I've just released the complete, full length recording of my music for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Regatta, SONGS OF THE SEA-THE REGATTA SUITE.
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The orchestral suite features 110 members from two of China's top symphony orchestras. It also includes a reading to music by acclaimed poet David Whyte, lyrics by famed songwriter Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) and features the young American virtuoso soprano Hila Plitmann on the final track "Wisdom of Wind." The album, on Wide Blue Sky Records, is available now as a digital download only on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic and other digital music vendors. A five track EP was released earlier. The full length includes tracks with Plittman, Whyte, violin virtuoso Frank Ge-Fang Yang, and more.
I was commissioned by the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra on behalf of the International Olympics Committee to honor the Olympics Regatta competition, which took place in the serene coastal city of Qingdao. Sailing is a hugely popular international sport with dozens of events taking place during the Olympics and beyond. I traveled to the Olympic Village in Qingdao in January to get a feel for the site and how the music would weave into the Olympic games.
My goal was to create music that was both grand and lush, in the tradition of the Olympics, while still holding on to a very personal perspective. The sea is always a source of deep inspiration. Each track is a different reflection of the experience of water, wind and our relation to the elements of nature. The Olympic competitors from around the world have a beautiful connection with the ocean, and I wanted to capture that in every way I could. I was approached last year by the conductor of the orchestra. The Olympics Committee had put forward the idea to create this grand concert for live performances just before the opening of the games. They very much wanted a film composer to create a cinematic experience for the people at the games, on television, and as a live concert performance. My travels throughout China prior to composing this music gave me a great deal of inspiration for the work. I had them create video montages to go with some of my music during the concerts to invoke the beauty that inspired me. I collaborated with renown Chinese violin virtuoso Frank Ge-Fang Yang, for whom I wrote my first violin concerto. It was based on the modal music of China, but not on any Chinese themes. Frank, who lives and performs in the US now, was a big part of making the whole project come together.
"SONGS OF THE SEA-THE REGATTA SUITE" was recorded in July in the city of Qingdao and Beijing. Over a hundred top orchestral musicians and soloists took part in the recordings. My engineer James T. Hill came for the sessions and mixed the project back in Los Angeles. Additional tracks were recorded in New York with Hila Plitmann and the Pacific Northwest with David Whyte. "Songs Of The Sea" was premiered in a live concert nearby the Olympic Village before going on tour throughout China with the full orchestra. The concerts were performed in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The shows were sold out, with audiences and critics wildly enthusiastic. Rona's collaboration with Lisa Gerrard's lush lyrics was translated into Mandarin and sung in concert and on television by popular Chinese soprano Kang Hong. For the album's release outside China, Plitmann sings in the original English.
THANKS!
jeff