Ensemble: Apollo Chamber Players
3 products
Higdon, Jalbert & Tate: Moonstrike / Apollo Chamber Players
Apollo Chamber Players’ sixth commercial album, MoonStrike, is a universal celebration of storytelling, space and folk song, realized through new works by Jennifer Higdon, Jerod Tate, and Pierre Jalbert. Higdon’s In the Shadow of the Mountain (2020) is inspired by her upbringing in the Great Smoky Mountains and incorporates the sounds and colors of the area. Next is the title work, Emmy-winning Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s multidisciplinary MoonStrike (2019), which honors the Apollo space program through American Indian moon legends as narrated by astronaut John Herrington, the first Native American to fly in space. French-Canadian composer Pierre Jalbert’s L’esprit du Nord (“Spirit of the North”) (2019) is a three-movement work that fuses three of his culture’s folk songs with his unique, contemporary musical language.
The Music Of Marty Regan, Vol. 1: Splash Of Indigo
American composer Marty Regan specializes in composing music for traditional Japanese instruments, a fascination he has developed since 2000. Regan describes his Japanese-style compositions as "hybrid musical soundscapes that reflect the age in which we live, an era based not necessarily on globalization, but of partnership based on global cultural interaction." In contrast, Splash of Indigo features a complementary side of Regan's output, containing only works for Western orchestral instruments and voice. Despite the album's instrumentation, Regan's connection to Japan remains strong in Splash of Indigo. Splash of Indigo proves Regan is more than capable of inventing and developing charming and complex networks of musical ideas. In it's varied collection of chamber and large ensemble works, Splash of Indigo shows Marty Regan is a composer of considerable breadth and skill beyond his dedicated efforts to build a bridge between American and Japanese musical culture.
Pamela Z: With Malice Toward None / Apollo Chamber Players
| Anchored in an optimistic synthesis of classical, folk, rock and electronic music, With Malice Toward None elevates the idea of what it means to be human in the 21st century. Pamela Z artfully deconstructs her folk rock heroes while paying homage to youthful nostalgia and childhood songcraft, while Christopher Theofanidis and Mark Wingate partner to craft a jaggedly ethereal adaptation of poet Samuel Beckett’s haunting final masterpiece. Eve Beglarian’s epic Armenian fantasia (We Will Sing One Song) taps into the elemental desire to connect - its yearning, duduk-inspired glissandi and enchanting melismas diverge and reunite as they crisscross digital soundscapes; virtuosic percussion improvisations lead to a place of sonic enlightenment. With tradition beckoning, newly arranged Armenian folk songs find their voice, over a century removed from ethnomusicological discovery. The album’s titular track personifies the life of its creator, weaving storytelling and social contradictions with Enlightenment calls to action and good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll. Communing with artists across the globe, Apollo Chamber Players expands its bold take on our collective contemporary experience, innovating beyond the boundaries of time, place and pandemic. |
