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Press Releases
Aug. 16: Composer Steven Mackey’s 'Memoir' Released as New Album by Dover Quartet and arx duo on Bridge Records
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466
Musical Theatrical Work, Memoir,
Released on New Album
Featuring the Dover Quartet and arx duo,
with Narration by Natalie Christa Rakes
Memoir is an Adaptation of his Mother’s Memoir,
the Tale of a First-Generation American Woman
in Search of the American Dream
Preview Tracks:
7/26: Track 5 – Jerry Versus Jim
8/9: Track 7 – Hard Ten
Out August 16, 2024 on Bridge Records
Physical Copies Available Upon Request
“Mackey’s sonic imagination is coupled with a deep mastery of craft” – The Boston Globe
"strikingly immersive music" – Musical America
www.stevenmackey.com
New York, NY (July 18, 2024) – On Friday, August 16, 2024, the world premiere recording of GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Steven Mackey’s dramatic musical work, Memoir (2021), is released as a new album on Bridge Records. Featuring the dynamic percussionists of arx duo and the award-winning Dover Quartet, with direction from Mark DeChiazza and narrated by Natalie Christa Rakes, Memoir explores the tumultuous 20th century as told through the eyes of a first-generation American woman (Elaine Mackey, Steven’s mother) charting her own path in search of the American Dream. Track 5 “Jerry Versus Jim” (July 26) and Track 7 “Hard Ten” (August 9) will be released as special preview tracks.
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In the 75-minute musical work, Elaine’s journey is told through music and narrated vignettes from her own memoir and that of her son, the composer. Mackey added, “Memoir more directly references her favorite music and the lullaby medley she sang to me as a child. Overall, the musical language of Memoir is a bit simpler and more direct than I would do if I were writing a piece without connection to this text. Her voice, ringing through these stories, asked for something more innocent.”
Written for string quartet, percussion duo and narrator, the visually and sonically captivating work spans diverse musical landscapes and characters, from witty and playful to rich and profound.
As director Mark DeChiazza points out, “the narrator is also like the other musicians with whom she shares the stage. The memoir’s text is her orchestral part, the narration another instrument in the mix, its rhythms and tones, energies and emotions weaving into the aggregate whole that comprises Mackey’s reckoning with his mother’s story. The text of Elaine’s memoir, and its photos and memorabilia too, provide Mackey his point of entry—a portal through which he conducts a musical conversation with his mother, his engagement with the document she left him imaginative perspectives on her, their relationship, and ultimately himself. ”
Memoir saw its world premiere in 2022 at the Walton Arts Center and enjoyed subsequent performances at Princeton University and Kingston Chamber Music Festival, with its most recent performance in February 2024 presented by the Seattle Symphony.
Memoir Tracklist
Steven Mackey (b. 1956) – Memoir for percussion duo, string quartet, and narrator (2021)
Act I (22:30)
1. Introductions (4:09)
2. Aunts (4:03)
3. Cars (4:57)
4. More Machines (9:21)
Act II (26:57)
5. Jerry Versus Jim (3:55)
6. Jitterbug (3:48)
7. Hard Ten (2:30)
8. Only Make Believe (5:05)
9. Medley (3:58)
10. Back in the USA (2:06)
11. Night and Day (5:35)
Act III (27:00)
12. Hair (5:36)
13. Drinking Problem (1:32)
14. Tacos (4:30)
15. Rock Bottom (2:40)
16. Conclusion and Epilogue (12:42)
Total Time: 01:16:27
Dover Quartet (Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello)
arx duo (Garrett Arney, percussion; Mari Yoshinaga, percussion)
Natalie Christa Rakes, Narrator
Steven Mackey, Narrator
BRIDGE 9601
Director/Dramaturge: Mark DeChiazza
Executive Producer: Garrett Arney
Producer: David Frost
Engineers: Drew Schlegel, Cory Fica (vibraphone overdub), Carlos Dias Jr. (narration)
Editors: David Frost, Jennifer Nulsen
Mix Engineer: David Frost
Mastering Engineer: Jennifer Nulsen
Vibraphone Overdub Performer: Sijia Huang
Recorded: Curtis Institute of Music, Gould Rehearsal Hall, on January 20-22, 2023
Graphic Design: Casey Siu
About Steven Mackey
Steven Mackey is a GRAMMY-winning composer of works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, and opera—commissioned by the greatest orchestras around the world. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and recipient of many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. Bright in coloring, ecstatic in inventiveness, lively and profound, Mackey’s music spins the tendrils of his improvisatory riffs into large-scale works of grooving, dramatic coherence
Mackey began composition studies at the University of California at Davis and received his PhD at Brandeis University. Upon graduating and becoming a professor at Princeton, Mackey came to realize his true creative voice by merging his academic training with the free-spirited physicality of his mother-tongue rock guitar music. Mackey’s music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Today, he lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, and their son Jasper and daughter Dylan, and teaches at Princeton University, where he mentors young composers as director of the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute.
