ARKADY LEYTUSH

• Hampson Sisler: Milestones - Reunion

FEATURE ARTICLE IN THE ORGAN - SPRING 2015 [ISSUE NO. 371] Born in New York in 1932, American composer Hampson Sisler possesses an exceptional talent, evident early in life when at age five he was already composing and playing piano and reed organ by ear. His mother, an amateur musician, gave him his first music lessons. Later, he received a more advanced musical education and by age eleven, having chosen the organ as his main instrument, was playing professionally in churches. His prodigious performances soon drew the attention of many well-known musicians, including David McK. Williams, organist and choirmaster of New York´s St. Bartholomew’s Church. Williams became his first major mentor, followed notably by Norman Coke-Jephcott of New York´s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where Sisler gave his first public organ recital after becoming the youngest ever Fellow of the American Guild of Organists at age seventeen. He also achieved the Trinity College of London´s Licentiate Teacher of Organ and Related Subjects Diploma with honors. Currently active as both an organist and composer with more than  one- hundred published works to his credit, Sisler has held many prestigious Music Director positions in churches throughout the greater New York area, including Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn (at one time frequented by Abraham Lincoln), Central Presbyterian Church in New York City (a post formerly held by Charles Ives) and currently St. James Episcopal Church of Elmshurst, Queens, New York. His music had been performed in both North and South America, Hawaii, Europe and Russia.

One of Russia’s most gifted conductors, Arkady Leytush has directed orchestras in the United States, Europe and Russia to great acclaim. Critics have described him as a conductor in the “grand Russian tradition” and his interpretations have made him an audience favorite. Leytush’s artistry is known throughout the former Soviet Union, but it was not until 1994 that he gained recognition in the United States when on a week’s notice, he made a stunning debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, replacing Yuri Temirkanov. Since 1980, Leytush has worked with numerous orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic and New World Symphony in the United States, and abroad with the Moscow Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Plovdiv Philharmonic, Kremlin Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Varna Philharmonic, Novosibirsk Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Orquestra Filarmonica de Buenos Aires and Orquestra Nacional do Porto. Leytush is currently Artistic Director of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey, conductor of the New Jersey Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Music Director of the Interfaith Committee of Remembrance and Music Director of the Nathan Rakhlin International Festival in Yalta. Arkady Leytush has made numerous transcriptions and orchestrations of music by composers such as Albéniz, J.S. Bach, Borodin, Buxtehude, Chopin, Cui, Czerny, Glazunov, Liadov, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich.
  HAMPSON SISLER (b.1932)
MILESTONES Orchestral Suite
Orchestration by Arkady Leytush

BOOK I
BIRTH SONG
Cradle Song ( Johannes Brahms)
Lullaby Baby (Sir Arthur Sullivan)
Lullaby (Benjamin Goddard)

COMING OF AGE
Chippewa Song (male puberty)
Papago Song (female puberty)
Haftara (Hebrew bar- and bat-mitzvah)

NUPTIALS
Wedding Day (Edvard Grieg)
Where’er You Walk (George Frederic Handel)
Wedding Song (Heinrich Schutz)
Westminster Chime (traditional)

BACCALAUREATE
The Violet (college song)
Amici (prep song)

BOOK II
NEW HORIZON
Morning (Edvard Grieg)
Pilgrim’s Chorus (Richard Wagner)

STEPPING UP
Sumer Is Icumen In (13th century round)
Confidence (Felix Mendelssohn)

ACCOLADES
Moment Gracioso (Carl Bohm)
Wiffenpoof Song (M. Minnigerode, G. Pomeroy and T. Galloway)

PROGENY
Grandmother’s Minuet (Edvard Grieg)
Grandfather’s Dance (Robert Schumann)

TROPHY
Inno Olimpico (S. Samaro)
Jubel’s Lyre (George Frederic Handel)
Triumphal March (Giuseppe Verdi)

BOOK III
ANNIVERSARY
Golden Wedding (Gabriel-Marie)
Anniversary Song (Ion Ivanovici)
Surprise Symphony ( Joseph Haydn)

REUNION
Forget-Me-Not (Allan Macbeth)
Gold and Silver Waltz (Franz Lehár)

BOWING OUT
The Swan (Camille Saint-Saëns)
Au Revoir (Henry Lichner)

GOLDEN AGE
Glorious Sunshine (Gustav Lange)
In Autumn (Edward MacDowell)
Evening Song (Dmitry Bortniansky)

PROMENADE FOR DEPARTED LIFE
Innsbruch (Heinrich Isaac)
Grandfather’s Clock (H. C. Work)
Crossing the Bar ( Joseph Barnby)


FIVE SHAKESPEARE SONNETS for Soprano, Baritone and Orchestra
Orchestration by Arkady Leytush
Mortality (“Time’s Legacy” – Sonnet 11)
Beauty (“Should Beauty Die?” – Sonnet 6)
Passage of Time (“Winter” – Sonnet 5)
Cruelty of the World (“Truant Muse” – Sonnet 101)
Love (“Be Thou Joined in One” – Sonnet 8)
 



MSR Classics