New Pacifica Quartet disc features Ellen's Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet

From the Cedille Records press release:

Pacifica Quartet Presents Works by Pulitzer-Winning Composers on Cedille Records July 10, 2020

‘Contemporary Voices’ album offers string quartets by Shulamit Ran and Jennifer Higdon, plus quintet for alto sax and strings by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

The Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet showcases works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich on Contemporary Voices, the ensemble’s newest Cedille Records album, available July 10, 2020. Contemporary Voices includes the world-premiere recording of Ran’s Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory — String Quartet No. 3; plus Higdon’s Voices and Zwilich’s Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet, with renowned classical saxophonist Otis Murphy making his Cedille label debut (Cedille Records 90000 196). The Pacifica has ties to all three composers.

…

Singing saxophone

In Zwilich’s three-movement Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet (2007), a lusciously singing saxophone shares the spotlight with virtuosic string playing. For the recording, the Pacifica, quartet in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, enlisted the services of Murphy, professor of saxophone at IU who has won praise for his “polish and sensitivity” (Chicago Tribune) and “the ability to phrase the music so that it takes on a life of its own” (Saxophone Journal). The Pacifica had recommended Zwilich to Arizona Friends of Chamber Music president Jean-Paul Bierny, who was looking to commission a work for the unusual combination of string quartet and saxophone, according to Brandon Vamos, the Pacifica’s founding cellist. “Everyone in the quartet knew of her work and greatly admired it.” Moreover, Vamos’s parents, violinist Almita and violist Roland Vamos, were members of the Lydian Trio, which commissioned, premiered, and recorded Zwilich’s 1982 String Trio. “I heard her trio many times as a child,” he said.

Read more about the recording on the Cedille Records page.

NEW CONCERTO FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA RECEIVES RAVE REVIEWS

Ellen’s new Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, just given its world premiere performances by Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina Maria Alfonso, has received rave reviews:

“Composer Zwilich adds to her musical legacy with Cello Concerto premiere,” wrote Lawrence Budmen in South Florida Classical Review, who called the work “an important addition to the cello concerto literature.”

“Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is one of America’s preeminent composers, with a consistently excellent body of work in multiple genres spanning nearly five decades — including another standout that had its world premiere on Thursday night with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra and cellist Zuill Bailey.” Read the full review here.

“Zwilich’s Snazzy Cello Concerto Soars In Florida,” wrote John Fleming in Classical Voice North America. “Zwilich gives the solo cello plenty of nimble, virtuosic passagework, but her writing is always concise and to the point. Never did Bailey lapse into empty brilliance for the sake of mere display. There was nary a wasted note. The three movements, played without pause, had a narrative drive and coherence stemming from an inner pulse that propelled the music. If anything, this expressive, impeccably detailed, technically sophisticated work felt a bit too brief, leaving me wanting to hear more.

“Certainly, the concerto contains a strong jazz quality, with sparkling, toe-tapping orchestration that recalls Gershwin and Bernstein, and there’s a clarinet lick or two right out of the Benny Goodman playbook. Zwilich’s harmonies are elegant and unpredictable, even including what sounded like a suggestion of Minimalism popping up here and there. At times, Bailey seemed to be channeling his inner Sonny Rollins, the cello honking and shouting like a tenor sax. A highlight was the back and forth between cello soloist and individual players in the orchestra, such as Bailey’s deft exchanges with flute and bluesy, muted trumpet. An eight-measure dialogue between cello and English horn in the third movement was sublime.” Read the full review here.

“The blues haunts Zwilich’s fine new cello concerto,” wrote Dennis Rooney in Palm Beach Arts Paper. “Zwilich (b. 1939), a native Floridian, is a distinguished American composer whose career broke new ground for her gender (the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in composition from the Juilliard School, the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music) and whose works are widely performed and have received numerous awards. Among them are more than a dozen concertos for strings, winds and brass.