In fall 2022, Mackey joined the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. He continues to explore an ever-widening world of timbres befitting a complex, 21st-century culture, while always striving to make music that unites the head and heart, that is visceral, that gets us moving. Learn more at www.stevenmackey.com.
About arx duo
arx duo is a globally renowned percussion chamber music ensemble dedicated to expanding percussion repertoire through new creations, inspiring young artists, and captivating audiences worldwide. With premiere performances across the globe, cross-continental workshops, and collaborations with diverse composers and artists, arx duo brings vibrant new works to life, captivating communities everywhere.
arx duo has performed in diverse venues, ranging from a parking lot in West Africa to the prestigious Royal Albert Concert Hall in London, and has collaborated with a variety of artists and composers to bring new works to life. They have been fortunate enough to perform premiere concerti as soloists with Symphony Tacoma, Mission Hills Symphony, Missoula Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Louisville Symphony, and recently with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra under Maestro Corrado Ravaris featuring a double concerto from composer Nick Diberardino, written for the duo. They have worked and released two albums, one (The Harmonic Canon) written in 2018 earning the composer a “British Composer of the Year” award in 2018.
The name “arx duo” comes from the artists’ desire to forge new connections and artistic pathways or “arcs” within the genre, expanding the opportunities for their music to reach new audiences. Learn more at www.arxduo.com.
About Dover Quartet
The Dover Quartet’s GRAMMY-nominated recordings include its highly acclaimed three-volume recording, Beethoven Complete String Quartets (Cedille Records), which was hailed as “meticulously balanced, technically clean-as-a-whistle and intonationally immaculate” (The Strad), and The Schumann Quartets (Azica Records).
The Dover Quartet is the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music and holds additional residencies at Northwestern University and the Artosphere festival. The quartet was formed at Curtis in 2008; its name pays tribute to Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the two-time GRAMMY-nominated Dover Quartet is one of the world’s most in-demand chamber ensembles. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its honors include the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award. Learn more at www.doverquartet.com.
About Mark DeChiazza
Mark DeChiazza is a director whose multifaceted practice includes filmmaking, choreography, scenic and media design, and installation. His work has been presented in national and international venues including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center of the Arts, Guthrie Theater, Singapore International Festival of Arts, Prototype Festival, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, The Momentary, Walton Arts Center, and many more.
Past projects include; large-scale outdoor works, such as Look Around (2019) co-created with composer Shara Nova, featuring the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and over 600 performers from over 30 local groups, and John Luther Adams’ Sila (2016) which he directed and designed for Lincoln Center Festival; film works such as Ocean Body, a 4-screen film and music installation co-created with performers Helga Davis and Shara Nova, and Hiraeth, a film with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s orchestral work of the same name; and staged works such as Dan Trueman’s Olagón, with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird and Eighth Blackbird; Quixote, a music-theater epic with composer Amy Beth Kirsten; Orpheus Unsung, a music-dance work with Steven Mackey; My Lai, an opera by Jonathan Berger with Kronos Quartet and Rinde Eckert. Learn more at https://markdechiazza.com.
About Natalie Christa Rakes
Natalie Christa Rakes, a Pennsylvania native, honed her skills as a classical and music theater vocalist under the musical instruction of coach Susan Rheingans, known for her work with prestigious opera companies (Los Angeles Music Center Opera and New York Opera Forum). From her early years, Natalie showcased her talent in numerous musical theater productions, including standout performances like the lead role in Annie. Immersed in the vibrant Philadelphia music scene, she expanded her repertoire by singing and playing keyboards, guitar, and tambourine in local bands, ultimately embarking on her first tour.
Her journey then took her to Los Angeles, where she joined the Midnight Shakes, a band featured in a Fuse TV reality show. Following this venture, Natalie transitioned into a career as a singer-songwriter, collaborating with renowned LA producers. Notably, her song “Queen Bee” soared to the top of European dance charts, earning the coveted #1 spot, while other compositions found placement in popular television series like “American Horror Story” and “The Real ‘L’ Word.”
In her latest endeavor, “Memoir,” Natalie ventures into the contemporary concert music scene, embodying the character of Elaine, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary life in the 20th Century. With her voice, innate musicality, and theatrical instincts, Natalie brings Elaine’s story to life, captivating audiences with her unique blend of talent and artistry.
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