American Composer Gordon Getty Turns 80

American composer Gordon Getty celebrates his 80th birthday on December 20, 2013. Mr. Getty's music has been widely performed in North America and Europe in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Brahmssaal, and Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall and Bolshoi Theatre, as well as at the Aspen, Spoleto, and Bad Kissingen Festivals.

Of his compositions Getty has said: "My style is undoubtedly tonal, though with hints of atonality, such as any composer would likely use to suggest a degree of disorientation. But I'm strictly tonal in my approach. I represent a viewpoint that stands somewhat apart from the twentieth century, which was in large measure a repudiation of the nineteenth and a sock in the nose to sentimentality. Whatever it was that the great Victorian composers and poets were trying to achieve, that's what I'm trying to achieve."

Mr. Getty's discography includes Young America, choral works performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; Joan and the Bells, a cantata portraying the trial and execution of Joan of Arc; two recordings of The White Election, a song cycle on poems by Emily Dickinson; his Orchestral Works with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Piano Pieces recorded by the prodigiously-gifted pianist Conrad Tao; and his two operas Plump Jack and Usher House.

Recent performances of Mr. Getty's works include Joan and the Bells (November 15, 2013) performed by the Munich Radio Orchestra under the direction of Ulf Schirmer with soprano Melody Moore and baritone Lester Lynch. The Piano Pieces, performed by Conrad Tao at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (October 24, 2013). Usher House will receive its world premiere in June, 2014, at the Welsh National Opera, conducted by Lawrence Foster and directed by David Pountney (San Francisco Opera will present the U.S. premiere in 2015). Also, on January 6, 2014, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will celebrate Gordon Getty with a concert featuring special guests Plácido Domingo, Frederica Von Stade and Lisa Delan.

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