FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MEDIA CONTACT: P aula Mlyn February 5, 2020 [email protected] (212) 924-3829
FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS OF ITS #1 DEBUT ON THE BILLBOARD CHART, STRING QUINTET SYBARITE5 RELEASES L IVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SYBARITE5 AND EMBARKS ON A 2020 NATIONWIDE TOUR
NEW YORK, NY – On March 20, 2020, Sybarite5, the first string quintet ever to win the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, celebrates the release of its fourth album, L ive from New York, It’s Sybarite5 [ BTSC-0131/1 CD], a recording featuring live performances from Chelsea’s T he Cell, a performance space the innovative string quintet has called its New York home for more than a decade. The quintet’s second album on the Bright Shiny Things label features newly commissioned world premiere works by Brandon Ridenour, Ehsan Matoori, Steven Snowden, and Michael Dellaira; and string quintet premieres of works by William Brittelle, Marc Mellits, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and John Coltrane. Guest artists for the album include co-artistic director of Silkroad, Grammy® winning percussionist S hane Shanahan; renowned santoor player E hsan Matoori; and acclaimed mezzo-soprano B lythe Gaissert. I n addition to CD format, the album will be available as a high-resolution download (96kHz 24-bit FLAC), and in limited edition vinyl.
2020 also marks the beginning of Sybarite5’s nationwide tour, with p erformances throughout the U.S., including New York, Boston, Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas. The tour will highlight select works from the new album, along with music by Jessica Meyer, Kenji Bunch, Michael Gilbertson, and Astor Piazzolla. Also included will be arrangements of folk songs by the Armenian composer Komitas, as well as audience favorites such as Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes” and “Videotape.” Playlists for each tour date will vary and are announced from the stage.
ABOUT THE ALBUM:
Originally composed for string quartet and electronics, William Brittelle’ s F uture Shock was reimagined by the composer for Sybarite5 in an all-acoustic setting, and features percussionist Shane Shanahan. One of two works on this album commissioned by Sybarite5 as a result of the American Composers Forum Award and competition, Brandon Ridenour’ s NuPac Kanon & Jig, draws its initial influences from Pachelbel and Tupac Shakur. The work was inspired by a near-marriage experience, which the composer describes as “the biggest case of cold feet [that] sets you running hot out the door to a wild world of 'freedom' you’re still craving. Your experiences out there are exciting but unstable. It can only sustain itself for so long before you ultimately crash."
Marc Mellits’s G roove Machine is the fourth movement from his String Quartet No. 2, “Revolution,” originally composed for the Kronos Quartet. The composer spends time each year in Romania and has developed a love for its people, culture, food, and way of life. Groove Machine was inspired by machinery (a fascination for Mellits) that he found while on one of his visits. In
Romania, writes Mellits, “I have found some of the most beautiful, old, and still working pieces of machinery that I have ever seen. The trains are particularly amazing, quite large and heavy, and almost entirely metal.” Sybarite5’s double bassist Louis Levitt created the bass part for this work with the composer's blessing.
Sybarite5 first encountered Iranian composer and master santoor (Persian dulcimer) player E hsan Matoori at Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Global Musician’s Workshop. The collaboration between the Mr. Matoori and Sybarite5 resulted in two works: T ehran When L onely, a love letter/homage to the city of Tehran, and Naqsh-e Jahan, which is named after the main tourist spot of Isfahan, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Matoori, who was born and raised in Isfahan, notes, “Naqsh-e Jahan in Farsi means ‘The image of the world.’ The square is surrounded by structures of different purpose and architecture, and together with the main bazaar of Isfahan they comprise the huge complex to explore.”
Michael Dellaira’ s music exploits the qualities of both speech and song, and encompasses genres from folk music to voice synthesis on computers. His song Star Globe is based on a poem by Nancy Manocherian, and was written for Sybarite5 and mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert in 2016. The second composer selected by Sybarite5 from the American Composers Forum competition is the Boston-based S teven Snowden. Snowden’s Traveler No. 65 was inspired by the story of H am, the chimpanzee who traveled to space in 1961.The music utilizes an extended technique, which has the violinist and cellist placing a piece of aluminum foil on the bridge of their instruments, thus creating “a p oignant, distorted sound.”
John Coltrane’s iconic song “A labama” was written in response to the Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963, which killed four, young African-American girls, and was inspired by the rhythmic speech patterns of Martin Luther King. I t first appeared on his 1964 album Live at Birdland. Sybarite5 has performed their arrangement of this classic song in concert on numerous occasions.
