A double CD presenting five intricately composed works that blend systematic processes with an intuitive musicality: Apartment House performs three string-based studio pieces on the first disc, including the meticulously harmonic "Aurora" for solo cello, while the second disc features live recordings by Oerknal and Ensemble Ipse, showcasing spatial and textural explorations.
In Stock
Quantity in Basket: None
Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 4.00 units
EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs
Sample The Album:
Anton Lukoszevieze-cello solo
Heather Roche-clarinet
Kerry Yong-piano
Mira Benjamin-violins
Chihiro Ono-violins
Amalia Young-violins
Angharad Davies-violins
Hardy Li-conductor
Susanne Peters-flute
Daniel Boeke-clarinet
Christian Smith-percussion
Ivan Pavlov-organ
Raphaella Engelsberg-violin
Ruth Mareen-violin
Lidwine Dam-viola
Anna Litvinenko-cello
Jeremy Kienbaum-violas
William Hakim-violas
Stephanie Griffin-violas
Caroline Johnston-violas
Chieh-Fan Yu-violas
Michael Davis-violas
Beth Meyers-violas
Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.
Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at228x2
Squidco Product Code: 35480
Format: 2 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
CD1 track 1 recorded at Goldsmiths Recording Studio, in London, UK, in February, 2024.
CD1 track 2 recorded at The Old School, in Starston, UK, in April, 2024.
CD1 track 3 recorded at Goldsmiths Recording Studio, in London, UK, in November, 2023.
CD2 track 1 recorded at Gaudeamus Muziekwiek at Luterse [sic] Kerk, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in September, 2023.
CD2 track 2 recorded at Culture Lab, in Newcastle University, UK, in June, 2022, by Simon Reynell.
Another Timbre Interview with Eden Lonsdale by Marat Ingeldeev
It's great to see you return to Another Timbre after your impressive debut album Clear and Hazy Moons last year. This time we have a double CD. Is there a common thread connecting the five pieces? I understand that the first disc features performances by Apartment House, while the second one is recorded by Oerknal and Ensemble Ipse. Could you tell us more about the project?
The starting point for this project was really quite conceptual. I wanted to release three
pieces for string instruments: one for solo cello, one for four violins and one for 7 violas-like a kind of deconstructed string quartet. Once we had all three pieces in the can, we found (somewhat unsurprisingly in retrospect) that it all ended up sounding a bit monotonous, and the individual qualities of the compositions didn't really come across so well. So we decided to intersperse the string pieces with works for mixed ensembles to make for a more colourful palette. The latter four pieces on the disc are quite long, so the double CD format was really more of a practical decision than an artistic one.
Could you walk us through the first CD and the pieces on it?
The first disc comprises three pieces recorded in the studio with Simon and Apartment House. Aurora is a solo cello piece that I wrote for Anton Lukoszevieze two years ago. It
uses a string playing technique that I have come to use often since, where the player fingers a single dyad on their instrument and varies only the left hand pressure. The various combinations of harmonics and stopped pitches that can be obtained in this way result in a total of 10 different dyads. On top of this, the cello is retuned in just intonation so that all four strings resonate sympathetically. What you end up with is a performer whose left hand is barely moving but somehow producing a wealth of rich chords, shrouded in an aura of hazy harmonics.
Dawnings is a piece for clarinet and piano in three movements. The composition is built from a tiny melodic cell of three consecutive intervallic steps which is repeated to form a descending chain of pitches. The entire work consists of canons on this sequence. There are numerous types of canons that are used in the piece, with tight or wide entrances, in inversion, retrograde or prolation, and each movement uses various types that are woven into a more complex form.
The last piece on the disc, Cloud Symmetries, is for four violins and was written especially for this release. Like Dawnings, it uses a limited set of intervallic material to create the entire form. There is a continuous cantus firmus running like a spine through the entire work, only ever moving by a major second, fourth or fifth. Most of the piece is homophonic, with each note of the cantus firmus harmonised in four part chords, like a chorale. Every chord consists of the same three intervals that make up the horizontal movement stacked on top of their respective melodic note, only the order and the direction in which they are stacked is constantly rotating. The chordal passages are interspersed with sequences where the cantus firmus is either left bare or harmonised by only one other voice.
Later on in the composition, the chords are darkened and distorted by various preparations.
In your previous interview with Another Timbre, you talked about how the intuitive and systematic are 'intrinsically connected' in your pieces. As a listener, it always strikes me how fluid and natural your music feels given the meticulous compositional processes that lie behind it. Do you often change your mind about certain realisations?
