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King's College Cambridge announces new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, transcribed for harp and performed by Parker Ramsay
King’s College Cambridge (UK) announces new recording of BACH’S GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, transcribed for harp and performed by outstanding young American musician, Parker Ramsay. Available 18 September 2020
Recorded in the unique acoustic of the King’s College Chapel, this version of the Goldberg Variations was created by Parker in part to make a statement about the harp: “I wanted to show the world that the harp is an instrument of beauty, sincerity and transcendence, standing alongside the keyboards and string instruments as a worthy vehicle for the music of J S Bach.”
This is Parker’s first solo harp recording, and the third recording by an alumnus on the College’s own label. The album is accompanied by extensive notes by Pulitzer Prize winning music critic Tim Page and leading Bach scholar Burkhard Schwalbach.
“Transcribing music from one instrument to another is a challenge, and it doesn’t usually work very well. But then there’s Bach, whose work permits re-arrangement of all kinds so long as his musical structures remain intact. [Parker Ramsay’s new recording] is both brainy and beautiful, its easy-on-the-ear timbres stimulating, paradoxically, an even more intense analysis than usual.” – Tim Page
Parker Ramsay’s career is distinguished by its breadth and crossing of instrumental boundaries and genres at the harp, organ and harpsichord. He was the first American to hold the post of Organ Scholar at King’s, from 2010–2013, following a long line of prestigious predecessors.
“My decision to take on the Goldbergs wasn’t solely intellectual or musical. Embedded in the album are all the elements of my past and my identity. There’s the Chapel at King’s, where I was once an organ scholar; there is the harp, which I studied with my mother from a young age; and there is the quirkiness of Manhattan, where I keep my office, and where my mother had her lessons with Marcel Grandjany, a harpist and organist who had a keen affinity for playing Bach on the harp. The CD isn’t just about Bach, or the harp or New York, – it’s also about my family, my musicianship and my two lives on either side of the Atlantic.”
– Parker Ramsay
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Notes to Editors:
Bach: Goldberg Variations will be available on CD and to stream and download via all major digital music services from 18 September. The opening ‘Aria’ will be available to stream & watch online from 31 July, and the First Variation from 28 August. It will be the third album by a King’s alumnus on the College’s label, following Guy Johnston’s Tecchler’s Cello: From Cambridge to Rome, which Classical Music Magazine called a “stunning tour-de-force”, and Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur by organist Richard Gowers, which was described by Gramophone as “deeply impressive”.
King’s College recordings are released in partnership with LSO Live and distributed physically in the UK, US, France, Benelux and digitally worldwide by [PIAS].
About Parker Ramsay:
Parker Ramsay’s artistry is distinguished by its breadth and depth, and by taking the harp in new directions. Equally at home on modern and period instruments, Parker splits his time between pursuing historical performance and working with composers to push the technical limits of the modern pedal harp.
At the age of seventeen, Parker was awarded the Organ Scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge where he served under the direction of Stephen Cleobury. His tenure with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge included performing for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 2012, as well as six international tours and four recordings.
Winner of the 2014 Sweelinck Competition in Amsterdam, he went on to pursue graduate studies at Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School. He is co-director of A Golden Wire and works regularly with Apollo’s Fire, the Academy of Sacred Drama, the Shanghai Camerata, and a number of other period ensembles in the United States.
Dedicated to commissioning new works for the harp, he has premiered solos by Saad Haddad, David Fulmer, Michael Seltenreich, Tom Morrison, and Josh Levine. He has performed at the Concertgebouw, the Royal Albert Hall, the Muse´e d’Orsay, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Verizon Hall (Philadelphia), the National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts (Seoul).
Parker holds a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree and artist diploma in historical keyboards from Oberlin Conservatory. He also holds a master’s degree in harp performance from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Nancy Allen, principal harpist of the New York Philharmonic. His prior teachers include Isabelle Perrin, Sivan Magen, and Skaila Kanga. In addition to his work as a performer, he works as a staff writer for VAN Magazine and maintains his blog, Harping On: Thoughts from a Recovering Organist. Fitness is a priority for Parker, running 5.5 miles each day. He lives in New York City.
Bach: Goldberg Variations (Arranged for Harp)
Released 18 September
KGS0049 | 0822231704928
For further information contact:
Benjamin Sheen, Label & Media Manager
benjamin.sheen@kings.cam.ac.uk
44 1223 331 171
Claire Long, Music Productions
44 1753 783739
Thomas Rozwadowski, LSO Live Marketing & Partnerships Manager
44 2073 822 543
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