Month: August 2021

For your consideration – TRANSFIGURATION

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

TRANSFIGURATION

BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION

From online performances to benefit albums, musicians kept their art alive throughout the most dire days of the coronavirus pandemic. Among them are composer Stanley Grill and violist Brett Deubner, who collaborated via remote recording sessions to transform Grill’s multi-instrumental chamber pieces into an intimate collection of multilayered works for viola. The resulting album, TRANSFIGURATION, showcases a singular connection between composer and performer. Throughout three works — Sonatine, Sea and Sky, and Transfiguration— lush, crisp soundscapes fill the ears as the viola’s soothing timbre and Deubner’s seamless technique create a pastoral quality that underscores the spiritual and introspective themes of Grill’s compositions.

TRANSFIGURATION, the album’s title work, was composed as an expression of that extraordinary faculty of humankind to adapt and change – for the better. For all our faults, we have it within us to become something entirely different and better. We may be locked inside a hardened chrysalis of self-interest and illusions, but we can emerge as butterflies and fly.

For your consideration – REMEMBER

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

REMEMBER

BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

Stanley Grill’s REMEMBER is presented by Navona Records. Featuring viola and piano, these inventive works aptly demonstrate Grill’s unique style; rooted in his passion for medieval and Renaissance music, his compositions are as pioneering and contemporary as they are fundamentally traditional. Grill’s work focuses particularly on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, interweaving lines. The result is a musical experience greater than the sum of the instruments involved. Two themes that permeate much of his work can be found throughout this album as well: a desire to translate elements of the physical world into sound, and a dedication to cultivating and promoting peace through music. REMEMBER offers listeners a fresh and memorable collection of works for viola and piano.

Music by Stanley Grill. Performed by Brett Deubner and Thomas Steigerwald. Produced by Stanley Grill. Recorded by Scott Anderson. Mastered by Randall Crafton.

PARMA RECORDINGS.

Gapplegate Classical/Modern Music Review: “Stanley Grill is a phenomenon who crafts a directly accessible presence that would appeal to a wide spectrum of music lovers in addition to the serious followers on what is happening in New Music.”

For your Consideration – AFTERWARDS

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

AFTERWARDS

BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

AFTERWARDS… presents music that imagines a world different from the one we find ourselves in today, music that strives towards a sound that might be heard in a world where violence is no longer the ready answer to men’s disputes, a world where reason prevails, a calmer world.  On this album, the vehicle for this expression of hope is the string quartet, an ensemble about which composer Stanley Grill writes,  “it is the string quartet that has mostly occupied my attention over the years, as the intimate sound of a small consort of bowed strings is the perfect medium to express the contemplative sound landscape I strive to create.”  The music presented on this album reflects the same themes that dominate much of Stanley Grill’s work: an attempt to influence the minds and hearts of those who hear it in such a way as to encourage thoughts about the possibility of world peace, as well as music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world.

Music by Stanley Grill.  Performed by Camerata Philadelphia.  Produced by Ralph Farris. Recorded by Randall Crafton.

Luigi Mazzochi, violin; Blake Espy, violin; Jonathan Kim, viola; Stephen Framil, cello

An Innova Recording.

64th Annual Grammy Awards season

As the 64th Grammy awards season begins, I’m looking forward to my 2nd year as a member, and weeks of listening to all of the wonderful music that has been submitted. Everything I heard last year was pre-pandemic, but this year will reflect the response of musicians to the pandemic, and demonstrate how they persevered through these extraordinary times.

I feel deeply fortunate that a year at home, in isolation, led to more opportunities than in a normal year. This year my submissions will include 3 new albums.

AFTERWARDS, an album of string quartets performed by Camerata Philadelphia. The title track, “Afterwards, there were no more wars” is one of my many works from my MUSIC FOR PEACE PROJECT – music I imagined might be heard in a time in the future when someone, opening up the pages of a history book, might read those words. BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE.

REMEMBER is an album that assembles music composed over the years for viola – both solo and with piano. Beautifully performed by Brett Deubner and Thomas Steigerwald. The title work, Remember (5 intermezzi for the earth), reworks themes from my music for chorus and chamber ensemble, setting poems about both the glory of our planet – and the future we face if we fail to recognize our responsibilities as stewards of our only home. BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE.

TRANSFIGURATION, a COVID shutdown project, features music for 2, 3 and 4 violas, all performed and recorded by Brett Deubner, alone in a studio, while I listened on-line from home. The title work, a viola quartet, expresses my thoughts about how, whatever our human failings and limitations, we have within ourselves the possibility of transforming into something better. Encased in a hardened chrysalis, we can emerge as butterflies. TRANSFIGURATION (for 4 violas). BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION.