Recital of Modern American Songs

Gwyneth Walker was born in Connecticut and lives on a farm in Braintree, Vermont. She has been a full-time composer since 1982, after having been a teacher of music theory and composition at the Oberlin College Conservatory, the Hartford Conservatory and the Hartt School of Music for 12 years. She is the directress of the Consortium of Vermont Composers.

Donald Crockett was born in Pasadena, California in 1951. He is Professor of Composition and Director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Southern California, where he joined the faculty in 1981. From 1991-1997 he was Composer in Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and served in the same capacity with the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra during 1984-86. He composed seven works for these two orchestras during his residencies. Most recently he received an Aaron Copland Award (1998) from the Copland Society, which includes an extended residency at the Copland House in New York. His music is published by MMB Music, St. Louis, and recorded on CRI, Laurel, Media Magic and Pro Arte. Also active as a conductor of new music, Donald Crockett has presented many world, national and regional premières with the Los Angeles-based new music ensemble Xtet, the University of Southern California Contemporary Music Ensemble, and as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Monday Evening Concerts, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the Green Umbrella séries of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

I have no biographical information for Marilyn Penn.

John George Bilotta was born on February 26, 1948 in Waterbury, Connecticut. He studied at the University of California at Berkley and at the Music & Arts Institute in San Fransisco. He currently works for the Bank of America in San Francisco.

Alexander Gordon Wilcox was born on February 26, 1909 in Revere, Massachusetts. He studied at the Harvard College, the University of Iowa, the Leland Powers School of Theater and privately with Roy Harris. In his active professional life he was a radio announcer and an English teacher.

Michael Jeffrey Shapiro studied at the Julliard School, the Columbia College and the Mannes School. He studied composition with Vincernt Persichetti and Elie Siegmeister and conducting with Carl Bamberger. He works as a piano accompanist and conducts his own works.

Russell Smith was born on April 23, 1927 in Tuscalousa Alabama and died in Munich, Germany in the fall of 1998. He studied at the Columbia University, New York, privately with Aaron Copland, Bernard Rogers and Edgard Varese. He was assistant professor at Queens College and Hunter College for Musik Literatur and Theory. He was an editor for G. Ricordi & Co. and H.W. Gray & Co. He was composer in residence for the Cleveland Orchestra and the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra. He was assistant professor for Composition, Theory and Piano at the University of New Orleans. The last years of his life he spent in Munich, Germany as a free-lance composer.