Depicting 12th-century Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar’s dramatic narrative, New York-based composer and GRAMMY-nominated conductor Jonathan Sheffer presents his orchestral work The Conference of Birds, commissioned for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, on Navona Records. Attar’s poem of the same name is a journey of transformation and conviction, in which the birds of the world seek to find an illustrious leader, ultimately ending with new insight into their spiritual identities. The allegory portrays our own doubts, fears, and faults, how we confront these issues, and how we seek to understand identity and our relationships with other humans, the natural world, and what lies beyond. Masterfully performed by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sheffer himself, the music illustrates several events in the poem: the Hoopoe's assembly of the birds, with their uncontrolled chatter; the birds’ individual arguments, revealed in a series of refusals to embark on the spiritual journey; the difficulties of the journey itself; the final arrival at the Simorgh’s court; and the transcending conclusion to their quest. • Sheffer's range of works comprises television and feature film scores, works for orchestra, solo piano, concerti, musicals, and short operas • The focus of a Guggenheim Works & Process series event in October 1999, Sheffer’s opera Blood on the Dining Room Floor, which uses text from Gertrude Stein, received the Richard Rodgers Production Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was produced off-Broadway in 2000 • Sheffer has had fellowships at both Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony, and in 2003 was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome• He has continued his film scoring career, finding himself in demand for movies with a colorful, dramatic element. These included work on Omen IV, Bloodhounds of Broadway, Darkman (a collaboration with Danny Elfman), In a Shallow Grave, Alien 3, Interview with the Vampire, Michael Collins, Sphere, Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin as well as the recent documentaries, HBO’s Mann v. Ford (2010) and The Decent One (2014)• His symphonic conducting debut was in 1991 with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 he was assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas at both L'Orchestre National de France and the London Symphony Orchestra • In 1995 Sheffer founded Eos Orchestra, an innovative organization which specializes in new and neglected music. Eos concerts were featured frequently on NPR’s Performance Today, and in 1999 Sheffer conducted Eos at a ceremony held at the White House for the presentation of the National Medal of Arts and Humanities • Sheffer and Eos Orchestra received a GRAMMY nomination for their collection of rare film music by Aaron Copland, Celluloid Copland, as well as recorded for a PBS program on Aaron Copland for broadcast in November 2000 • Sheffer has conducted the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, in 1997 performances of the Mark Morris Dance Company at Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 1996, he led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Edinburgh Festival • Sheffer graduated from Harvard University and later attended The Juilliard School and Aspen School of Music. His teachers included Leonard Bernstein, Jay Gottlieb, and Leon Kirchner