“In both her Double Concerto and Triple Concerto, the cello was featured but her newest work places it front and center. It proved a congenial vehicle for the soloist, Zuill Bailey. The sound of his Gofriller “Rosette” cello of 1693 soared splendidly in the acoustics of the Amaturo Theatre at the Broward Center for the Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

“The concerto’s three linked movements suggested a meditation on melodic gestures from the American vernacular. The blues hovered over the work allusively, but the musical materials always generated multifaceted meanings that were compelling yet evanescent, ranging from gently introspective to aggressive. An agitated, bustling motto introduced the successive sections. Throughout, the mood was thoughtful but not elegiac.

“Technical challenges are plentiful in the solo part, although the work’s lineaments are not those of a display vehicle. Only in the final movement did a cadenza-like episode emerge. The 47-year-old Bailey (a pupil of Stephen Kates at Peabody and Joel Krosnick at Juilliard, and currently cello professor at the University of Texas at El Paso) played it sympathetically, with attractive color and expressiveness.” Read the full review here.

Ellen talks about writing her new cello concerto with Artburst Miami

On the eve of the world premiere performances of her new Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina Maria Alfonso, Ellen talked to Artburst Miami about writing for the cello, and about how composing is still a trip into the unknown: “One thing I love about what I do: It’s not like you learn how to do it, and then you repeat it,” she says. “I still feel like I’m at the starting gate. I’m still jumping into something, and I feel confident in a lot of ways and I have a lot of experience and all that, and then I’m still not quite there, and it’s wonderful. I call it a voyage, writing music. I also sometimes call it a disease [laughs].” Read the article here.

Orchestra Miami's performance of Symphony No. 1 is a "muscular reading"

On February 8, Orchestra Miami, led by Elaine Rinaldi, performed Ellen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Symphony No. 1 on a program titled “Miami Mujeres” honoring four composers: Ellen, Tania Leon, Amy Beach, and Florence Price. Of the performance, Lawrence Budmen observed in South Florida Classical Review, “Nearly forty years since its 1982 New York premiere by the intrepid American Composers Orchestra, the superbly crafted work still holds up well. Conceived in cyclical form with thematic material reappearing in each movement, the seventeen-minute canvass packs a plethora of invention into its brief time frame. … Rinaldi conducted a muscular reading with plenty of swagger, particularly from the avuncular percussion and precise strings.”

Read the review here.

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra World Premiere Performances March 5, 7, 8, 2020

Ellen’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra - her first solo concerto for that instrument - is given its world premiere performances by soloist Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina Maria Alfonso on March 5 (Fort Lauderdale), March 7 (Miami), and March 8 (Key West). Read the press release here.

Hear "Pas de Trois" performed by the Noble Trio of FSU

WFSU has posted a selection from FSU’s Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Birthday Celebration Concert on October 12: the Noble Trio performing Pas de Trois (2017) for violin, cello, and piano. Listen to the segment here - a brief interview with the trio, and the performance begins at 3:40.

"Episodes" on New Disc from Dawn Wohn, Violin, and Esther Park, Piano

Ellen’s Episodes for Violin and Piano (2003) is included on Perspectives, a new disc just released by the Delos label featuring violinist Dawn Wohn and pianist Esther Park performing music by nine female composers. Read about the new disc here.

Ellen's contribution to "Forgotten Voices" Song Cycle Premiered by NYC's Music Kitchen

Forgotten Voices is a song cycle commissioned by Music Kitchen, an organization founded by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins whose mission is “to bring top emerging and established professional musicians together in order to share the inspirational, therapeutic, and uplifting power of music with New York City’s disenfranchised homeless shelter population.” Fifteen composers are writing songs setting texts from homeless shelter clients, and Ellen’s contribution, titled “Music Kitchen Interplay,” was performed by Kelly and bass Mark Risinger last month. Read Kelly’s account of the event here.

The entire Forgotten Voices cycle will have its premiere at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on May 21, 2020.

