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PRESS RELEASE
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CEDILLE RECORDS RELEASES BARITONE WILL LIVERMAN AND PIANIST JONATHAN KING’S SHOW ME THE WAY ON MARCH 8 | |
A celebration of women composers and American song with guest performances by sopranos Nicole Cabell and Renée Fleming, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, violinist Lady Jess, cellist Tahirah Whittington, and vocalist Terry Liverman | |
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CHICAGO, IL (February 9, 2024) — Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman and pianist Jonathan King present Show Me The Way, a new recording of American song highlighting women in classical music who have deeply inspired Liverman and King while paying homage to colleagues who have influenced his work. Show Me The Way will be released as a two disc set by Cedille Records on Friday, March 8, 2024.
Featuring 20th-century classical composers who were pioneers in the field, such as Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, and Florence Price, as well as leading present-day composers including Kamala Sankaram and Sarah Kirkland Snider, the album also features guest performances by women who have helped shape Liverman’s artistry as a performer, composer, and curator including sopranos Renée Fleming and Nicole Cabell, and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges.
The album also features a special guest performance by Liverman’s mother, gospel singer Terry Liverman. The Livermans perform together on recording for the first time — Terry Liverman sings while Will Liverman plays piano — in their own arrangement of If I Can Help Somebody by Alma Bazel Androzzo. The track is available now as a single.
“My mom is someone who, if she has something to say, will find a way to say it,” Liverman said in his personal statement for the album. “In the 80s and 90s she wrote, sang, and produced her own music. She used to record her songs on cassette tapes, and some of my earliest musical memories were listening to those tapes of my mom singing. That experience probably sparked my love of recording, as well as the idea for this project.”
A second single, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Everything That Ever Was featuring Renée Fleming with Will Liverman, will be released on February 23.
The album is named for the title track You Showed Me The Way by Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb, Teddy McRae, and Bud Green, arranged for this recording by Jonathan King. You Showed Me The Way, an original tune co-written in 1937 and performed by Fitzgerald and the Chick Webb Orchestra at New York’s Savoy Ballroom, speaks of overcoming distress through the help and love of others, offering hope and lightness in a time otherwise known for its despair.
Show Me The Way also includes several world premiere recordings including A Sable Jubilee, with newly commissioned text by Tesia Kwarteng and composition by Jasmine Barnes, offering a poetic triptych of pride and celebration of Black Joy. Additional world premiere recordings include Rene Orth’s A Prayer, Kamala Sankaram’s Spell to Turn the World Around, Libby Larsen’s Machine Head: Ted Burke Poems, and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Everything That Ever Was.
“In addition to preserving important pieces of the past for future generations through this recording, we’re also hoping to continue supporting contemporary legacies through commissions and recording new works,” Liverman said. “People may resonate differently with each song, but the common thread is that we’re searching for one another in a world that can oftentimes feel vast and expansive, and that, at the end of the day, we’re all connected.”
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman has been called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post). He is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of The Factotum — called “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) — which premiered at Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023. Described as “nothing short of extraordinary” (Opera News) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times), Liverman has been hailed by critics for his versatility in dramatic and comedic roles, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, and for his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward.
This season, Liverman returned to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. He was previously seen at the Met in a celebrated “breakout performance” (New York Times) as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which won the 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
Liverman’s 2023–2024 season further includes productions with Opera Philadelphia for the world premiere of Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse and the Met for Roméo et Juliette. In concert, he joins the Lexington Philharmonic for the orchestrated world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, Houston Symphony’s Carmina Burana, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Brahms’ A German Requiem, and The Washington Chorus’s Elijah Reimagined, Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, and Nu Deco Ensemble, plus Dayton Opera, Caramoor, and Cincinnati Song Initiative for vocal recitals. He serves as Artistic Advisor for Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall.
Cedille Records released Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in February 2021. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart and was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). willliverman.com.
Jonathan King, celebrated as a “fresh presence” by The Washington Post, is currently Music Director at Opera Memphis. He has recently served as Associate Conductor with The Washington Chorus and has coached with Peabody Opera Theatre at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. King has also served as assistant conductor, chorus master, and junior lecturer with Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland and has prepared choirs to work with eminent conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, and Gianandrea Noseda.
