Hopewell Valley Central High School & Timberlane Middle School Floating Upstream

Music educators will be especially interested in "Floating Upstream", the first Hatfield CD to be recorded, not by an auditioned choir, but by the music programs of Hopewell Valley Central High and its feeder school, Timberlane Middle School, into which all students are welcomed. From the lowest to the highest grades, the students regroup in a variety of ensembles, large and small, treble and SATB. This is one of the reasons "Floating Upstream" turned out to be my most varied and eclectic CD yet, a real magic carpet ride through a cosmos of interconnecting musical worlds. I know that sounds a bit much, but that's how I feel when I listen to this CD. Recorded in Pennington, New Jersey, during a marathon January session where the singers gave their all, hour after hour, "Floating Upstream" is the first new studio album of Hatfield material in several years, and showcases much of my more recent work, including beautiful performances of "Ojos Azules", "Mayn Rue Platz" and the klezmer-drenched SATB revoicing of "Vus Vut Zayn". I'm often asked about the Abbey-Road-style ending to the recording. It was my private hello to the chamber choir who had worked so hard to be ready for "Turning Point", a piece that was meant to be a central work on the CD. We had held it back for the end because we knew it was going to take the last drop the singers had, and you know how things go -- we found ourselves with very little time left, and the clock ran out on us before we had done much more than the opening chorale: frustrating at the time, but in retrospect it made that opening extra deep. The chorale was secretly appended to the end of the CD, at a point where you are certain the recording is over and done, just to let the chamber choir know how good it was to work on that piece together. For the full running order of this CD, see the Discography on this website.