I think what I was saying in the previous interview was basically that the use of certain systematic processes has become quite intuitive for me because I have used them so much. One of the reasons why I find systems indispensable is that they do a lot of the work for you. Without any kind of pre-existing rules, composing would be cripplingly difficult and even when we think we are making every decision intuitively there are usually systems at play that we are not aware of at that moment. Systems and processes create coherence, but at the same time I don't want my music to sound mechanical, so if a certain process isn't achieving an effect that I find musically appealing I will of course go back and change it. The difficulty is essentially finding the right processes but once you have them composing becomes a lot easier and faster. What I try to avoid however is intuitively overriding systematically generated structures because for me that usually becomes very messy and I lose sight of the bigger picture.
As for the second disc, how does it differ from the first, apart from a different set of players, and what can you tell us about the pieces featured on it? The main difference is really just that the two works on this disc are pre-existing live recordings. There isn't anything specific separating them musically from the pieces on the first CD.
Constellations is an extended composition for organ and an ensemble of seven players in smaller groups which are spatialised around the performance venue-an element that obviously doesn't really come across on the recording. This piece inhabits a space somewhere between a concert piece and an installation. It has a clear overarching form, but at the same time one becomes completely absorbed by the fabric of every section. Compositionally, it is really about layers separated in terms of simple musical functions and the spatial dimension. The different layers move through independent cycles and while each layer is very simple in itself, the way they overlap and intersect each other creates an emergent complexity of experience. Formally speaking, the piece functions in the same way, there are various related but clearly different soundworlds, fragments of which are assembled in a mosaic-like fashion to build the form, almost like parallel sonic universes that the piece jumps between.
Finally' Shedding is a work for seven violas that is entirely made from a three-note melody. This melody exists in two different transpositions, creating a total of six notes that make up the piece until the very end where a seventh is added. The pitches are only ever altered microtonally to create justly tuned intervals between the two parallel melodies. Apart from this, another varying parameter is the left hand pressure as described for Aurora, which creates a secondary melody in harmonics using the same fingering. The alternation between the melody in harmonics and the melody in stopped notes generates the form of the piece.
As you've mentioned already, most of the pieces on this album gravitate towards extended duration. What is the difference for you between composing a short and a long work, both in terms of process and outcome?
To be honest, I find writing longer pieces much easier because the material has space to breathe. In shorter forms, I often need to do painstaking amounts of clipping and pruning, and even then I usually overshoot the duration mark. I enjoy working in durations where there is room for all the different forms the material manifests itself as without having to worry about running out of time. Being concise is of course generally a positive quality, but there is also something to be said for just letting the music be what it needs to do so. There is that famous Feldman quote where he says that pieces exceeding a certain duration stop being about form and become about scale instead. I can't even really explain to myself what he means by that, but intuitively I understand it completely.
Of the pieces on this release, I think Cloud Symmetries feels most like that. At the beginning, it is very square and classical, but as the composition goes on you lose track of where you are in the form and are drawn deeper into the sound instead. In Constellations for instance, it's sort of the opposite. I think this sense of immersion in the sound is clear from the beginning, but as you get deeper into the piece it becomes increasingly clear that the whole thing is a huge rondo.
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Anton Lukoszevieze "Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965 in the UK) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. Anton has given many performances at numerous international festivals throughout Europe and the USA (Maerzmusik, Donaueschingen, Wien Modern, GAS, Transart, Ultima, etc.etc.). He has also made frequent programmes and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio, SR2, Sweden, Deutschland Rundfunk, WDR, Germany and ORT, Austria. Deutschlandfunk, Berlin produced a radio portrait of him in September, 2003. Anton has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the 2001 Aldeburgh festival and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with many composers and performers including David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Amnon Wolman, Pierre Strauch, Rytis Mazulis, Karlheinz Essl, Helmut Oehring, Christopher Fox, Philip Corner, Alvin Curran, Phill Niblock and Laurence Crane, He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. From 2005-7 he was New Music Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and Kettles Yard Gallery. Anton is the subject of four films (FoxFire Eins) by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker. A new film Trilogy with compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, George Aperghis and Laurence Crane premieres at The London Film Festival, October 2008. In November will premiere a new hour long work by Christopher Fox for cello and the vocal ensemble Exaudi commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and will