Bay Area Composers IV: David B. Doty

David B. Doty's Steel Suite, played on harpsichord by Jonathan Salzedo of the Albany Consort. Click the button labeled Recordings. The recordings are intended as demos; the composer tells me he'd love it if someone would learn and perform or record the work.

Bay Area Composers III: Clark Suprynowicz

Composer Clark Suprynowicz's videos are hosted on his personal web site, so the videos can't be embedded here. But you should definitely check out a few clips of his opera Chrysalis, which Berkeley Opera performed a few years ago:

• Buffy Baggott and Marnie Breckenridge, Scene 2
• Buffy Baggot and the chorus, Scene 4
• John Minagro, Marnie Breckenridge, and the chorus, Scene 12

I missed this and I am so sorry! Happily, Suprynowicz has a number of major works in development, with hoped-for premieres over the next two years:

• Caliban Dreams, an opera with libretto by Amanda Moody. The composer and librettist are in discussions with Berkeley Opera and the 6th St. Playhouse in Santa Rosa for a 2011 premiere. Caliban Dreams will feature tenor John Duykers.
• The Machine, an opera with libretto by Mark Streshinsky, planned as a January, 2011 premiere at The Crucible in Oakland, and featuring bass Kenneth Kellog, whom you may have seen at San Francisco Opera in the last couple of years.
• A musical in development with playwright Tanya Barfield, about the black revolutionary movement of the 1960s.

Watch his web site for more information on those works!

Bay Area Composers II: Pamela Z

Excerpts from Pamela Z's The Pendulum:


Pamela Z's web site; Pamela Z's YouTube channel.

Bay Area Composers I: Michael Kaulkin

Michael Kaulkin's "American Standard," for clarinet and piano, performed by clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt and pianist Julie Nishimura at the University of Delaware on May 10, 2009.

Michael Kaulkin's web site. Check out, especially, the excerpts from his recent string quartet "City Walks."