ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – North Star Music’s inaugural collection, “Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs,” promises to deliver a wide range of the newest composers and “many of today’s most important living voices of American art song.”
Winthrop University’s Leonard Mark Lewis is one of those important artists.
Lewis, a professor of music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, will have two compositions included in the collections: “Warm Summer Sun” and “It’s All I Have to Bring Today.” ”Warm Summer Sun” sets brief text by Mark Twain, while “It’s All I Have to Bring Today” sets an Emily Dickinson poem.
Both are written for the Mezzo-Soprano voice – specifically for fellow music faculty member and vocalist Kristen Wunderlich. It’s not uncommon for Lewis to create pieces for his colleagues.
“I have the good fortune of working with wonderful colleagues in the Department of Music who are some of the most gifted musicians in the region and nation,” Lewis said. “I have collaborated on some level with most of our performance and conducting faculty. Many of my works have been recorded and/or performed regionally and nationally by these amazing colleagues, and I am honored to be considered among their ranks.”
More recently, Lewis had the chance to perform one of his works at the International Trombone Festival with Justin Isenhour, a faculty member who teaches trombone.
“I will just say again how fortunate I am to have such stellar colleagues,” Lewis said.
About Leonard Mark Lewis
Lewis is a composer, conductor and pianist specializing in new music. He has received awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (Morton Gould Young Composter Award), B.M.I., Columbia University (Bearns Prize), Voices of Change (Russell Horn Young Composer Award), Frank Tichelli and MACRO.
In addition to his catalog of solo works, compositions by Lewis have been commissioned and performed by an array of ensembles including the North/South Consonance, Truman State Orchestra, AURA (University of Houston), Symposium for New Band Music, University of Texas Composer’s Orchestra, New Music Camerata (East Carolina University), NACUSA, Concordia Trio, Charlotte Civic Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, Hyperion Ensemble and numerous wind ensembles.
Lewis earned a D.M.A. at the University of Texas-Austin and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in music at the University of Houston.
For more information, contact Nicole Chisari, communications coordinator, at 803/323-2236 or chisarin@winthrop.edu.