also present new solo works for cello and live electronics. Anton is also active as an artist, his work has been shown in Holland (Lux Nijmegen), CAC, Vilnius, Duisburg (EarPort), Austria, (Sammlung Essl), Wien Modern, The Slade School of Art, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge Film Festival and Rational Rec. London. His work has been published in Musiktexte, Cologne, design Magazine and the book SoundVisions (Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrucken, 2005). Anton Lukoszevieze is founder and director of the ensemble Apartment House, a member of the radical noise group Zeitkratzer and recently made his contemporary dance debut with the Vincent Dance Company in Broken Chords, Dusseldorf." ^ Hide Bio for Anton Lukoszevieze • Show Bio for Heather Roche "Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche trained in England, lived in Germany for 7 years and now lives in London. She has performed at some of the major European festivals, including musikFest (Berlin), BachFest (Leipzig), Musica Nova (Helsinki), Acht Brücken (Cologne), the International Computer Music Conference (Huddersfield, Ljubljana), the Dias de Música Electroacústica (Seia, Portugal) and the Agora Festival (Ircam, Paris). She has also performed solo programmes at the Zagreb Music Biennale, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the New York Electroacoustic Symposium, at CIRMMT (Montreal), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Eavesdropping (London), and with the Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST). She has performed with ensembles and orchestras including Musik Fabrik (Cologne), the WDR Orchestra (Cologne), mimitabu (Gothenburg), the London Symphony Orchestra (London), ensemble Garage (Cologne), ensemble interface (Berlin), the Riot Ensemble (London), the Alisios Camerata (Zagreb), and ensemble proton (Bern). She also plays across the UK in a trio with Carla Rees (flutes) and Xenia Pestova (piano) and in 2015 formed an duo with the accordionist Eva Zöllner, with whom she has played across Germany, the UK and in Portugal. She is a founding member of hand werk, a 6-person chamber music ensemble based in Cologne, and worked with the group from 2010-2017. She has solo CDs out on the HCR/NMC and Métier labels. Please see the Discography for further details. In 2014 she was awarded a DIVA (Danish International Visiting Artists Fellowship), and lived in Copenhagen for two months. Since 2016 she has acted as the Reviews Editor for TEMPO, a quarterly journal for contemporary music published by Cambridge University Press. Her website is host to one of the most widely read new music blogs on the Internet. In 2017 it had 75,000 hits from around the world. She successfully crowdfunded in 2014 in order to host her first composition competition. Six young composers were chosen out of 270 applicants to write new pieces, which were premiered in 2016. She is a fervent advocate of collaboration, and her PhD research at the University of Huddersfield (under the supervision of Dr. Philip Thomas) explored the nature of dialogue within performer-composer relationships. She has given workshops in instrumental technique and/or iPad use in performance all over Europe, for example in London, Munich and Copenhagen. Heather completed her Masters of Music (Orchestral Training) in 2006 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying under Joy Farrall and Laurent Ben Slimane, in addition to conducting with Sian Edwards. Following her degree she completed residencies with the International Ensemble Modern Academy, at IMPULS in Graz and with ensemble recherche in Freiburg, the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2008 and 2010 and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Innsbruck, Austria. She has performed in masterclasses with Michael Collins, Ernesto Molinari and Shizuyo Oka, to name a few. She completed her BMus in 2005 at the University of Victoria, Canada, studying under Patricia Kostek." ^ Hide Bio for Heather Roche • Show Bio for Kerry Yong "Kerry is a musician who lives in east London. He trained as a pianist and now also performs on keyboards and live electronics. Kerry has performed at Audiograft, Chisenhale Arts Club, Kämmer Klang, Rational Rec, Borealis Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Kings Place, City of London Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, Nonclassical and in groups Apartment House, ELISION, Plus-Minus Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring. Kerry studied piano with Stephanie McCallum at the University of Sydney (where he also studied composition) and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music where he studied piano with Andrew Ball and researched Performance practices of music for piano with electroacoustics. He has also dabbled with the other side, playing with bands Apopalyptics, Casiokids and Half-handed Cloud and the Welcome Wagon. Kerry also directs music at Grace Church Hackney (which meets in Hoxton), where they are happy to use ancient chants, traditional hymns and new works with choirs, bands, electronics, objects and the like." ^ Hide Bio for Kerry Yong • Show Bio for Mira Benjamin "Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator. She performs new and experimental music, with a special interest in microtonality & tuning practice. She actively commissions music from composers at all stages of their careers, and develops each new work through multiple performances. Current collaborations include new works by Anna Höstman, Scott McLaughlin, Amber Priestley, Taylor Brook and James Weeks. Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD - a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada's rich art culture. