THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY RELEASES POWERFUL LIVE PERFORMANCES OF WORKS BY AMERICAN COMPOSERS GEORGE WALKER AND WILLIAM L. DAWSON
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SEATTLE SYMPHONY MEDIA RELEASE FEATURES GEORGE WALKER’S LYRIC FOR STRINGS, FOLKSONGS FOR ORCHESTRA AND LILACS FOR VOICE & ORCHESTRA
ALBUM ALSO FEATURES WILLIAM L. DAWSON’S UNDERPERFORMED MASTERPIECE NEGRO FOLK SYMPHONY
WORLDWIDE RELEASE FEBRUARY 10, 2023
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Symphony releases powerful, live performances of works by two brilliant American composers, William L. Dawson and Pulitzer Prize winner George Walker, available worldwide on February 10, 2023. These deeply expressive scores take inspiration from a variety of sources, including Negro spirituals, jazz harmonies and modernist traditions. Performed by the Seattle Symphony and recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall, this album features Asher Fisch conducting Walker’s pieces, and conductor Roderick Cox leading the Symphony for Dawson’s work.
Roderick Cox conducts the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall in a program featuring William L. Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony. Photo by James Holt / Seattle Symphony.
Walker and Dawson, now renowned for their impactful and critically acclaimed contributions to classical music, were once historically underrepresented in the canon of symphony music. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1934, but the piece received few performances following its initial release and, unfortunately, remained the composer’s one and only symphony. In part due to conductor Roderick Cox’s efforts, Negro Folk Symphony is making a monumental return to concert hall stages, allowing audiences a chance to listen to Dawson’s one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
Walker also struggled to secure the necessary follow-up performances needed to jumpstart his career, telling The New York Times, “Without the sustained effect of follow-up concerts my career had no momentum. And because I was Black, I couldn’t get either major or minor dates.” Walker composed music for nearly three quarters of a century before eventually finding success, even winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996. Still, his work went underperformed and under-recorded for much of his life. The Seattle Symphony brings these important composers’ legacies to the forefront in this album, highlighting the unique kinds of stories that both tell through their music; whether it be a recollection of an enormous internal journey, like Walker’s elegiac, deeply personal pieces, or a massive historical epic, like Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony.
Asher Fisch conducts the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall in a program featuring works by composer George Walker. Photo by James Holt / Seattle Symphony.
Seattle Symphony Media proudly shares the legacy of George Walker and William L. Dawson and their powerful, definitive works with listeners everywhere. Digital downloads and CDs are available through all major online music retailers and streaming services, and will be available worldwide on February 10, 2023. This recording is also available in an immaculate, 5.1 digital surround version engineered by the 2017 Grammy Award winner for Best Surround Sound and 2021 Grammy Award nominee for Producer of the Year, Classical, Dmitriy Lipay.
To obtain a physical or digital review copy of the release, photos, liner notes or any other information on Seattle Symphony Media, please contact Courtney Bullard at press@seattlesymphony.org.
GEORGE WALKER
LYRIC FOR STRINGS
FOLKSONGS FOR ORCHESTRA
LILACS FOR VOICE & ORCHESTRA
Asher Fisch conductor
Nicole Cabell soprano
Seattle Symphony
Worldwide Release Date
February 10, 2023
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
Catalog Number: SSM1027
Producer: Dmitriy Lipay
The Seattle Symphony releases powerful live performances of works by two brilliant American composers, William L. Dawson and Pulitzer Prize-winner George Walker, available worldwide on February 10, 2023. These deeply expressive scores — recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall — take inspiration from a variety of sources, including Negro spirituals, jazz harmonies and modernist traditions.
GEORGE WALKER LYRIC FOR STRINGS
Total Timing: 5:50 // Catalog Number: SSM1027 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
GEORGE WALKER FOLKSONGS FOR ORCHESTRA
Total Timing: 10:37 // Catalog Number: SSM1027 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
GEORGE WALKER LILACS FOR VOICE & ORCHESTRA
Total Timing: 11:59 // Catalog Number: SSM1027 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
WILLIAM L. DAWSON NEGRO FOLK SYMPHONY
Total Timing: 30:55 // Catalog Number: SSM1027 // Producer: Dmitriy Lipay //
Label: Seattle Symphony Media
Recorded in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington.
