Eric Whitacre - Cloudburst

Wow. One of the greatest choral works I've ever heard... ever.

-Eric Whitacre-

Click the mp3 player on the left, and select "Cloudburst." You can hear it there. It's definitely one of my favorite contemporary works out there. He is only 37 years old, and studied with Corigliano! I really suggest that you all take a listen to some of his works. You may be very surprised by what you hear...

Fantastic piece.

We just performed Sleep here with a full wind symphony and choir. It was the highlight of the evening.

My favorite of his pieces has to be a tie between October and Ghost Train.

I had the opportunity to perform this piece with the Pacific Chorale a few years ago, and I have to say that it's one of my favourite new choral works. I also got a chance to perform his Sleep with the LA Chamber Singers last year - also incredibly beautiful. Whitacre is a great composer.

EDIT: I just noticed that PianoBeast's link also contains an excerpt from Sleep - the last 90 seconds of it or so - enough for a nice taste.

I visited the Amazon page for his Cloudburst album. I must say that Lux Aurumque almost brought me to tears.

That's another nice one.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when both the third and the fourth are used in the middle of major chords, it sounds so full.

He did, so I thought I'd share it with everyone else. It's truly an amazing piece of work.

I downloaded the album, and I love it! Amazing harmonies, and the choir is spectacular.

Some fun facts about Eric Whitacre:

-Played in rock bands throughout high school.

-Entered college not knowing how to read music, and had not ever sung in a choir till he got to college.

-Struggled with reading music even throughout grad school at Juilliard, where his music theory T.A. became his fiancee (which, according to him, was more than a little helpful for passing the course)

-Currently has a commission from the London Philharmonic and Symphony Chorus.

Also, he's the nicest guy in the world. He came to USC to conduct three new works that he wrote. Our choir recorded the pieces for a demo CD that will be sent out with the new works. I got a chance to introduce myself to him. He's so friendly and warm, and it's great to see that someone who has achieved as much fame as he has not allowed it to go to his head. He tried to recruit me for his opera/musical/whatsit, "Paradise Lost," which premieres in Los Angeles this summer, but I had to turn it down because I won't be sticking around in this city for the summer.

Michael, that's awesome! I knew a few of those fun facts! :o It's pretty amazing how much raw talent he must've had in order to get accepted into Julliard, even without being able to read music.

I've only heard a couple selections from Paradise Lost, and it's really nice. That's quite an honor to have been almost a part of it. :P

I've been waiting for someone to bring up this name, and thanks to you Evan, it's finally up. Yes, i gota say, wow, great choral piece. we performed this in our band and it was quite of a experince. we had to sing and snap our fingers and things. very very cool piece.

Thanks for the info, Michael. Didn't know any of that about him, except the part about him being a really nice guy...when he came to hear Pacific Chorale while we were preparing "Cloudburst," I was impressed with how sweet and personable he was.

He's also kinda cute. :P At least I think so.

Something else I noticed about him: when he's listening to something he's written and the group gets it just right, he gets this impish grin on his face and he nods quickly and looks generally delighted. It's adorable.