Grammy Nomination

Tarik O'Regan CD receives Grammy nomination

Yale Alumnus Craig Hella Johnson conducts

Tarik O'Regan's Threshold of Night with Conspirare/Craig Hella Johnson was nominated for Grammy awards in the categories of Best Classical Album and Best Choral Album. Among the works on the album is The Ecstasies Above, the first piece commissioned by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music from the Robert Baker Commissioning Fund for Sacred Music. Written for Yale Schola Cantorum, it was first performed by Schola under the direction of Simon Carrington on March 4, 2007. The piece was committed to disc by a major record label, Harmonia Mundi, with Conspirare conducted by Yale School of Music alumnus Craig Hella-Johnson.  Current ISM student Paul Max Tipton (voice, MM expected 2010) is a member of Conspirare and of the octet singing in The Ecstasies Above.

O’Regan received the commission after spending a year at the ISM and, in particular, working with Simon Carrington and the Schola Cantorum.  “For me,” he says, “Simon's rehearsals formed some of the finest 'compositions lessons' I've ever experienced! The piece itself was written very much with those singers in mind and reflects the skills of particular soloists as well as the sound of the group as a whole: the richness of tone coupled with a clarity of line. The Ecstasies Above has had over thirty performances since its premiere and each time, no matter the differences in interpretation, a small part of the varied and fantastic work of the ISM, so much embedded into this piece, is furthered into the wider world.”

The Ecstasies Above takes for its title a phrase found in the lyric poem Israfel by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) which was first published in 1831 in The Southern Messenger. Through his creative description of the angel Israfel and the heavens, Poe creates a virtuous image of the supernatural. Poe compares this heavenly vision to the harsh reality of human existence.

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