Composer's Voice Recordings
Featuring Linda Chatterton and Matthew McCright
LINDA CHATTERTON, Flute
“The kind of performance that sparks wild standing ovations. Definitive” says the American Record Guide of flutist Linda Chatterton. Ms. Chatterton has performed in New York at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, was a featured recitalist on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, and has been heard throughout the US many times on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. A Minneapolis-based artist, Ms. Chatterton has performed with numerous groups including the Minnesota Orchestra, and she tours regularly as a duo performer with harp, guitar and piano. As a concerto soloist, highlights include many performances of traditional and contemporary repertoire in the US and Europe. She has served as a US State Department Arts Ambassador overseas. Ms. Chatterton has commissioned, recorded and premiered dozens of new works. She recently gave the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “Southern Scenes” flute and pipa concerto with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, conductor JoAnn Falletta and pipa player Gao Hong, as well as the world premiere of Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s work for flute and guitar quartet, with the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, in St. Paul. In 2022, she and guitarist Maja Radovanlija will be premiering a major new work written for them by Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad, through a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grant.
Past projects include concert tours in China, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan; a concerto performance with the State Hermitage Chamber Orchestra in Moscow, Russia, with a master class at the Moscow Conservatory; concerts and master classes in the UAE, Spain, Cuba, Montenegro and Romania; a concert tour of Australia with pianist Matthew McCright; and a sold-out concert at the DiMenna Center in New York City of contemporary chamber music by Hong Kong composers. Her London concert at the famous St. Martin-in-the-Fields concert series with McCright garnered the review: “Throughout the concert Chatterton displayed lovely tone and a fine sense of line, with technical prowess which was always understated, resulting in some involving and intelligent performances.”
She is the first and only two-time flutist to win a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Musicians, and she has received many awards from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Chamber Music America and the American Composers Forum.
She received her Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, studying with Julia Bogorad, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music as a scholarship student of Bonita Boyd.
MATTHEW MCCRIGHT, piano
American pianist Matthew McCright has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Ireland’s National Concert Hall. He has thrilled audiences and critics alike with imaginative programming that places the greatest piano repertoire alongside the music of today’s most innovative composers. A native of Pennsylvania, McCright now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the piano faculty of Carleton College. An accomplished recording artist, McCright has released seven solo recordings; his most recent Endurance on the Vox Novus label, as well as three albums on innova Records (Second Childhood, A Waltz through the Vapor, and Blender), the piano works of Gene Gutchë on Centaur Records, on Albany Records of the piano music of Olivier Messiaen, and What is Left Behind on the Proper Canary label. His solo touring shows include Evening Preludes, The People’s Music, Contemplations: The Music of Olivier Messiaen, Connecting Flights, There and Back Again, Forward Looking Back, and Endurance.
McCright’s festival participation includes Bang on a Can at MassMOCA, Printing House Festival of New Music (Dublin), Late Music Festival (UK), SEAMUS, Hampden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival, Engelbach-Hart, Kodály Institute, Perilous Night, Fringe, Bridge, Spark Festival of Electronic Music, SPLICE, Festival of Lakes, Rayuela, Oh My Ears, Source Song, Seward Arts, Zeitgeist Early Music, Duquesne University’s Summer Music, Music 2000, CCM Village Opening, and Minnesota Composers Alliance, as well as programs for the American Composers Forum across the country. McCright completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music Degree in Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance, Magna Cum Laude, from Westminster College. His past teachers include Lydia Artymiw, Lisa Moore, Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, and Richard Morris. He is represented by Proper Canary Artist Services.
For more information please visit: www.matthewmccright.org
Contemporary Recordings with
Chatterton-McCright Duo
May 19, 2023 at 8:00 PM EDT (UTC-4)
DiMenna's Mary Cary Flager Hall in NYC
Flutist Linda Chatterton and pianist Matthew McCright will be performing the works of Leo Brauneiss, Mike McFerron, Ulf Grahn, Jay Anthony Gach, David Heinick, Dorothy Hindman, and Austin Ho Kwan Yip.
The Contemporary Recordings Project is creating a new way to produce contemporary works from living composers.
