Nicholas David Liebman
Nicholas Liebman graduated with honors in May 2004 with a B.A. in Music from Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois and has been involved with music composition since the age of twelve. Formal study of music theory and composition began in high school and continued at Grinnell under the guidance of professors Jonathan Chenette and John Christian Rommereim.
Liebman has actively composed for solo voice and choir, as well as instrumental genres. His high voice and piano song cycle, Praise and Thanksgiving was premiered in the Spring of 2003. Other recent compositions include Op. 4077 for solo piano, String Quartet No. 1, and Blessed Variations for piano and violin. He was the first-place recipient of the 2003 Steiner Award for creativity in music for his composition, Grokking Is, for piano, flute, and cello, which was premiered in workshop by the leading new music group, eighth blackbird.
As a part of his senior thesis, Liebman completed sections of Kabbalat Shabbat, a multi movement work for choir and cantoral soloist based on the Shabbat liturgy. The first movement, a setting of the prayer Shalom Aleychem, had its concert premier at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York in the Spring of 2004. Liebman recently started a composition and sound production company, Liebman & Hart, with fellow Grinnell graduate, Ariel Hart. Nicholas Liebman lives and works in the Chicago area.
FROM THE COMPOSER
" O Come, Let Us Sing Unto The LORD "
My first task in writing this piece was to pick an appropriate text. In thinking about how to express the Universality of God through choral music, I wanted to be sure to find text that would express God's greatness, God's care for all humankind, and the power of music in in connecting us all to God. I turned to my own tradition's sacred texts for inspiration; I was not let down.
I quickly came across Psalm 95; I found it not only fitting, but inspirational as well.
The music is divided into three sections. The first is a meditation on verses one and two in which the choir ponders every syllable with reverence. In an answer to the choir's call the come and sing to the LORD, the soloists expound upon God's power and universality in the second section. The final section ties together musical themes from sections one and two while inviting the listener to recognize that the LORD is our maker; that we are all the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
