New Millennium Strings

Eric Whitacre

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

The Contra Costa Chorale is pleased to present what is believed to be the first West Coast performance of Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine by acclaimed choral composer Eric Whitacre. An accomplished composer, conductor, and lecturer, Eric Whitacre is one of the bright stars in contemporary concert music. Regularly commissioned and published, Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association, the American Composers Forum, and last spring was honored with his first Grammy nomination (contemporary classical crossover).

Commissioned as the 2001 American Choral Directors Association Raymond C. Brock commission, the permiere performance of Leonardo, conducted by Whitacre himself, was met with wide acclaim.

Although a challenging work for any chorus to present, the concept of Leonardo is simple: What would it sound like if Leonardo DaVinci were dreaming? More specifically, what kind of music would fill the mind of such a genius? The drama would tell the story of Leonard being tormented by the calling of the air, tortured to such degree that his only recourse was to solve the riddle and figure out how to fly.

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine is the second in a planned cycle of element works. The first, Cloudburst, coincidentally, was completed nine years earlier to the day in a practice room at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

-- program notes by Michael Carlson

November, 2004