Monica Chew - clavichord - second set

Monica Chew (she/her) is an Oakland composer and pianist who celebrates presenting rarely performed music and new works from around the world. A "gifted player with an affinity for deeply sensitive expression" (Whole Note), she has composed since 2017 and couldn't be happier about it. Her work has been featured as part of the Gabriela Lena Frank's Creative Academy for Music, Verdant Vibes, Hot Air Music Festival, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's Intersection program. Her writing has been reviewed as "monumental" and "stunning" by San Francisco Classical Voice. Prior to 2015, she worked nearly a decade as a principal software engineer on security and privacy at Mozilla and Google. She lives in Oakland with her husband, an 1899 Steinway B, a clavichord, and a disused violin.

More can be found at: www.monicachew.com

Concert Dates

  • February 24, 2024 2:30 PM EST- YouTube.com/@Vox_Novus

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame featuring Monica Chew with Clavichord

  • Prelude

    David Bohn

    David Bohn received degrees in composition from the University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Illinois. He currently resides in West Allis, Wisconsin, and is the music coordinator at Peace Methodist Church in Brookfield. He is the President of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers.

  • Toccata per clavicordo

    Carlotta Ferrari

    'Toccata per clavicordo' is a one-minute composition divided into three subsections followed by a brief cadenza. The first and third subsections feature the main theme in a bright style, while the central section, developing the same melody, is more cantabile. The toccata ends with a brilliant burst inside the instrument.

    Carlotta Ferrari (1975) is an award-winning Italian composer who has developed a personal language concerned with the blend of past and present. Her compositions have been performed around the world and appear on several CDs. Her research interest lies in contemporary compositional techniques with a modal inspiration.

  • Fantasietta

    Meadow Bridgham

    Meadow reimagines old ideas into new music—a kind of musical upcycling. Meadow holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music.
    Visit www.bridghammusic.com for more info.

  • Peaceful Landscape With Moss

    Máté Balogh

    As the title suggest, my piece is a lyric musical landscape, composed especially for this call, dedicated to Monica Chew.

    I am a Hungarian composer, living in Budapest, teaching music theory at the Franz Liszt Academy Of Music. My pieces were presented all over Europe, and in Turkey, China, Taiwan, Japan, Canada & the United States.

  • Echo

    Jee Seo

    This piece is dedicated to Monica Chew and consists of the spelling of her name: C, H, E, W.

    Jee Seo (b.1985) is a South Korean composer. Over the last decade, his works have been performed by numerous performers and ensembles in more than 40 cities and about 20 countries across four continents. He is currently a doctoral student at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

  • Landscape for clavichord solo

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

    Music for period instruments compliments this composer’s music, including Soliloquy IIb for Baroque Oboe, Reflection on the Name of Daniel Blitz for Clavichord and this piece also for Clavichord. A cautious opening flourish and tentative cluster frames this work for Monica Chew and Vox Novus Fifteen – Minutes – of – Fame.

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza studied in England at the Purcell School with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He then studied at the Trinity College of Music and the University of Sheffield. His music has since been performed in Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Pacific.

  • November

    Alisa Rose

    November was inspired by the delicate fluttering improvisatory sounds of baroque clavichord music as well as the instrument's capability to play with vibrato!

    Rebel expressionist Alisa Rose blurs the lines between violinist, fiddler, composer, and improviser. Her compositions synthesize American fiddle styles and classical chamber music. Rose was Grammy-nominated, an Ambassador of the State Department and teaches Improvisation at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

  • Papillon

    Nancy Bachmann

    A butterfly flits about in the sun and rests on a flower.

    I have been fortunate in my life to have had three overlapping but distinct careers in music: freelancing as a pianist and singer; chamber and solo musician music; full time music professor. Now, retired from teaching, my focus is composing, a long-neglected love. Nancy Bachmann

  • Dango

    Nicholas Fagnilli

    "Dango" is contracted from "fandango." The latter half of this dance rhythm is transformed into this piece's foundation. The melodic idea in the middle is evocative of the quote by Duke Ellington "the inside of the tune makes the outside of the tune sound sweeter."

    Nicholas Fagnilli is a composer, pianist and teacher in Pittsburgh, PA. He studied at Ithaca College under Jorge Grossmann and Evis Sammoutis. His work is rooted in exploration of his own sensory reactions to pitch combinations, developing through changes in set and texture rather than motive and form.

  • A Semblance of Memling

    Michael Kosch

    A SEMBLANCE OF MEMLING is a musical evocation of "Virgin and Child with Angels" by fifteenth-century Netherlandish artist Hans Memling. Angelic minstrels, playing vielle, harp, lute, and portative organ, joyfully serenade Mary and her baby amid a tranquil, verdant garden--yet the Virgin's grave expression hints at a turbulent future.

    Michael Kosch studied music composition with Dennis Kam at the University of Miami and Ben Johnston, Salvatore Martirano, and Morgan Powell at the University of Illinois. He has written operas, orchestral pieces, chamber music, plus choral works and songs. His recent music draws inspiration from Renaissance painters and sculptors.

  • Silver Moon

    Robert Fruehwald

    Silver Moon is a kind of “chorale prelude” based on the 1909 popular song, By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Gus Edwards. The melody appears in the top part. It unfolds as the opening intervals are repeated three times. A new descant is added in the bottom voice.

    Robert Fruehwald grew up in Louisville, Kentucky where he played flute in the Louisville Youth Orchestra. He attended the University of Louisville, the California Institute of the Arts, and Washington University. His teachers were Mel Powell and Robert Wykes. He taught for thirty-four years at Southeast Missouri State University.

  • Notes for a peaceful world

    Nantenaina Andriamorasata

    This piece expresses some notes to bring peace and quiet energy for the world.

    Music composer from Antananarivo-Madagascar.
    For more visit:
    https://www.clippings.me/vakamiarina

  • Brano

    Anna Vriend

    This piece is inspired by early keyboard writing and is using the typical clavichord technique of Bebung as a contemporary tool to accentuate particular phrases, together with different articulations.

    Anna Vriend won third prize in the VIII International Composition Competition Opus Ignotum. Her works for bass clarinet solo and reed quintet respectively have been published by Alea Publishing. Her pieces for hichiriki, toypiano, Bayan accordion and viola duo have been performed on Fifteen Minutes of Fame recently.

  • Summer Dreaming

    Ross James Carey

    ‘Summer Dreaming’ for clavichord solo was composed for Monica Chew Fifteen Minutes of Fame in August, 2023 in Xinzheng, Henan province, China. A dreamy atmosphere is conjured up through a languid melody accompanied by a meandering bass line, ending at the still point of a black-note pentatonic chord.

    Ross James Carey is a New Zealand composer currently working as a collaborative pianist at Sias University in China’s Central Plains. Recent works include songs to texts by Katherine Mansfield and Rina Ombara, two albums of pieces for toy piano, and his jazz-inspired piano collection ‘One day in spring’.

  • Johnny's Clavichord Tune

    John Brooks

    John Brooks is a self-taught piano player and a self-taught composer.