Beautiful choral music with orchestra, some of it tinged with jazz, some of it in the traditional, modern style.

17 MP3 Songs in this album (74:53) !
Related styles: CLASSICAL: Choral Music, JAZZ: Vocalese

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Details:
After Bill Cunliffe won several Down Beat Awards as an Eastman student, he taught at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. His first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Woody Shaw and James Moody.

Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. A number of his jazz instructional books are published by Alfred Publications, his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music and Otter Music; his choral music is self-published on his website www.billcunliffe.com and by Santa Barbara Music Press. Bill was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed "Piano Jazz" radio show in June '98.
Cunliffe has released a dozen CDs as a leader. His latest, which spent a month in the #2 position in the JazzWeek radio polls is Imaginacion, on Torii Records.

As a composer/arranger, Bill has been nominated both for two Emmys and two Grammys, and has composed extensively for big band, chamber groups, choir and orchestra. In addition, his performances of Gershwinâs Rhapsody in Blue, that feature jazz trio improvisation have won public acclaim. According to the Wellington (NZ) Times, Billâs recent concert at the Wellington Jazz Festival was "Best jazz piano since Oscar Peterson." The BBC Review recently said that "Bill Cunliffe is one of the great players of the day." The Atlanta Jazz Journal gave his album A Rare Connection five stars.

He teaches at the Vail Jazz Institute, and the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and is Associate Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton. He is also composer-in-residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA.

James Walker has been Director of Music and Organist-Choirmaster at All Saints Church since 1991. He conducts the church's two adult choirs, co-directs the youth choir and administers and produces an ambitious, varied program of church literature, ranging from gospel, jazz and world music to traditional full-scale orchestral/choral works.

The choirs have performed for the American Choral Directors Association and the American Guild of Organists â locally, and for regional and national conferences. Both Canterbury and Coventry choirs have performed several times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

A nationally-recognized concert organist, Mr. Walker has entertained and enlightened audiences throughout the United States, and his solo recitals have been broadcast on National Public Radio. Winner of the prestigious Mader National Organ-Playing Competition in 1986, he has been a featured performer at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Los Angeles Bach Festival, and several Regional and National Conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He was College Organist and Instructor of Organ at Occidental College in Los Angeles for nearly a quarter century. He resigned from academia in 2004 to allow space for practice and composition.

Walker holds both undergraduate and Master of Music degrees from the University of Southern California School of Music. His organ instructors have been Marcia Hannah Farmer, Ladd Thomas and Cherry Rhodes, and he has studied conducting with Thomas Somerville, Leo Nestor and James Vail. He was chosen as a Masterclass Conductor for the 1998 Oregon Bach Festival, where he studied with the internationally acclaimed Helmuth Rilling.

Canterbury Choir and Coventry Choir are the two adult choirs, totaling more than 100 singers, at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena. The choirs have been under the direction of James Walker since 1991; Elizabeth Lenti is the Associate Organist-Choirmaster. The choirsâ repertoires span the spectrum of choral music, from gospel, jazz and world music to traditional full-scale orchestral/choral works.
The choirs have performed for the American Choral Directors Association, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and the American Guild of Organists â locally, and for regional and national conferences. The choirs combined in 2005 and 2006 to perform several concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.