“A deft and sensitive accompanist” (Chicago Tribune), King has served as répétiteur with the National Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Opera, Opera Baltimore, Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Opera Saratoga, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Unlimited Series, and the Oregon Bach Festival, where he also served as assistant conductor to John Nelson during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. As a collaborative pianist, King has worked with celebrated singers including J’Nai Bridges, Michael Spyres, John Holiday, and Will Liverman. As a duo, King and Liverman have recorded with Deutsche Grammophon, Odradek Records, and Cedille Records. Together they maintain an active recital schedule and have appeared on major world stages including Wigmore Hall, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and the Kennedy Center’s Opera House. Their album, Whither Must I Wander (Odradek, 2020), was named one of ten “Best Classical Recordings of 2020” by the Chicago Tribune, and received a Critic’s Choice Award from Opera News. experience-culture.com/jonathan-king
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ABOUT CEDILLE RECORDS
Launched in November 1989 by James Ginsburg, Grammy Award-winning Cedille Records (pronounced say-DEE) is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the most noteworthy classical artists in and from the Chicago area. A nonprofit record label, Cedille’s mission is to produce and disseminate audiophile recordings presenting the finest classical music performers and composers in and from Chicago. The recordings further the careers and legacies of these Chicago artists as Cedille invests in not only the recordings but in the artists represented on them. The label’s catalog of more than 200 front-line albums brims with attractive, off-the-beaten-path repertoire from the Baroque era to the present day, including world premieres of more than 400 classical compositions. Works from the classical canon, when they do appear, are usually heard in particularly imaginative pairings. Cedille never removes albums from its catalog and each recording is a permanent documentation of the artist’s work. With more than 180 Chicago artists and ensembles, over 80 making their professional recording debuts on the label, Cedille brings the area’s most significant classical music artists to a worldwide listening public. Cedille recordings are available on CD, as MP3 and hi-resolution FLAC downloads, and on all major streaming platforms.
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SHOW ME THE WAY
WILL LIVERMAN, BARITONE
JONATHAN KING, PIANO
CEDILLE RECORDS — CDR 226
Press only download
Disc 1
ELLA FITZGERALD, CHICK WEBB, TEDDY MCRAE, AND BUD GREEN (arr. Jonathan King)
- You Showed Me The Way (4:22)
JASMINE BARNES
A Sable Jubilee* (15:14)
- Inspiration (6:45)
- Luxury (4:42)
- Elevation (3:46)
FLORENCE PRICE
- I Grew a Rose (4:23)
RENE ORTH
- A Prayer* (3:56)
J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
MARGARET BONDS
Four Songs (11:47)
- Even in the Moment (3:04)
- Feast (1:26)
- I Know My Mind (4:11)
- What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (3:03)
Disc 2
AMY CHENEY BEACH
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“Ah, love is a jasmine vine,” from Cabildo, op. 149 (7:13)
Nicole Cabell, soprano
Lady Jess, violin
Tahirah Whittington, cello
KAMALA SANKARAM
- Spell to Turn the World Around* (6:53)
FLORENCE PRICE
- Songs to the Dark Virgin (2:19)
LIBBY LARSEN
Machine Head: Ted Burke Poems* (19:34)
- Rexall (5:01)
- My Father Intercepts My Trio to Another Planet (8:33)
- Machine Head (5:54)
SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER
- Everything That Ever Was* (7:03)
Renée Fleming, soprano
ALMA BAZEL ANDROZZO (arr. Terry and Will Liverman)
- If I Can Help Somebody (4:13)
Terry Liverman, vocals
Will Liverman, piano
Total Time: 87:38
*World Premiere Recording
Producer: James Ginsburg
Engineers: Bill Maylone, Dan Nichols (Sankaram, Snider)
Recorded July 17–19, 2023 in the Sasha and Eugene Jarvis Opera Hall at DePaul University, Chicago, IL and August 15, 2023 in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, Washington DC (Sankaram, Snider).
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