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Paul Prestopino
Paul
Prestopino has been playing music almost all his life--there exists
a home recording of him at age 3, sitting at the piano and singing "What
Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor" while playing an honest-to-goodness
minor chord as accompaniment. He got a harmonica at age 4, a guitar
at age 9, a banjo at 11; and a mandolin, Dobro, recorder, tenor banjo,
electric bass, electric lap steel, etc., have been added as they became
needed. Originally headed in the direction of Physics, or the accompanying
technology, he suddenly found himself snatched from his job at the University
of Wisconsin's High Energy Physics Lab by an offer from the Chad Mitchell
Trio. This was around 1961, and, seven years later, when the group
disbanded, he fell into the recording business; the logical confluence
of his technical and musical interests. Today he is the technical
third of the three-man team aboard the award-winning Record Plant Remote
truck, a lot of which he designed and built. He continues to play
music , both professionally and avocationally, and particularly enjoys
playing for Contra and English Country dances. He has been a member
of the dance band Hold The Mustard since before it even had a name,
and has performed and recorded with numerous folk and pop artists.
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Robert De Cormier
music director
Robert De Cormier acted as music director of the New York Choral
Society for seventeen years and under his leadership the group became
renowned for its high standard of excellence in choral singing and
unique variety of programming. As Music Director Emeritus he guest
conducted a performance of the Verdi Requiem in 1990, the Berlioz
Requiem at St. Paul's Cathedral, New York City in 1992 and the
premiere of a commissioned work, the Missa lona in 1993 at St.
Bartholomew's in New York City. During the 1995-96 season he conducted
several performances of the operas, Brundibar and The Emperor
of Atlantis in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and at Merkin
Concert Hall in New York. Recently he conducted the Vermont Symphony
Orchestra and Chorus in performances of the Mozart C Minor Mass, Samuel
Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and PDQ Bach's Bluegrass
Cantata. In March of 2000 he will conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic
and chorus in Arthur Honegger's King David.
A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. De Cormier's other
conducting engagements have taken him from Broadway and opera to the
Berkshire Choral Institute, the Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in
Israel and numerous concert tours throughout the United States and
Canada with his own professional group, the Robert De Cormier Singers.
He spent many years as conductor and arranger for Harry Belafonte and
has been music director for the popular folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary
for the past twenty years. In 1993 he helped found the Vermont Symphony
Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus and as their director he both
prepares and conducts performances with the symphony.
He has written several works ranging from choral to ballet to
Broadway scores. His cantata, The Jolly Beggars, based on the
poetry of Robert Burns, premiered in New York to critical acclaim. His
ballet score, Rainbow Round My Shoulder, is in the active
repertoire of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. His choral works, Legacy,
Four Sonnets to Orpheus, Shout For Joy and Under A Greenwood Tree
were premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New York Choral Society. Spiritual
Suite, commissioned by the West Village Chorale premiered in New
York in 1991 Mr. De Cormier has also arranged extensively, from
African-American spirituals to American and international folk songs.
Recordings include three Christmas albums on the Arabesque label with
the De Cormier Singers, the Kodaly Missa Brevis and Vaughan
Williams' Mass in G Minor on Vox Turnabout with the New York
Choral Society, Songs of Liberty for Book-of-theMonth Club with
the Choral Society and the De Cormier Singers, as well as Carmina
Burana for Newport Classics, Paul Alan Levi's Mark Twain Suite and
De Cormier's Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus for
Centaur and an album of Christmas music with Jessye Norman for Philips.
A recording of John Dowland's music, Awake, Sweet Love with
Julianne Baird and the DeCormier Singers was released by Arabesque in
1992 and Noel We Sing with the Choral Society was a Musical
Heritage release in 1994. Recent Arabesque releases include Oh, You
Beautiful Doll, early twentieth century popular American songs, Children,
Go Where I Send Thee, international Christmas songs, two operas from
the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia; Brundibar, a
children's opera by Hans Krasa and The Emperor of Atlantis, composed
by Viktor Ullmann.. The Jolly Beggars, De Cormier's settings of
Robert Burns poetry was released by Arabesque in May, 1998.
Mr. De Cormier's television credits include a three part series of
Choral Folk Songs for the BBC and an Emmy award winning special with
Harry Belafonte. More recently for Thames TV he conducted Christmastide
with Jessye Norman and for PBS A Holiday Concert, Peter, Paul and
Mommy Too, and Lifelines all with Peter, Paul and Mary. Also
for PBS Mr. De Cormier was the choral director for a combined concert,
television special and recording starring Jessye Norman and Kathleen
Battle, conducted by James Levine, as well as Christmas at Carnegie with
Kathleen Battle and Frederica Von Stade, conducted by Andre Previn.
Mr. De Cormier has served on the New York State Council on the Arts and
been a member of the Choral Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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