Bright Shiny Things Releases as we are, From Award-winning Poiesis Quartet and Mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby

BRIGHT SHINY THINGS RELEASES AS WE ARE, FROM AWARD-WINNING POIESIS QUARTET AND MEZZO-SOPRANO NANCY MAULTSBY

NEW YORK, NY–On October 18, 2024, Bright Shiny Things releases as we are [BSTD-0213], the debut album from the Poiesis Quartet (violinists Sarah Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby), winners of a 2024 Concert Artists Guild Award, and Grand Prize winners of the 2023 Fischoff Award. The album also features renowned mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby. Two world premiere recordings are showcased: Richard Stout’s Songs of Correspondence, a cycle of 11 songs on texts taken from the letters of Willa Cather, and Clint Needham’s String Quartet No. 1, “Shades of Green,” inspired by natural cycles and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The album is available for pre-order here.  

In their liner notes to the album, the quartet defines “poiesis” as the process of bringing something new into being. The two world premiere recordings on this debut album testify to that effort. 

Clint Needham’s String Quartet No. 1, “Shades of Green,” had its genesis at the Aspen Music Festival in 2005. While lying under a tree listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Needham sketched out three poems about nature, which later inspired him to try to capture in music the essence of that day and his impressions of it. Following the arc of the poems, the work is laid out in three sections: slow-fast-slow. Primary among the poems’ images are wind, sunlight, Aspen trees and mountains, but the work is even more importantly about cycles, whether in nature, life or music. The piece was awarded second prize in the 2006 Washington International Competition for Composers, after winning the 2005 Indiana University Kuttner String Quartet Composition Competition. 

Cleveland Orchestra trombonist Richard Stout’s Songs of Correspondence, based on the letters of Willa Cather, is laid out in eleven movements, named for the recipients of the author’s correspondence. The quartet explains: 

“Rick Stout's music shows how Cather's appreciation for the natural beauty of the Great Plains was interwoven with an unwavering love for the people in her life. As an ensemble of queer musicians, it's also been a special experience for us to highlight Cather's devotion to Edith, her same-sex lover, decades after they spent a lifetime in hiding.” 

Other movements give snapshots of Cather’s relationship to her longtime publisher Alfred Knopf, friends, fellow authors, and even a seven-year-old girl who sent her a fan letter. Together they form an intimate mini-biography of Cather, and the music takes its inspiration from their atmosphere, ranging from Melancholy and nostalgic to playful and childlike, and their geography, from Pittsburgh to Paris to the Southwest. The last song, named after Cather’s beloved brother, Roscoe, is the source of the whole cycle’s title: “Do you remember a long time ago you wrote me such a dear letter? You said ‘we must take each other as we are.’” Songs of Correspondence was premiered in spring of 2023 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln by the Omni Quartet, all members of the Cleveland Orchestra, and mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, who reprised the work in September of that year with the Poiesis Quartet for its Cleveland premiere under the auspices of Cleveland’s Rocky River Chamber Music Society. 

TRACK LIST:

Clint Needham
String Quartet No. 1, Shades Of Green

1 I. 5:19
2 II. 5:56
3 III. 6:35

Richard Stout
Songs of Correspondence 

4 I. Mariel 6:03
5 II. Elsie 6:27
6 III. Alfred 3:30
7 IV. Edith 4:37
8 V. The Twinnies 4:25
9 VI. Zoe 5:17
10 VII. Mrs. Austin 1:41
11 VIII. Dorothy 4:39
12 IX. My Namesake 2:21
13 X. Viola 5:56
14 XI. Roscoe 7:22

Poiesis Quartet (1-14)
Nancy Maultsby, mezzo-soprano (4-14)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: 

Poiesis Quartet

The name Poiesis is derived from the ancient Greek word ποιε?ν, which means "to make," particularly to create something that has never been made before. As a string quartet made up of inter- and multi-disciplinary young artists, Poiesis seeks to program music of all styles and genres and expand the traditional quartet setting with an emphasis on platforming works by emerging and underrepresented composers. The Poiesis Quartet strives to create unique moments of synchronicity, sensitivity, and verve in each performance.

In January 2023, the quartet completed an international tour in Uruguay with artistic residencies in Punta del Diablo and Punta del Este’s premiere concert series, “Conciertos del Este”. Performances included the world premiere of Alejandro Melo’s composition “Elegy” which was dedicated to the Quartet. As Grand Prize winners of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Poiesis embarked on a tour of the Midwestern U.S.  which included a recording of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Calvary Quartet at Guarneri Hall in Chicago, educational outreach across Iowa and Indiana,  and a feature on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series broadcast live on Chicago's WFMT. Their Cleveland premiere performance of Richard Stout’s Songs of Correspondence, at the opening concert of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society's 65th season with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, earned them praise as "agile collaborators" with an “extraordinary, honeyed group sound” (Cleveland Classical). The Poiesis is currently the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of music, and is managed by Concert Artists Guild as winners of the 2024 Louis & Susan Meisel Competition.

Nancy Maultsby

American mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby is in demand by opera companies and orchestras throughout the world. Her unique vocal timbre and insightful musicianship allow her to pursue a repertoire extending from the operas of Monteverdi and Handel to recent works by John Adams. She regularly performs the major heroines of nineteenth-century French, Italian, and German opera and the great symphonic masterpieces.

Nancy Maultsby’s recent projects include performances as Genevieve in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Los Angeles Opera, directed by David McVicar and conducted by James Conlon, and the Cleveland Orchestra in a new semi-staged production by Yuval Sharon, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, as well as at Cincinnati Symphony with Louis Langrée in a staging by James Darrah. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Maultsby performed the role of Julia in Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar, a reimagining of the classic piece by Yuval Sharon, which was later released on recording, and Bianca in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of The Rape of Lucretia. Ms. Maultsby also performed Handel’s Messiah with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Indianapolis Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem with the Florida Orchestra, Akron Symphony and Eugene Symphony. Ms. Maultsby was also featured in performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Antonio Symphony conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Handel’s Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Edward Polochick, as well as a return to Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Ježibaba in Dvorák’s Rusalka.