A MEMORIAL CONCERT

Richard Burke was an accomplished composer, an extraordinary educator and a cherished colleague, mentor and friend. 
On March 21, 2015,  hundreds of those whose lives he touched gathered at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York City
to hear music that Richard composed and watch video presentations celebrating his life and work.  
Welcome
Jennifer Raab, President, Hunter College
Paul F. Mueller, Chair, Department of Music
Josh Howard
 
Eulogy
A piece written by Richard in 2012 in memory of Gerald Kagan
    
Susan Kagan, Piano
Eric Grossman, Violin
            

Richard Burke Memorial Concert Part 7 from Richard Burke Memorial Concert on Vimeo.

Remembrance
A video tribute
     
Ignacio Zancada, Director
"Sudden Light" and "Silent Noon"
Two songs from The Lost Hours, a song cycle Richard
based on poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Paul Houghtaling, Bass-Baritone
Catherine Coppola, Piano
     
The Princess and the Goblin
Twyla Tharp discusses her collaboration with Richard on her ballet The Princess and the Goblin, and in a 2012 interview, Richard talks about the challenges of creating the music for the ballet.
     
Beverly Chase, Editor
A Piano Tribute
Richard composed Sonata for Piano No. 2 (subtitled "Preludes and Fugues) specifically to be performed by his dear friend and colleague Geoffrey Burleson, the director of piano studies at Hunter College.  Geoff was planning to play a movement from the piece, but for reasons that he explains in his introduction, he instead performs
Saint-Saëns' Élegie for the Left-Hand, a favorite of his and Richard's.
     
Before he was "Professor Burke"
Ira Siff introduces Richard's work as a composer of cabaret music and as musical director of La Gran Scena Opera Company, which Ira created.
     
"I've Got This Song" performed by Julie Kurnitz on the CBS-TV broadcast Camera Three, July 23, 1978.
     
"Someone Warm in the Winter" and "I Never Would Have Known"
performed live by Dewey Moss, Vocals and Piano
     
Also from Camera Three, Julie and Richard perform "Just an Echo in the Valley," a 1930s standard with an updated ending.
     
The Hunter Opera Theater
Susan Gonzalez, director of the Hunter Opera Theater, introduces excerpts from The House, an original opera composed by Richard in 2011 specifically to be performed by Hunter College students.
    
Scene One: It's 1939, a Victorian House is for sale, and the young couple that buys it begin to imagine how their lives will unfold.
    
Scene Two:  Present day.  The house has fallen into disrepair, but a single mother thinks it's the perfect place for her and her daughter.
    
Paul F. Mueller, Conductor
    
Goodnight
Josh Howard
  
"I Love You, But Goodbye"
Words and music by Richard from his revue I've Got This Song, 1979
    
Dewey Moss, Vocals and Piano