Yaddo 2007 Group
NEWS
see PRESS page for reviews and more
For more information Contact Blankenship & Robertson Management : robertson.nolan@gmail.com or to contact the composer: lschwendinge@wisc.edu
And see reviews on the PRESS Page
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Recording Session with the Lincoln Trio at WFMT in Chicago of Laura Schwendinger's Arc of Fire, A Chamber America Commission on October 27, 2014
Premiered on Relevant Tones WFMT, Laura's work will be highlighted on the Composer's Amongst Us, on WFMT Saturday Dec. 27, 2014
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And 3 NEW YORK TIMES Listings, reviews listings in the last two weeks!!!
Laura Schwendinger is named a 2014 recipient of
The American Orchestra League’s/ Music Alive residency with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra
The league’s Music Alive: New Partnerships program, which it administers with New Music USA, is a matchmaking program of sorts. Now in its 14th year, it brings together composers and orchestras (12 each, this year) that have never worked together. Unlike many such programs, this one is not meant to expand the repertory through commissions. Instead, the program provides $7,500 grants, underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to cover weeklong residencies during which each participating orchestra will perform a work from the resident composer’s catalog.
The composers (and orchestras) receiving this year’s grants are Clarice Assad (Boston Landmarks Orchestra); Douglas J. Cuomo (Grant Park Orchestra, of Chicago); Annie Gosfield (Chautauqua Symphony); Takuma Itoh (Tucson Symphony Orchestra); Jing Jing Luo (Princeton Symphony Orchestra); Missy Mazzoli (Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra); Rick Robinson (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, of Houston); Carl Schimmel (Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra); Laura Schwendinger (Richmond Symphony Orchestra); Derrick Spiva (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra), Sumi Tonooka (South Dakota Symphony Orchestra) and Dan Visconti (Arkansas Symphony Orchestra).
http://www.americanorchestras.org/images/stories/press_releases/MusicAliveNewPartnershipsrelease.pdf
http://www.americanorchestras.org/news-publications/press-releases.html
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, Sunday Arts Page, OCTOBER 5, 2014
Something New for Amateur Night; Nonprofessional Musicians Like Contemporary Challenges
By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/arts/music/nonprofessional-musicians-like-contemporary-challenges.html?_r=0
BENNINGTON, Vt. — On a cool, rainy summer afternoon, the Jennings Music Building of Bennington College was abuzz with the sound of dozens of chamber groups. It was the final session of the four-week amateur Chamber Music Conference held annually here, and familiar snippets of Beethoven, Brahms and Haydn filtered out of every available room and mixed into a cheerful cacophony.
Nearby, the Deane Carriage Barn was filled with a jazzy, mischievous-sounding tangle of syncopated notes and jagged tumbling cascades. A quintet of clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano was in the midst of rehearsing a work that was as yet unfamiliar to anyone — except its composer, Laura Elise Schwendinger. Facing the musicians with the score open on her lap, she interrupted them frequently to advise and correct. During a break, the violinist David Knapp said: “Usually you play music by composers who are dead, so you’re always guessing at what they want. It’s nice to be able to interact directly.” As for the unfamiliar musical language, the clarinetist Jeannine Webber said, “You take it apart, and you learn to embrace the dissonance rather than strain against it.” The remark earned her an emphatic hug from the composer
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Classical Playlist: Puccini, Messiaen, Schubert and More
By THE NEW YORK TIMES SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 12:26 PM
‘HIGH WIRE ACTS: CHAMBER MUSIC BY LAURA ELISE SCHWENDINGER’ Brightmusic; Chicago Chamber Musicians; Duo 46; Christina Jennings, flutist; Greg Sauer, cellist; Katie Wolfe, violinist (Centaur) The chamber works grouped together on this captivating disc show off Laura Elise Schwendinger’s acute ear for unusual textures. In these works, scored for solo violin; nonet; violin and guitar; or a quintet of flute, piano and strings, she sketches musical short stories of somnambulant fragility and purpose. The color palette she draws from these modest forces is varied and expressive — and brilliantly rendered by a fine roster of performers. (Fonseca-Wollheim)
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September 2014
Laura Schwendinger and the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston receive a Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress
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Albany CD: 3 WORKS for solo instruments and orchestra
featuring Matt Haimovitz, Curtis Macomber and Christina Jennings
at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Schwendinger-Works-Instruments-Orchestra/dp/B00A0OHWO8
Fanfare "You know you have talent to burn..." .http://www.fanfaremag.com/content/view/51018/
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Centaur CD: High Wire Acts to be released by Centaur August 1, 2013
featuring Christina Jennings and BrightMusic, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, Duo 46, and violinist Katie Wolfe
http://centaurrecords.com/store/albums/contemporary/high-wire-acts.html
http://www.amazon.com/High-Wire-Laura-Elise-Schwendinger/dp/B00CU6ASYK
Fanfare Sept./Oct. reviews includes Colin Clarke's
"Punchy, imaginative, subtle, stirring, evocative—all these terms apply...The first, also called “High Wire Act,” is remarkably effective given the
careful depictions given by the composer about what the music actually represents—not only the artists themselves but also (in the high string harmonics)
the sounds of the trapeze appitself. The performance itself is acrobatic beautifully managed. It stands on its own perfectly without a priori knowledge of the
program. The frozen second movement (“The Rope Walker”), finds stasis perhaps representing the hesitancy of the walker. The writing for the
instruments is expert. The third movement, “The Aerialist,” is a love song for flute and viola, here played by a real-life husband and wife (the two,
love song and marriage, aren’t exclusive in America yet, are they?). A shimmering trapped bird features next, fighting for its freedom:
wonderfully written, wonderfully played. The very brief finale uses rhythmic unison used to good effect.
