Introducing New Music Celebrating History And Honoring Service
Composed by Patrick Zimmerli with libretto by Mirabelle Ordinaire, Letters From The Front is a new work for four voices and piano based on letters sent by American service members and their loved ones during wartime.
Executive producer and pianist Ian Gindes teamed with artistic originator Steve Robinson alongside Zimmerli and Ordinaire to select the letters and set their words to music in honor of the 250th birthday of the United States. Tenor John Riesen, Mezzo-soprano Angela Born, Bass-baritone David Govertsen, and Soprano Desirée Hassler bring to life the voices of the writers by telling their stories.
Each piece on the recording is based on an actual letter written during one of our nation’s most crucial wars, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Gulf War.
This music is a tribute to the men and women who made the sacrifice of service over the course of 250 years. Each piece represents not only history, but also the hope that their duty was done for a greater purpose – for their families, friends, neighbors, communities, and country.
Track Listing
- Overture
- I’ll Live For Your Letters
- I Set Myself Down This Moment
- Tonite Two Fellows Got Together
- A Minute Doesn’t Go By
- Preparation For Battle
- Vietnam War Song
- Poem For Irving F. Diamond
- I’ll Live For Your Letters Reprise
- Where Are You Tonight?
- All Greasy And Salty
- This Is A Most Horrible War
- Engagement Letter
- A Baby At Home
- I Have A Rendezvous With Death
- Now There Will Be Stories To Tell
- It Won’t Be Long Now
- Finale
Available now on Apple Music Classical, Spotify, and streaming platforms!
Program Notes
By John von Rhein
By John von Rhein
The history of the grand American experiment in democracy lives, in many ways, in the letters and stories of the service members who put their lives on the line—and, in some cases, paid the ultimate price—for their country.
Their courage, dedication and patriotism take on even greater significance in 2026 as the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Whether they are late-18th-century colonials who took up arms against the most powerful world empire of their day; members of the U.S.military engaged in far-flung conflicts across today’s globe; or family members who wait for the safe return of their loved ones, their stories tell us who we are and who we hope to be, as Americans.
Their words are the beating heart of Letters From The Front.
The vocal chamber work, written in 2025, was commissioned by Ian Gindes, the award-winning pianist, producer and longtime member of the Army National Guard, in which he currently holds the rank of Major. It comprises a prelude for piano alone, a dozen songs for individual voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone), two duets and three vocal ensembles.
Letters From The Front is at once an extended song cycle and a grand musical tapestry of American history, hope, faith, aspiration, despair and optimism in times of war.
The libretto, by French stage director and librettist Mirabelle Ordinaire, draws on the experiences of service members as expressed in their correspondence. Texts span virtually the entire history of this nation—from the American Revolution and Civil War, through the Second World War, to Vietnam and the Gulf War.
The music, by New York- and Paris-based composer, producer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli, turns their experiences into aural poetry. With piano accompaniments that abound in period atmosphere, the score sounds American through and through. Even as it draws on various classical and popular musical idioms, the lyrical impetus is very much Zimmerli’s own.
We are reminded throughout this ambitious and important new American song cycle that the price of freedom is paid, to this day, in dedication, self-sacrifice and blood, by ordinary citizens called on to defend a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Letters From The Front stands as a tribute to our service members and veterans, along with those who lost their lives in the birth and growth of the Republic.
John von Rhein was the classical music critic of the Chicago Tribune for more than 40 years until his retirement from the newspaper in 2018. He continues to write articles on musical subjects for such print and online publications as Chicago Classical Review, Opera magazine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Lyric Opera program books. He is co-author (with Andrew Porter) of Bravi, a photo history of the Ardis Krainik years at Lyric Opera of Chicago (Abbeville Press). He holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from DePaul University. He lives in Chicago.
