FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Teacher’s Back In Town!
Don “Orfeo” Rechtman returns to Atlanta
August 11, 2003 -- Just in time for school, Don has returned to Atlanta after what he calls a "ten-year visit" in Boulder, Colorado.
While there, he came into his own with music, composing prolifically and staging a number of performances of his own music, including two each of which involved over 60 performers.
Orfeo has been active in music for theater since his involvement with The Southeastern Savoyards in 1981 in Atlanta. In Atlanta, he composed, directed and performed music for Dunwoody Stage Door Players’ production of "Talk to Me Like the Rain," Horizon Theatre’s production of "Gardenia," Theater Emory’s productions of Ibsen’s "Brand" and the "Iliad," the Performance Gallery’s contribution to the Beckett Atlanta Festival, and 7-Stages Theater’s production of Jim Grimsley’s "White People." He composed and directed a musical dramatic realization of the Psalm and Lessons for the Christ the King Festival on November 20 (the last Sunday after Pentecost), which was performed at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta.
He has received numerous commissions, completed residences through the Georgia and National Councils of the Arts, performed on stage, written for theater, presented master classes at both the university and high school levels, and teaches privately. He taught a course on computers and music at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, and also does technical writing and music typesetting.
He composed music for the installation services of several Unitarian Universalist ministers; works included a selection of verses from Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself," "Spring is Here" (co written with the Church’s Religious Education class), and "Lincoln’s Address at Gettysburg: 1863." His "Spirituality of Music" presentation has been given to Unitarian Universalist churches and other groups in Colorado, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, and Florida.
Most recently, in 2000 he presented a variety of his music in a full-length concert entitled "Orfeo’s Senior Recital: 25 Years Too Late," and in May of this year presented a concert of his music as a fundraiser for Colorado Friends of Tibet. This concert included over 60 performers and was the world premiere of the piano-choral version of his 45-minute work "Intimations of Immortality."
His current ongoing projects include completing the orchestrated setting of Wordsworth's poem "Intimations of Immortality."
Orfeo’s new-age CDs include "Gathering Lights," musical accompaniment to channeled meditations, and "GemProvisations," the musical energy of six cut gemstones. Additional CDs he will soon be releasing include "Songs My Dolphin Taught Me," and "Ke: To The Universe."
For More Information Contact:
The Music Studio
Shenzhen, China
13528896144
don@orfeomusic.org