Soprano Jodi Burns and the Sono Auros Ensemble are preparing a recording project to create the first ever CD of the Songs of the Shulamite by the Italian-Jewish composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968). This glorious work is set to verses from the Song of Songs and is a full-length chamber song cycle for soprano, flute, harp, and string quartet. Written in 1953, it had not been performed for 60 years until we performed it at Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, NC in May of 2023.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco was raised in Florence by his Sephardic family who had relocated to Italy in 1492 after the expulsion by Queen Isabella of Spain. In 1938, already a well-established composer of International renown, Mario and his wife left for America after the Racial laws were passed in Italy. He was recommended to Metro Goldwyn Mayer by the great violinist Jascha Heifetz. Castelnuovo-Tedesco moved to Hollywood and wrote most or part of some 200 film scores, all the while writing his serious concert music until his opus numbers reached well over 200 by the time of his death.

The other works on this album will include another work by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, the Rhapsody for Solo Harp titled The Harp of King David. Also included are the Sonata for Flute and Harp by Soviet-Jewish composer Adrian Shaposhnikov, Nocturne for cello and harp by Dutch-Jewish composer Henriëtte Bosmans, and lastly the great Trio No. 1, for flute, cello, and harp by Hungarian-Jewish composer László Lajtha.