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Denmark Vesey

String Quartets of Thomas Cabaniss, Vol. II

Thomas Cabaniss composer

Charleston Symphony String Quartet

Release Date: November 8, 2024
Catalog #: NV6676
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
String Quartet

Composer Thomas Cabaniss and the Charleston Symphony String Quartet bring a new and exquisite recording of Cabaniss’s third, fourth, and sixth string quartets to Navona Records. A complementary record to the previously released FOUR ELEMENTS, DENMARK VESEY completes Cabaniss’s six-quartet series. Bearing endless musical complexities masked in an air of exquisite melodic simplicity, the Charleston Symphony String Quartet effectively captures the evolving story between each movement and each quartet. Just as easily as they lean into the melancholy lines of the sixth, whose narrative tells the viscerally emotional story of Denmark Vesey, a slave revolt leader, they capture the harsh futuristic elements of the fourth and the flowing dance movements of the third. No doubt, DENMARK VESEY again proves Cabaniss to be a composer of wide variety, a collaboration that cements his legacy in the string ensemble genre.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 String Quartet No. 3 Short-Cut: I. Slowly Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:16
02 String Quartet No. 3 Short-Cut: II. With unflagging energy Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 2:50
03 String Quartet No. 3 Short-Cut: III. Freely Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:26
04 String Quartet No. 3 Short-Cut: IV. Gently Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 5:13
05 String Quartet No. 4 Futurist: I. Hurtling, "Noise Machine/Gathering" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:47
06 String Quartet No. 4 Futurist: II. Unflagging, "The Future! Discuss!" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 3:53
07 String Quartet No. 4 Futurist: III. Meditative, dreaming, "Tatlin's Dream" after Philip Glass Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:09
08 String Quartet No. 4 Futurist: IV. Unrelenting, "March to the Future" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 3:44
09 String Quartet No. 6 Denmark Vesey: I. With a groove and a hint of swing, "Nobody knows who I am" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:50
10 String Quartet No. 6 Denmark Vesey: II. Slowly, "O moonlight, o starlight" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:41
11 String Quartet No. 6 Denmark Vesey: III. With energy, "Look up the road" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 4:16
12 String Quartet No. 6 Denmark Vesey: IV. Slowly, "Die silent/Who's going to lay this body?" Thomas Cabaniss Charleston Symphony String Quartet | Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer - violins; Jan-Marie Joyce, viola; Benjamin Mekinulov, cello 5:56

Recorded May 7-8, 2024 at the Circular Congregational Church in Charleston SC
Recording Session Producer Brad Michel
Recording Session Engineer Jeff Francis
Editing, Mixing & Mastering Brad Michel
Immersive Audio Engineer Brad Michel

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Production Manager Martina Watzková
Production Assistant Adam Lysák

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Chelsea Kornago
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Thomas Cabaniss

Thomas Cabaniss

Composer

Thomas Cabaniss (b. Charleston SC, 1962) is a composer for dance, theater, film, and the concert stage. Cabaniss helped to create the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, serving young parents in shelters, hospitals, and prisons with collaboratively created songs for their children. He has been teaching at Juilliard in the Dance Division since 1998 and in the Music Division since 2007. He served as education director for the New York Philharmonic and Music Animateur at the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has written articles for Chamber Music Magazine and the Teaching Artist Journal. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, European American Music, G. Schirmer, and musiCreate publiCations. He is a member of ASCAP and an associated artist of Target Margin Theater.

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Yuriy Bekker

Violinist

Yuriy Bekker, critically-acclaimed violinist and conductor, has been a mainstay of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Charleston SC for 15 years. He has recently been named the CSO’s artistic director and also continues to lead as concertmaster (2007) and principal pops conductor (2016). Bekker previously served as the orchestra’s Acting Artistic Director from 2010–2014, playing a major role in the orchestra’s successful resurgence.

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Micah Gangwer

Micah Gangwer

violin

Micah Gangwer is the assistant concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. He attended Miami University for his undergraduate degree in violin performance, and studied at the University of Oklahoma and the University of South Carolina for graduate school. Gangwer began studying the violin at the age of four and has studied privately with violinists Stephan Shipps, William Terwilliger, Movses Pogossian, Harvey Thurmer, and Felicia Moye. Gangwer made his solo debut performing with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra when he was 11 years old, and throughout his childhood and college he won a number of solo and concerto competitions.

Solo appearances include concertos and concert pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Tartini, Mozart, Beethoven, Wieniawski, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Fritz Kreisler, John Williams, Tan Dun, William Grant Still, Schnittke, Richter, and Samuel Barber with various university and professional orchestras across America, and he has also been showcased on public radio and television as a soloist. Recent solo engagements include performances of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and many solo appearances with the Charleston Symphony.

