Talukder/Trenk make solo recording debut on Cedille Records

Check out this solo recording debut on Cedille Records!   STUNNING!

https://www.cedillerecords.org/albums/briefly-gorgeous/

Winner of Cedille Records’ 2025 Emerging Artist Competition, Chicago-born oboist Oliver Talukder makes his solo recording debut with Briefly Gorgeous. Joined by pianist Moriah Trenk, Talukder presents an album inspired by themes of identity, love, family, and belonging. Drawing on his Mexican and Bengali heritage and his Chicago upbringing, the program explores where classical music intersects with Latino and South Asian traditions, creating a musical portrait shaped by Talukder’s own story. 

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music currently pursuing graduate studies at The Juilliard School, Talukder performs on oboe, English horn, flute, and piccolo, bringing exceptional versatility to imaginative programming, original arrangements, and the music of diverse composers. Taking its title from Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, the album brings together works by Jeffrey Agrell, Marina Dranishnikova, Alyssa Morris, Florence Price, Reena Esmail, and Arturo Márquez that mirror Talukder’s own artistic journey, revealing a musical voice shaped as much by experience as by technical virtuosity. 

Jeffrey Agrell’s Blues for D.D. pushes the oboe to its technical and stylistic limits, blending blues, swing, bebop, and Latin rhythms into a dazzling showpiece that showcases Talukder’s remarkable versatility. Marina Dranishnikova’s Poème reveals one of the 20th century’s overlooked musical voices through a deeply expressive meditation on love, longing, and loss, offering a striking contrast to the album’s more extroverted works. Morris’s Four Personalities transforms the four archetypes of the Hartman Personality Test into vivid musical portraits, capturing the contrasting energies of “Yellow,” “White,” “Blue,” and “Red” through four distinctive movements. 

Talukder contributes two original arrangements that broaden the repertoire for the woodwind family. The five songs by Florence Price feature Talukder alternating between oboe and English horn, bringing new colors to the composer’s vocal writing, while Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2 showcases his command of flute and piccolo (as well as oboe and English horn). Esmail’s Jhula Jhule offers a poignant exploration of heritage and memory, weaving together Indian folk melodies passed down through the composer’s family and reflecting her journey between Indian and Western musical traditions.

Cedille Records’ Emerging Artist Competition, sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation, awards an exceptional Chicago-based musician a fully funded solo recording debut, introducing their artistry to audiences around the world. Briefly Gorgeous was produced by James Ginsburg and engineered by Bill Maylone. The album was recorded September 29–October 1, 2025 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

Briefly Gorgeous is made possible by the generous support of Nancy Dehmlow, Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, Patricia Kenney & Gregory O’Leary, Olga & Darin Walsh, Glory & Lynn Witherspoon, Helen Zell, and guests at Soirée Cedille 2025

For more information on Oliver and Moriah email FeinerEnt@gmail.com

914/500-3897