The live recorded virtual concert will be broadcasted on May 19, 2023 at 8:00 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Introduzione, Cavatina e Cabaletta (World Premiere)
Leopold Brauneiss
Leopold Brauneiss, born 1961 in Vienna, studied musicology at the University Vienna as well as piano and musical education and composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is teacher for piano at the J. M. Hauer-Musikschule Wiener Neustadt and lecturer for harmony and counterpoint at the Institute of Musicology / University of Vienna and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. The most important influence is the Tintinnabuli Style Arvo Pärts whom he met first in 1997 and since then numerous times, Articles and conference papers about Pärt and his way of composing have been published in different languages including Italian, Danish and Estonian. His compositions have been performed amongst others by Gidon Kremer, Kremerata baltica and Tonkanstlerorchester Niederasterreich, conducted by Carlos Calmar. 2020 2nd prize International Composition Competition Bruno Maderna (Bagatelles for string quartet).
Introduzione, Cavatina e Cabaletta
Of course the title refers to the ternary form of the traditional Italian operatic aria - but don’t expect too much of Verdi! However, in the first movement, the introduzione, two main musical protagonists – the triad and a twelve-tone row - are indeed introduced. These are even joined in the second movement, the cavatina - a lyrical cantilena - by a third protagonist, namely the diatonic scale: a seven-tone row, as it were, on the flute while the pianist tries out different ways of accompanying it. Naturally the flute prima donna has the final say. We never learn what makes the mood change after the second movement of this instrumental miniature opera – and can only hope that in this final cabaletta, together with the flute, the perfect arrangement of the seven notes of the diatonic scale is found in the end.
La Leggerezza della Musica
(3 mvts: Allegrissimo, Cantando tranquillamente, and Presto)
Jay Anthony Gach
Jay Anthony Gach’s instrumental concert music has been critically acclaimed as "witty, virtuosic and accessible", "so exuberant [and] so characterful", "a natural crowd pleaser", "vibrant textures", "multi-layered, whirling and propulsive". Summarized by the composer Lukas Foss during his tenure as conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, "his writing for orchestra is brilliant beyond words". Mr. Gach's compositions for the voice have been aptly characterized with the simple phrase, "such beautiful music". The composer Hugo Weisgall wrote of him, "a composer... of extraordinary technical command and intellectual grasp of what music is all about".
Mr. Gach's music has been performed, recorded and broadcast internationally by ensembles including the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic/ Vladimir Lande; Millennium Symphony Orch./Robert Ian Winstin, St. Paul Chamber Orch./Enrique Diemecke, Brooklyn Philharmonic/Lukas Foss, American Composers Orchestra/Paul Dunkel, National Italian Youth Orchestra/Vinko Globokar, City of London Sinfonia, Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London, the Britten Sinfonia Soloists, Vox Juventus Poland, the Gregg Smith Singers, New York Treble Singers and by solo artists including British pianist Ronan Magill, American clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, Canadian cellist Soo Bae and the soprano and tenor duo Grace Hart & Enzo Citarelli.
He has received commissions and awards in over thirty national and international competitions including the American Lyric Theatre Poe Opera Project, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Astral Foundation (Pew-Bandy) of New York and Philadelphia, Frederick P. Rose Prize, Valentino Bucchi Concorsi Internazionale, Third British Contemporary Piano Music Competition, Delta Omicron Composition Prize, Dr. J. Howland Auchincloss Society for New Music Composition Prize, New York Foundation for the Arts 1990, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Centre (Bruno Maderna Fellowship), National Endowment for the Arts, et al. Between 1981 and 1999 he resided and worked in European capitals returning to New York in 2000.
Mr. Gach has written and conducted many arrangements and original scores for the educational and commercial media, including: The Selfish Giant, a children’s musical; Legends from Bodmin Moor, a film; British Rail “Mind the Doors”, an advertisement campaign; and The Hurlers, an animation film. His biography has appeared in Marquis ‘Who’s Who in America’ since 2006. Mr Gach currently serves as Secretary of the Long Island Composers Alliance.
