Verdi arr. Hartman: Ave Maria from Othello for Trombone Quartet

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was the principal operatic composer in Italy during the middle and late 19th Century. He was immensely popular during his lifetime, which was a period of unification for the Italian city states. Verdi's music appealed to his countrymen's sense of national pride and resentment of foreign influence, by resisting the German operatic trend towards romanticized nature and contrived symbolism. Instead, Verdi kept at the core of his music the traditional Italian love of human drama and vocal melody. This Ave Maria is a pivotal point in the final act of Verdi's greatest tragic opera, Otello. Following an emotional goodnight and goodbye to her lady-in-waiting, and anticipating death at Otello's hands, Desdemona seeks solace and intercession through the mother, Mary.

Scott Hartman received his BM and MM degrees from the Eastman School of Music and began his career by joining the Empire Brass Quintet and the Boston University faculty in 1984. As a trombone soloist and with his various chamber ensembles, Scott has taught and played concerts in all fifty United States and throughout the world. Mr. Hartman presently performs and records with Proteus7, the Millennium Brass, the Brass Band of Battle Creek and the trombone quartet Four of a Kind. Scott heads the trombone departments of Yale University and Boston University. At the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Mr. Hartman teaches a two-week workshop for aspiring trombonists. More information concerning Mr. Hartman and his present activities is available at his website www.slushpump.com.