Miklós Rózsa's beautiful, majestic love theme from the epic 1961 film, El Cid, arranged for solo violin, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoon & piano. This arrangement is very faithful to the widely recorded concert version for violin and orchestra (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czltBDI4LTg).

Available for sale from SMP Press: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/love-theme-from-el-cid-arr-for-violin-piano-quartet/20800292
Also available for solo violin & piano https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/love-theme-from-el-cid-arr-for-violin-piano/20801949

Premiered at vdM Recital Hall, Storrs, CT in May 2015 by Matt Beland (violin), Jonathan Schmieding (clarinet), Andrew Kohanski (oboe), Vinny LaMonica (bassoon) and Nathan Fletcher (piano).

Nathan Fletcher Senior Recital

Love Theme from "El Cid" (arr. for violin & piano quartet)

A lyrical arrangement of Henry Mancini's "Moon River" for flute, string trio and piano. Scoring is flexible: the solo flute may be replaced by violin or another treble instrument (e.g. oboe) as desired.

Available for purchase from SMP Press: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/moon-river-arr-for-chamber-ensemble/20800297

Premiered in January 2016 at Cornelia Street Cafe in New York by Hannah Criswell (flute), Ryan Bridge (piano), Yoonjung Hwang (violin), Jay Julio (viola) and Camille Dietrich (cello).

Moon River (arr. for chamber ensemble)

A Bridge for Three (2017). A 20-minute opera for three singers (tenor, baritone, mezzo-soprano) and chamber orchestra or piano. Libretto by Megan Cohen.

Composite recording featuring performances with piano accompaniment from both Washington and Hartford casts.

Washington cast (WNO) (Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative workshop performance, October 2017): Alexander McKissick (tenor), Michael Hewitt (baritone) & Eliza Bonet (mezzo-soprano), accompanied by Paul Jarski (piano) and conducted by George Manahan. Stage direction by Andrea Dorf McGray.

Hartford cast (HOT) (Hartford Opera Theater’s 9th annual New In November Festival at Christ Church Cathedral, Nov. 2018): Spencer Hamlin (tenor), Dana Kephart (mezzo-soprano) & Thomas Laskowski (baritone), accompanied by Sarah Puckett (piano) and conducted by Daniel D'Addio. Stage direction by Michelle Hendrick.

1) Ensemble: Opening (WNO) (0:07)
2) Some Devil Dares (HOT) (3:09)
3) Better Without Me (WNO) (5:35)
4) To Whom it May Concern (WNO) (8:45)
5-6) Ensemble: Falling/Time stops; they see each other/My quiet (WNO) (11:13)
7) I want more time (WNO) (13:47)
8) Time to let go (WNO) (14:31)
9) This paper thing (HOT) (15:00)
9.5) Control the fall (WNO) (15:52)
10) Do you hear them? (WNO) (17:36)
10.5) How did I live? (HOT) (18:20)

Commissioned by the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and first produced at the Kennedy Center during the 2017/2018 season. World premiere in Jan. 2018 at the WNO’s American Opera Initiative Festival by singers from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program (Alexander McKissick, Michael Hewitt & Eliza Bonet), accompanied by Musicians of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, conducted by George Manahan. Stage direction by Andrea Dorf McGray.

Full instrumentation (chamber orchestra):  Flute/Picc., Oboe/C.A., Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion (1 player: Timp., Tam-tam, Susp. cymb., Bass dr. (kick), Xylo., Glock., Vibr., Tub. bell in F), Piano, Violin, Viola, cello, Contrabass

A Bridge for Three (piano version) (live composite, two casts)

Bridge Suite (2018-19)

An orchestral suite featuring music from chamber opera, A Bridge for Three (2017).

Premiered in May 2019 by the University of Connecticut Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Paul McShee at von der Mehden Recital Hall in Storrs, Connecticut.

Based on music from A Bridge for Three, originally commissioned by the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and first produced at the Kennedy Center during the 2017/2018 season. Libretto by Megan Cohen.

