World Premiere of Judith Shatin's 'Jefferson: In His Own Words'

Jefferson, In His Own Words is a piece for narrator and orchestra. Based entirely on the writings of Thomas Jefferson, it gives an intimate view of Jefferson as both a public servant and private citizen. Throughout his life Jefferson maintained a daily practice of correspondence with an enormous variety of people – from a carpenter to heads of state; from his granddaughter to John Adams. He wrote on subjects as mundane as the purchase of seeds and shoes, and as telling as religious freedom and the national debt. The narrative, drawn from his letters and farm books, unfolds in four movements that each focus on different aspects of his per-sonality: “Political Passions,” “Head and Heart,” “Justice Will Not Sleep” and “The Freedom of Reason.” Ms. Shatin fashioned the narrative in collaboration with noted poet Barbara Goldberg. Jefferson was himself an accomplished musician, and the music includes references to Corelli’s La Follia and to the Broom of the Cowdenknowes, a Scottish air, both favorites of Jefferson.

American composer Judith Shatin is renowned for her sensitivity to sound, her dramatic acoustic compositions, and her innovative blending of digital and acoustic media. As a painter might select her colors and materials, Ms. Shatin combines the timbres of an almost infinite range of sound—both natural and electronic—to fashion musical structures that have been praised for their musical ingenuity and sheer exuberance. Ms. Shatin’s music is, in the words of The Washington Post, “highly inventive…hugely enjoyable and deeply involving…”

Ms. Shatin’s oeuvre ranges from acoustic to electroacoustic, multimedia and installation; from chamber and choral to orchestral compositions. The results of her timbral and structural explorations can be heard to great effect in her Spring Tides, for chamber ensemble and interactive electronics, called “… a rich evocation of the power of nature…” by The New York Times. It can also be experienced in her Elijah’s Chariot for string quartet and electronics, toured world-wide by the Kronos Quartet; or in For the Birds for amplified cello and electronics made from birdsong.

Shatin’s music is widely performed, and has been programmed at festivals such as Aspen, BAM Next Wave, Grand Teton, Havana in Springtime, West Cork and Slovenia World Music Days. It has been commissioned by groups such as the Ashlawn Opera, Barlow Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Library of Congress, the Kronos Quartet, the Dutch Hexagon Ensemble, the Peninsula Women’s Chorus and the Illinois, National and Richmond Symphonies, among many other arts organizations and institutions. Ms. Shatin has composed some of these pieces during residencies that include La Cité des Arts, Bramshaus, Mishkan Amanim, MacDowell, the Rockefeller Study Center at Bellagio, the Virginia Center for the Arts and Yaddo.

For 2010, Ms. Shatin was commissioned by four orchestras (The Charlottesville & University Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Virginia Symphony) to create a four-movement work for narrator and orchestra called Jefferson, In His Own Words, to be premiered on March 12-13 by the Illinois Symphony in Bloomington and Springfield, Illinois; on April 24-25 in Charlottesville, Virginia; and during the 2010-11 season in Richmond on November 13 -14, 2010 and in Norfolk. New works have also been commissioned by the Peninsula Women's Chorus and Scottish Voices.

Widely recorded, Ms. Shatin’s music has appeared on the Centaur, Innova, Neuma, New World and Sonora labels. Current releases include Cherry Blossom and a Wrapped Thing; after Hokusai for clarinet and electronic playback on Aucourant Records (AUREC 1001) and Ockeghem Variations for wind quintet plus piano, on the Dutch Connection CD of the Hexagon Ensemble. And her Tower of the Eight Winds will be out this spring on the Innova label in a recording by the Borup-Ernst duo. Of the premiere of the eponymous Tower the of the Eight Winds, the Washington Post said it “…stood out for its acuity and engaging vivacity…”

An advocate for her fellow composers, Shatin has served as President of American Women Composers, on the boards of the League of Composers/ISCM, the American Composers alliance and the International Alliance for Women in Music. Also in demand as a master teacher, Shatin has served as BMI-composer in residence at Vanderbilt University, and as resident composer at the Wellesley Composers Forum. Judith Shatin was educated at Douglass College (A.B. Phi Beta Kappa), The Juilliard School (M.M, Abraham Ellstein Prize) and Princeton University (Ph.D.) She is currently William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music at the University of Virginia.

Journalist, producer and author Bill Kurtis has more than 40 years of experience as an award-winning journalist. He grew up in Independence, Kansas, and studied journalism at the University of Kansas. After earning his degree, Kurtis attended law school at Washburn University.

At the start of his career, Mr. Kurtis worked for a television station in Topeka, Kansas, before moving to Chicago in 1966 to work for WBBM-TV. In 1970, he joined the staff of a CBS station in Los Angeles and soon had his first taste of national news, serving as a contributor to CBS Reports. He returned to Chicago in 1973 to become a news anchor at his old station. During this time, he won several awards for his reporting. Kurtis covered the war in Vietnam, including the fall of Saigon, and created a documentary about the city’s orphans.

In 1982, Bill Kurtis joined the national program, CBS Morning News, as a co-host. After three years, he returned to Chicago, resuming his role as anchor at WBBM-TV. In 1990, Kurtis began a new phase of his career as a host and producer of documentary television series. Establishing his own production company, Kurtis Productions, he created Investigative Reports, Cold Case Files, and other programs for the A&E Television Network. As a producer, Kurtis earned two Emmy Award nominations for Cold Case Files for Outstanding Nonfiction Series in 2004 and 2005. He also serves as host on the popular American Justice series, which looks at famous legal cases and their impact on the law.

In addition to his television work, Bill Kurtis has written two books: “Bill Kurtis on Assignment” (1983) and “The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice” (2004). He also lent his deep and distinguished voice to the 2004 news comedy “The Legend of Ron Burgundy” starring Will Farrell.

Devoted to his home state, Mr. Kurtis has invested in several businesses there and operates a ranch near the town of Sedan. A committed advocate of conservation, he serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Foundation.