International and National Fellowships: Dartington, England International Summer School 1991. American Academy in Rome, Italy Music Composition Fellowship 1984-5. Research Assistantship University Tubingen, Germany 1980-1. Wellesley, New Hampshire, Johnson & Bennington Colleges Composers Conferences 2001/1989/82/81.
Selected Commissions, Grants, Prizes: Suona Sacra, Italy 2015; Piccola Orchestra ‘900/Scuola Musica ed Arte 2011 (AVANTI) Italy 2012 , American Lyric Theatre's Edgar Allan Poe Opera Project Commissions (...Of the Flesh) USA 2011. American Chamber Ensemble (The Ingenue & the Matinee Idol) 2009. New York Treble Singers (ELI, ELI) 2008. Concert Artists Guild/ Long Island Composers Alliance (Toccare Cielo) USA 2008. American Lyric Theatre Composer Librettist Development Program (Nora at the Altar Rail) USA 2008. Children's Aid Society Chorus (My Letter to the World), USA 2005. Saxtet Publications Composition Competition, (Trains, Steam Whistles and....) UK 2004. Peter B. Allen Sacred Hymn Arrangement Competition USA 2004. XI International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music Prague, Czech Rep. 2003. Upbeat-Hvar International Summer School 2003, Croatia. Kathryn Thomas International Flute Composition Competition (Tre Ecloghe) 2000, UK. SPNM/Huddersfield Festival 1998, UK. Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London (Selfish Giant) 1997, UK. Oberlin College Chorale 1995 (Hashir Hashem Luchem), USA. Islington (London) International Festival 1995, UK. Third British Contemporary Piano Competition 1994, UK. American Composers Orchestra 1988, USA. Frederick P. Rose Orchestral Prize 1988 USA. St. Paul Chamber Orch. American Composers Competition 1985 USA. ASCAP Standard Awards 1988-2012, USA.
Magnolias in Snow
Ulf Grahn
Ulf Åke Wilhelm Grahn [1942-2023] was pioneering composer, music and language teacher, and photographer. From early childhood, music played a big part in family and life leading to formal training in composition from Hans Eklund, Swedish Royal Academy of Music, and Catholic University of America and for violin at Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut among others. He also held a civil economics degree from Upsalla and Lunds University.
Ulf and his wife Barbro moved to the States in 1972 to continue pursuit of lives in music. In 1973, they founded the Contemporary Music Forum and later in 1987, he became director of the Siljan Music Festival. In between those years, he was on the music faculty at George Washington University, Catholic University, and Northern Virginia Community College.
He was a prolific and award winning composer of contemporary classical music ranging from solo pieces, to ensemble, to electronic, to pieces for orchestra - with commissions from groups and individuals including the Library of Congress, Levine School of Music, Stockholm Philharmonic, and National Symphony Orchestra String Quartet. He took part in several residencies including a few stints at Wolf Trap Farm Park, Centre Culturel Suedois in Paris, FST in Berlin Germany and Cortona Italy, Swedish Institute in Athens Greece, and the Hugo Alfven Foundation in Leksand Sweden. Starting a new chapter in his life after Pierre's birth, he distinguished himself teaching Swedish at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute.
He was known in many circles for his arid wit. Unlike his humor, his inkwell for penning new music was never dry, and he never stopped writing. Even through this devastating illness, he maintained an air of stoic silliness and he never stopped composing. He will be remembered and his understated mirthful spirit will live ever on through his music.
Other works can be found at http://www.voxnovus.com/composer/Ulf_Grahn.htm
"This piece was a commission from a friend Michael Stover. When I started to work on in 1976 the snow was lying on the Magnolias outside my window thus the name and the inspiration to the piece." - Ulf Grahn
Bryniau Llawen (World Premiere)
David Heinick
David Heinick retired in May of 2018 after forty years of teaching. He joined the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY-Potsdam in 1989, having previously taught at St. Mary's College of Maryland and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore. He has composed over 130 works. Several works have been recorded, most recently Two Nocturnes by pianist Jeffrey Jacobs. With Carol Heinick, he has performed extensively playing music for two pianists at one or two pianos; he has also been active as a collaborative pianist, having performed with numerous prominent soloists and members of major orchestras.
