The Summer King is an opera in two acts the life of the great Negro League baseball player Josh Gibson. 
Music by Daniel Sonenberg
Libretto by Daniel Sonenberg and Daniel Nester

Excerpt of a performance of three scenes from The Summer King, presented by American Opera Projects at Opera America's New Works Forum, January 15, 2014, at the Mary Cary Flagger Hall in the Dimenna Center, NYC. 

Josh Gibson: Stephen Salters (baritone)
Sam Bankhead: Kenneth Kellogg (bass)

Conductor: Steven Osgood
Associate Conductor: Charity Wicks
Orchestra:
Flute/picc.: Margaret Lancaster
Bb Clarinet/Eb Clarinet/Bass Clarinet: Liz Player
Soprano Saxophone/Tenor Saxophone: Steven Lyon
Basson: Damian Primis
Horn: Jason Sugata
C Trumpet 1: Thomas Hoyt
C Trumpet 2: John Dent
Bass Trombone: Jack Schatz
Percussion 1: Andy Blanco
Percussion 2: Jeffrey Irving
Piano/Celesta: Charity Wicks
Violin 1: Ashley Horne
Violin 2 Jessie Montgomery
Viola: Tia Allen
Cello: Lawrence Zoernig
Double bass: Anthony Morris



Synopsis of excerpt: After a visitation from his young wife, Helen, who died in childbirth years ago, Josh realizes where he is, and speaks to Sam, his best friend, about his fabled Yankee Stadium Home Run (“…it went out a long way….I hope you’ll remember that”), and then dies. Sam sings an aria about the fallen Summer King, who led all Negro Leaguers to the Promised Land, but was denied entry himself. He then contemplates his own plight, and that of his contemporaries, players who were either too old, or not great enough to enjoy the fruits of integration. During the final lines of Sam’s aria, lights up on the Elder Barber, who, we now see, is an example of just the kind of player Sam is singing about. The Elder Barber again extolls Josh Gibson’s greatness, as Sam asks “did we need to be greater men than our king to avoid our king’s fate?” With this, Sam fades out... (Act II Scene 5 continues with the Elder Barber and Younger Barber, who were the featured characters in the opera's opening scene). 

Special thanks: American Opera Projects; Opera America; Portland Ovations; University of Southern Maine

The Summer King (Sonenberg) - excerpt of Act II Scene 4

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For Chamber Orchestra, Choir, and Electric Guitar Soloist
by Daniel Sonenberg

Performed by the University of Southern Maine Composers Ensemble
Daniel Sonenberg, Conductor
Jimmy Dority, Electric Guitar

This is a short concerto for electric guitar (featuring guitarist Jimmy Dority), choir and chamber orchestra. I love having an electric guitarist in the group alongside the more traditional, orchestral instruments. I recently acquired a beautiful small tube amplifier for my own guitar, and wrote this odd little concerto as a kind of celebration for tube circuitry. The choir’s text is drawn from the Wikipedia article on “Valve Amplifier” (with words culled almost at random, and sung electronically by the choir). At the climax of the piece, the text shifts to an uncredited 1928 New York Times article about the invention of a new kind of a vacuum tube, the UX 215, and its implications for improved volume and tone quality. The piece ends on an iconic and universally recognizable chord for guitar – a confirmation of the future heralded by that technological advance. 

The Summer King (Sonenberg) - excerpt of Act II Scene 4

Dan Sonenberg

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