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Gene Scheer

Country of origin: United States of America
Birthday: April 23, 1958

About Gene Scheer

The work of Gene Scheer is noted for its scope and versatility. His music and lyrics have gained enthusiastic admirers among a broad audience.

Mr. Scheer is currently working as librettist with the composer Tobias Picker on a new commission for the Metropolitan Opera, an adaptation of Drieser’s “An American Tragedy”. This piece will have its premiere on December 2, 2005. It will star Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette and Susan Graham. James Conlon will conduct and Francesca Zambello will direct. This will be Mr. Scheer’s second opera with the composer Tobias Picker. Their first collaboration “Therese Raquin”, premiered at the Dallas Opera in November 2001. “Therese Raquin” was subsequently performed in Montreal (in a French translation) and in 2003 in San Diego. The recording, available on Chandos, was cited by Opera News as one of the ten best recordings of 2002.

On January 20, 2005 Mr. Scheer’s song “American Anthem” was sung by Denyce Graves at the inauguration of President Bush. The song performed with the U.S. Marine Band was selected by the president to be sung immediately before he took the oath of office.

"American Anthem", written in 1998, was first performed by Ms. Graves, for President and Mrs. Clinton at the Smithsonian Institute. President Clinton asked that the song be sung at the Smithsonian at an event launching “Save Americas Treasures”. This effort, a public-private partnership, was initiated by president Clinton to save historic sites, monuments, artifacts and documents that tell America’s story.

The song was subsequently performed with the U.S. Army Band and Chorus and at the opening ceremonies of the Millennium celebration on the Mall in Washington DC. After 9/11 Denyce Graves performed “American Anthem” on the Oprah Winfrey Show and then on Larry King Live. Ms. Graves has recorded the song on RCA on a CD entitled American Anthem the proceeds of which go to the Red Cross.

In June 2003 Patti Labelle and Take Six performed a new arrangement of “American Anthem” at a concert in Philadelphia which was taped for national broadcast on PBS. The TV special will also be released on DVD.

Since introducing his compositions just a few years ago, Mr. Scheer's songs have been performed by artists including Renee Fleming (with Christoph Eschenbach), Denyce Graves, Sylvia Mcnair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore and Nathan Gunn.

Ms. Graves included Scheer's "Christmas Once More" on her nationally televised PBS Special and has performed a number of songs by Mr. Scheer with orchestras including the National Symphony in Washington DC (with Leonard Slatkin) and the National Arts Symphony of Canada. In 2003 Eve Ensler asked Mr. Scheer to write a song for Denyce Graves to be sung at the Apollo Theater at a benefit performance of “The Vagina Monologues.”

Also in 2003 Mr. Scheer was also commissioned to write a choral version of his song “Christmas Once More” which was performed in Orchestra Hall with the Chicago Symphony and Chicago Symphony Chorus. This work was later performed by the Colorado Symphony with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Duain Wolfe Conducted.

Ms. Fleming performed works by Mr. Scheer on her most recent concert tour-- including a performance at Carnegie Hall. She opened her “Live from Lincoln Center” program with the Orpheus chamber orchestra with a new version of Mr. Scheer’s song “Another New Voice Teacher” written by Mr. Scheer and Andrew Thomas especially for the event. Last June Ms. Fleming, who was asked to give the commencement speech at Julliard, commissioned a song from Mr. Scheer with which she concluded her remarks to the graduating class.

Nathan Gunn recently sang four of Mr Scheer’s songs, including two from his Song Cycle, Voices from World War II, on his debut solo disc, "American Anthem", released by EMI. Since then Mr. Gunn has performed the complete Song Cycle in recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall where it was debuted, New York, Berkeley California, Washington DC and most recently at the Monnaie in Brussels. He has also performed the work with orchestra in London’s Queen Elizabeth hall.

While in Europe Mr. Scheer worked as an actor and singer in leading roles at the Theater an der Wien, the Deutches Theatre in Munich and as director George Tabori's assistant at the Schauspielhaus in Cologne.

Gene Scheer received his BM and MM degrees at the Eastman School of Music followed by a scholarship to the University of Cologne and an International Rotary Fellowship to study with Eric Werber at the Hochschule Für Musik in Vienna.

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