For ages, I associated those three composers with that Sunday world.
The performance pairs music professionals with children who have never studied the art, a traditional orchestra with fanciful musical toys, and the work of seasoned composers with that of inexperienced preteens.
He taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and was active as a composer, with works that included a chamber opera, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1956), based on the James Thurber story.
Deacon moved into acoustic instrumentation, brought in a crew of guest musicians, and worked with a co-producer, Chester Gwazda all while growing a parallel career as a contemporary classical composer, with credits that include collaborations with the ensemble So Percussion and the Calder Quartet.
And there is beautiful song from both composers, starting with that Cantilène.
Yet, few of the composers associated with that milieu have been noted for their solo-piano music.
A dutiful reading of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 ("Prague") failed to convey the operatic grandeur and vitality of the work, written in 1786 and named after the Bohemian city that welcomed the composer with an enthusiasm that Vienna had not.
Outside of his native Austria, that achievement has tended to obscure Cerha's own work as a composer with an output that covers almost every genre.
Author and composer Ethan Mordden agreed with that perspective: If Oklahoma! developed the moral argument for sending American boys overseas, Carousel offered consolation to those wives and mothers whose boys would only return in spirit.
Andrew Asch, 58, for instance, is a classically trained pianist and composer with neuromuscular problems that curtailed his career, but not his passion for music.
