Stewart Wallace and Andrew Norman Join Schott–Recent Signings Continue Schott Music's Fresh Start in America Initiatives; World Premiere of Wallace's "The Bonesetter's Daughter" at San Francisco Opera

Our recent signings, following previous additions of Howard Shore and Douglas J. Cuomo to the roster, mark a continuation of Schott's commitment to a fresh start in America recognizing great composing talent at various stages of development and designing flexible publishing relationships that encourage and emphasize creative partnerships. Launched in 2005 when Schott Music Corporation established an active music publishing operation in New York, this commitment to developing, promoting and supporting the very best composing talent is ongoing and we look forward to broadening these initiatives further. Stewart Wallace is a seasoned composer of great works for the lyric and concert stage and we are thrilled to welcome him to Schott at this momentous point in his career with the impending world premiere of The Bonesetter's Daughter at San Francisco Opera. Andrew Norman is an emerging artist who is fast becoming recognized as one of our great young American composers. We are excited to be working with him as he continues to develop his unique voice.

Stewart Wallace had his first major opera premiere at the age of 28 at the Houston Grand Opera with Where's Dick? This was the beginning of fruitful collaborations with librettist Michael Korie and director Richard Foreman. Wallace would go on to collaborate with a diverse group of artists including Christopher Alden, Evelyn Glennie, Marc Ribot, Chen Shi-Zheng and Amy Tan. His unconventional and highly theatrical body of work is at once intensely rhythmic, melodic and emotionally compelling. Harvey Milk, Wallace's fifth opera and most widely known score, was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera. With a libretto by Michael Korie and directed by Christopher Alden, the world premiere was a cultural phenomenon discussed and debated in every major American and European newspaper. The Washington Post said, "Harvey Milk is an astounding achievement - lively, artful, tough-minded American music-drama, deeply satisfying to ear, eye and mind."

Wallace returns to San Francisco Opera this month with the world premiere of The Bonesetter's Daughter, based on the bestselling novel by the opera's librettist Amy Tan. The Bonesetter's Daughter is a multi-generational epic that explores one family's history through three generations of mothers and daughters. Wallace comments:

My stated objective, before I wrote a note of music, was to write this opera, an American opera with roots in China, in my own language and voice, but make it feel like China. Working together with Beijing Opera master percussionist Li Zhonghua over the last four years, we have developed a percussion language that is neither Chinese nor American, but a meeting of our minds and an expression of our friendship.

Conducted by Steven Sloane and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, The Bonesetter's Daughter premieres at San Francisco Opera on Saturday, September 13 with six follow up performances through October 3.

Born in 1979, Andrew Norman has established himself in recent years as an exciting young composing talent. In December 2004, his Sacred Geometry was premiered by the New York Youth Symphony, a commission from the Symphony’s First Music program. This work earned him the Nissim Prize from ASCAP and the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Norman has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Modesto Symphony, the California State University Stanislaus Symphony, the Hoff-Barthelson School, and the Cascade Head Music Festival in Oregon. Most recently, Mr. Norman has received commissions from the Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists and from the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Andrew Norman’s music has been performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, the MATA Festival in New York, the Chicago Chamber Players’ Composer Perspectives Series and by the Minnesota Orchestra and the New England Philharmonic, among others. Mr. Norman was a composition fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and a fellow twice at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East in Bennington, Vermont. He has held residencies at the National Youth Orchestra Festival and the Copland House.

Mr. Norman was chosen as Young Concert Artists Composer-in-Residence for the years 2007-2009. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, four Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Leo Kaplan Prize from ASCAP as well as a BMI Student Composer Award. He has also received top honors in the National Federation of Music Club’s Composition Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Composition Competition, the New England Philharmonic Call for Scores, and the USC Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work.

Andrew Norman's new orchestral work Unstuck is premiered this month by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of Michael Sanderling. Commissioned by the Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists, Unstuck is characterized by a driving energetic pulse that recalls the feel of Norman's brilliant work for eight violinists, Gran Turismo. The title is inspired in part by the famous sentence "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time" from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Michael Sanderling and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich present the world premiere of Unstuck on September 9.

For more information on the music of Stewart Wallace, please visit www.stewart-wallace.com and www.schott-music.com.

To find out more on San Francisco Opera's production of The Bonesetter's Daughter, go to www.sfopera.com.

To read the New York Times' recent feature on The Bonesetter's Daughter, please go to www.nytimes.com.

More information on the music of Andrew Norman can be found at www.yca.org and www.schott-music.com.

To access the most recent issue of the Schott Aktuell online, which features a comprehensive guide to the Schott American catalogue with premieres, signings and repertoire recommendations, please go here.

Stewart Wallace
The Bonesetter's Daughter (2008)
an opera in two acts
libretto (En) by Amy Tan, after her novel
Commissioned by San Francisco Opera
for 3Mz (1 dbl as contralto), Bar, B, Kunju Singer, Chinese Rock Singer
pic.2(afl)2.ca.3(Eb cl, bcl)bcl(cb cl)2.cbn-43(pic tp)3.b tbn.1-timp.3perc-hp.cel-str; Chinese instruments: 2 suonas, 4 Chinese percussion players
125'

Andrew Norman
Unstuck (2008)
for orchestra
3(pic)2.ca.3(bcl, Eb cl)3-4331-timp.3perc-pno-str
10'

Stewart Wallace photo credit: Ellen Kaplowitz

Andrew Norman photo credit: Christian Steiner