Album Notes

This is the American Modern Ensemble's second release and features the music of American composer Robert Paterson. This album contains seven of his award-winning chamber works and are all world premiere recordings. The sessions were recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, and produced by multi-Grammy winner Adam Abeshouse.

Here are a few words about each track...

1. The track begins with police whistles and is inspired by a criminal running scared from the police, and traveling on old Route 66.
2. The track is icy and cold-sounding, but also inspired by Arcosanti, a prototype "arcology" in the middle of the Arizona desert.
3. Star Crossing evokes the feeling of what it would feel like to travel across the galaxy.
4. Embracing the Wind evokes the image of an Olympic athlete running against the wind.
5. Elegy is inspired by J.S. Bach's cello suites, and contains embedded quotes of Bach's music.
6. Skylights is inspired by the skylights at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, and is a study in contrast between light and dark.
7. Quintus, is a rock-and-roll inspired, groove-oriented, hyper-intense joy ride for instrumental quintet.

All of the tracks are for various combinations of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano, with the exception of one of the tracks, Embracing the Wind, for flute, viola and harp, and Elegy for two bassoons and piano.

Info. on Robert Paterson...

Cited by the press as “one of the major contenders in American music” and writing “exuberant and rhythmically vital music marked by energy and a wonderful sense of color,” his music continues to be in demand by audiences and musicians alike. Paterson’s music has been played by numerous ensembles, including the Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, New York New Music Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, California EAR Unit, and at the June in Buffalo festival. Recent performances include Embracing the Wind by the Aureole Trio and New York Harp Trio, Wind Quintet by the Philharmonia Quintet (Cracow), The Essence of Gravity, commissioned for the San Francisco-based Volti choir, and the world premiere of Crimson Earth with the University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble conducted by Jeffrey Renshaw.

Upcoming projects include scenes and workshops with librettist David Cote for their new opera A Child Possessed (achildpossessed.com) and a collaboration with the MAYA ensemble and a dance company on a nine-movement, thirty-minute commissioned work entitled The Book of Goddesses. He was also commissioned to write a new choral work for conductor Nicol Matt and the European Amadeus-Chor.

For the next three years, Paterson is the Music Alive composer-in-residence with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, sponsored by Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras. This residency will culminate in a major commission for a twenty-minute work for orchestra and chorus.

Awards include the Brian Israel Prize, Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, ASCAP Young Composer Awards and grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, as well as fellowships to Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Aspen Music Festival, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. He received degrees from Cornell University (DMA), Indiana University (MM) and the Eastman School of Music (BM). He resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, a violinist, and their son, Dylan.