"Bryniau Llawen" is Welsh for "Joyous Hills." I chose Welsh because I walk almost daily at the Natural Lands reserve Bryn Coed ("Tree Hill"), located a mile from my home. The piece attempts to capture both the joy and the reverent peace of the surroundings there.
Find more at: http://www.davidheinick.com/
To Spill Oneself Away (solo piano)
Dorothy Hindman
Fusing a punk/grunge background with spectral techniques and classical refinement, Miami composer Dorothy Hindman pushes the boundaries of the technically possible with unique, visceral elegance. Critics have called her music “bright with energy and a lilting lyricism” (New York Classical Review), “dramatic, highly strung” (Fanfare), “varied, utterly rich … with purpose and heart” (Huffington Post), “powerful and skillfully conceived” (The Miami Herald), and “music of terrific romantic gesture” (The Buffalo News). Of her latest CD Tightly Wound, ICON magazine says, “Hindman’s music weds technique and syntax of classical music with the directness and impudence of rock. Highly recommended for rockers wishing to get their proverbial feet wet in post-20th century classical music.”
Across Hindman’s catalog of over 75 works, surface impact comes from the driving rhythms and distortion of her punk/rock roots. Through juxtaposition, imitation and fragmentation, simple ideas are woven into highly complex structures, while revealing deeper emotional and intellectual levels. Timbre is a primary compositional concern for Hindman, a former rock band synth player. Dissections, explorations and manipulations of sonic models often provide formal or conceptual bases for her music.
Hindman’s sonic models often engage with autobiographical and social issues. She writes: “My purpose as a composer is to present my unique human perspective, challenge assumptions, and expand one’s understanding of themselves and others. Inspired by local history and personal experience, I explore my mis/understanding of past and current events, and the cultural, social and economic legacies I have inherited.
I want to captivate my listener, to reach and touch their humanity, to place a demand on their attention that is rewarded. My music is provocative, but also engaging, memorable, and ultimately meant to affect positive change. Ideally, whatever the listener takes away can be cathartic.”
Virtuosic and hardcore, Hindman’s music requires like-minded pioneering spirits. Her collaborators include today’s most trailblazing new music performers: Splinter Reeds, Bent Frequency, ensemble dal niente, [Switch~ Ensemble], TURNmusic, Corona Guitar Kvartet, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Heartland Marimba Quartet, The Hadit Collective, the Gregg Smith Singers, Empire City Men’s Chorus, Voces Inauditae, Duo 46, and virtuosi such as bassist Robert Black, cellist Craig Hultgren, percussionist Stuart Gerber, and pianist Jacob Mason. Multimedia collaborations include music for Carrie Mae Weem’s film Italian Dreams, and The Wall Calls to Me with visual artist Sally Wood Johnson has been exhibited in major museums throughout the Southeast.
Her over 400 performances span 35 states and 20 countries, in major venues including Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the American Academy in Rome, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Berlin’s BKA-Theater, and Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center. Numerous festival performances include the Havana Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM/New Music Miami, Boston Microtonal Society, Australian Flute Festival, Birmingham New Music Festival, Charlotte New Music Festival, and Nuovi Spazi Musicali Festival. Orchestra commissions and performances include the Florida Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, and Sinfonia Gulf Coast.
Inside the Hatch (World Premiere)
Mike McFerron
Mike McFerron is a professor of music and composer-in-residence at Lewis University in the Chicago area. He has been on the faculty of Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the Kansas City Kansas Community College, and he has served as resident composer at the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum in Bennington, Vt. McFerron is founder and co-director of Electronic Music Midwest and serves on the board of the directors for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra and is a past Chair of the Executive Committee for the Society of Composers, Inc.