George Walker’s Lyric for Strings and Folksongs for Orchestra were recorded live in concert February 10, 12 & 13, 2022, as part of the 2021/2022 Delta Air Lines Masterworks Series.
George Walker’s Lilacs for Voice & Orchestra was recorded February 11, 2022.
William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony was recorded live in concert April 21, 23 & 24, 2022, as part of the 2021/2022 Delta Air Lines Masterworks Series.
Cover Photos: George Walker pictured at left (courtesy of Frank Schramm), William Dawson pictured at right (courtesy of New York Public Library).
NICOLE CABELL | SOPRANO
Universally acclaimed for her velvety timbre and finely nuanced interpretations, American soprano Nicole Cabell continues to demonstrate her incredible versatility in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary on the world’s greatest opera and concert stages as well as on disc. Cabell sang her first staged Bess in James Robinson’s acclaimed 2018 production of Porgy and Bess for English National Opera, conducted by John Wilson. At home in the United States, she has stepped onto the Cincinatti Opera stage as Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), and sung Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at Michigan Opera Theatre under Christopher Allen.
RODERICK COX | CONDUCTOR
Winner of the 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award by the U.S Solti Foundation, Berlin-based American conductor Roderick Cox has been praised as a conductor who is “paving the way” (NBC News) and recognized as a “trailblazer … a conductor who will be amongst the vanguard” (Minnesota Star Tribune). Recent highlights include his debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra; as well as returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra. In the theater, Cox has made important debuts at the Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera, as well as recording Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with the Washington National Opera. With a passion for education, diversity and inclusion in the arts, Cox started the Roderick Cox Music Initiative (RCMI) in 2018 — a project that provides scholarships for young musicians of color from underrepresented communities, allowing them to pay for instruments, music lessons and summer camps. Cox and his new initiative are featured in a 2022 documentary called Conducting Life.
ASHER FISCH | CONDUCTOR
A renowned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Asher Fisch is especially celebrated for his interpretative command of the core German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-Romantic era. Since 2014, Fisch has been the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO). Fisch’s recent recordings include tenor Stuart Skelton’s first solo album, recorded with WASO and released on ABC Classics in 2018, and a recording of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole with the Munich Radio Orchestra. His recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Seattle Opera was released on the Avie label in 2014. His first Ring Cycle recording, with the State Opera of South Australia, won 10 Helpmann Awards, including best opera and best music direction.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY MEDIA
Launched in 2014, Seattle Symphony Media is the Seattle Symphony’s independent Grammy Award-winning in-house record label. The Symphony has an extensive catalogue of nearly 150 recordings, which have brought forth five Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards throughout its history. The Seattle Symphony was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony's in-house record label features both “core repertoire” and some of the eclectic and contemporary programming for which the Seattle Symphony has become recognized. The label includes both studio recordings and performances captured live in concert, allowing the organization an unprecedented breadth of repertoire choices.
All recordings are made in the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall and engineered by the Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Dmitriy Lipay. Using the Symphony’s own state-of-the-art in-house recording studio, recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing on stage with naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range. Distributed by Naxos of America, the recordings are available in both physical and digital formats from a variety of retailers. Digital content is available in stereo, “Mastered for iTunes,” 96k 24-bit high resolution and 5.1 surround sound.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY
The Seattle Symphony unleashes the power of music, brings people together and lifts the human spirit. Recognized as one of the “most vital American orchestras” (NPR), the Seattle Symphony is internationally acclaimed for its inventive programming, community-minded initiatives and superb recordings on the Seattle Symphony Media label. With a strong commitment to new music and a legacy of over 150 recordings, the orchestra has garnered five Grammy Awards, 27 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony performs in Benaroya Hall in the heart of downtown Seattle from September through July, reaching over 750,000 people annually through live performances and radio broadcasts, and through the Seattle Symphony+ streaming service, the orchestra’s concerts reach audiences at home and around the world.
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