Composer Eric Whitacre is one of the bright stars in contemporary concert music. Regularly commissioned and published, Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association, the American Composers Forum, and last spring was honored with his first Grammy nomination (contemporary classical crossover). This year he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association; commercially he has worked with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch.

Born in 1970, Whitacre has already achieved substantial critical and popular acclaim. The American Record Guide named his first recording, The Music of Eric Whitacre, one of the top ten classical albums in 1997, and the Los Angeles Times praised his music as “electric, chilling harmonies; works of unearthly beauty and imagination.” His Water Night has become one of the most popular choral works of the last decade, and is one of the top selling choral publications in the last five years. Ghost Train, his first instrumental work written at the age of 23, is a genuine phenomenon; it has received thousands of performances in over 50 countries and has been featured on 40 different recordings. His music has been the subject of several recent scholarly works and doctoral dissertations, and his 28 published works have sold well over 100,000 copies worldwide.

As a conductor, Mr. Whitacre has served as principal conductor of the College Light Opera Company, chorus master for the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as guest conductor with numerous professional and educational ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Gregg Smith Singers and the Kansas City Chorale. Last fall he conducted the first in an annual series of wind symphony concerts in Tokyo, Japan, where he has been named guest music director of the Tokyo Wind Symphony, and this summer he conducted and lectured extensively throughout Singapore. Eric received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winner John Corigliano.

Librettist David Noroña’s decade-long career has taken him from his childhood, Cuban-American home in Miami to New York, and now to Los Angeles where he presently resides. But it was several years after his studies at Carnegie Mellon University’s world-renowned B.F.A. program, where he graduated with honors, that the synthesis of these interests took place. Months before receiving his degree, Noroña was already busy in Manhattan in his first Off-Broadway role in Bring in the Morning, after which came Popol Vuh, performed at The Public Theater. Soon thereafter, he would make his unique Broadway debut in the buff opposite Tony Award winning actors Nathan Lane and John Glover in Love! Valour! Compassion! The sheer drama of going on mid-show for an actor who fell suddenly ill landed him on the front page of the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times, followed by a Today Show interview.

Noroña left Broadway to star in Twisted, an indie deconstruction of Oliver Twist. He followed with many regional musical productions, one of which was a million dollar production of Babes in Arms at the Guthrie, starring opposite Tony Award winning actress Kristen Chenowith. His portrayal of Irving Berlin in Tin Pan Alley Rag, which he performed both at the Pasadena Playhouse and Coconut Grove Playhouse, garnered him a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination. But surely, the highlight of this role was having one of Berlin’s daughters travel from Paris exclusively to see his performance only to comment in awe, “You reminded me of my father."

It was not long before the West coast beckoned with a leading role opposite Angela Lansbury in the new holiday classic, Mrs. Santa Claus, followed by a long string of television appearances, including Frasier, ER, NYPD Blue, Popular, Stark Raving Mad, Kristen, Trouble with Normal, Bailey’s Mistake (starring Linda Hamilton), and most recently, the critically acclaimed Six Feet Under, a new series for HBO by Oscar winning screenwriter Alan Ball (American Beauty).

Noroña has written four original screenplays, one of which he produced and starred in: an independent feature entitled, Alligator Alley. It was on this project that his collaboration with composer Eric Whitacre began. Together they produced and co-composed five of the soundtracks original songs, on which Noroña also supplied vocals.

Just this summer, David signed a deal with NBC to star in a new one-hour drama, entitled Mr. Sterling, by West Wing writer Lawrence O’Donnell. In it he portrays the young, idealistic stats wiz to Senator Sterling, played by Josh Brolin. Three-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and veteran actor William Russ will also star. It is due to air early next year.

For Noroña, Paradise Lost: Opera Electronica combines and utilizes ten years of experience in film, television, music and theater.

Soprano Hila Plitmann, born in Jerusalem, has quickly become a familiar face and cherished voice on the international music scene. In 1998 she premiered Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly with The NY Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Kurt Masur, and in 2000 appeared as a headliner at the International Cervantino Festival. She has performed as a featured soloist for The Israel Philharmonic, L’Opera de Monte Carlo, The NY City Opera, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, The New Israeli Opera and numerous other orchestras and ensembles in the U.S. and abroad. Recent performances include her debut recital in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, premiering David Del Tredici’s most recent song cycle Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter, Fauré’s Requiem with Bobby Mcferrin and The Pacific Symphony & Chorale, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with The Mexico City Philharmonic.

In November 2000, she was chosen by Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano to sing the world premiere recording of his epic song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man, and has since been contracted to perform this cycle in a number of national engagements. In spring of 2000 she premiered and recorded, under the CRI label, the highly virtuosic and critically lauded song cycle Ms. Inez Sez, written especially for her by David Del Tredici. Ms. Plitmann received her BM and MM with high honors from The Juilliard School of Music, and has been awarded the coveted Sony ES Prize for her outstanding contribution to the vocal arts; The New York Times has praised her as “a talented young singer with a brilliant top register”; The Chicago Tribune describes her as “...superb, with an expressive range and communicative power”; and the Jerusalem Post calls her “nothing less than bewitching.”