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Onyx
Shawn Crouch composer
Mark Zanter composer
Anne Neikirk composer
Christopher Biggs composer
Ferdinando DeSena composer
Federico Bonacossa composer
Chi-hin Leung composer
Kyong Mee Choi composer
Timothy Ernest Johnson composer
Kai-Young Chan composer
Andrián Pertout composer
Navona Records presents ONYX, the 29th edition of the acclaimed Society of Composers, Inc. CD Series and the fifth SCI release on the label. Founded in 1965, SCI celebrates their 50 year anniversary with the release of this album, marking their continued dedication to the promotion, performance, understanding, and dissemination of new and contemporary music.
This offering in the series features works by ten SCI composers: Christopher Biggs’ Greed offers a musical reflection on the depravity of the same name; Federico Bonacossa’s Rivir for solo viola was written for violist Vivian Torres, using letters from her name to form a palindrome; Kai-Young Chan’s Ignis Fatuus is a musical portrait of the elusive and flickering phenomena of a pale, green light commonly seen in marshes or around graveyards; Kyong Mee Choi and Timothy Ernest Johnson’s Tensile Strength focuses on the intersection of the harsh and the harmonious; Shawn Crouch’s Adolescent Psychology is an impressionistic scene of youth; Ferdinando DeSena’s Between Logic and Rhetoric presents the distinction between logical and rhetorical arguments; Chi-hin Leung’s Utmost Attack captures the fleeting moment of shooting an arrow; Anne Neikirk’s Gangrel offers a musical narrative illustrating the onset of a terrifying thunderstorm; Andrián Pertout’s Echoes from the Past presents a study on extended flute techniques, such as multiphonics, progressive vibrati, and broken sounds; and Mark Zanter’s Persistence of Memory, commissioned by WVSO Principal Flautist Lindsey Goodman, explores how a piece of music might attempt to form memories of itself.
This compilation reflects the diversity and originality of techniques coming from some of today’s most talented composers.
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Artist Information
Shawn Crouch
Gramophone Magazine calls Shawn Crouch a "gifted young composer" and Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times describes Shawn Crouch's work as music of "gnarling atonal energy". Lawrence Johnson of the Miami Herald called his Road From Hiroshima; A Requiem a "staggering achievement, an imaginative, powerful and deeply moving work" making the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel's 2005 Classical Music Standouts.
Mark Zanter
Mark Zanter has appeared on NPR’s Live at the Landmark, WILL, IPR, WVPN’s In Touch With The Arts, is published by Les Productions d’OZ, Schott European American and MJIC, and his works have been performed nationally and internationally at festivals including, MUSIC X, June in Buffalo, Soundscape, NYCEMF, Echofluxx, SEAMUS, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Generative Art International, Seensound, MIUC, Melbourne, and SPLICE.
Ferdinando DeSena
Ferdinando DeSena is a Miami-based composer who was born in Brooklyn NY. His earliest musical experiences were with neighborhood pop, and doo–wop groups. He worked as musician in Ithaca NY for 13 years, playing in several regional bands as keyboard player and lead singer. His final group was Uptown Revue, which he led for seven years
Chi-Hin Leung
Chi-Hin Leung (b. 1984) was born in a metropolitan city - Hong Kong. With a diverse cultural background, his composition mixes with both East and West thoughts, and with special interests in timbral and textural explorations. He was the champion of the Hong Kong Handbell Festival Composition Contest, first runner-up at New Generation and won the Hong Kong Composers' Guild Audience Choice Award.
Lindsey Goodman
Flutist Lindsey Goodman is a soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, orchestral musician, educator, and clinician whose “palette of tone colors includes cool silver, warm chocolate, the bright colors of a sunrise, and the deep blue of midnight.” (The Flutist Quarterly) Renowned for her “energy and artistry, conveying her exuberance and creativity” (Pittsburgh in the Round), Lindsey has performed solo and chamber concerts, taught masterclasses, and given presentations at countless series, festivals, and universities. Performances “played with conviction” (New York Times) have been heard across three continents, including at Carnegie Hall, Eastman School of Music, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Google headquarters, University of Cincinnati College’s Conservatory of Music, several National and Canadian Flute Association conventions, across China, and on the Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone podcast.
