Posted on June 22, 2011 at 3:04 pm

Four years ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman asked me to write the music for a symphonic adaptation of E.B. White‘s classic novel The Trumpet of the Swan. And so began the most joyful, most completely satisfying project I’ve ever been involved with.

Earlier this year, I went into EastWest Studio in Los Angeles with 40 of the best session players in town and our two amazing soloists, Christopher Michael Venditti on trumpet and Randy Landau on fretless bass, and recorded the score to what Marsha and I call our “novel symphony.” Then, last month, I got to work with our six incredible narrators: Martin Short, James Naughton, Kathy Bates, Mandy Moore, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and our wonderful leading player, John Lithgow.

The end result is my proudest moment as a record producer, and a true highlight of my composing career. Yesterday, PS Classics released the premiere recording of The Trumpet of the Swan, and I hope you’ll pick up a copy and take a listen.

There are a couple of different ways you can get your Trumpet on.

Option #1: Go to PSClassics.com, where you can listen to five high-quality clips (featuring Sam Davis‘s magnificent orchestrations) and order your copy right there!

Option #2: For a limited time, Amazon.com is offering a digital download of the entire CD for only $5.99, which is a pretty sensational deal. You can click right here to go to the Amazon MP3 store and you can have it downloaded to your computer right then and there for immediate orchestral gratification. (It’s also available on Amazon.co.uk, only £5.99 for you European folk.)

Option #3: iTunes is now … oh. Actually, iTunes screwed up when they were loading the CD into their system, so you can’t get it there yet. You will eventually! But it’ll still be cheaper to get it from Amazon.

(Of course the digital download does not include the gorgeous booklet that PS Classics designed to accompany the CD. I’m working on a way to have that available on my website for you to download directly!)

I am just bananas for this piece and this CD (and my five-year-old loves it almost as much as “Da’ Butt,” but that’s a whole other story). Treat yourself and your family to a sensational cast and a kickass band bringing this classic story to life.

Have a great summer!
Jason Robert Brown