Nicholas Phillips, piano

This album features solo piano music written in the last decade by a group of American composers I discovered largely through the recordings and performances of oth-ers. The music is evocative and sensitive, powerful and playful, driven and lyrical, poetic and beautiful. One thing the pieces have in common to me is that they are all really effective musical impressions - of personal expe-riences, feelings, influences, and more. I think this is great music that deserves to be heard, and played, more.

ABOUT THE PIANIST

“Truly a post-modern pianist” (Time Out Chicago), Nicholas Phillips has been called an “able and persuasive advocate” of new music (New York Times), and his playing has been praised for its “bejeweled accuracy” (Fanfare) and as “razor-sharp yet wonderfully spirited” (American Records Guide). He maintains an active concert schedule, having performed in venues all across the United States, and abroad. His previous albums, Portals and Passages, Boris Papandopulo: Piano Music, and American Vernacular: New Music for Solo Piano, have all garnered critical acclaim. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, where he lives with his wife and three children. Phillips is a Yamaha Artist. www.nicholasphillips.net

ABOUT THE PIANIST

Phillips Photo Credit: Rob Davidson

Nicholas Phillips, piano

THE COMPOSERSTHE COMPOSERS

S. G

arro

p

J. G

reen

stei

n

J. Pieslak

L. F

loyd

M.

Oliv

ieriC. Pann

N. Muhly S. K. SniderJ. Puckett

ABOUT THE WORKSFirst Ballade – The piano has always been at the center of my compositional life. Its sounds and possibilities, and its spacings and feel, were what brought me into the world of classical music, and they are very much present in every piece that I write to this day. To actually write a solo piano piece, then, is to confront the almost forbidden pleasure of “the thing itself”; if you buy that explanation of the experience, then it explains why I haven’t written a solo piano work since I was 17 years old. Whatever the reason, First Bal-lade brings many of my favorite piano composers to the table: J.S. Bach, Maurice Ravel, McCoy Tyner, Nicky Hopkins, and (of course) Frederic Chopin. There are no quotes, but it has a “quotational” feel, like it’s telling a story. I hesitate to say that it’s the story of my life with, and love for, the piano, but I can imagine that being said by someone else. – Judd Greenstein

une petite barcarolle – My son, Emory, has always loved the sound of the piano. From a very early age, he would become very excited anytime he heard one, particularly if what was being played was Beethoven or Chopin. One day, he heard the Chopin Barcarolle and the Liszt transcription of Beethoven’s 5th symphony played back to back on the radio and once the Beethoven was finished he began screaming – as only a one and a half year old can – “AGAIN, AGAIN!” So I put on the Beethoven again and he screamed, “NO, AGAIN!” I tried starting the Beethoven again and he screamed [again], “NO AGAIN!” So then I tried putting on the Chopin. This worked until the Chopin finished and he began screaming again. Then I realized that he wanted BOTH the Chopin AND the Beethoven. And so, pour mon petit Emory, I wrote une petite barcarolle littered with hints of the opening of Beethoven’s 5th. une petite barcarolle was commissioned by the International Beethoven Project. – Joel Puckett

A Hudson Cycle was written as a wedding gift for two friends. This is music of longing and anticipation; losing a beautiful place, approaching a beloved person. The right hand and the left struggle to synchronize, now succeeding, now failing to coincide. The prima-ry rhythmic figure, a restless polyrhythm of two beats in the right hand for every three in the left, should recall the onward rush of the titular river.” – Daniel Johnson

Shards – Keeping in mind the dexterity and athleticism Robert Auler brings to the pi-ano, I wrote this for him in 2009. Cast as a collection of musical fragments, the piece weaves through a variety of musical spaces, playing with contrasts and degrees of interconnectedness. – Jonathan Pieslak

Keyboard of the Winds – The Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado is home to some of the most gorgeous mountains in North America. Among the park’s summits is Longs Peak, a mountain that is 14,259 feet high. From my earliest days of hiking, I was drawn to Longs Peak, as well as to a jagged stretch of rock formations that link Longs Peak to Pagoda Mountain (13,497 feet). These formations are called the Keyboard of the Winds, as their thin, spindly peaks loosely suggest the splintered keys of an old, broken piano. My piece is a tribute to the Keyboard of the Winds. The fast, whirling gestures depict swirling clouds, and the musical high points represent a hiker reaching the peaks of the Keyboard. I have contrasted these sections with quiet, intro-spective material; these embody the hiker quietly surveying the grandeur and beauty of the valley below (on a cloudless day), as well as the soaring pinnacles of Longs Peak and Pagoda Mountain overhead. The piece was commissioned by MTNA on behalf of Nicholas Phillips. – Stacy Garrop

