Music of Adolphus Hailstork on CD 'An American Port of Call' Recorded by Virginia Symphony, Released Internationally by Naxos

Virginia Symphony Announces International Recording Release on Naxos

Music by Local Composer Adolphus Hailstork Featured

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA (May 29, 2012) - The Virginia Symphony is pleased to announce the international release of a new recording featuring the music of Virginia composer Adolphus Hailstork.  The CD, titled An American Port of Call, was recorded live at the L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center on May 18, 2011.  For the live recording, the Virginia Symphony, led by JoAnn Falletta, was joined by the Virginia Symphony Chorus and baritone, Kevin Deas for performances of five works by Hailstork:  his Symphony No. 1, Three Spirituals, An American Port of Call, Fanfare on Amazing Grace and Whitman’s Journey, Part One:  Launch Out on Endless Seas.  "It is an honor for any American composer to have an entire disc released devoted to his/her music, especially by an orchestra as fine as our own Virginia Symphony Orchestra,” stated Hailstork.  “I am truly grateful to JoAnn Falletta, the musicians of VSO, and Naxos."

The recording will be distributed on the Naxos label, the world’s leading classical music recording group."

.....................  

An American Port of Call is the Virginia Symphony’s first international recording release, and the project, a co-presentation with the Virginia Arts Festival, was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.   “The Virginia Symphony is extraordinarily proud to consider Dr. Adolphus Hailstork a brilliant and beloved part of our family, and our community,” stated Falletta.  “Internationally renowned as a composer and played by musicians across the globe, Dolph has written many of his pieces for the Virginia Symphony, and it has been our privilege to premier a number of his works.  We are very happy that our first recording on the international Naxos label is a CD of his music.”

Award-winning composer Adolphus Hailstork is a vibrant communicator whose music speaks directly and subtly. His Symphony No. 1 was commissioned for festival performance and is imbued with the engaging, lyrical and vivid qualities of which he is a master. The Three Spirituals are richly affecting orchestral settings originally written for pipe organ.  Amazing Grace: Fanfare is nobly conceived and An American Port of Call, written for the Virginia Symphony, evokes the bustle inspired by Norfolk, Virginia. Whitman’s Journey is a hymn of hope for those setting out on ‘the seas of life’.

[Adolphus C. Hailstork (b. 1941) is featured at AfriClassical.com]