Burton Beerman

Dialogue for soprano voice and piano features a text by award-winning playwright Raymond Brent Beerman. The text outlines a reflective conversation between the writer and his teenage son in which the father expresses his sorrow, his devoted love for his son, and the inevitable hope for the future.

Composer, clarinetist, video artist Burton Beerman’s music spans many media, including interactive real-time electronics, chamber and orchestral music, interactive video art, theatre, dance, and musical score for documentary films. His works have been the subject of international, national and public television and radio broadcasts, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, NPR and PBS.

New York City’s The Village Voice states, “There is a remarkable clarity in the way Burton Beerman carries out the logic of his materials and he has an excellent ear for sound color…the composer displays an acute sensitivity to the differences between live sound and electronic sound and the music contains extraordinary moments when the sound seems to belong to both worlds.”

Amongst some of his prestigious awards and honors are the Barlow Endowment Commission for Music Composition, the 2008 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio, selected as one who is recognized as a “distinguished artist sustaining extraordinary artistic talents and achievements throughout his career”, a 2008 CINE Special Jury Award, the 2007 CINE Golden Eagle Award as composer for the film documentary 203 Days produced by bbarash productions, LLC.,and the Martha K.Cooper Orchestra Prize (First Place) for Moments.

Beerman’s music has been presented at prominent venues and festivals worldwide, such as the Edinburgh International Art Festival in Scotland, The Chicago Sinai, Martin Luther King International Center in Atlanta, Rudolfinum Performing Center, Prague, the Haag, Amsterdam, OrfRadioFunkhaus, Vienna and Chopin Hall, Mexico City, as well as throughout Australia, Canada , Europe and Asia. His works have been featured on CNN and CNN International, FutureWatch, and The World Today, broadcasting Beerman’s Virtual Video Opera, Jesus’ Daughter to a viewing audience of 50 million plus. The opera addressed a critical social issue of Violence against Women~Children-at-Risk and was chosen as a Video Installation ArtWork exhibited in Switzerland and Italy, endorsed by UNESCO-CIRET, sponsored by the United Nations, at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA), Lincoln Center Gallery, and Dance on Camera Festival. CNN maintains a webpage as a source of information on the story and the opera.

The Warsaw National Philharmonic performed and recorded Beerman’s Morning Calls for B-flat clarinet and orchestra featuring Richard Stoltzman as clarinetist under the baton of George Manahan, present music director of the New York City Opera. Morning Calls received a performance by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra with Beerman as soloist. Beerman has been hailed by audiences as one of the leading clarinetists of contemporary and avant-garde music whose virtuosity and technical control of the instrument establish him as a remarkable and compelling performer.



Dialogue (2008)
For voice and piano

Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers, soprano
Kevin Blysma, piano

Help me
Standing on the edge of a forgotten wall
Teetering on a life from a faceless dream
Drifting through bloodless streams
Leading to nowhere
Pointing to nothing
Through bloodless streams

Help me
Drifting through bloodless streams
Pointing to nothing
Sifting
Clawing
Digging
Peeling
Help me
Help me for lost years

Hope is beautiful
Hope is love
Dear little child
The sun is here
I kiss the brightness of the future
Hope is real
Hope is
Hope is hope
Hope is want
Dear, little child
The sun is here
Sliding from a womb
Into my Hands

Holding you close
Keeping you warm
Holding you once
Keeping you always
Dear little child
Dear little child
I breathe life into your smile

Help me
Holding you close
Keeping you warm
Holding you once
Keeping you always
Dear little child
Dear little child
I breathe life into your smile

Help me
Standing on the edge
Of a forgotten wall
Help me
Help me to understand
How to talk to you
Help me
Mend
Tie
Skip
A slithering cut
Toys
Birthdays
Cakes
Ice cream
Dinosaurs
Hope is beauty
Hope is love

Crawling through a maze
Of want and loss
Digging into a hole
That can never be filled
I want because I can’t
I need because I don’t
I want and need and feel nothing
While you stand there
With your arms reaching for me
But my back is turned

Help me
Help me
Help me
Dear little child
The sun is here

Hope is beauty
Hope is love
Dear, little child
The sun is here
I kiss the brightness
Of the future
Hope is real
Hope is hope
Manchild facing the shadow
Calling out what was
Was lost
Build the fire
Build the fire in the soul
Manchild facing the shadow snake
Call out what was lost
Build the fire
Soul
Build the fire
In the soul
Manchild facing the shadow snake
Call out what was lost
The smiles
The sun
The trees

Help me
Hope is beauty
Hope is love
Dear, little child
The sun is here
I kiss the brightness
Of the future
Hope is real
I kiss the brightness
Of the future
Hope is real
Hope is hope
Hope
Turn
To see my hand
Help me
Turn
See my hand
Help me
No answers for lost years
Standing on the edge
Of a forgotten wall
Turn
See my hand
Help me.