McFerron's music has received critical acclaim and recognition. His music has been performed by the Remarkable Theater Brigade (Carnegie Hall), the Louisville Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Matthew McCright (Carnegie Hall), and Cantus among many others. His music has been featured on numerous SCI National Conferences, SEAMUS National Conferences, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Brooklyn College Conservatory's Electroacoustic Music Festival, the MANTIS (UK) festival, ÉuCue "Plugged Festival" (Montreal), University of Richmond's 3rd Practice Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Denison University TUTTI Festival, Ball State University New Music Festival, Florida State University New Music Festival, Spark Conference, Annual Florida International Electroacoustic Music Festival, Spring in Havanna, the MAVerick Festival, several SCI regional conferences, and concerts and radio broadcasts across the U.S. and throughout Europe. He has written music specifically for Cantus, SUNY-Oswego, GéNIA, Andrew Spencer, Julia Bentley, the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Lewis University, Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Inside the Hatch
For a person who fly fishes few things are more exciting than a strong hatch, the moment when adult insects emerge from their underwater nursery breaking through the surface tension to escape into an awaiting world. It’s during this time when trout, who have been resting in the depths patiently, ascend to where the water unravels. It’s during these brief moments when fly anglers join the fragile dance developing in the world around them.
Inside the Hatch was written specifically for flutist Linda Chatterton and pianist Matthew McCright for the Vox Novus Composer’s Voice Series
Find more at https://www.bigcomposer.com/
Die Lian Hua (solo flute)
Austin Ho Kwen Yip
As a composer and interdisciplinary artist, Austin Yip’s works investigate the relationship between literature and sound, the interplay between acoustic sound and electronics, as well as the meaning of connotation and denotation through musical and visual means. Recent works include “Por Por” (2019-2022), a chamber opera in Cantonese; “Koto” (2019), a chamber theatre work inspired by Yasunari Kawabata’s novel of the same title; “City Beats” (2019), a work for harpsichord, electronics and video that challenges musical connotation; “Miles Upon Miles” (2018), a work for amplified violin and electronics that juxtaposes violin and Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam; “Project ‘Ballet de la nuit’: Eurydice” (2017), an hour-long electroacoustic work that investigates on the 17th century’s cross-casting tradition; and “Metamorphosis” (2016), an orchestral work that portrays Kafka’s novel musically.
Frequently presented at musical festivals, Yip’s works have been performed worldwide, examples include the MacDowell National Benefit, ISCM World New Music Days (Beijing 2018, Sydney 2010), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (2018/2021), Seoul International Computer Music Festival (2018), Asian Composers League Conference and Festival (Japan 2010/2017, Vietnam 2016, Singapore 2013), World Saxophone Congress (France 2015, Scotland 2012), Intimacy of Creativity (2012) and many more.
Yip is a MacDowell Fellow (as a Gardner & Vail Read Fellow), and also the recipient of CASH Golden Sail Music Award, HKADC Award for Young Artist (Music), Chou’s Annual Composition Commission Award, James Kitagawa Memorial Music Scholarship, Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship, Henry Holbrook Scholarship, James King Scholarship, Eisner Prize, Milton C. Witzel Memorial Prize, University Postgraduate Fellowship and Rayson Huang Scholarship. Yip received his master and doctorate degree in music composition at the University of Hong Kong, and a bachelor degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
Yip’s works are published by Donemus (Netherlands), ABRSM (UK), BabelScores (France), Ablaze Records (US), Navona Records (US), Hugo Production and Hong Kong Composers Guild.
Die Lian Hua, for solo flute
Commissioned by Izumi Nikaido, Die Lian Hua transforms the soloist into Li Qingzhao, a poetess of the Song Dynasty. Through singing and playing she expresses a yearning towards her lost husband.
At Our Parting —to the tune of Dielianhua
Tears and face-powder stained my silky dress.
Four reiterations of "The Sorrow of Parting" (1)
Were sung over and over again.
People say that the mountains are far from here,
But they are only half way to where you are.
All by yourself in the lonely inn,
Only soft raindrops could be heard.
My heart was so disturbed at our separation,
That I forgot to refill your wine cup.
Do send me a message with the wild geese.
Donglai in Shandong (2) is not as far as Penglai (3).
(1)Yangguan ("The Final Gate") In old China, if someone left a place, usually his native city, his friends and relatives often sang this melancholy song to a musical accompaniment over again until he departed.
(2)Donglai, modern Laichou, in Shandong Province. Some traditions say that Li Qingzhao wrote this poem to her husband when he went to take up a magistracy in Donglai, while other traditions say the poem is addressed to her sister.
(3)Penglai is a mythical land where the Taoist immortals live.