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. Since 2014 she has resided in London (UK), where she regularly performs with ensembles such as Apartment House, Decibel, and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, and is currently the Duncan Druce Scholar in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield. Mira is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The prize is awarded annually to a Canadian musician in recognition of their contribution to the artistic life in Canada and internationally." ^ Hide Bio for Mira Benjamin • Show Bio for Chihiro Ono "Japanese-born violinist Chihiro Ono use music as a tool to explore human abilities, link people and places, and open human beings' minds." ^ Hide Bio for Chihiro Ono • Show Bio for Amalia Young "I am a London-based violinist, working in the fields of classical and experimental music. My research interests are in listening, embodiment, and contemporary performance practices. A bodily, meditative, and granular attention to sound and how we share it is at the heart of my practice. As a recitalist and ensemble player, I have performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Holywell Music Room, Café OTO, the Ashmolean Museum, the Aldeburgh Festival, the RAM Piano Festival, the Athenaeum Club, London Fashion Week, the New England Conservatory, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), amongst others. I particularly enjoy collaborative work with my ensembles the Kavinsky Trio (violin/sax/piano), and the Komuna Collective (string quartet/DJs/visual artists). I have also premiered works by Martin Butler, Jordan Hunt, and Ross Harris, amongst others, and enjoy interdisciplinary collaborations with composer and dancer friends. Also a choral singer, I worked as an alto at St James the Greater, Leicester from 2016-17, and St George Headstone, London from 2018-2021. I am a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where I was also recipient of a scholarship and the Doris Faulkener Prize for Violin, and more recently the University of Oxford. I am currently reading for the MMus in Performance and Related Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London." ^ Hide Bio for Amalia Young • Show Bio for Angharad Davies "Angharad Davies is a violinist, one at ease in both improvising and composition, with a wide discography as part of varied range of ensembles and groups. She's a specialist in the art of 'preparing' her violin, adding objects or materials to it to extend its sound making properties. Her sensitivity to the sonic possibilities of musical situations and attentiveness to their shape and direction make her one of contemporary music's most fascinating figures. 2015 has seen her being commissioned for a new work at the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow and premiering Eliane Radigue's new solo for violin, Occam XXI at the El Nicho Festival, Mexico. She's performed at, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms, Music We'd Like to Hear's concert series, is an associate artist at Cafe Oto, is a member of Apartment House, Cranc and Common Objects, been artist in residence at Q-02, and played live with Tony Conrad in the Turbine Room at the Tate Modern. Other collaborations have featured the likes of John Butcher, Daniela Cascella, Rhodri Davies, Julia Eckhardt , Kazuko Hohki, Roberta Jean, Lina Lapelyte, Dominic Lash, Tisha Mukarji, Andrea Neumann, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, J.G.Thirlwell, Stefan Thut, Paul Whitty, Manfred Werder, Birgit Ulher, Taku Unami and she's released records on Absinth Records, Another Timbre, Potlatch and Confrontrecords." ^ Hide Bio for Angharad Davies • Show Bio for Hardy Li "Hardy (Cheuk Hung) Li started his musical journey as a trumpet player. As his interest and knowledge in music grew, he refocused his education as a conductor. In 2021 he obtained his master degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag with professor Alex Schillings and was among the semi-finalists of the International Conductors Contest WMC 2022. Besides Auletes, Hardy is the conductor of Amsterdamse Tramharmonie, harmonieorkest Sint Gregorius Haaren, De Kleine Trompetter in Zevenhuizen and wind ensemble Windkracht 10 Voorburg. He is also a regular guest conductor of various orchestras in the country. Being active in the contemporary music scene, he is one of the founders and the principal conductor of the professional ensemble 'Spaceship', who have world-premiered over 40 compositions. He has also worked with various professional ensembles such as Orkest De Ereprijs, Ensemble Klang, Neo-Fanfare 9x13, ensemble Oerknal and Harp Sirens." ^ Hide Bio for Hardy Li • Show Bio for Susanne Peters "Susanne Peters (b. 1988, Saarbrücken, Germany) is a flutist dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. Susanne earned her Bachelor's degree at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, The Netherlands, where she studied with Kersten McCall and was a member of the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble's Ligeti Academy. She continued her studies with Pirmin Grehl at the Hochschule Luzern, receiving a Master's degree with distinction in contemporary music performance. Susanne has been involved with contemporary music on a professional level since the beginning of her studies in The Netherlands, most notably with with the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble and in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's AAA series. Since moving to Luzern she has performed in the Lucerne Festival and with the Luzern Festival Academy, plays regularly with Ensemble Contrechamps, Geneva, and Ensemble Proton, Bern. She is a member of Collegium Novum, Zürich, and is a founding member of Oerknal!, a new music ensemble based in The Netherlands. She has worked closely with composers Beat Furrer, Hans Zender, Heinz Holliger, Isabel Mundry, Jason Eckardt, Lewis Nielson, Chaya Czernowin, Bernhard Lang, Dieter Ammann, Simon Steen-Andersen, Kyle Bartlett, Reiko Füting, among others. Susanne is active in several chamber groups and has a particular passion for introducing younger audiences to the world of contemporary music. She was able to develop her orchestral skills in the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester Akademie during the 2013/14 season. Susanne currently lives between Luzern and Amsterdam." ^ Hide Bio