Announcing the Selections for
Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame featuring Andrew White

Vox Novus presents a new installment of the Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame series, spotlighting baritone Andrew White, performing 15 one-minute works written specifically for his voice and artistry.

Vox Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame invites composers worldwide to create one-minute pieces for a designated performer. The result is a panoramic glimpse into contemporary music—distilled into compact yet potent miniatures that showcase a wide range of modern compositional voices.

Vox This new set highlights an international group of composers exploring the expressive intensity of the one-minute form. Styles range from lyrical and text-driven to multimedia and experimental — all delivered by a master interpreter.

Andrew White, baritone, serves on the voice faculty at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University and has previously taught at institutions such as Indiana University of Pennsylvania, University of Akron, and Baldwin Wallace Conservatory.

His 1995 New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall featured the songs of Frederick Koch. New York Concert Review described him as “a formidable interpreter… Every song composer should be so lucky with collaborators.”

15 works selected from living composers:

• Time – David Bohn
  Text from Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn (1682)

• FIREBRAND – Erik Branch
  Inspired by poet Harry Crosby’s ecstatic, prophetic verse

• Once Awake – Ross James Carey
  A setting of Sherry Grant’s poetry marking the centenary of Katherine Mansfield

• As the Rain – Sarah Clevely
  Based on a traditional Gaelic prayer, evoking resilience and clarity

• A Boat that Sails – Pernille Faye
  A musical meditation on solitude at sea, inspired by Christina Rossetti

• Karitas – Tom Lane
  A stark, urgent setting of Hildegard von Bingen’s ecological vision

• Catoblepas – Darth Presley
  A mythic mashup of swamp beasts, fire, and unsettling sonic dreams

• Let Mother Breathe – Gene Pritsker
  A movement from Mother Earth Doesn’t Wear Lipstick, with electronics with words by poet Robert C. Ford.

• tasten II – Volker Ignaz Schmidt
  A poetic abstraction with text by Marko Racković

• How Much – How Little – Soheil Shirangi
  A contemplative, electronic reflection on Emily Dickinson’s brevity

• Do you bloom? – Kirsten Johnson
  A delicate setting of a haiku by 17th-century Japanese poet Den Sutejo

• By My Window – Brent Straughan
  A meditation on sleep and mortality, inspired by Shakespeare

• Roaming in Thought – Kyle Vanderburg
  A condensed, intense treatment of Walt Whitman’s spiritual ruminations

• Return – Blair Whittington
  This work is a vocalise, ritornello-inspired form with world music colors

• The Aliens – David Wolfson
  A sci-fi romp through the tropes of vintage genre fiction

Fifteen-Minute-of-Fame featuring Andrew White at Composer Concordance concert in NYC

This set of Fifteen-Minutes-of-Famewill be Presented by Composers Concordance & Vox Novus at The Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza on Monday, August 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM in New York City

Andrew White will be joined by pianist David Wolfson for this special performance, which will also feature additional vocal works by David Bohn, Michael Coleman, Eugene W. McBride, Gene Pritsker, Jean‑Christophe Rosaz, and David Wolfson himself.

Composers Concordance, directed by Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper, has been promoting adventurous new music for over 40 years through live concerts, recordings, and educational outreach.

Vox Novus and its founder Robert Voisey continue to revolutionize how new music is made, presented, and experienced — with over 1,000 premieres through the Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame series alone.

Join us for an unforgettable evening of compact musical brilliance and vocal exploration!

Andrew White - Collaboration and Accompaniment

Composers Concordance
Andrew White - Baritone
A Preseason Event
Co-Presented with Vox Novus

Composers:
David Bohn, Michael Coleman, Eugene W. McBride, Gene Pritsker, Jean-Christophe Rosaz, and David Wolfson.

Plus the selections of Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame featuring Andrew White:
David Bohn, Erik Branch, Ross James Carey, Sarah Clevely, Pernille Faye, Kirsten Johnson, Tom Lane, Darth Presley, Gene Pritsker, Volker Ignaz Schmidt, Soheil Shirangi, Brent Straughan, Kyle Vanderburg, Blair Whittington, David Wolfson

Performers
Andrew White - baritone
David Wolfson - piano

Monday, Aug. 18th, 2025 at 7pm
The Ellington Room
at Manhattan Plaza
400 W 43rd St, NYC

FREE EVENT

On Monday, August 18th at 7pm, Composers Concordance, in association with Vox Novus, kicks off its preseason with a unique concert: Andrew White – Baritone. This dynamic program showcases new works for solo baritone voice—ranging from a cappella to pieces with piano and electronics.

Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper will get things started with a lively rundown of what's in store for the 2025–26 season, Then acclaimed baritone Andrew White will take the stage, performing compositions by: David Bohn, Michael Coleman, Eugene W. McBride, Gene Pritsker, Jean-Christophe Rosaz, and David Wolfson, along with a special presentation of Vox Novus' Fifteen Minutes of Fame.

This set features 15 one-minute works written for Andrew White by: David Bohn, Erik Branch, Ross James Carey, Sarah Clevely, Pernille Faye, Kirsten Johnson, Tom Lane, Darth Presley, Gene Pritsker, Volker Ignaz Schmidt, Soheil Shirangi, Brent Straughan, Kyle Vanderburg, Blair Whittington, David Wolfson,

A champion of Art Song and contemporary music, Andrew White has distinguished himself in recitals of French mélodie, Lieder, and contemporary American art song, including numerous premiere performances. He was selected to participate in the Cleveland Art Song Festival six times, appearing as a featured artist on the 1996 festival. He won the VARN competition in 1997 and was First Prize winner of the 1995 Richardson Awards Vocal Competition. While a student, White was granted a full scholarship to study in Switzerland with Gerard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin. In 1995, he made his New York recital debut in Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in a program devoted to the songs of Cleveland composer Frederick Koch. One review hailed him as "... a formidable interpreter ... Every song composer should be so lucky with collaborators."

David Wolfson has been composing for and performing with Andrew White since the 1980s. He is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children's musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral music, band music, orchestral music, chamber music, art songs, and music for solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and pop songs, including his recent singer/songwriter EP Gravity Well. He has performed in pit orchestras on and off-Broadway and on cabaret and concert stages across the country.

The concert will also be live-streamed on Composers Concordance's Facebook Page.

Staying in rotation for 42 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past but also an ethic of keeping one's ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene. Composers Concordance, founded in 1984 by Joseph Pehrson and Patrick Hardish, advised by Otto Luening, strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Debra Kaye, Seth Boustead, and Audrey Morse. Composers Concordance has also created a Naxos-distributed record label: Composers Concordance Records. Composers Concordance's overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.

"Composers Concordance..a veritable New York new music institution of concerts, album production and multiple ensembles under a sweeping, tenacious brand, thriving on the emulsion of contemporary classical, free improv, jazz and rock, overt humor and fearless political statements, all very much in evidence..The ensemble..was masterful throughout."-John Pietaro, The New York City Jazz Record

"An unwavering force in giving composers exposure through concert bookings and its own record label, the intrepid new-music organization Composers Concordance" - The Brooklyn Rail

"The Composers Concordance folks are unpredictable and at times refreshingly irreverent in a reverent sort of way....ingenious fun" - Classical-Modern Music Review

"Enterprising new music organization" - The New York Times