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Here's the scoop...

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2008 Season Press Release:

BOSTON'S FOUNDATION FOR MODERN OPERA ANNOUNCES
THE SIXTH SEASON OF THE SHAKESPEARE CONCERTS
MARCH 16 AND 17, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 29, 2008

WORLD PREMIERE OF "IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE," A SETTING OF THE FIRST SCENE OF TWELFTH NIGHT, BY SERIES' FOUNDER JOSEPH SUMMER

OTHER PERFORMANCES OF MUSIC BY FRANCIS POULENC, RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, SAMUEL BARBER, AND ERICH KORNGOLD SET TO TEXT FROM HAMLET, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, OTHELLO, AS YOU LIKE IT, AND ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

FEATURING INTERNATIONAL AWARD-WINNING CZECH PIANIST MIROSLAV SEKERA, BOSTON BASED STRING QUARTET QX, SINGERS PATRICE TIEDEMANN, SOPRANO, KELLIE VAN HORN, MEZZO, ALAN SCHNEIDER, TENOR, PAUL SOPER, BARITONE, FRENCH HORN PLAYERS CAROLYN CANTRELL, LAURA KLOCK, KIMBERLY HARRIMAN, JOSEPH WALKER, ROBERT NAIRN AND JOHN MCGINN, MUSIC DIRECTOR

The 2008 season of The Shakespeare Concerts, presented by Boston's Foundation for Modern Opera, features music set to the text of the world's pre-eminent dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare. This sixth season of concerts in Worcester and Boston will feature the world premiere of "If Music Be The Food Of Love," a setting of the entire first scene of Twelfth Night for four singers, four horns and string quintet by series' founder, Joseph Summer, as well as songs by Francis Poulenc, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Samuel Barber, and Erich Korngold.

Krista Reisner, concertmaster of Opera Boston and first violinist of Boston-based string quartet QX, along with music director John McGinn, will perform the Ariel Fantasy by Paul Moravec from his Pulitzer Prize-winning composition Tempest Fantasy. International award-winning Czech pianist, Miroslav Sekera (who played the child Mozart in the 1985 film Amadeus) will interpret "The Dumb Show" from Hamlet, a tone poem describing the action of the play's "Mousetrap" scene, as well as accompany tenor Alan Schneider in "What a Piece Of Work Is Man," from Joseph Summer's recently completed opera, Hamlet. Baritone Paul Soper will portray Shylock from The Merchant of Venice, accompanied by the QX string quartet and Sekera in "I Say My Daughter Is My Flesh and Blood," perhaps the most famous response to anti-Semitism ever written, in which Shylock asks, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" Mezzo-soprano Kellie Van Horn will answer Shylock's just demand for vengeance in Portia's soliloquy "The Quality of Mercy," and soprano Patrice Tiedemann performs as Cleopatra in Samuel Barber's "Give Me Some Music," from Antony and Cleopatra.

Composer Joseph Summer, a devotee of The Bard, conceived The Shakespeare Concerts. He is an adherent to the "Oxfordian Heresy," which hypothesizes that Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, is the author known as William Shakespeare. Summer began setting Shakespeare texts in 1991 with To Be Or Not To Be for tenor and piano. His more than 60 Shakespeare songs for voice and chamber ensembles are contained in six books under the title The Oxford Songs. After completing two scored Oxford Songs, his music came to the attention of the late Mattina Proctor, whose foundation encouraged him to create The Shakespeare Concerts. Every season the series premieres Summer's works as well as Shakespearean settings by Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Prokofiev, Schubert, a plethora of British composers, and others. Albany Records has released two discs of Summer's Oxford Songs performed by the artists of The Shakespeare Concerts: What A Piece Of Work Is Man and Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day.

In addition to the songs, Summer recently completed Hamlet, a three act grand opera. He has also written three tragic operas, four comic operas (the four comedies based on Boccaccio's Decameron), and two cantatas, as well as numerous chamber works. His most recent composition, The Garden Of Forking Paths, is a string quartet based on short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, including a movement titled Shakespeare's Memory based on the story of the same name by the late great Argentinean author. After studying French horn as a boy, Summer was invited to attend Oberlin Conservatory at the age of fifteen where he majored in composition. Following graduation (at the age of twenty) he taught music theory at Carnegie Mellon University for one year, then left academia to pursue composing full time. Summer is married to the eminent music therapist, Lisa Summer, and they have one daughter, Eve, who recently directed A Midsummer Night's Dream at her alma mater, Assumption College.

Concerts will take place Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 3:00 PM at Clark University's Razzo Hall in Worcester, as well as on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 8:00 PM at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston. Admission is free to general public.

The Shakespeare Concerts features music set to the text of the world's pre-eminent dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare.