Baritone James Martin & pianist Lynn Raley open TVT 25 with David Amram premiere

Baritone James Martin and pianist Lynn Raley open The Village Trip ‘25 Classical/New Music events on Sept. 19 at St. John’s in the Village with a new work by TVT’s composer emeritus David Amram.

St. John’s in the Village
218 W 11th St.
New York, NY 10014

The duo recently released a CD, produced by Judith Sherman, reviewed here, the NY Times.

David Amram writes:

I am calling the new piece FIVE AMERICAN VOICES: Poetry of Carolyn Cassady, Ted Joans, Ron Whitehead, Tom Piazza (wrote a great book “Why New Orleans Matters”, Script for HBO’s first two seasons of Treme , lives in N’Awlins) and Leslie Marmon Silko (renowned Native American poetess) who like Tom Piazza and Ron Whitehead is still alive and wailing.

–Carolyn Cassady was a writer. She knew all the beat poets. She was married to Neal Cassady.
–interesting to see on Tom Piazza’s homepage that he’s endorsed by Bob Dylan.
–Ted Joan’s motto was: “Jazz is my religion and Surrealism my point of view”.
–Ron Whitehead is from Kentucky. Doesn’t mean he’s pals with Wendell Berry.This comes up.
–Leslie Marmon Silko is the author of the short story, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” and the novel, Ceremony.

James Martin (Bass-Baritone)
The American bass-Baritone, James C. Martin, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and his Master of Music from the Juilliard School, where he was also a Young Artist with the Juilliard Opera Center. He apprenticed with the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program and Western Opera Theatre Tour, and L’Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France, as one of seven international Les jeunes voix du Rhin. His awards include Juilliard’s William Schuman prize, the SONY Elevated Standards award, IWU President’s Award, a Lilly fellowship research grant, the Gluck Fellowship, and the Theodore Presser Award. He has received prizes and citations from London’s Wigmore Hall, Joy in Singing, Opera Carolina, Belvedere and most recently the American Traditions Competitions in Savannah, Georgia, receiving the bronze medal/Gignilliat Award in 2012. He studied voice with David Nott (IWU), Cynthia Hoffmann (Juilliard) and Benita Valente. Other notable mentors and coaches include Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, Paul Sperry, Jon Humphrey, Luis Battllé, Barrington Coleman, John Crosby, Marilyn Horne, Evelyn Lear, Hermann Prey, Joan Sutherland, Reri Grist, George Shirley, Ernst Haefliger, Adele Addison, Edward Berkeley, Kenneth Merrill, Diane Richardson, Owen Burdick, and Broadway legend Barbara Cook. He is on the music faculty of Dickinson College.

Pianist Lynn Raley has performed across the US and in Canada, The Netherlands, Thailand, and Taiwan. His commitment to new music has brought him engagements at contemporary music festivals in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. In 2012-13 Raley taught at the National Chiao Tung University Institute of Music in Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar. BBC Music Magazine called his 2018 solo CD Maëlstrom “thoughtfully compiled and skillfully performed,” and “a highly commendable release, offering rich insight into contemporary American music for piano.” The NY Times praised the “powerful performances by the baritone James Martin and the pianist Lynn Raley” in their recent release on New World, Wide As Heaven: A Century of Song by Black American Composers. Raley can be heard on the Leonarda, Capstone, Nimbus, and New World labels.