New Publications and Recordings

NEW PUBLICATIONS & RECORDINGS

Richard Karpen:

Nam Mai/Strandlines

A new CD on the Neuma label, “Nam Mai/ Strandlines,” captures work by the faculty composer with the Vietnamese-Swedish collective The Six Tones and Seattle Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Two compositions are featured here: “Nam Mai,” commissioned by SSO in 2014-15, and “Strandlines,” a 2006-07 composition arranged for solo guitar and live electronics and performed by the Swedish guitarist Stefan Österjö. “This music is largely conceived through joint exploration,” Österjö writes in the liner notes to this disc, “and through the kind of responsive listening often associated with the processes of composing electronic music.” (Neuma)

Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Cello:

Vernacular

The UW faculty cellist’s new Sono Luminus release, Vernacular, features music for solo cello by Icelandic composers Páll Ragnar Pálsson, Thuríður Jónsdóttir, Halldór Smárason, and Hafliði Hallgrímsson. A combination of new works composed especially for Thorsteinsdóttir and a return to an earlier composition, Solitaire, by Halldór, the disc represents a homecoming of sorts for the Icelandic-born musician. “This project is a compilation of pieces by composers that not only share my mothertongue and culture, in language and music, but also bring their unique perspective and expression in their compositions,” the cellist writes in her liner notes to this disc. “I couldn’t have asked for more generous artists to come into my life and allow me to explore my voice through their music.” (Sono Luminus)

Melia Watras, Viola: Schumann Resonances

Robert Schumann’s Märchenbilder, Op. 113 is the centerpiece and artistic jumpingoff point in Melia Watras’s CD Schumann Resonances. Featuring new works by Watras and UW faculty colleagues Cuong Vu and Richard Karpen as well as Schumann’s masterwork, this CD inspired by fairy tales and folklore features appearances by guest musicians Galia Arad, Winston Choi, Matthew Kocmieroski, Michael Jinsoo Lim, and Cuong Vu. A review on the arts blog An Earful proclaims that with this release “Watras continues to prove herself a curator, performer, and composer of unique abilities.” (Planet M)

Studio Jazz Ensemble:

‘Tain’t What You Do in Room 35

The sixth recording by the Studio Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Harry James Orchestra leader Fred Radke features music by Harry Betts, Frank Fisher, Jim Cutler, Tom Delaney and others, arranged for big band. Saxophonists Stuart MacDonald and Sam Kartub, pianist Daniel Oliver, trumpeter Cameron Nakatani, and drummer Wyatt Gardner play pivotal roles in this eight-song ensemble outing, recorded in September 2018 by Reed Ruddy and Andrew Ching with Dan Dean at Sage Arts Studio in Granite Falls, Washington. (University of Washington)

Patricia Campbell:

World Music Pedagogy V. 6: SchoolCommunity Intersections

Co-authored by Professor Patricia Shehan Campbell and PhD alum Chee-Hoo Lum, this volume examines world music across an array of contexts while exploring the concept of “community” relative to music of global and local cultures. It is the sixth in the Routledge World Music Pedagogy series, an 11-volume series all authored by UW Music Education faculty, students, and alumni. (Routledge)