Press Release

King of Prussia, PA – Theodore Presser Company has published the piano/vocal score for Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers (411-41120 — $25.00), a work for solo baritone voice with string quartet. The study score, which was made available previously, can still be purchased separately (411-41121 - $35.00). Grown from a cycle of poems dedicated to the composer’s departed love, Green Sneakers is a raw and touching ode to the life he shared and the process of grief. The string quartet narrates the story as much as the baritone voice, creating a mini-opera, complete with an empty chair, employed as a prop, and a piano played by the singer at the conclusion. According to Gordon, “I suppose I wanted to end the piece with not only a lullaby, but a celebration of what we had together.” String quartet parts are available on rental.

Ricky Ian Gordon was born in 1956 and raised on Long Island. In love with poetry and fascinated, from an early age, by all forms of Opera and Music Theater, he attended Carnegie Mellon University as a piano major, but soon realized that his true vocation was as a composer. After college he settled in New York City and quickly emerged as one of the most successful writers of a kind of vocal music that straddles the world of theater and art song. His unusual ability to find the musical core of a poem or lyric and express that essence in an appropriate musical style, has given his songs great appeal to singers of all styles and persuasions. Mr. Gordon’s songs have been performed and or recorded by such internationally renowned singers as Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Andrea Marcovici, Melanie Helton, Harolyn Blackwell, Betty Buckley, Margaret Lattimore, Stephanie Novacek and Mary Philips, among many others. For more information, visit: www.rickyiangordon.com.