ABOUT THE ALBUM: Snow White Turns Sixty is composer Dale Trumbore's debut CD of art-songs, featuring Gillian Hollis, soprano and Dale Trumbore, piano. Tracks 1-4 are from the song cycle Sara Teasdale Songs. This song cycle offers a realistically complex portrayal of a relationship's progression, and was written for and premiered by Hollis in 2009. Tracks 5-16 are from song cycle Snow White Turns Sixty, which sets twelve texts by nine contemporary female poets: Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Barbara Crooker, Annie Finch, Kathleen Jesme, Julie Kane, Katharyn Howd Machan, Eileen Moeller, Eve Rifkah, and Diane Thiel. Collectively, these poems retell traditional fairy tales in provocative, modern, sexy, gory, humorous, dark, violent, joyful, and ultimately liberating ways, as each character discovers a new and previously untold element of her particular story. Snow White Turns Sixty was premiered as a staged production by the Chamber Opera of USC (COUSC) in November 2010. Song cycle This thirst in the lungs (tracks 17-19) sets three poems by poet Robin Myers; in each poem, the narrator yearns to remain in a single moment in time. This piece was composed for Hollis in June 2011. ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Gillian Hollis, soprano Soprano Gillian Hollis has received the Chicago Musicians’ Club of Women Lynn Harvey/Virginia Cooper Maier Award and the Bel Canto Foundation’s Salvy Monastero Memorial Award; she was also named a winner in Northwestern University’s Concerto Competition. Hollis’s solo credits include Queen of the Night in W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Northwestern University), Papagena in J. Michael Diack’s adaptation of The Magic Flute (Florida Grand Opera’s In-School Opera Program), the title role in Julie Smith’s Daisy (Miami Young Patronesses of the Opera), and soprano soloist in J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion (Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago). Hollis has worked with soprano Pamela Hinchman and vocal coach Alan Darling in pursuit of her M.M. in Vocal Performance and Operatic Literature at Northwestern University. Hollis also studied with baritone Dominic Cossa at UMD. Dale Trumbore, composer & pianist Dale Trumbore has won numerous awards for her compositions, including those sponsored by Chanticleer, WomenSing, the Society for Universal Sacred Music, Lyrica Chamber Music, and the Harmonium Choral Society. Ensembles that have performed Trumbore's compositions include the Kronos Quartet, the USC Thornton Symphony, the Boston New Music Initiative, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Neave Quartet, Chamber Opera of USC, and the Orange County Women’s Chorus. New Jersey native Trumbore holds an M.M. in Music Composition from USC, where she studied with Donald Crockett and Morten Lauridsen; at UMD, she studied with Mark Wilson. www.daletrumbore.com THANKS: Hollis & Trumbore would like to thank their families for their unending support; the American Composers Forum (San Francisco Bay Area Chapter), which helped fund CD recording costs with a Subito grant; John Baffa & TV Tray Studio; Jackie Littman; Maura Lafferty; and the many individuals who helped this project come to fruition. Special thanks go to Silver-Level Donors Allison Anderson, Sue and Rob Dring, Thomas Garesché, Vivian German, Ellen Herbert, Julie Kane, Linda S. Karn, Douglas Kraus, Laurie Kraus, Diana Lafornara, Patricia Lue, Stephen Sapp, Brian Trumbore, Grant Walker, Roger Wilson, Aimee Zappa, and Gold-Level Donor Mark Eldred, for their extremely generous support of this project. A huge thanks, too, to the many poets who have graciously granted permission for these poems to be set to music, and without whom this CD would not be possible: Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Barbara Crooker, Annie Finch, Kathleen Jesme, Julie Kane, Katharyn Howd Machan, Eileen Moeller, Robin Myers, Eve Rifkah, and Diane Thiel. CREDITS: Snow White Turns Sixty was recorded by Gillian Hollis, soprano and Dale Trumbore, piano with John Baffa of TV Tray Studio June 29-July 1, 2011. Album artwork was designed by Jackie Littman. All tracks (c) 2011 Dissonant Gorgeous Productions.