirit! They're proposing a toast…
Yes…Yes…To Scrooge…a stingy, hard, unfeeling…
(There is general guffawing and cheering.)
Spirit, I've seen enough! Leave me! Torment me no longer!
(The clock strikes twelve.)
Scrooge (suddenly terror-stricken)
Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?
I fear you more than any specter I have seen.
Whose stone is this? Bob Cratchit's boy…Tiny Tim? No!
I see a new stone…for a man…buried
…with not a soul to mourn him!
His case might be my own!
But, spirit…before I see the stone
…are these shadows that will be,
or shadows that may be, only?
Can a life be made right?
I tremble to look…there behind the weeds…
(Scrooge moves closer to the muffler on the table,
Why show me this, if I am past all hope?
I will honor Christmas and keep it all the year.
Oh, tell me I can wipe away the writing on this stone!
O spirit, please, speak to me!
Spare me…speak…Answer me!
(Scrooge seizes his cane and shakes it violently
(incredulous) I'm home…I'm alive.
My life lies before me…it can be changed!
Oh, Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this day!
I'm as light as a feather,
I'm as happy as an angel,
I'm as merry as a schoolboy on Christmas morning!
(He dances about, whistling, as he changes from his nightcap and dressing gown to his coat and muffler, puts on his top hat and twirls his cane.)
First I'll send Bob Cratchit a turkey twice as big as Tiny Tim.
(He scoops up a handful of money…)
…and I'm the one to do it!
(…and pours it on the table)
Then I'll dine with my nephew…
And I'll propose the toast.
Wassail and wassail all over the town.
The cup it is white and the ale it is brown;
O Master and Missus, our fondest desire
Is to toast our dear old Scrooge as we gather by the fire.
For it's your wassail, and it's our wassail
May we truly remember this Ghost of a Tale:
For the past four seasons, bass-baritone George Cordes has shown his versatility in a number of roles with the New York City Opera, including the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Timur in Turandot, Harasta in The Cunning Little Vixen, the Speaker in The Magic Flute, Zuniga in Carmen, Pistola in Falstaff, and Monterone in Rigoletto. Most recently he won accolades as Angelotti in Tosca for the New York City Opera's “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcast on PBS. Cordes has sung with many of the country's larger opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, as well as the opera companies of New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. He received his training at the Boston Conservatory of Music and the University of Akron School of Music. He was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the George London, Richard Tucker and MacAllister competitions. He has won awards from the Liederkranz Foundation, Opera/Columbus, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Center for Contemporary Opera.
American tenor Rodney Nolan has received wide acclaim for his exciting operatic and concert performances both at home and abroad. A gifted singer, Mr. Nolan has been heard in an unusually diverse range of repertoire from contemporary to traditional, with special success in the full-voiced literature such as the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and Wagner's Lohengrin. Nolan made his European operatic debut in Luciano Berio's La Vera Storia at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His European concert debut came with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra singing Penderecki's Polish Requiem, conducted by the composer. Notable among his American symphony engagements was his debut with the National Symphony singing the Shostakovich Folk Songs from Jewish Poetry, conducted by Maxim Shostakovich, a work Mr. Nolan recorded with I Musici de Montréal and issued on compact disc by Chandos Records. A singer who has established an exceptional reputation as a concert performer, Nolan has appeared with numerous symphony and concert organizations including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra, among others.
Thomas M. Sleeper, hailed by the Miami Herald as “a conductor of persuasive fluency and fiery conviction” enjoys an active dual career as composer and conductor. A native Oklahoman, he began his professional career as a member of Fermata, a group of composer-performers who presented an annual series of interdisciplinary concerts throughout Texas. At age 22, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Dallas Civic Symphony and the Southern Methodist University Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theater. An advocate of new music, Sleeper has conducted the premieres of more than 40 works by American composers, among them Henry Brant, Carlos Surinach, Robert Xavier Rodríguez and Thomas Ludwig. He has recorded on the Albany, Centaur, Cane, Irida and Vienna Modern Masters labels. An active guest conductor, Sleeper appears regularly with orchestra in the United States and abroad. His own compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe, Asia and South America. Sleeper currently resides in Miami, Florida, where he is on the faculty at the University of Miami School of Music, conducts the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater and is Music Director of the Youth Orchestra of Florida.
Jo-Michael Scheibe is Professor and Program Director of Choral Studies at the University of Miami where he conducts the University Chorale, coordinates the choral program, and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Dr. Scheibe is active in the development of contemporary choral literature, music and the commissioning of young composers. His Choral Series is internationally distributed by Walton and Colla Voce Music and his ensembles are recorded on the Albany, Cane, and ANS labels. He is also in frequent demand internationally as a clinician, conductor, and adjudicator. Music Director and Artistic Director of the Florida Philharmonic Chorus, he was founder of the Long Beach Master Chorale and has also served as Music and Artistic Advisor of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.
Dr. Scheibe received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from California State University at Long Beach, and his D.M.A. from the University of Southern California. Before coming to the University of Miami, he was Director of Choral Studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Timothy A. Sharp has served as Music Director of the Miami Children's Chorus since the 1990-1991 season. He earned his B.A. in Music Education from Bethune-Cookman College and his M.S. in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He received the Artist-Teacher Diploma from the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Education (CME) led by Dr. Doreen Rao. He is the Music Teacher at Vineland Elementary School in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Mr. Sharp has prepared children to sing with the Florida Grand Opera, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and for the Concert Association of Florida. He previously performed in the Florida Grand Opera chorus for five seasons. He has presented workshops and conducted festivals for children's choirs in Florida, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Virginia, and he serves on the staff of the CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education. He is a past President of the Dade County Music Educators Association as well as a past Committee Chairperson for Children's Choirs and Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Perspectives for the Florida Chapter of ACDA. In 1998 he was named Educator of Note by the Young Patronesses of the Opera and Arts Teacher of the Year by the Children's Cultural Coalition.
University of Miami Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sleeper, Conductor
David Stockton, Associate Conductor
Joshua William Laurence Hallock
*Principal or Co-Principal
University of Miami Chorale
Jo-Michael Scheibe, Conductor
Robert Gower, Assistant Director
Miami Choral Society: A Children's Choir
Timothy A. Sharp, Conductor
Executive Producer: Dr. William Hipp
Cover Art: Diego Rivera “The Vaccination” from the mural Industry courtesy of the Detroit Museum of Art.
Cover Design:Bates Miyamoto Design
Recording Engineer: Paul Griffith
Recording Assistant: Joanna Griffith
Forbidden Fire was commissioned by the University of Miami School of Music through its Abraham Frost Commission series.
All works published by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Forbidden Fire, Cantata for the Next Millennium
Cantata from Adoración Ambulante [17:04]
7 Scrooge, Concert Scenes from A Christmas Carol [19:03]
University of Miami Symphony Orchestra
Thomas M. Sleeper, conductor
University of Miami Chorale
Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor
Timothy A. Sharp, conductor
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