This March, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus will premiere my newest choral work, “Trilogy” — comprised of three settings of texts by Tony Kushner. The last of the three movements, “I Want More Life“, was premiered April 2009 by the TC-GMC in conjunction with the Guthrie Theatre’s Tony Kushner Festival launch.
The first movement of “Trilogy” is “It Is Very Simple” (text from Homebody/Kabul) and the second is “There Is A Little House In Heaven” (text from Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Browne). This commission was graciously underwritten by TC-GMC Board Chair Jeffrey Bores and his partner, Michael Hawkins.
Performances are March 26-27, 2010 at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis. I will be attending both concerts and participating in post-concert question and answer sessions with TC-GMC Artistic Director Dr. Stan Hill.
Please visit the TC-GMC site for tickets to this concert, “LifeSongs: The Music of Living”.
Related:
Just finished movement #2, There Is A Little House In Heaven for TCGMC – the choral trilogy is complete and ready for the March performance in Minneapolis. Now … on to the Richard Rainville and Matt Quam extravaganza … from gay men’s chorus to a sex-expert columnist. Sort of the same thing, right?
I was fortunate enough to receive another commission last January from The Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus to set a text from Tony Kushner’s Angels In America. The piece is called “I Want More Life”, and Brent just finished mixing a recording of it in our studio.
Dr. Stan Hill, Artistic Director of TCGMC, (also responsible for my last TC-GMC commission, Through A Glass, Darkly) asked me to write “I Want More Life” for the Tony Kushner Celebration at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. The commission was made possible by the generosity of Jeffrey Bores and with the permission of Tony Kushner.
Download (ctrl-click to Save As...)
I Want More Life
Vocals by Michael Marcotte, Alex Richardson, Drew Santini, and Mike
Music by Mike
Text adapted from “Angels In America: Perestroika”, Scene 5 by Tony Kushner
Produced by Brent
(c) and (p) 2009 FatLab Music
All Rights Reserved, Text used by permission of Tony Kushner
Previously:
Photos from today’s “Kick-off To Kushner” launch event at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis:
(See these and more photos in the Guthrie Theater’s Facebook photo album.)
The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus debuts 'I Want More Life'
'I Want More Life' sheet music
2nd Performance of 'I Want More Life'
Previously:
Mike’s newest choral work, “I Want More Life”, commissioned by Dr. Stan Hill and the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and with text from Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Perestroika”, will premiere in Minneapolis on April 18 at the Guthrie Theater’s free “Kick-Off To Kushner” event.
Kick-Off to Kushner Flyer
This performance of “I Want More Life” is one of five planned performances by the TC-GMC in conjunction with the Guthrie and the Kushner Festival.
Previously:
2008 ended with the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus’ premiere of Mike’s oratorio “Through A Glass, Darkly“ being cited for “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” by MN’s Lavender Magazine (Thanks! But…opera?). At least five more choruses around the country have expressed interest in staging their own concert productions in the near-future.
“Last Days of Left Eye” was released on DVD on September 9.
“Go-Go Beach“ played a few more places including high schools in Australia and Metro Detroit, bringing us to 107 lifetime performances spanning 4 countries and 12 US states.
I wrote the music for a full-length dance show conceived and choreographed by Jeff Shade called “Playground“ which was presented in December at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center.
Here’s a quick overview of some things coming up for us in 2009.
- March 25-29 – “Go-Go Beach” at Centennial High School in Roswell, GA.
- April 18 – Mike’s newest choral work, “I Want More Life”, will be premiered by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus for the occasion of the Tony Kushner Celebration at the Guthrie Theater. Commissioned by the Chorus especially for the Kushner Festival, the work is a TTBB setting of a monologue from Kushner’s play “Angels In America: Perestroika”. The performance will be at the Festival’s Community Kick-Off event prior to the opening of “Caroline, or Change”.
- May 3 – “I Want More Life” will be performed by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis at a concert in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Minneapolis-based professional chorus VocalEssence. The TC-GMC was invited to join five other choruses to mark the occasion. (tickets)
- May 8-9, 15-16 – “Go-Go Beach” at ShowBiz Starz in Taylor, MI.
- May 15 – The second performance of “I Want More Life” in conjunction with the Tony Kushner Celebration at the Guthrie Theatre, performed opening night of the world premiere of Kushner’s new play “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures“.
- June 2 – The third and fourth performances of “I Want More Life”, for the Guthrie’s “Talk-About” series.
- June 6-7 – “Through A Glass, Darkly”, performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC at Lisner Auditorium – GW Campus, Washington, DC. (tickets)
- June 8 – The fifth performance of “I Want More Life”, prior to Tony Kushner’s “Global Voice” talk at the Guthrie Theatre.
- June 19-20 – “Through A Glass, Darkly”, performed by the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus at the Miami Beach Colony Theatre.
That’s not to say I’m not doing anything… just nothing with dates yet. Ben Britten, Mike, and I are writing an iPhone game, hopefully releasable by mid-year. Being our first game together, we really don’t have any idea how long it will take to complete, tho. I am also developing a theatre-related website with some folks, but it’s too early to talk about that. And a few music projects in mind, once the paying work clears up.
Mike is also scoring a short film by filmmaker Andrew Lund and edited by our film cohort John Daschbach. It is looking to be a serious contender this film festival season. There are some rumblings about possible future choral commissions, too. More as things develop.
Twin Cities Public Television will be airing the premiere broadcast of Mike’s theatrical-concert about meth addiction — “Through A Glass, Darkly”. Hey Minnesotans: set your TiVos for TPT-17 on Saturday, June 21 from 8-9pm central. For the rest of us out-of-towners, we will find out if TPT streams online, and we’ll post ordering info when DVDs go on-sale.
The TPT program guide lists it as “Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus: Reflections on Meth Addiction”. We only had 50-some characters to work with, and the “Darkly” title alone was felt to be too non-descript — but the title has not changed, TPT just listed it differently for the program guide.
The program consists of the live concert as taped in March, plus maybe some special features and interviews with Mike.
Mike and I are traveling to Minneapolis next week for a couple of advance screenings, then off to Cincinnati to attend the 100th-ever performance of Go-Go Beach.
Previously:
