Contemporary Classics October 10, 2017 Birmingham New Music Festival and Ed Windels Interview

This episode features an interview with composer Ed Windels as part of the monthly Composer Conversations series - which can be heard by clicking below.  In addition 4 more works from composers who will be at this year's Birmingham New Music Festival including Joel Scott Davis, Monroe Golden and Matthew Scott Phillips. 

The first work on this evenings Contemporary Classics is  Songs About God is a five movements based upon the early poetry of the Southern Agrarian Poet John Crowe Ransom   It was written by Joel Scott Davis expressly for G. William Bugg, voice and Kathryn Fouse, piano who premiered the work at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in October 2008. The original duo joined forces again in September 2016 for this performance of the revised version at the Third Annual Birmingham New Music Festival.

You have been listening to Joel Scott Davis’ Songs About God from a live performance by G. William Bugg, voice and Kathryn Fouse, piano from the 2016 Birmingham New Music Festival

Monroe Golden Vestiges for vibraphone and fixed media with Seth Noble, vibraphone

Vestiges was composed for Iron Giant Percussion in 2012, and this solo version arranged for Seth Noble in 2015. The work is scored for metals and metallic models, with alternating sections loosely based on ferric folksongs and a jazz standard.

You have been listening to a performance of Monroe Golden Vestiges for vibraphone and fixed media with Seth Noble, vibraphone

To end this hour we have Joel Scott Davis’s string quartet.  This work was commissioned by Drs. Wilton and Vicki Bunch, who also established a generous endowment for the formation of the Samford String Quartet.  The quartet was composed for the members of the Samford String Quartet, Jeffrey & Angela Flaniken and Samuel & Caroline Nordlund

You have been listening to a performance of Joel Scott Davis’s string quartet in a performance by the Samford Quartet, Jeffrey & Angela Flaniken and Samuel & Caroline Nordlund

We begin this second hour of Contemporary Classics with Matthew Scott Phillips work The Socratic Problem is a work for viola and piano which is a reflection on the verisimilitude of Socrates’s existence. It is a struggle with the question of whether so influential a figure can truly be imaginary and ultimately an arrival at the decision that his realness is not as important as his influence.  This performance is with Michael Fernandez, viola and Adam Alan Bowles, Piano

You have been listening to Matthew Scott Phillips’ The Socratic Problem in a performance by Michael Fernandez, viola and Adam Alan Bowles, Piano

For the rest of this hour we have Composer Conversations with Ed Windels which can be heard by clicking below.