An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing For Hope
Featuring Joyce DiDonato, Isabel, Leonard, Ansel Elgort, Yo-Yo Ma, Jamie Barton,
Noah Stewart, Susanna Philips, Sean Panikkar, Matthew Polenzani,
Anthony Dean Griffey, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, Sharon Stone and more.
An all-star cast of renowned singers and instrumentalists comes together on one CD to sing for hope and in the cause of supporting AIDS research: Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma, Jamie Barton, Noah Stewart, Susanna Phillips, Sean Panikkar, Matthew Polenzani, Anthony Dean Griffey, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, Isabel Leonard and many more. Actors Sharon Stone ("Casino", "Basic Instinct") and Ansel Elgort ("The Fault In Our Stars") contribute readings of poetry. All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. This CD features new songs by established and emerging American composers, many specially commissioned to create a global musical portrait of AIDS today.
Across the Sea: Joyce DiDonato
"Powerful moments include mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and pianist John Musto voicing Musto's now-iconic anthem "Litany,"
on a short poem by Langston Hughes ("Gather up, In the arms of your pity,
The sick, the depraved, the desperate, the tired, All the scum of our weary city") and
Jamie Barton's stupendous yet easy-going delivery of Eric Reda's 2008 "Atripla!" Ken Merrill
is the superb pianist for this virtuosic setting of a pharmaceutical pamphlet and
Barton's rich voice, wondrous high notes and immaculate diction detail a hilarious - a
nd at the same time horrifying - list of the drug's side effects."
Judith Malafronte, Opera News, April 2015
"There is a glittering gathering of talent here. Fortunately, this recording
never loses touch with its heart and soul, and the love that
created and shaped it is evident from start to finish.
Each song takes the listener into a dramatically different place while
remaining within the framework of AIDS, the musical and poetic e
quivalent of knitting a complex and beautiful stitch...
It reminds us of the vibrant, creative souls who have lost their lives
yet who cannot and will not be forgotten."
Greg Berg, Journal of Singing
Richard Fairman, The Financial Times
This new disc features 20 songs, many directly on the subject of Aids,
by as many composers and performers, including some illustrious names
like Joyce DiDonato, Nicole Cabell and Anthony Dean Griffey.
The music talks of sadness, but also comfort and resilience,
and the disc serves as an absorbing survey of American song today.
Atripla! Jamie Barton