for Susanne Peters • Show Bio for Daniel Boeke "Daniel Boeke (b. 1988 in Arezzo, Italy) began playing the clarinet at the age of 11. In 2008 he began studying with Pierre Woudenberg at the Royal conservatory of The Hague, where he performed a wide range of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire both inside (Heiner Goebbels Festival: 'Surrogate Cities'; James MacMillan: 'Quickening'; Benjamin Britten: 'Albert Herring') and outside the conservatory. After attaining his B.M. in 2011 he continued at the Royal Conservatory, earning his M.M. in 2013 with a specialization in contemporary performance. Daniel has participated in masterclasses with Martin Frost and Karl Leister. In 2014 he performed in the DNO/NJO production 'Kopernikus', marking his first involvement with opera and music theatre. He has continued to explore the possibilities of music theatre, most notably in the Opera Zuid/ICK production 'De Sopranos' and the NJO production 'Songbook #2'. He performs regularly with the ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble, DNO and other new music groups both inside and outside of The Netherlands. His interest in different genres of music has led to collaborations with These New Puritans (GB), Sycamore Age (IT), Andrea Chimenti (IT) and Navarone (NL)." ^ Hide Bio for Daniel Boeke • Show Bio for Christian Smith "Christian Smith is a percussionist and electronics performer based in the Hague. He plays primarily with experimental music groups like Oerknal." ^ Hide Bio for Christian Smith • Show Bio for Ivan Pavlov "Ivan Pavlov Bulgarian Pianist, graduated from Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag with distinction in June 2016. Currently studies with Ellen Corver. He worked together and long with Dutch National Opera Academy and Residentie Orchestra. His participate in Aan het Spui - theatre with Satyagrata by Philip Glass. In 2005 he performed Double Concerto by Hans Abrahamsen with Clark Rundell conductor. As a pianist he is very versatile, his repertoire covers everything from old to contemporary music. Due to his high interest in contemporary music he was invited and made a wonderful addition for the Master program aus LICHT. Where he is currently working with wonderful professionalists and his interest in Karlheinz Stockhausen's music is further unveiled. Furthermore, he is involved and closely working with many talented composers who dedicated various pieces to him." ^ Hide Bio for Ivan Pavlov • Show Bio for Raphaella Engelsberg "Raphaella Engelsberg (b. 1989 in Voorburg) earned her M.M. degree in violin performance from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig, Germany, where she studied with Prof. Erich Höbarth (Quatuor Mosaïques) after having completed her Bachelor studies with Ilona Sie Dhian Ho at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. As concertmaster of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra (2010-2013) Raphaella curated chamber music programs for various festivals and led a younger generation of musicians through several performances of contemporary music in the orchestra's summer academy. In 2012 Raphaella was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra Academy where she worked with soloists and conductors such as Radu Lupu, Christoph Eschenbach and Manfred Honeck. She has participated in masterclasses with Robert Levin, Philippe Graffin, Hagai Shaham, Moshe Hammer, Kaija Sariaaho and Steve Reich, and has performed chamber music alongside cellist Raphael Wallfish and clarinetist Charles Neidich. Raphaella is keenly interested in contemporary music; in addition to her work with Oerknal she has performed with the ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble and Neophon Ensemble (Berlin) among others. She regularly performs in orchestras and chamber groups throughout The Netherlands. Along with duo partner Andrea Vasi (piano) Raphaella performs in retirement and convalescent homes hoping to provide residents with tools to escape possible isolation and loneliness, a societal issue that greatly concerns the duo. The violin, a Dutch mid-18th-century instrument by Joh. Theodorus Cuypers, as well as the W.E. Hill & Sons bow played by Raphaella are generously leant to her by the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds in Amsterdam." ^ Hide Bio for Raphaella Engelsberg • Show Bio for Ruth Mareen "After her Erasmus exchange, she continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she graduated with Janet Krause in June 2023. She was also a member of the premiere student contemporary ensemble, the Ensemble Academy for two years in a row. This gave her the opportunity to work on contemporary repertoire with groups such as Asko/Schönberg and New European Ensemble. She also is part of and regularly performs with the violin-guitar duo RAAS and the environmentally-focused Ear to the Earth Ensemble. With her chamber music ensembles she has performed at festivals like Wilde Westen, MA festival, Delft Fringe Festival and Delft Chamber Music Festival. In August 2024 Ruth's ensemble Ear to the Earth got accepted and participated in the Young Ensemble Academy of the prestigious Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt Her master's research on improvisation on the violin received high praise, and was published afterwards. The result of this research can be heard in 'Ruth invites...', a collaboration with pianist Brecht Valckenaers, guitarist Marie-Lou Debels and cellist Nina Vanhoenacker, with improvised interludes based on the repertoire performed. She also plays in projects with the string ensemble Ataneres and the contemporary classical ensemble Oerknal." ^ Hide Bio for Ruth Mareen • Show Bio for Lidwine Dam "Violist Lidwine Dam (b. 1988 in Maastricht) earned her B.M. and M.M. from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where she studied with Liesbeth Steffens and Ron Ephrat. She became interested in contemporary music during her studies and participated in the ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble's Ligeti Academy and other new music projects. In