New York Times
June 22, 2007
Classical Music

‘AN AMERICAN AWAKENING’  (Thursday)

In honor of Lukas Foss’s 85th birthday, the Choral Society of the Hamptons, the Greenwich Village Singers and the Brooklyn Philharmonic (where Mr. Foss was music director for 20 years) join forces for his rarely performed piece “The Prairie.” The German-born Mr. Foss wrote this cantata in 1944 — several years after emigrating to the United States from Paris — based on a poem from Carl Sandburg’s “Cornhuskers,” and it reflects his enthusiasm for his new homeland. The soloists are Elizabeth Farnum, a soprano; Julia Spanja, a mezzo; Gerard Powers, a tenor; and Robert Osborne, a bass-baritone. At 8 p.m., Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 721-6500, theprairieproject.org; $35 to $100. (Schweitzer)

East Hampton Star
June 21, 2007

Celebrating Lukas Foss's 85th Birthday

"Mark Mangini first heard “The Prairie,” by Lukas Foss, as a young professional singer hired to augment the Grace Choral Society of Brooklyn.  The cantata was unlike any other choral piece he had heard

Something about it touched me,” Mr.  Mangini said.  It’s “a really great choral piece.  There’re not a lot of choral pieces that are American in spirit and in English.”

Over the next 30 years, Mr.  Mangini carried the piece around in his head, hoping for another chance to perform it.  In that time span, he became the director of the Greenwich Village Singers and the Choral Society of the Hamptons, and a professor of music at the City University of New York, Hunter College, and others.  However, he never had the right opportunity to bring the cantata to the stage.... 
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Southampton Press
 June 21, 2007

Taking a Tribute to Lukas Foss On the Road
Choral Society will travel to New York for ‘Prairie’

Lukas Foss was just 21 years old in 1943 when he was hailed as a major talent following a performance by the Boston Symphony of “The Prairie,” his composition for chorus, soloists and orchestra inspired by a poem from Carl Sandburg’s “Cornhuskers.”

“It made Lukas Foss famous,” said conductor Mark Mangini, whose idea it was to celebrate the composer’s 85th birthday by organizing two full-scale performances of “The Prairie,” the first at the Rose Theater in New York on June 28, and a second at the Channing Sculpture Garden in Bridgehampton on Saturday, July 7.  ... to read more of this article click here
 

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