BOOTHMAN Bio
Bass-Baritone DONALD BOOTHMAN's varied career as singer, teacher and musical commentator includes performances in opera, oratorio and concert in forty-six of the United States and in thirty-eight countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. Through Voice of America broadcasts he has also reached audiences in eastern Europe, singing in Russian, Czech and Hebrew.
Earliest vocal study with William Albert Hughes concentrated on Oratorio and Welsh Song. Following formal education at Princeton University and Oberlin College, and with a degree in Music and in English Literature, Mr. Boothman joined the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants as Soloist and Announcer. At this time he began private study with the great American baritone, Todd Duncan. Following his enlistment, he became leading baritone with the Washington Civic Opera and a commentator on Washington good-music radio. He also joined the faculty of The American University and continued extensive private teaching. For many years he was the Cantorial Soloist at the Washington Hebrew Congregation.
A thorough background in foreign languages and a taste for new styles has made Mr. Boothman a favorite collaborator of many composers in the first performances of their works. Always the musical and textual values are held in equal measure in achieving a living and persuasive experience.
Between concert tours and master classes, Mr. Boothman now returns to his home and llama farm in rural central Massachusetts.
ANUP KUMAR BISWAS-cello
Anup Kumar Biswas was born in West Bengal, India. He has chosen to make his home in the musical capital, London since 1974. He has given concerts throughout Great Britain, including The Royal Albert Hall, St James’ Palace, Lambeth Palace, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, House of Commons, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Riverside Studios and Grays Inn (where, in addition to a Vivaldi concerto, he played an Indian raga at the personal request of HRH the Prince of Wales). He has appeared as a soloist playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to a capacity audience.
In celebration of the 300th Anniversary of J. S. Bach in 1985, Anup Biswas undertook a tour of cathedrals, churches, and the Purcell Room, London playing the complete cycle of Bach solo cello suites. The tour also included India and Sri Lanka, sponsored, by the, Goethe Institute. He has successfully repeated a similar tour entitled ‘BACH 2000’ in the Autumn and Spring 2000/1 season.
In 1994 Biswas established a unique music school for poor and deprived children in Calcutta. The Mathieson Music School is named after Biswas’ guru, the late Rev. Theodore Mathieson who ran an orphanage in Calcutta for fifty years. Biswas arranged, as part of a cultural exchange programme, a major tour for the Mathieson Music School in the UK and India in 1996 and 2000.
The Guadagnini Piano Trio, which Biswas formed, toured Asia under the auspices of the Goethe Institute. The Hinckley Music Club and Anup Kumar Biswas commissioned a piano trio from Naresh Sohal in celebration of his 50th birthday, with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain and East Midlands which toured the UK in March/April 1990. The trio performed in Asia under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, New Delhi.
The Theatre Taliesin Wales commissioned Biswas to compose music for their production of Tristan and Essylt in March 1986. The two and a half hour work was his first composition and was highly praised by critics in both the local and national press. It was recorded for Kaleidoscope by BBC Radio 4 the World Service, Harlech Television and BBC Television, and has already been broadcast twice by BBC Radio Wales. He also arranged the music for Hedda in India, a production of Hedda Gabler featuring Jenny Seagrove.
He was commissioned on two occasions to write music for the Royal Gala Performance of the Commonwealth Institute in 1987 and during the Centenary year in May 1993 in which he also performed in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and the HRH Duke of Edinburgh. In February 1999 he performed again for Her Majesty the Queen and HRH Duke of Edinburgh at the Commonwealth Institute, London. He has performed his own compositions in Germany, Finland, Norway, India and the UK . In 1992 Biswas appeared at the Royal Albert Hall performing his own composition ‘The Celebration’ from the ballet “Ten Guineas Under the Banyan Tree.” He was commissioned to compose, perform and direct for a music theatre production of ‘At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers’ by Salman Rushdie, which was on tour in the UK in the Autumn of 1999. Recently he had a further commission to compose and perform music for a documentary ‘The Twins,’ both these compositions have been praised highly by the critics.
At the age of six hewent to an orphanage mission school in Calcutta where his musical talent was recognised and encouraged by the Rev. Theodore Mathieson. He started playing the cello at the age of ten, and at sixteen made his concerto debut and recorded for All‑India Radio and Television.
It was Canon Eric James, with the help of many Trusts in the UK which enabled Anup Biswas to come to London in 1974 to study with Thomas Igloi at the, Royal Academy of Music and Amaryllis Fleming at the Royal College of Music; he also studied with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and with Jacqueline du Pre in London. Anup Biswas has won many awards, including the Suggia Gift for Cello in three successive years, and a Countess of Munster Scholarship. He attended master classes with Lynn Harrell in London, with Ebarhart Finke in Berlin and with Pierre Fournier in Geneva and with Einor Holms in Calcutta.