​As a chamber musician, Gangwer has played in concerts across America and Europe including performances for ambassadors, royalty, and heads of state. In 2003 he was a finalist in the internationally renowned Coleman Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Lennox Trio. Gangwer has participated and performed in many festivals and institutes including the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Salzburg Chamber Music Institute. Gangwer also performed, toured, and recorded for three summers as a member of the Echternach Festival Orchestra of Luxembourg.

micahgangwer.com

Jan-Marie Joyce

viola

Jan-Marie Joyce has been principal violist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra for 25 years. She has appeared frequently as a soloist, most recently performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the CSO’s concertmaster Yuriy Bekker. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied under Stanley Konopka, assistant principal violist of the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cavani Quartet, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s resident quartet. While at CIM, she was the recipient of the Robert Vernon Prize in viola performance. She has also performed in masterclasses with Robert Vernon, former principal violist of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Dan Foster, principal violist of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Joyce is the former principal violist of the Canton (OH) Symphony and was a member of the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra in Colorado for 23 years. She has performed with orchestras across the country including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Opera, Naples Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, and Erie Philharmonic. In the summer of 2005, she was invited to perform in Seattle Opera’s production of Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen.” She is currently on the faculty of the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive summer program, where she teaches viola and coaches chamber music. She has previously served on the faculty of the College of Charleston and the Charleston International Music School.

A Maryland native, Joyce began taking Suzuki violin at age 4 and switched to the viola at age 12. A committed teacher, her students have gone on to study at major conservatories and universities including Peabody Conservatory, University of Michigan, Eastman School of Music, Lynn Conservatory, and Carnegie Mellon University as well as receiving scholarships to summer festivals including Bowdoin International Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Encore Chamber Music Institute, Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute, Brevard Music Center, and Charleston Chamber Music Intensive.

Joyce can be heard on an album of chamber music for oboe and strings with members of her family as well as the premiere recording of Thomas Cabaniss’ FOUR ELEMENTS. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Trumpet Performance.

Joyce is married to Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s bass trombonist Tom Joyce and has three children, Anthony, Emma, and Kenneth, and a dog Noelle.

charlestonsymphony.org/blog/musicians/jan-marie-christy-joyce

Benjamin Mekinulov

cello

Benjamin Mekinulov started his cello studies at the age of 6 with Professor Feng Hew and continued with Eastman Professor David Ying. He attended the Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine and placed first in the NYSSMA Festival in Rochester NY. Mekinulov was the principal cellist of the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra and in 2019 he was a concerto competition winner, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto. In the summer of 2020, he was accepted into the highly competitive National Youth Orchestra that performs at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Mekinulov studied at the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music, studying cello performance with the renowned professor, Dr. Melissa Kraut. In April 2022, he won the Gold Medal at the Cleveland Cello Society Scholarship Audition.

Mekinulov has attended the Colorado College Festival and the Sitka Music Festival. He has performed in master classes with Mark Kosower, Bion Tsang, David Ying, and Alan Rafferty. In the summer of 2022, he was accepted on a full fellowship to the acclaimed Aspen Music Festival where he performed many concerts and studied with esteemed cello professors such as Brinton Smith, Eric Kim, and Astrid Schween. In 2023 he attended the Sarasota Music Festival and served as a principal cellist of the AIMS Graz festival in Austria.

In 2023 Mekinulov won the principal cello position with Charleston Symphony Orchestra where he plays with leading international conductors and soloists.

Notes

It can be a beautiful thing to come home. For the past several years I have been lucky enough to work with musicians of my hometown orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, in education concerts that serve the schools of the Lowcountry. That led us to create a multi-year recording project focusing on my six string quartets. Three of them (1, 2 and 5) are in the first volume: FOUR ELEMENTS (2024). The complementary three (3, 4 and 6) are in this recording. The quartet is made up of the principal string players of the Charleston Symphony, and I am deeply indebted to them for the talent and dedication they have contributed to this two-album set. The first recording was made at the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC, and second in Charleston SC at the Circular Congregational Church. For both recordings, Jeff Francis was our engineer, and Brad Michel from PARMA Recordings was our producer. I am grateful to them and all the musicians who have performed this music in a variety of multi-disciplinary projects over the past 30 years.