Review of Ellen's String Quartet No. 2 performed by Semiosis Quartet

The Semiosis Quartet performed Ellen’s String Quartet No. 2 on August 29, 2019, on a program dubbed “An American Century.” Boston Classical Review said that the ensemble “gave the work supreme advocacy” - read the review here.

WWFM's "Cadenza" Features David Osenberg's Two-Part Interview with Ellen

Ellen is David Osenberg’s featured guest for two installments of his award-winning program “Cadenza” on WWFM, a lively hour of music and conversation. Here are links to stream the program: Part I and Part II.

Fantasy for Solo Violin is The Violin Channel's "New Music Tuesday" Feature July 23, 2019

The Violin Channel’s “New Music Tuesday” feature focused on Ellen’s Fantasy for Solo Violin, commissioned for the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and its premiere recording by Jinjoo Cho, on July 23, 2019. Read Ellen’s comments and hear the selection here.

Pianist Roberta Rust Releases CD Featuring "Lament"

Pianist Roberta Rust’s new CD release, titled Direct Contact, features Ellen’s Lament in its solo piano version. A review on The Art Music Lounge calls the work “a little masterpiece.” Read the review here.

A birthday salute from KUSC Radio

Alan Chapman of Classical KUSC of Southern California paid tribute to Ellen’s 80th with two hours of her music on his show, “Modern Times.” And they riffed on her Peanuts cartoon appearance on FB.

Watch Bella Hristova play Ellen's Fantasy for Solo Violin

Acclaimed young violinist Bella Hristova performed Ellen’s Fantasy for Solo Violin (2014) as part of her Young Concert Artists Michaels Award Concert at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall on March 21, 2019. Watch the six-minute piece on the concert video on YouTube here.

Ellen to be honored by conductor Harold Rosenbaum at May 5 gala

Ellen is the honoree at a May 5, 2019, gala benefit for conductor Harold Rosenbaum’s New York Virtuoso Singers and Canticum Novum Singers. The event takes place in Chappaqua, New York; for information, call 914-582-3912 or email cnssoprano@gmail.com.

A Weekly Survey of Ellen's Symphonies on KJAN Radio

Lou Gerbino of KJAN Radio Atlantic, IA, is broadcasting a weekly survey of Ellen’s symphonies beginning Sunday, January 13, 2019, at 7:00 pm CST and continuing on succeeding Sundays in the same time slot. You can stream it here: www.kjan.com.

Watch "Ubuntu," music by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, poem by Stanley Moss

"I salute a word.

I stand up and give it my chair."

Watch this six-minute work: "Ubuntu," music by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, poem by Stanley Moss, performed by Mark Risinger, bass; Richard Wilson, piano; and Ellen herself playing the djembe.

 See it here on YouTube.

Ellen Interviewed by Gerard Schwarz on Facebook Live "Behind the Baton"

Gerard Schwarz interviewed Ellen for his "Behind the Baton" series of talks on Facebook Live. Listen as they talk about playing together in the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, working with Pierre Boulez, and Ellen's thoughts on starting her composing career at a time when it was very much a man's world:

Click here to watch

The 66th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards Announced

The BMI Foundation, in collaboration with BMI, has announced the nine young classical composers, ages 18 to 26, who have been named winners of the 66th annual BMI Student Composer Awards. Renowned American composer and Chair of the Student Composer Awards Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, BMI President and CEO and BMIF Honorary Chair Mike O’Neill, and BMI Executive Director of Classical and BMIF President Deirdre Chadwick presented the awards at a private ceremony held on May 14, 2018, at Three Sixty° in New York City. 

For more information, including the list of the winners: click here

ELLEN INDUCTED INTO THE AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC HALL OF FAME

At a reception following an April 8, 2018, concert presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ellen was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame by its president, Dr. Gary L. Ingle, pictured here with Ellen and CMS Executive Director Suzanne Davidson.

For more information, visit http://classicalwalkoffame.org/.