Gene Scheer

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Gene Scheer (born April 28, 1958) is an American songwriter, librettist and lyricist. Brother to Samuel Scheer, an English teacher at Windsor High School and part-time musician.

Education and early career

Scheer was born in New York City. The son of two teachers, he was raised in Washington Township (Long Valley), New Jersey and attended West Morris Central High School. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, followed by a scholarship to the University of Cologne and a Rotary International Fellowship to study at the Hochschule Für Musik in Vienna. While in Europe, he worked as an actor and singer in leading roles at the Theater an der Wien, the Deutsches Theater in Munich and as director George Tabori's assistant at the Schauspielhaus in Cologne.

Operatic librettist

Mr. Scheer worked as librettist with Tobias Picker on Thérèse Raquin (based on the Émile Zola novel), commissioned by a consortium of companies including The Dallas Opera San Diego Opera, and the Opéra de Montréal, and premiering in Dallas in November 2001, starring Diana Soviero.[1] A revised version of Thérèse Raquin was performed in March 2006 at the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Scheer collaborated again with Picker on An American Tragedy (based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005, starring Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick and Jennifer Larmore.[2]

Scheer has collaborated with the composer

Auschwitz
survivor.

Most recently, Scheer worked with composer

The Santa Fe Opera in 2015 and by Opera Philadelphia
in 2016.

Scheer is credited for the libretto of the opera Intelligence[5]

Songs and song cycles

Also a composer in his own right, Scheer has written a number of songs for Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graves, and Nathan Gunn.

American Anthem, written by Scheer in 1998, was first performed by Denyce Graves for President

The War
. American Anthem's lyrics were referenced and recited by President Joe Biden in his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2021.

In 2003, Scheer was commissioned to write a choral version of his song Christmas Once More which was performed by the

Colorado Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus.

Scheer has also collaborated as a lyricist on a number of Jake Heggie song cycles. These works include: Pieces of 9/11 – Memories from Houston commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera in 2011; and A Question of Light, commissioned by the Dallas Opera and inspired by works of the Dallas Museum of Art (debuted by Nathan Gunn in Dallas, April 2011). In February 2012, the Alexander String Quartet and Joyce DiDonato premiered Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, by Heggie and Scheer, based on the life of the French sculptor Camille Claudel.

Other Scheer collaborations include the lyrics for Wynton Marsalis’s It Never Goes Away, featured in Mr. Marsalis’s 14-movement Congo Square suite.

Oratorio

With the composer

Lyndon Johnson White House: the discovery in Mississippi of the bodies of three murdered young civil rights workers and an alleged attack on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in honor of President Johnson's centennial, the work is based on diaries, news reports and historical documents concerning the events of that day.[6][7][8][9]

References

  1. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (11 December 2001). "OPERA REVIEW; Did Hubby Really Have to Go? He's Such a Nice Guy". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  2. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (5 December 2005). "OPERA REVIEW 'An American Tragedy' Dreiser's Chilling Tale of Ambition and Its Price". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  3. ^ Smith, Steve (2 May 2010). "Music Review: A Role for the Roiling Sea as Ahab Hunts His Whale". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  4. ^ Blank, Matt (6 March 2008). "Photo Journal: Jake Heggie's Last Acts Premieres at Houston Grand Opera". Playbill. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  5. ^ Houston Grand Opera "Intelligence". Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  6. ^ Wakin, Daniel J. (September 12, 2008). "Two Wars, Two Presidents, One Oratorio". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  7. ^ Oestreich, James R. (September 19, 2008). "All the Way Through Fateful Day for L.B.J." The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  8. ^ Ross, Alex (June 6, 2011). "Mix And Match: Spring for Music, at Carnegie Hall". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  9. ^ Kirby, Paul (May 12, 2011). "Review: August 4, 1964 (at Carnegie Hall)". Theater Jones. Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved May 9, 2015.

External links

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