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JamesiDeMars has written numerous works that frequently explore intercultural collaborations:

TwoiWorldiConcerto, for Native American flutist, R. CarlosiNakai

"...on epic scale, sweepingly dramatic & rhythmically concise." L.A.iTimes

NativeiDrumming, for the Black Lodge Pow-wow Singers & Orchestra

"...searingly honest, by turns mesmerizing, haunting, hair-raising and astonishing...

just plain gorgeous in its sonics, with strings racing over the singer-drummers like a veil of

night over the desert, and brass harmonies moving like sunlight across a mesa." - ArizonaiRepublic

Sabar, ConcertoiforiAfricaniDrumsi&iOrchestra for MarkiSunketti

"DeMars brings the orchestra into direct union with ritual music and dance from Senegal

in a sonic travelogue, that was stunningly entertaining as well as culturally engaging." - AR.

AniAmericaniRequiem (75') for chorus, soloistsi&iorchestra:

"At the close of last night's premiere performance there could have been little doubt that James DeMars

had met the standards of the death masses of Brahms and Britten; grand and spacious, stately,

ethereal, glorious, inspired and quintessentially American, (it) speaks of untarnished dreams and naive yearnings;

an intensely hopeful conjuration of all that is best about the nation's peoples." - Washington Post

VioliniConcertoi (iBoroiMartinic-Jercici)

"...strongly profiled, sumptuously scored, contoured lyricism and a vivacious sense of rhythm." - AR.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra for CaioiPagano, (release pending)

Continued

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BIO | JamesiDeMars (b.1952) Composer/conductor James DeMars belongs to a generation that is revealing a new integration of world music with the range, depth and stylistic variety of the classical tradition. His works include orchestral concertos for violin, piano, African drum ensemble, pow-wow singers, Native American flute, several cantatas,a requiem mass and an opera. His music was described by the Washington Post as "grand and spacious, stately, ethereal, glorious, inspired and quintessentially American; an intensely hopeful conjuration of all that is best about the nation's peoples."

Ensembles that perform DeMars' music include the New York Choral Society, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Minnesota Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, California Symphony, Utah Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Tucson Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, and Wuppertal (Germany) Orchestra.

DeMars has received commissions from the NEA, the Heard Museum, Flynn Foundation, Art Renaissance Foundation, European-American Foundation, the Phoenix Boys Choir and I Solisti di Zagreb.

As a conductor, DeMars' performances include the national premiere of his work, An American Requiem, at the Kennedy Center in Washington and nationally televised performances at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. In 1998 he conducted the European premiere of his work, An American Requiem, in Paris at Église La Trinité with Choer et Orchestre Francais D'Oratorio and was inducted to the French Order of Arts and Letters.

With Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai he has created four CDs for Canyon Records. Two World Concerto received two Native American Music Awards and led to the 2008 release of DeMars' inter-cultural opera, Guadalupe.

Aesthetic influences include the writings of Joseph Campbell and Albert Camus. He holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches composition at Arizona State University in Tempe.

View promotional video from the Winston-Salem performance of Sabar |