Bridge Suite (highlights)

"Some Devil Dares," an aria from the chamber opera A Bridge for Three, with music by Nathan Fletcher and libretto by Megan Cohen.

Performed by Spencer Hamlin (tenor) and Sarah Puckett (piano), conducted by Daniel D'Addio, at Hartford Opera Theater's 2018 New In November Festival.

A Bridge for Three was originally commissioned by the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was first produced at the Kennedy Center during the 2017/2018 season.

To hear more, check out these recordings:

A Bridge for Three (complete opera with piano accompaniment): https://soundcloud.com/nathanfletchermusic/a-bridge-for-three-pv

Highlights from Bridge Suite (for orchestra): https://soundcloud.com/nathanfletchermusic/bridge-suite-highlights

Some Devil Dares (feat. Spencer Hamlin, tenor & Sarah Puckett, piano)

Nathan Fletcher’s music has been described as "melodious, neo-Romantic” (Anne Midgette, The Washington Post), “haunting... [and] genuinely moving…” (Katie Stanton, The Oxford Student). In 2017, Washington National Opera commissioned Nathan to compose an original chamber opera, A Bridge for Three, in collaboration with librettist Megan Cohen. Bridge premiered at the Kennedy Center and was subsequently produced by Hartford Opera Theater (2018) and at Texas Christian University (2019).

Nathan composed the music for two short opera films written and directed by Adam Taylor – Someone Like Me (L'opera di Facebook) and Rumspringawakening – which were both included in Opera Philadelphia’s inaugural film screening series at Festival O22, having been selected from more than 800 submissions. Someone Like Me has been described as a “must-see” (Jenna Simeonov, Schmopera) and “charming, dirty, irreverent, and a ton of fun” (Peter Szep, co-founder, New York Opera Alliance). Among many other film festival selections and accolades, The Facebook Opera took home the Audience Favorite and Judges’ Award prizes at the July 2018 Iron Mule Festival in Brooklyn, won Best Musical at the 2018 Orlando Film Festival, and received a Telly Award in 2018. Rumspringawakening won the Audience Favourite and Gold Medal prizes at the Autumn 2019 London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Fest, as well as a Silver Medal in the August 2019 Global Music Awards.

For his orchestral song cycle on poems by Edna Saint Vincent Millay (premiered in 2017 by soprano Maria Eleni Zollo and the Mannes Orchestra), Nathan received an Honorable Mention in the 2017 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, having been a finalist in 2015 and 2016. Nathan is a member of ASCAP.

Other places where Nathan’s compositions have been performed include Opera America’s National Opera Center in New York, The Bushnell in Hartford, the Pilch Studio Theatre (Oxford, U.K.), the New York Festival of Song’s 2016 NYFOS Next Festival, the Downtown Brooklyn Chamber Music Festival, the University of Connecticut, the 2015 ACDA National Conference in Salt Lake City, and the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn.

Choral singing has been a formative influence on Nathan’s musical life, and he maintains an active career as an ensemble singer. Currently a tenor in the Schola Cantorum at the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer in New York, he sang as a treble from 2002 to 2006 at Saint Thomas Church, graduating from its Choir School in 2007. He returned to Saint Thomas from 2017 to 2019 as a Gentleman of the Choir. He has sung as a regular chorister or frequent substitute at numerous houses of worship around New York and Connecticut including Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist, and Temple Emanu-El. He has also appeared with early music group Ensemble Origo and new music group S.E.M. Ensemble. In 2018, Nathan joined a chorus of monks in an extravagant performance with pop superstar Madonna at the Met Gala. Nathan is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, having been a finalist in its 2014 Brock Student Composition Competition.

Nathan received his B.M. summa cum laude from UConn in 2015, studying with Kenneth Fuchs, and his M.M. from the Mannes School of Music in 2017, studying with Lowell Liebermann. He is an adjunct lecturer at the City University of New York (Baruch College), where he teaches courses in music theory and music appreciation, and directs the Baruch Chorus.

Nathan Fletcher

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