The Cincinnati May Festival one of America’s oldest music festivals, with roots going back to the 1840s, and a formal launch dating from the 1870s. Over the course of its history, the Festival has performed great choral works of both European and American composers and commissioned and premiered many brand-new works.

On today’s date in 1998, for example, James Conlon conducted the premiere performance of “PraiseMaker,” a new work for chorus and orchestra setting texts by poet and screen writer Susan Kougell to music by the American composer Alvin Singleton.

The title was inspired by the “praise singers” of Africa, who serve as the oral historians and celebrants of their community’s history and traditions. Susan Kougell’s text is a celebration of memory, expressed in simple, almost minimalist poetry. "Her poetry is so straightforward, you don’t have to work to figure it out," said Singleton. For his part, Singleton scored "PraiseMaker” for chorus and orchestra, with a percussion section that includes temple bells, tubular bells and vibraphone.

Reviewing a recording of “PraiseMaker” made by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, one critic wrote, “The score surprises you with its range of mood and even, in places, with its tenderness.”

Alvin Singleton (b. 1940) — PraiseMaker (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Robert Spano) Telarc 32630