Piano Thoughts, Vol.3 - After hearing some of my piano improvisations online, Nich-olas Phillips commissioned me for a third collection of “piano thoughts” in late 2015. I love music that breathes like we do; music where every note is precious and nothing is overstated; music of distilled simplicity that draws the listener deep. This is what I seek to capture and pass on in my third collection of Piano Thoughts. – Lucas Floyd

The Currents – When I was asked to write this piece, I decided that my contribution would be something that challenged the pianist to be at their most expressive, poetic, and lyrical, something that would reward a sharp attention to detail and sensitivity to pacing and narrative. The title of the piece, and the overall emotional impetus, was in-spired by a larger cycle of poems, Unremembered, by poet Nathaniel Bellows. The cycle is about memory, innocence, and the ways we cope with an unpredictable world. One line in the cycle reads “But like the hidden current/somewhere undersea/you caused the most upheaval on the other side of me.” To me this line is about the idea that our lives are made up of many competing, low-lying currents of emotional experience, currents which surface from time to time in ways that we can’t always predict or understand. While that phenomenon can sometimes present a challenge, it can also inspire feelings of real gratitude, and even wonder. – Sarah Kirkland Snider

White Moon Over Water – The title refers to an experience I had on the Damariscotta River in Maine, summer of 2010. I took a one-person kayak out on the great, wide river in the middle of the night. Not a cloud in the sky, my only companions were a blinding full moon, an imposing pale-white Venus, and thousands of visible stars. I am not used to creating the kind of musical expression this piece demands, so the process was both in-escapable and thrilling. Without a melodic line to anchor oneself on, I am asking the pi-anist to use the instrument like a canvas over which many different color combinations are applied evenly throughout. The amount of restraint required to achieve this is for-midable. The work’s interior (“The Celestial Canopy”) pulls one into a timeless realm. In this section, no tempo should be felt by the listener – only a sense of eternal suspension.

She Steals Me – This song, subtitled Intermezzo, owes some of its concepts to Schubert and Stravinsky. The work is cast as a plaintive Appalachian waltz in A-flat major with occasional passionate chorale-like proclamations. There is a real introverted sadness about a few of the moments in this piece, while at other times there are descriptive words and phrases on the page such as “…a rocking chair on the porch,” and “snow-ing…” Whenever I play through the piece I come terribly close to tears in all the same spots. The softy in me could not resist preserving these moments, even at the expense of obvious sentimentality. – Carter Pann

Hommage à Trois – I decided to write a trio of homages to three musicians who were very influential early in my pursuit towards a career in music: Aaron Copland, Toru Takemitsu, and James Brown. The first Copland piece I remember learning was his Four Piano Blues, a series of four short piano pieces that all had a distinctive blues rhetoric. I was in high school the first time I played Toru Takemitsu’s Litany for Piano; a score he wrote in memory of his pianist friend Michael Vyner. The gestural language and pacing of this piece was very attractive to me. Finally, I spent much of my time in high school transcribing jazz solos and working out funk tunes. As a result, this music has always remained with me, and continues to find ways of seeping into less derivative works that I write in a seemingly unconscious and organic way. – Mark Olivieri

ABOUT THE WORKS

"...this is great music that deserves to be heard, and played, more."

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS

LUCAS FLOYD is a composer who desires to bring deeply felt music to everyday people. His work has been performed recently by Paul Barnes, Nicholas Phillips, OneFoundSound, and Celli@Berkeley. Other collaborators include violinist Alex Granger, the International Orange Chorale, the Paul Delgado Singers, the American Harp Society, and the Brazo-sport Symphony Orchestra. Lucas has received masterclasses from John Adams and Don Freund, studied with Elinor Armer and Conrad Susa at the San Francisco Conservato-ry (MM), and Robert Denham at Biola University (BM). He lives in San Francisco and also performs as an oboist. www.lucasfloyd.com

STACY GARROP composes dramatic, narrative-driven music. She has won awards sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Sackler Composition Prize, as well as received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation and Barlow Endowment. Her instrumental music is published by Theodore Presser Company, and she self-publishes her choral music under Inkjar Publishing Compa-ny. She is a recording artist with Cedille Records with compositions on nine CDs; her works are commercially available on ten additional labels. Her musical output is wide-ranging, including art songs, choral works, piano solos, string quartets, piano trios, mixed chamber ensembles, orchestral pieces, and an oratorio for two choruses, four soloists, and chamber symphony. www.garrop.com