— Thomas Cabaniss

Much of the music in this quartet was developed for a dance piece made in collaboration with choreographer Hilary Easton. The piece premiered at Danspace in New York City in 2005. It grappled with notions of efficiency and time, with a text by the novelist Helen Schulman. The cast featured the actor Steven Ratazzi along with dancers Leslie Cuyjet, Aaron Draper, Brian Gerke, Blossom Leilani, and Emily Stone. The music for the hour-long work was recorded by a string quartet consisting of Jennifer Choi, Jane Chung, David Wallace, and Jeffrey Ziegler, augmented by percussionists Justin Hines and Javier Diaz, pianist Eric Huebner, and composer Thomas Cabaniss, who also played the melodica.

The string quartet’s 1st, 3rd and 4th movements are drawn from that 2005 score; the 2nd movement was composed in 2021.

Movement 1 (Slowly) is inspired by a diagonal path that a male dancer marks out on the stage. He subtly attempts to get a female dancer to join him, and though she is game at first, instead she finds a number of distractions and tangents along the way.

Movement 2 (With unflagging energy) is a tumbling scherzo that uses fugal imitation throughout.

Movement 3 (Freely) starts with casual slides in the cello and gradually layers in the other instruments, leading to a little love song in D major.

Movement 4 (Gently) brings back some of the earlier themes in a slow, meditative summary.

— Thomas Cabaniss

This quartet springs from the dance work Noise + Speed, which was developed with choreographer Hilary Easton in 2008. This evening length work explores the writings and lives of the Italian futurists at the beginning of the 20th century. The premiere was at Danspace in NYC, performed by actor Steven Rattazzi and dancers Alexandra Albrecht, Hilary Easton, Chelsea Glassman, Michael Ingle, Joshua Palmer, and Emily Pope-Blackman. The recorded score was performed by Jennifer Choi, Alison Zlotow, Arman Alpyspaev, Jessie Reagen Mann, and percussionist Justin Hines.

The 1st, 2nd, and 4th movements all come from Noise + Speed; the 3rd movement is music that was originally part of Tatlin’s Tower, a theater work about the Russian futurist Vladimir Tatlin created with director and writer Evan Yionoulis in 1990.

Movement 1 (Hurtling — “Noise Machine/Gathering”) opens with a scream — the urgency of the futurist’s manifesto processed through their “noise machines,” boxes that amplified the scraping of metal wire as commentary on industrialism. Once the scream ends, there is music that softly tracks the gathering of the artists as they come together to plan and share their utopian dreams.

Movement 2 (Unflagging — “The Future! Discuss!”) is based on actual recordings of Italian futurists pronouncing their manifestos on art and politics. In this version, the recordings are taken away, and only the music remains.

Movement 3 (Meditative, dreaming — “Tatlin’s Dream” after Philip Glass) draws the connective dots between the utopian visions of futurists and the minimalism of the late 20th century. A simple ascending theme in A minor persists throughout, conjuring a kind of circle dance.

Movement 4 (Unrelenting — “March to the Future”) imagines the futurists as they lock arms in political action, tragically marching toward fascism and the quartet ends as it begins, with a scream.

— Thomas Cabaniss

The music for this quartet comes from my opera Denmark Vesey. The piece was originally developed at the O’Neill Opera/Music Theater Conference in 1988 and then in collaboration with American Opera Projects in New York City in 1990. The Overture to Denmark Vesey has been performed over the years and most recently in Charleston to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Denmark Vesey’s attempted rebellion (1822). In that same summer of 2022, I created a four-movement quartet that uses principal themes from the opera, as described below:

Movement 1 (With a groove and a hint of swing — “Nobody knows who I am, who I am/ ’Til the judgment morning.”) This song unites Denmark Vesey’s disciples in secrecy, as they plot a rebellion to overtake the city of Charleston in the summer of 1822.

Movement 2 (Slowly — “O moonlight, o starlight/ I’m walking through the starlight/ Lay this body down.”) This spiritual is shared as Denmark and his wife, Beck, minister to a dying friend.

Movement 3 (With energy — “Look up the road, you see Father Moses/ Join the Angel Band”) As the date of the planned rebellion approaches, Denmark’s disciples intensify their search for members.

Movement 4 (Slowly — “Die silent, as you shall see me do & Who’s going to lay this body? Member, O shout glory”) Betrayed by a house slave, Denmark Vesey and members of the rebellion are sentenced to death, but they refuse to surrender their co-conspirators. They are hanged at the water’s edge as their community praises their courage and mourns their loss.

— Thomas Cabaniss

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Composer Thomas Cabaniss and violinist Yuriy Bekker

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Yuriy Bekker, Micah Gangwer, Jan-Marie Joyce, and Benjamin Mekinulov at session

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Session at Circular Congregational Church

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