In her tone poem City Rain, Judith Lang Zaimont captures the spirit and vitality of a summer shower as it falls on a busy city street. This piece draws a lively picture of a passing storm and is unified by the jazz-like rhythmic motive based on the pattern of the title words “city rain.”

Instrumentation

1-Conductor
1-Piccolo
3-Flute 1
3-Flute 2
2-Oboe (optional)
2-Bassoon (optional)
4-B flat clarinet 1
4-B flat clarinet 2
4-B flat clarinet 3
2-B flat Bass clarinet
2-E flat alto saxophone 1
2-E flat alto saxophone 2
2-B flat tenor saxophone
1-E flat baritone saxophone
4-B flat trumpet 1
4-B flat trumpet 2
4-B flat trumpet 3
4-F horn (optional)
4-Trombone 1
4-Trombone 2
2-Baritone B.C.
2-Baritone T.C.
4-Tuba
2-Percussion 1: bongos, tom toms, gong
2-Percussion 2: triangle, rainstick (optional), marimba
2-Percussion 3: sand blocks, snare drum, glockenspiel
2-Percussion 4: maracas, suspended cymbal, bass drum

Meet The Composer

Judith Lang Zaimont was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in New York in a musical family, beginning her professional career (with her sister) in a teenage duo piano team which performed, recorded, and appeared on radio and TV. She began to compose at age 12, and her early music was recognized through prizes from the National Federation of Music Clubs and BMI. Her formal composition studies were accomplished primarily through school programs (Queens College, CUNY; and Columbia University), and with postgraduate orchestration study with André Jolivet in Paris.

Zaimont is an internationally recognized composer with an impressive catalogue of approximately 100 works in all genres, many of which are prize-winning compositions. Her works have been programmed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and other major auditoriums on three continents by such groups as Connecticut Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Czech Radio Orchestra (Prague), Baltimore Symphony, Kremlin Chamber Symphony (Russia), Women’s Philharmonic (San Francisco), Jacksonville Symphony (Florida), Greenville Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina), Nassau Symphony (New York), International Double Reed Society, the Plymouth Music Series, and Dale Warland Singers.

First prize awards for her symphonic music include the First Prize-gold medal in the Gottschalk Centenary competition (1970), the State of Liberty centennial chamber orchestra competition (1986), and the 1995 McCollin International Competition (for Symphony No. 1). More recently, she was the 1999 Commissioned Composer at University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and in 2001 served as Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (FL).

About The Premiere

This piece was premiered in 2003.

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