addition to her work with Oerknal she has performed with ASKO|Schönberg and other new music groups in The Netherlands. She is an active chamber musician, performing regularly in the Chamber Music Festival Schiermonnikoog and Orlando Festival and with cellist Raphael Wallfisch and clarinettist Charles Neidich. She has participated in masterclasses with Hartmut Rohde and Lawrence Power, and performs in the Noord Nederlands Orkest and Philharmonie Zuid Nederland. She has participated in the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Cervo Summer Academy in Italy, and the Festival Campos do Jordão in Brazil." ^ Hide Bio for Lidwine Dam • Show Bio for Anna Litvinenko "Anna Litvinenko is a Cuban-Ukrainian and Miami-raised cellist who captivates the attention of audiences with her presence and style. Her sound shows her strength and conviction but also reveals her more intimate sensibilities. She is currently based in The Netherlands, where she is engaged in diverse musical scenes ranging from solo, chamber music and early music to contemporary and improvised music. She has performed as a soloist with the Vienna Radio Symphonie-Orchester, the Odessa Philharmonic, the Miami Symphony, the New World Symphony, among many others. She has also made appearances as a solo and chamber musician in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Bozar, Carnegie Hall, and the Wigmore Hall and regularly gets invited to perform in festivals and concert series like the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music Series, Gaudeamus Festival, the International Festival of Krakow Composers, MOOT at the Brighton Fringe, and the Orlando Festival. Some recent highlights include Beethoven's Triple Concerto at the Arte Solidale Festival and Seung-Won Oh's Concerto for cello and voice with the Ensemble Academy. After finishing her degrees at the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick and London's Royal College of Music with Richard Lester, Anna received a Fulbright Grant to study improvisation at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, where she immersed herself in early music and the historical cello with Lucia Swarts. These past years, Anna has been performing with period ensembles like the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, and to a great extent with her piano trio Chekhov Trio. Imagination is essential to Anna's work, making her a spontaneous musician who dares to take risks. Improvisation and interdisciplinary work are of great importance to her and a source for inspiration. She has composed and performed for Nederlands Dans Theather's Switch'20, worked under the direction of Bill T. Jones, and has produced multiple multimedia performances with visual arts and poetry with her trio Kalea, a group that improvises and composers through classical, folk and experimental music. Anna is the recipient of Juilliard's John Erskine Prize, KC's Fock Medaille, Amsterdam Cello Biënnale's Start in Splendor Prize, From the Top's Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, and she is also a YoungArts winner and a 3rd Prize Laureate of the Sphinx Competition. Her studies were made possible by the generous support of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, RCM's Rose Williams Scholarship, a Holland Scholarship and KC's Excellence Scholarship." ^ Hide Bio for Anna Litvinenko • Show Bio for Jeremy Kienbaum "American Violist Jeremy Kienbaum has been lauded for his "eloquent strength" (Well-Tempered Ear) and sound that "refracted like shards of light" (New York Times). He has made recent appearances with Love from Lincoln Center, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and at the Paax Festival in Mexico and the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. He has been featured on the TODAY Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, Classical KING, and can be seen in the documentary "Itzhak," chronicling the teaching of Itzhak Perlman. He has performed around the world at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Paris and Berlin Philharmonies, and the Chan Centre in Vancouver, Canada. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Kienbaum has performed with renowned musicians including Carmit Zori, Alexander Fiterstein, and alongside members of the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. He regularly plays with the Willy Street Chamber Players and Concerts on the Slope and has performed at Bargemusic, Chelsea Music Festival, and on the Charles Ives Concert Series. Strongly committed to performing works by living composers, Mr. Kienbaum has premiered works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Augusta Read Thomas, and Georg Friedrich Haas, and has worked with composers including Thomas Ades, Fred Lerdahl, and Nina C. Young. In 2016 he gave the world premiere of "Tragedy No. 2," a string quartet concerto by Theo Chandler, as a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Kienbaum teaches at Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College, and Opportunity Music Project. He has previously taught for Juilliard Music Advancement Program, the After-School Arts Program at the Nord Anglia International School in New York, and for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. Additionally, he has given masterclasses and coached chamber ensembles at Juilliard, Boston University, Frostburg State University, Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, and for students of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China. Mr. Kienbaum has been recognized internationally for his musical achievements as first prize winner in the Enkor International Chamber Music Competition and the National Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Competition, second prize in the Vršac International Competition, and a finalist in the Frances Walton Competition. He received the James F. Crow Viola Award from the University of Wisconsin and the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship from The Juilliard School. Originally from Wisconsin, Mr. Kienbaum received degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Juilliard, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He is grateful to have had the mentorship of his teachers David Perry, Sally Chisholm, Samuel Rhodes, and Mark Steinberg." ^ Hide Bio for Jeremy Kienbaum • Show Bio for William Hakim "William Hakim has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is a member of the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC), the New York Symphonic Ensemble and performs with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Sonos Chamber Orchestra, Orion Music Ensemble and Metropolis Ensemble. As a jazz player, he has performed at the Jazz Standard, Le Poisson Rouge and the Iridium. He is currently a doctoral candidate at City University of New York." ^ Hide Bio for William Hakim • Show Bio for Stephanie Griffin "Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist/composer based in New York City. She founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004, is a member of Ensemble Ipse and the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and has received prestigious composition fellowships from the Instituto Sacatar (Brazil), the Bronx Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School and teaches at Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges." ^ Hide Bio for Stephanie Griffin • Show Bio for Michael Davis "Violist Michael Davis enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician and orchestral player. A founding member of Shattered Glass, a conductor-less string ensemble based in New York City, Michael has performed at prestigious institutions including Schneider Concerts at The New School for Music, Carnegie Hall, Princeton University, SphinxConnect Artist Showcase, and as a guest artist at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. Michael has performed chamber music throughout South Korea with the New York in Chuncheon Festival, and appears frequently with the Grammy Award-winning Pedro Giraudo Tango Ensemble. He also performs regularly with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Michael completed his undergraduate degree as a full scholarship student of Michael Klotz at the Florida International University Wertheim School of Music (Miami, FL), and his graduate degrees as a student of Karen Dreyfus and Irene Breslaw at the Manhattan School of Music Orchestral Performance Program where he was a recipient of the Charles Grossman Memorial Endowment Scholarship. He is also a former Tanglewood Music Center Fellow and an alumnus of the Pacific Music Festival." ^ Hide Bio for Michael Davis • Show Bio for Beth Meyers "Violist/multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, arranger and recording artist, Beth Meyers was founding member of the flute/viola/harp trio, janus, whose debut album i am not (New Amsterdam Records 2010) was called "gorgeously subtle" (NPR's Studio 360). Through their more than 14 years of collaboration and touring, janus commissioned over one hundred new works for the trio repertoire. The group's final album Book Of Memory (New Focus Recordings 2016) features the music of Paul Lansky and Jason Treuting. As a chamber musician, Beth has also performed and recorded with groups including Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble ACJW, ACME Ensemble, Argento, Da Capo Chamber Players, Ensemble Signal, Far Rockaway Chamber Music, Hotel Elefant, IPSE Ensemble, the Knights, Kronos Quartet, Meredith Monk Ensemble, Nexus Percussion, Sō Percussion, Steve Reich and Musicians, and the Ying Quartet. Beth is committed to new sounds and pushing the boundaries of contemporary music. In addition to her experience working under the baton of Pierre Boulez with the Lucerne Festival Academy (2005/2006), she has also performed with former Arditti String Quartet and Ensemble InterContemporain violist, Garth Knox. In 2009, alongside the NY chapter of the American Viola Society, Beth presented Garth for the first time in the US and his groundbreaking piece, 'Viola Spaces'. As a performer, she is also interested in the intersection of free improvisation and new music and synthesizes her experience as a graduate of the School for Improvisational Music (Ralph Alessi/Peter Epstein 2001). More recently, Beth co-produced and performed (viola/voice/ electric guitar/banjo/spoken word) a double vinyl of original music by Jason Treuting called 'Go Placidly With Haste' with collaborative tracks from various artists including Angélica Negrón, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Sam Amidon and members of Sō Percussion. This project spanned just over 6 years beginning at a Yellow Barn artist retreat, making its way to Berlin at the PEOPLE Festival (2018) and culminating at Brooklyn's Shapeshifter Lab for the Cantaloupe Records album release in Spring 2024. As an orchestral violist, Beth performs regularly with her hometown group, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Over the years, she has performed with orchestras including the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, Key West Symphony, New York Pops, Richmond Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and the Wordless Music Orchestra. She performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Academy where she worked under conductors including Marin Alsop, Joann Falletta, David Robertson and Leonard Slatkin. In 2016, Beth joined alumni of the Lucerne Festival Academy in a memorial concert for Pierre Boulez at the KKL in Lucerne, Switzerland for a moving performance of 'Rite of Spring'. As a Broadway musician, she held the viola chair at Wicked Broadway from 2014-2016 after acting as substitute for nine years prior. Her first "regular chair" was Rocky (2014) which she held for its entirety.Beth has also served as substitute viola for Carousel, Cinderella, Ghost, Matilda and currently Hamilton. As an Institute for Music Leadership Orchestral Fellow during her time at the Eastman School of Music, she performed and recorded regularly with the Rochester Philharmonic. Internships in the administrative