Boston Modern Orchestra Project Releases Debut Recording of Anthony De Ritis’s Five Orchestral Works for Traditional Chinese Instrumental Soloists

Debut Recording of Anthony De Ritis’s Five Orchestral Works for Traditional Chinese Instrumental Soloists

Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s 25th Anniversary Season

Available June 16, 2023, via BMOP/sound

Stream Tracks from Chang’E and the Elixir of Immortality

Boston, MA (For Release 06.16.23) — Known as the nation’s foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, Grammy Award-winning BMOP/sound releases Anthony De Ritis’s third album on the label: Chang’E and the Elixir of Immortality. This CD is dedicated to De Ritis’s works for traditional Chinese instruments and symphony orchestra performed here by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and 11 Chinese soloists helmed by conductor Gil Rose. The combination of Chinese heritage with Western avant-garde influences showcases both an important part of the composer’s creative output and the determinant role that China has played on 21st-Century music. The album’s five original tracks have all been played around the world with the exception of the eponymous Change’E and the Elixir of Immortality (2022); its 2020 premiere by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra was cancelled due to COVID-19.

“I hope that listeners of this CD, which represents more than 20 years of thinking about intercultural music-making inspired by China, can find some beauty as I try to find my own identity via a sort of ‘cultural version of DNA mixing (New Music)’,” explains composer Anthony De Ritis.

Anthony De Ritis (b.1961) is a professor and former Chair of the Music Department (2003-2015) at Northeastern University in Boston. Described as a “genuinely American composer” (Gramophone), he was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China (2011) and was appointed as a “Special Professor” in the China Conservatory of Music’s “Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Chinese National School of Music” (2016), and is on the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Global Media and China published by SAGE in collaboration with the Communications University of China. In 2018 De Ritis expanded his research and practice on the musical instruments of East Asia, with a residency at the International Gugak Center in Seoul, Korea. Shortly thereafter he composed the album’s third track The Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl using Chinese folklore and instrumentation. Its 2018 premiere by BMOP was described by The Wall Street Journal as “a concerto for a large array of Chinese percussion instruments, and that aspect, thanks to the high-energy virtuosity of Beibei Wang, is what captured the attention in this colorful, 20-minute score.”

BMOP’s long-standing relationship with De Ritis includes two albums on the BMOP/sound label. Devolution (2012) featuring Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky was hailed as “a tour de force” (Gramophone), and “blindingly gorgeous” (WQXR Radio). Pop Concerto (2017) featuring guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk was lauded by Classical CD Review as “a major issue of American music.”

About BMOP/sound         
BMOP/sound, BMOP’s independent record label, was created in 2008 to provide a platform for BMOP’s extensive archive of music, as well as to provide widespread, top-quality, permanent access to both classics of the 20th century and the music of today’s most innovative composers. BMOP/sound has garnered praise from the national and international press. It is the recipient of a 2020 Grammy Award for Tobias Picker: Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as eight Grammy Award nominations, and its releases have appeared on the year-end “Best of” lists of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, DownBeat, WBUR, NewMusicBox, and others. Admired, praised, and sought after by artists, presenters, critics, and audiophiles, BMOP and BMOP/sound are uniquely positioned to redefine the new music concert and recording experience. Launched in 2019, BMOP's digital radio station, BMOP/radio, streams BMOP/sound's entire catalog and airs special programming. BMOP.org

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Anthony De Ritis | Chang’E and the Elixir of Immortality (#1092)

BMOP/sound | Release Date: June 16, 2023

For more information on BMOP/sound, please visit BMOPsound.org.