Note from Judith Clurman:

I am thrilled to present Celebrating the American Spirit, for Sono Luminus Records, with these wonderful artists: Larry Hochman, soloists Kelli O'Hara and Ron Raines, my Essential Voices USA, pianist Tedd Firth and Billy Test, and guest instrumentalists. The recording is inspired by my need to express a patriotic response to 9/11 through a complex affirmation of America's greatness.  It provides me the opportunity to conduct music that I love - from Berlin to Babbit.  The CD  includes individual new and newly arranged works by illustrious American composers and writers such as Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Sheldon Harnick, Jennifer Higdon, Larry Hochman and Stephen Paulus.  Irving Berlin’s “It Gets Lonely In The White House,” from the 1962 show Mr. President and the poignant “God Bless America” are wonderful additions to the recording. Carol J. Oja, the William Powell Mason Professor of the Department of Music at Harvard University, writes in the Sono Luminus liner notes:

Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, a song written in 1918 and revised two decades later, gets reconceived here by soprano Kelli O’Hara in an arrangement by Larry Hochman. While Kate Smith belted out the tune with pride and cultural authority when she famously introduced it on the radio in 1938, O’Hara provides a new reading for a very different America. The opening verse is pensive, and when male choral voices enter initially, they avoid the martial rhythms common in performances of this tune. The number crescendos to a full-throated conclusion – a supplication for the “blessing” so sorely needed by our nation and the world.”

(Notes and recording used with permission by Sono Luminus & Carol J. Oja)