LETTERS FROM A POET IN ITALY "Eighteen in Italy" Mvt. I Piano, Vocal - Digital Sheet Music

LETTERS FROM A POET IN ITALY - A song cycle in four movements. I. Eighteen in Italy II. Caregiver III. Colosseum IV. David 2007The songs in my cycle are for voice and piano. They are setting of four poems by Jerry McElveen, Professor Emeritus at Richland College of the Dallas College system. The title refers to texts written during a tour of Italy by a group of college faculty and spouses. On the tour we visited several historic sites around Italy. At the end of the tour, professor McElveen surprised us by reciting a series of poems written during that trip. On hearing his performance, I felt his words were musical and perfect texts to be set to music. The Letters from a Poet in Italy song cycle is the result of our collaboration and has been performed numerous times in the DFW area. A recent performance was sponsored by the art song organization Voces Intimae: the Art of Song. The concert was reviewed by Scott Cantrell Music/Art Critic for the Dallas Morning News and awarded a positive review. The audio recordings feature soprano Marsha Anderson with my piano accompaniment. Marsha had a distinguished career as an opera singer in Italy for 20 years before returning to Texas as director of the North Lake College "Study in Italy" program. (She is featured on all recordings except Mvt. III COLOSSEUM. That audio is a synthesizer version).