Lasting a full 15 minutes, the Sonata for Solo Violin (1992) is a work of some substance.Schwendinger sets out her expressive credentials in the opening Lullaby,
beautifully played by a close-miked Katie Wolfe. The central Arioso takes the lyricism and effectivelyinteriorizes it still further. All credit to Katie
Wolfe’s bow control and sensitive phrasing here, not to mention her perfectly judged stoppings. Her playing is simply mesmeric."
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Recent works and premieres (see Recent Concerts and Works pages for more)
April 12, 2013 Sinfonietta for The New Juilliard Ensemble
Fall 2012 Choral work Llorona, premiere with The UW Madison, Beverly Taylor Director
Sept. 16, 21, 22, 2012 Footfalls, a companion piece to the Beckett play (see NY Times)
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Cygnus Ensemble's Sounding Beckett Project
Sept. 16, 21, 22, 2012 Footfalls, a companion piece to the Beckett play
for Cygnus Ensemble's Sounding Beckett Project at Classic Stage Company
tickets and more information at http://offbroadway.broadwayworld.com/article/CSC-to-Present-SOUNDING-BECKETT-914-23-20120723
SOUNDING BECKETT - a singular evening of theater and music that pairs three plays by Samuel Beckett from his "ghost period" with new works by contemporary composers written expressly in response to those plays - will be presented September 14-23 at the Classic Stage Company (136 E. 13 St.) in Manhattan. This world-premiere production is directed by the award-winning theatre director Joy Zinoman, Founding Artistic Director of The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. along with the voice of the Tony-nominated and Drama Desk and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant.
Read more: http://offbroadway.broadwayworld.com/article/CSC-to-Present-SOUNDING-BECKETT-914-23-20120723#ixzz21auK1YSo
http://offbroadway.broadwayworld.com/article/CSC-to-Present-SOUNDING-BECKETT-914-23-20120723#ixzz21atogYn1
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*CEDILLE RELEASES* Notable Women with THE LINCOLN TRIO
featuring C’e la Luna Questa Sera?(5:48), as well as works by Auerbach, Garrop, Higdon, Thomas and Tower
Cedille’s Notable Women CD release with the Lincoln Trio, featuring works by Tower, Thomas, Garrop, Higdon, Auerbach and Schwendinger
reviewed in Gramophone
http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/345/365/29940/2/14?dps=on
Judith Sherman, was just nominated for a Grammy for Classical Producer of the year for her work on Notable Women:
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"Schwendinger finds moonlight serene, ethereal and otherworldly. She charges the violin with creating the light, the piano with evoking the rippling waters of Lake Como and the cello suggesting the water’s depth".
To see more reviews of this and other works
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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Schwendinger-Works-Instruments-Orchestra/dp/B00A0OHWO8, Reviewed in Fanfare "You know you have talent to burn..." http://www.fanfaremag.com/content/view/51018/
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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/High-Wire-Laura-Elise-Schwendinger/dp/B00CU6ASYK
Centaur: http://centaurrecords.com/store/albums/contemporary/high-wire-acts.html
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Shadings for the American Composers Orchestra, UNSAFE Series; in collaboration with lighting artist Leni Schwendinger.
New Juiliard Ensemble to play Song for Andrew at MOMA, New York on July 25, 2010
New York Times review (4/6/10) of the Cygnus Ensemble performance of her Garden of Earthly Delights
Jenny Lin performing Laura's piano music, reviewed in NY Times, March 20, 2009
The Schwendinger Sound; In a second page, her works are discussed further with links to sound files
Cow Music, released on Kofomi#13 - Stimmen Atmen from Ein Klang records, Austria
Pocket Concerto review in NY Time
Poetry Magazine piece: A Sort of Music
University of Wisconsin Romnes Faculty Award
To see upcoming performances (click here)