JUDD GREENSTEIN is a composer of structurally complex, viscerally engaging works for varied instrumentation. A passionate advocate for the independent new music communi-ty across the United States, Judd’s philosophy as both a composer and a curator involves the creation and promotion of music that is an organic blend of multiple styles, sounds, and instruments, open to all influences. Standout groups that reflect this “post-genre” sensibility, including yMusic and Roomful of Teeth, counted Judd among their earliest commissions and continue to perform his work to this day. As a national and international audience has taken notice of these and other like-minded artists, Judd has been increas-ingly in demand as a composer from major institutions such as the Minnesota Orches-tra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Lucerne Festival, among many others. Judd is a founding member of NOW Ensemble, a co-director of New Amsterdam Records/New Amsterdam Presents, the curator of New York’s Ecstatic Music Festival, and a co-curator of the Apples & Olives festival in Zurich, Switzerland. www.juddgreenstein.com

NICO MUHLY (b.1981) is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose influences range from American minimalism to the Anglican choral tradition. The recipient of commissions from The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and others, he has written more than 80 works for the concert stage, including the op-eras Two Boys (2010), Dark Sisters (2011), and the forthcoming Marnie. Muhly is a fre-quent collaborator with choreographer Benjamin Millepied and, as an arranger, has paired with Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Joanna Newsom, and Antony and the Johnsons, among others. Born in Vermont, Muhly studied composition with John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse at the Juilliard School before working as an editor and conductor for Philip Glass. He is part of the artist-run record label Bedroom Community, which released his first two albums, Speaks Volumes (2006) and Mothertongue (2008). He currently lives in New York City. www.nicomuhly.com

ABOUT THE COMPOSERSMARK OLIVIERI is a Professor of Music at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. A productive composer, Olivieri has received numerous commissions and performances of his work from performers and ensembles throughout the U.S. and abroad. Olivieri has extensive background as an improvising musician. He has played and composed for luminaries like the José Limón, Sean Curran, Doug Varone, Martha Graham, and Shapiro and Smith Dance Companies. He is the founder and co-Artistic Director of Vision of Sound New Music and Dance Concert Festival, which pairs composers and choreographers together in the creation of new collaborative works. His commissioned score for the1920 silent film, The Mark of Zorro, premiered at the Syracuse International Film Festival in the spring of 2016 by the acclaimed Society for New Music. Olivieri’s newest work, a triple concerto for flute, viola, and piano will premiere in Medellín, Colombia with the Orchestra EAFIT in the spring of 2017. www.markolivieri.com

CARTER PANN has written for and worked with musicians around the world, garnering performances by ensembles such as the London Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony, the Tchaikovsky Symphony in Moscow, many radio symphonies around Europe, the Seattle Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, the youth orchestras of New York and Chicago, and countless wind ensembles. He has written for Richard Stoltzman, the Antares Ensemble, the Capitol Saxophone Quartet, the West Coast Wind Quintet, the River Oaks Chamber Ensemble and many concert pianists. His Second String Quartet was commissioned by the Takács Quartet to premiere in the 2015-16 season. Pann has been awarded a Charles Ives Fellowship, a Masterprize seat in London and five ASCAP awards over the years. His numerous albums encompass solo, vocal, chamber, orchestral and wind music and have received two Grammy® nominations to date. He was recently a Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Pann teaches at the University of Colorado in Boulder. www.carterpann.com

JONATHAN PIESLAK (b. 1974, Wilmington, DE) is a Professor at The City College of New York and Graduate Center, CUNY where he specializes in scholarship on radical/ extremist culture and music composition. He published his second book, Radicalism & Music: An Introduction to the Music Cultures of al-Qa’ida, Racist Skinheads, Christian- Affiliated Radicals, and Eco-Animal Right Militancy with Wesleyan University Press in November 2015. His research was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011, and he is presently working on a team project exploring the mobilizing influence of media in the jihadi-Salafi movement, funded by a Minerva Grant from the Department of Defense. As a composer, Jonathan is a fellowship winner from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, having worked with members of the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orches-tra, Kiev Philharmonic, and other prominent ensembles. www.jonathanpieslak.com

JOEL PUCKETT is “An astonishingly original compositional voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and one of the most performed composers in America. His music, hailed as “visionary” (Washington Post), has been performed by the leading artists of our day and is consis-tently recognized by organizations such as the American Composers Forum, BMI, Cho-rus America, National Public Radio and the American Bandmasters Association. Puckett’s Black Sox, a full-length opera commissioned by Minnesota Opera, will premiere in May 2019 with a libretto by Academy-Award winner Eric Simonson. It is a tragedy of our time, set in our past, against the backdrop of America’s favorite pastime. Puckett is best known for his flute concerto, The Shadow of Sirius, which has received more than 200 performanc-es, multiple commercial recordings, and which Audiophile Audition called, “a beautiful and seemingly spiritual work.” On the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory, he is represented by Bill Holab Music. www.joelpuckett.com

SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER has had her music commissioned and performed interna-tionally by the San Francisco, Detroit, North Carolina, and Indianapolis Symphonies; the American Composers Orchestra and Boston Modern Orchestra Project; the BAM Next Wave Festival; the Young People’s Chorus of NY and Brooklyn Youth Chorus; Cantus, Room-ful of Teeth, and Volti; yMusic, Ensemble Signal, and The Knights; soloists Colin Currie and Shara Worden; and many others. Her two orchestral song cycle records, Penelope (2010) and Unremembered (2015), graced Top Ten lists internationally including NPR, The Wash-ington Post, The Nation, Time Out New York, and New Music Box. Upcoming projects in-clude a Mass for Trinity Wall Street Choir and NOVUS NY, a collaborative song cycle for A Far Cry, and a chamber work for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. The winner of Detroit Sympho-ny’s 2014 Elaine Lebenbom Award, Sarah has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.M. and A.D. from the Yale School of Music. www.sarahkirklandsnider.com

SCORESA Hudson Cycle is published by St. Rose/G. Schirmer.

First Ballade is published by Good Child Music/Negative Opus Publishing.

Hommages à Trois is published by Ferentillo Music.

Keyboard of the Winds, She Steals Me, and White Moon Over Water

are published by Theodore Presser Company.

Piano Thoughts, Vol. 3 is available from the composer.

Shards is available from the composer.

The Currents is published by Good Child Music/October Stone Music.

une petite barcarolle is published by Bill Holab Music.

PHOTO CREDITSLucas Floyd – Emma Chiang Stacy Garrop – Snostudios Photography

Judd Greenstein – Joshua Frankel Nico Muhly – Ana Cuba

Mark Olivieri – Gerry Szymanski Carter Pann – Danielle Simone Burren

Jonathan Pieslak – Sabina Joel Puckett – Twist Photography

Sarah Kirkland Snider – Willy Somma Cover Photo – © Brett Critchley | Dreamstime.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to: Lucas Floyd, Stacy Garrop, Judd Greenstein, Nico Muhly, Mark Olivieri, Carter Pann, Jonathan Pieslak, Joel Puckett, and Sarah Kirkland Snider for your wonderful music; the Universi-ty of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation, Academic Affairs Division, College of Arts and Sciences, and Department of Music and Theatre Arts, along with the American Music Project, for their generous support, and also for the semester-long sabbatical I had that al-lowed me to travel and play this music everywhere I possibly could; Yamaha Artist Services New York, for welcoming me to their art-ist roster, and allowing me to record in their studio; Nicola Mel-ville, Michael Mizrahi, and Robert Auler – if not for your CDs, I may not have come to know most of these composers; my parents, for supporting my musical studies all those years ago; my wife, Casey, for everything she does to make what I do possible. Finally, I would like to humbly dedicate my recordings of Carter Pann’s pieces to the memory of Joel Hastings, whose amazing album has been a constant source of inspiration.

CREDITS

Recorded at Yamaha Artist Services New York, June 21-22, 2016

Recording Engineer: Aaron David Ross Editing and Mastering: Sergei Kvitko

Producer: Nicholas Phillips Design: Amanda Matos

Piano: Yamaha CFX Technician: Noriyuki Soga

SCORES

PHOTO CREDITS

CREDITS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Nicholas Phillips, piano

www.nicholasphillips.net

11. The Currents (2012) Sarah Kirkland SNIDER 7:28

from The Piano’s 12 Sides (2011) Carter PANN12. “White Moon Over Water” 7:06

13. “She Steals Me” 5:05

Hommage à Trois (2005) Mark OLIVIERI14. I. Luca’s Swell: Hommage à Aaron Copland 4:32

15. II. Gestures: Hommage à Toru Takemitsu 2:45

16. III. Funk for Nikki: Hommage à James Brown 3:49

*WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING Total Time = 74:38

1. First Ballade (2008) Judd GREENSTEIN 8:24 2. une petite barcarolle* (2013) Joel PUCKETT 2:46

3. A Hudson Cycle (2005) Nico MUHLY 3:17

4. Shards (2008) Jonathan PIESLAK 10:19

5. Keyboard of the Winds* (2015) Stacy GARROP 8:17

Piano Thoughts, Vol. 3* (2016) Lucas FLOYD 6. No. 1 Breathe 2:02

7. No. 2 Fog Wine 2:12

8. No. 3 Run Together 0:57

9. No. 4 Light in its Proper Place 1:45

10. No. 5 Beyond 2:36

www.bluegriffin.com ©2016 Blue Griffin Recordings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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