Tenor Thomas Cooley '91 Contributes to World Premiere Recording of Newly-Discovered Vivaldi Composition

August 6, 2006

August 6, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - Thomas Cooley, a tenor and 1991 graduate of DePauw University, can be heard in the new, world premiere recording of Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus. Released on Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv Produktion label, the music is "a magnificent musical find," declares reviewer E. J. Johnson. "Deliberately misattributed in the mid-18th century as the work of the then-popular composer Galuppi, this 'Dixit Dominus' was restored to the Vivaldi canon in 2005 upon its unearthing in a Dresden library. Scholars lost no time calling it 'the most important Vivaldi discovery in 75 years,' as the sticker on the jewel case points out, and there's no denying that it's one of the composer's finest choral works."

"This recording is historically very important as the work had been attributed to the wrong composer," writes Cooley from Munich, where he has been engaged since 2002 at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. "I was extremely pleased to contribute to this project."

"The 'Dixit Dominus' is indeed a major find, eminently worthy to stand alongside Vivaldi's 'Gloria,'" writes James R. Oestreich in the New York Times. Writing in All Music Guide, David Lewis opines, "all true Vivaldians will want to hear this 'new' 'Dixit Dominus' -- it IS a major discovery in terms of Vivaldi's sacred music, and the performance manages to touch all of the required bases."

Cooley notes, "I will be returning to DePauw October 7 to perform Schubert's 'Die Schöne Müllerin' with John Clodfelter, who is on faculty in the School of Music, and to do some masterclasses with the voice students."

Read more about the new CD at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

Visit Thomas Cooley's Web site by clicking here, and learn more about the tenor in this previous story.

Founded in 1884, the DePauw University School of Music is one of the oldest in the nation and has an established tradition of educating leaders in virtually every facet of music, including performers, educators, composers and administrators. Learn more here.

(top photo by Michael Schilhansl)

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