Closing the album is Serbian-American composer Aleksandra Vrebalov’s My Desert, My Rose, another Kronos Quartet commission, with a newly-arranged double bass part for Sybarite5 by Louis Levitt. The work was personally suggested to Levitt by Kronos violinist David Harrington, who thought it would be a natural fit for the quintet. Vrebalov writes, “M y Desert, My Rose c onsists of a series of patterns open in length, meter, tempo, and dynamics, different for each performer. The unfolding of the piece is almost entirely left to each performer’s sensibility and responsiveness to the parts of other members of the group.” The album also includes a surprise bonus track.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Called “hyper-accurate yet fiercely vivacious” (i care if you listen) , and “Smart as a fox” (Limelight Magazine), n o contemporary group has been more influential in the development of the string quintet (two violins, viola, cello, and double bass) than Sybarite5. The Ensemble has commissioned and premiered 112 new works since its inception, and has built a global audience with concert programs featuring new music by American composers. C omprising of violinists S ami Merdinian and S arah Whitney, violist A ngela Pickett, cellist Laura Metcalf, and bassist L ouis Levitt, Sybarite5 has been challenging audience perceptions of chamber music since 2009. The quintet’s debut album, Disturb the Silence (2010), quickly reached the top ten on the Billboard charts. The group’s follow-up album, E verything in its Right Place, was released at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. Sybarite5’s third album Outliers featured 11 world premieres by 10 diverse composers and d ebuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical charts. To read more about Sybarite5 visit: S ybarite5.org.
The group has performed in 44 states from concerts on the Library of Congress series to the Anchorage Concert Association. Appearances in Sybarite5’s home of New York City include concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, the Apple Store and a decade-long residency at Nancy Manocherian’s Cell Theatre. In addition to its own groundbreaking, portable music festival, Forward Festival, Sybarite5 has appeared at festivals including Ravinia, Caramoor, Wolf Trap, Grand Teton, Aspen, Interlochen, Chautauqua and many others. International appearances include Canada’s Tuckamore Music Festival, the New Docta International Music Festival in Cordoba, Argentina, and the Osaka Festa in Osaka, Japan.
Grammy® winning percussionist, composer, and Co-Director of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad ensemble, Shane Shanahan has combined his studies of drumming traditions from around the world with his background in jazz, rock, and Western art music to create a unique, highly sought after style. He has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass, Alison Krauss, Chaka Khan, and Deep Purple, among others. He has appeared at the White House, playing for President and First Lady Obama. Shanahan frequently hosts workshops and clinics at the world’s leading universities and museums and collaborates actively with the dance, theater, and yoga communities in the New York area, including several stints on Broadway.
Born in Iran in 1979, E hsan Matoori b egan learning the santoor (Persian dulcimer) at age nine based on the method of Maestro Faramarz Payvar. He studied instrumental and vocal radif (Persian music repertory) with Parviz Meshkatian and Pashang Kamkar. In 2001, he became a santoor teacher at the Center of Art and Culture in Isfahan and at several music schools in Tehran. Since moving to the U.S. in 2013 to join the SMU World Music Ensemble, he has performed with well-known world-music masters including Sandeep Das, Jamal Mohamed, Poovalur Sriji, Maeve Gilchrist, Matthew Coley, Mike Block, and Greg Ellis. His first album, Phantasm, was released in 2019 in collaboration with Iranian singer Mohsen Namjoo; the second album, T he Voices and Bridges— a collaboration with Alireza Ghorbani is planned to be released in the 2020-21 season . Mr. Matoori has also been a member of the SMU Meadows World Music Ensemble since 2013.
Mezzo-soprano B lythe Gaissert has established herself as one of the preeminent interpreters of some of the brightest stars of new classical music. As an interpreter and creator of multiple roles by some of today's best composers, such as Laura Kaminsky, Mikael Karlsson, Kamala Sankaram, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Glover, John Adams, Martin Hennessy, as well as the standard canon of operatic works, she has worked with companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, New York City Opera, the Aldeburgh Festival, Opera Columbus, San Diego Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Lyrique en Mer, Prototype Festival, Opera Colorado, Opera Idaho, Intermountain Opera, and many more. Upcoming projects include her solo debut album HOME and the world premiere of 2 new operas by Laura Kaminsky F inding Wright and Hometown to the World.
Because Sound Matters.