Composer Blogs@Sequenza21.com

Meira Warshauer was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and graduated from Harvard University (magna cum laude), New England Conservatory of Music (with honors), and the University of South Carolina. She studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. Her works have been performed and recorded to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, South America, and Asia. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Warshauer was awarded the Artist Fellowship in Music by the South Carolina Arts Commission in 1994, and in 2000, received the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.

Warshauer has received commissions from the Dayton (Ohio) Philharmonic, the South Carolina Philharmonic (three orchestra works), the Zamir Chorale of Boston with the Rottenberg Chorale (New York City), Zemer Chai (Washington, DC), Gratz College (Philadelphia), Kol Dodi (New Jersey); the Cantors Assembly, clarinetist Richard Nunemaker, violinist Daniel Heifetz, and flutist Paula Robison. Her CDs include the soundtrack to the documentary Land of Promise: The Jews of South Carolina and Spirals of Light, chamber music and poetry (by Ani Tuzman) on themes of enlightenment, on the Kol Meira label, and Revelation for orchestra, included on Robert Black Conducts (MMC). YES! for clarinet and orchestra, written for and recorded by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic, is scheduled for release by MMC in 2004.

Warshauer is on the faculty of Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina, where she teaches an innovative cross-cultural, multidisciplinary course on the experience of music as a source of healing. Warshauer has devoted much of her work to Jewish themes. In spring 2002, Kol Israel National Radio broadcast an hour-long program to her music. For more information about Meira Warshauer, visit her website at Meira Warshauer.

Thursday, February 02, 2006
Thursday - Day D - the concert

Brochure for the concert
Timi, Meira, Michael, Jennifer, Stephanie, Kirk
Jennifer and Stephanie


That is me, Timi, now. I am writing my first impressions after the concert. It was simply AMAZING! Standing ovations and both music and musicians were more than worth of it. Listening to Ahavah you could like taste different aspects of love between G-d and people. The first part was like looking at the picture of "sand, which is on the seashore" bathed by large sea waves of love. The second part - Hishamru - captured your concetration to watch the path of His will and the last one was like expression of eternal safety coming from passing the covenant of love from generation to generation. Jennifer Hines was an excellent mezzosoprano and she devoted herself into her part, she sang in spite of having cold, she probably got influenza, so she sang in pain. Unfortunatelly, Stephanie - soprano in Shacharit had the simmilar troubles. But she sang like she had no ones. Shacherit was a real great experience for the audience, too. It is beautifully and well-balanced orchestrated, and exceedingly creative composition. Meira was able to use orchestral instruments in innovative way(e.g. percussions, violins). Both Michael Hendrick and Stephanie Gregory deserved to be applauded. The same is about Kirk Trevor who as a conductor proved again his mastership like many times before. As Meira said: "The orchestra was amazing and kept the energy of music until the end". The same was true about the choir. My friend Marta, a musician and composer, said that this concert was one of the best she has ever heard. She brought her students and colleagues from the Breakthrough Creative Studio. Young people were so fascinated by music that they stopped Meira during the break to tell her how they liked it. After the concert they asked her some questions. I took a picture of them and Meira for you. Many people from the audience stopped me praising the concert and they liked the idea to have such a continuity have started by the Oratorio Terezin. I received e-mails that people listened to the life broadcast also through the internet. My friend Linda Batty (USA) sent me her reaction: "Timi,that was amazing!We got to hear the concert—live! Modern technolog yis just amazing! I was envisioning you sitting on the front row,listening to the orchestra, soloists and chorus. I suppose that Meirawas sitting in the audience next to you. (My favorite part was the cello solo—beautiful.) Thank you for including us!"So you can taste how much blessing and encouragement came from the music. Though the morning seemed to be drammatic when Stephanie and Jennifer felt so badly, they became real heroines. All the musicians, singers, Kirk and Meira have done a very big job, they worked very hard on the recording. Jennifer is leaving tomorrow and there are couple of days before the others to finish the recording. I have some pictures for you. There is the Pyramid - the Slovak Radio building, some of them are from the concert, then standing ovation and some of them are after the concert.