Biswas, regularly broadcasts on BBC TV, ITV, Channel 4 and various BBC Radio stations, performs in London at the South Bank Centre, tours, all over the UK and in Europe. Every year he returns to India to give Master classes for the children at the Mathieson Music School. He has performed in all the major cities in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan under the auspices of many organisations including the British Council and the Max Mueller Bhavan and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
Biswas'svarious festival appearances have included concerts at the Cleveland, Teesdale, Belfast, Greenwich and Hereford Three Choirs Festivals, and he, has taken Masterclasses at Dartington International Summer School.
In 1989 he formed the Dante Alighieri Orchestra, of which he is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor.
In 1993 Anup Biswas toured Ireland performing Bach cello suites and also toured Poland where he recorded for Polish Radio and TV. M Biswas was invited to perform at a Gala concert at the House of Commons, London in December 1993.
He has toured the USA, including performances at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York and Smithsonian Art Gallery, Washington DC. Biswas has recently returned from an extensive tour of the South Africa, Romania, Germany and Spain, performing with well known orchestras as soloist and as a recitalist.
He has also appeared with major orchestras playing the magnificeient Double Concerto by Brahms around various parts of the world.
Anup Biswas is the only solo cellist in the world who is equally at home performing both European and Indian classical music. He studied Indian Classical both Hindusthani system (North Indian classical) and the Carnatic system (South Indian classical) music from Samir Dutta, Ustad Imrat Khan and various other teachers in India. He has collaborated with many reputed classical Indian musicians and dancers.
REVIEWS
In the prestigious setting of the packed Margravine Opera House, Bayreuth, a delightful theatrical visual experience was owed to the cellist Biswas ... he lived the music in his face and handled the cello as if in ecstasies of love.
Frankenpost, Germany
His mellow tone, technical control, and relish of the importance of punctuation, mark him out as an exceptionally gifted player for his years. Everything was there beauty of tone, natural vibrant intensity and above all, a complete affinity with the gorgeous music.
Music and Musicians
A player of definite and individual talent. He has no technical shortcomings ... a cellist of great sensitivity and feeling
The Strad
Throughout he produced a quality of sound which was warm and full.
Cork Examiner, Ireland
Masterly performance…superb playing by Mr Biswas.
The Times London
A born communicator…here is an Artist whose physical being, like that of Rostropovitch or the young Jacqueline du Pre seems intertwined with music and instrument..
The Guardian London
..superb singing quality.. a master of dynamics, his energy, vitality, fine delicacy of bowing and a fierce attack, and more fibrous tone suitable to Brahms produced a magnificent account of the Opus 99 sonata.
The Telegraph London.
ANUP & COMPANY — MUSIC FOR CELLO, PIANO AND VOICE
Repertoire includes:-
*A Boatman’s Song - Tagore/Biswas
*Anando Lokay - Tagore/Biswas
Arise, ye subterranean winds - Weldon (no cello)
*Ar Lan y Môr - Welsh/Noble
*Aye Waukin O! - Scottish/Noble
Bedd fy ‘Nghariad - Welsh/Noble
*Begin the Beguine - Porter
*Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn - Welsh/Noble
*Dancing in the Dark - Dietz & Schwartz
Finlaggan Voices - Clifton J. Noble, Jr.
The Standing Stone
Islay Rill
Distant Dreamers
*Evening Star Aria (Tannhäuser) - Wagner
*“Getrost! Erbarmen kamm von Gott” - Bach
*I’ll See You Again - Coward
Incantation - Biswas
*“Jesus ist ein guter Hirt - Bach
*Kerry Dancing - Molloy/Noble
“Komm, süsses Kreuz - Bach
*Lost in the Stars - Weill
Nant y Mynydd - Welsh (no cello)
*Night and Day - Porter
*None but the Lonely Heart - Tchaikovsky
Purano sei dineer khota - Tagore/Biswas
*Raga Hamsadhani
Raga Malkuns
*She Moved Through the Faire - Irish/Roger Ames
Si tra I ceppi (Berenice) - Handel
*Softly as in a Morning Sunrise - Romberg
*Some Enchanted Evening - Hammerstein
*The Song is You - Kern
*The Song That I Came to Sing - Clifton J. Noble, Jr.
Vishnu Shloka - Biswas
*The Way You Look Tonight - Kern
*When Thou Commandest Me to Sing - Noble
*Where’er You Walk - Handel
Y Deryn Pur - Welsh/Noble