offices of Education and Outreach and the Office of Special Events at the RPO led to a year-long appointment as Program Associate of Orchestral Performance and Community Outreach at the Manhattan School of Music. Further accolades include being selected as one of two Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Fellows to attend the Mellon Foundation's "Orchestra Forum," working alongside musicians and administrators of such organizations as the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke's to examine the health of American symphony orchestras. After hearing the sound of a Norwegian hardingfele for the first time in early 2002, she later joined forces with the performer and composer, Dan Trueman and is wife and bandmate, Monica Mugan, becoming a founding member of the quirky "folk-prog" band, QQQ (with Dan on hardanger fiddle, Monica on acoustic guitar and Jason Treuting on drums). QQQ's debut album, Unpacking the Trailer (New Amsterdam Records 2009) was hailed "a bold statement of purpose disguised as an unpretentious lark" by Time Out New York. In 2017 she released Just Sit So with her duo project, Damsel (with vocalist/guitarist, Monica Mugan), featuring the singer-songwriting team's original compositions for voice, viola, guitar, ukulele, and banjo. Damsel's sophomore album, New To You was released in 2021 and the band celebrated its release with a delayed tour of Ireland in 2023. Damsel has performed at venues including the Unruly Sounds Festival, LPR, Rockwood Music Hall, Barbés, Pete's Candy Store, the Irish Arts Center for Muldoon's Picnic, Levis' Corner House, DeBarra's Folk Club, Club Passim and Whelan's. One of the band's highlights was opening for Rozi Plain at Phil Grime's in Waterford, IE. The duo will celebrate their 10 year anniversary in 2024 by returning to Ireland in August 2024 to perform at Fuddle Fest and Another Love Story. Beth's passion for singing was honed early in her career when she began singing the music of Steve Reich. Beth's vocals are featured on Steve Reich: Tehillim / The Desert Music (Cantaloupe Records 2002), Drumming Live with Steve Reich and Sō Percussion at Le Poisson Rouge (Dog W/A Bone 2016), Steve Reich, Nexus, Sō Percussion (2021) and a Four/Ten Media video of Steve Reich: Drumming performed by 'Nexus, Sō Percussion and Friends' which can be found on the 'Drumming at 50' website. Beth has also recorded and performed backing vocals for artists including Arone Dyer, Caroline Shaw, Clare Muldaur, Lisa Hannigan, Mariam Wallington, Shara Nova, and Kate Stables (TITK). She is a regular sidewoman for the anti-folk Warner Bros. artist, Regina Spektor and has also shared the stage and/or recorded with artists including Adele, Antony and the Johnsons, Beirut, Björk, Cassandra Wilson, Chris Cornell, Chris Stapleton, Chromeo, Dan Deacon, Due Lipa, Eryka Badu, Frank Ocean, Jade Bird, Local Natives, Matmos, Meredith Monk, The National, The Roots, This is the Kit, and Sufjan Stevens. As a composer/arranger, Beth collaborated with composer/librettist, Rebecca Comerford and composer, Jason Treuting to co-write the multigenerational opera, 'The Nightingale And The Tower' (commissioned by the Ojai Youth Opera, 2019). The same year, she also worked closely with Regina Spektor to arrange music and MD for her Broadway limited run, 'Regina Spektor on Broadway' at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater as well as her appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. In the pre-pandemic months, she collaborated with choreographer, Emma Sandall to compose and arrange the music for 'This Wrestling Place', a theatrical adaptation of "Motherhood" by Sheila Heti which was scheduled to premier at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before covid hit. In her role as producer, Beth curated the U.S. premier of former Arditti String Quartet member, Garth Knox in Brooklyn (2006) and more recently coordinated the 'Unremembered' recording project for Schirmer composer, Sarah Kirkland Snider (New Amsterdam Records 2015). Most recently, Beth wore multiple hats as producer/arranger for Burkina Faso's choreographer and composer, Olivier Tarpaga, in his premier of 'Be Kūnū' with Dafra Kura Band and the Princeton University Orchestra. Beth joined this project early in its evolution and, alongside Olivier, Bouboucar Djiga, and Seydou Koïta, arranged/transcribed/ orchestrated the 30-minute suite of music for full orchestra. The Be Kūnū project is a groundbreaking, first of its kind work and was conceived by Olivier Tarpaga and the director of PUO, Michael Pratt in response to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe: West African music performed on ancient Mandingo string instruments by the Dafra Kura Band and accompanied by a classical symphony orchestra. Upcoming projects include a string quartet arrangement of Norwegian pop star, Sondre Lerch's 'Two Way Monologue' at Le Poisson Rouge in celebration of the album's 20th anniversary. Beth is a graduate of the University of Rochester (BA English '00) and Eastman School of Music (BM '00, MM '02) where she studied with George Taylor. Her principal teachers also include John Graham (Aspen Music Festival), Garth Knox (Ensemble InterContemporain), and Melissa Micciche (Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra). Her vocal mentors include Daisy Press and Theo Bleckmann. Beth is currently an adjunct faculty member at Rider University where she teaches Music for Dance. She plays a Möes and Möes viola and a Mike Ramsey banjo." ^ Hide Bio for Beth Meyers
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
12/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
CD1
1. Aurora 12:22
2. Dawnings 32:09
3. Cloud Symmetries 33:58
CD2
1. Constellations 41:51
2. Shedding 25:55
Compositional Forms
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Large Ensembles
Solo Artist Recordings
Duo Recordings
Quartet Recordings
Octet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Compositional Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers
Search for other titles on the label:
Another Timbre.