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For your consideration – REMEMBER

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

REMEMBER

BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

Stanley Grill’s REMEMBER is presented by Navona Records. Featuring viola and piano, these inventive works aptly demonstrate Grill’s unique style; rooted in his passion for medieval and Renaissance music, his compositions are as pioneering and contemporary as they are fundamentally traditional. Grill’s work focuses particularly on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, interweaving lines. The result is a musical experience greater than the sum of the instruments involved. Two themes that permeate much of his work can be found throughout this album as well: a desire to translate elements of the physical world into sound, and a dedication to cultivating and promoting peace through music. REMEMBER offers listeners a fresh and memorable collection of works for viola and piano.

Music by Stanley Grill. Performed by Brett Deubner and Thomas Steigerwald. Produced by Stanley Grill. Recorded by Scott Anderson. Mastered by Randall Crafton.

PARMA RECORDINGS.

Gapplegate Classical/Modern Music Review: “Stanley Grill is a phenomenon who crafts a directly accessible presence that would appeal to a wide spectrum of music lovers in addition to the serious followers on what is happening in New Music.”

For your Consideration – AFTERWARDS

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

AFTERWARDS

BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

AFTERWARDS… presents music that imagines a world different from the one we find ourselves in today, music that strives towards a sound that might be heard in a world where violence is no longer the ready answer to men’s disputes, a world where reason prevails, a calmer world. On this album, the vehicle for this expression of hope is the string quartet, an ensemble about which composer Stanley Grill writes, “it is the string quartet that has mostly occupied my attention over the years, as the intimate sound of a small consort of bowed strings is the perfect medium to express the contemplative sound landscape I strive to create.” The music presented on this album reflects the same themes that dominate much of Stanley Grill’s work: an attempt to influence the minds and hearts of those who hear it in such a way as to encourage thoughts about the possibility of world peace, as well as music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world.

Music by Stanley Grill. Performed by Camerata Philadelphia. Produced by Ralph Farris. Recorded by Randall Crafton.

Luigi Mazzochi, violin; Blake Espy, violin; Jonathan Kim, viola; Stephen Framil, cello

An Innova Recording.

64th Annual Grammy Awards season

As the 64th Grammy awards season begins, I’m looking forward to my 2nd year as a member, and weeks of listening to all of the wonderful music that has been submitted. Everything I heard last year was pre-pandemic, but this year will reflect the response of musicians to the pandemic, and demonstrate how they persevered through these extraordinary times.

I feel deeply fortunate that a year at home, in isolation, led to more opportunities than in a normal year. This year my submissions will include 3 new albums.

AFTERWARDS, an album of string quartets performed by Camerata Philadelphia. The title track, “Afterwards, there were no more wars” is one of my many works from my MUSIC FOR PEACE PROJECT – music I imagined might be heard in a time in the future when someone, opening up the pages of a history book, might read those words. BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE.

REMEMBER is an album that assembles music composed over the years for viola – both solo and with piano. Beautifully performed by Brett Deubner and Thomas Steigerwald. The title work, Remember (5 intermezzi for the earth), reworks themes from my music for chorus and chamber ensemble, setting poems about both the glory of our planet – and the future we face if we fail to recognize our responsibilities as stewards of our only home. BEST CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE.

TRANSFIGURATION, a COVID shutdown project, features music for 2, 3 and 4 violas, all performed and recorded by Brett Deubner, alone in a studio, while I listened on-line from home. The title work, a viola quartet, expresses my thoughts about how, whatever our human failings and limitations, we have within ourselves the possibility of transforming into something better. Encased in a hardened chrysalis, we can emerge as butterflies. TRANSFIGURATION (for 4 violas). BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION.

some thoughts on piano concerti

Leading up to my decision to begin writing music for piano and orchestra, I listened, somewhat at random, to many, many concerti, both contemporary and not. I found fewer than expected that caught my interest (close to none, in fact). By and large, for whatever reason, even composers who have composed some of the most beautiful, lyrical music ever penned, seem to have felt obliged when writing for piano and orchestra to write overwrought music, full of pounding chords, pyrotechnical runs up and down the keyboard, and other such devices that are to be found in nearly every concerto composed for the past 200 hundred years or more.

So, listening to one after another, I found myself thinking, oh, boy, that’s not a model to follow. Do something different than that. That, of course, has made my work on this piece rather more difficult. The challenge with every bar has been to write something that will not sound too much like those I’ve just heard, and switched off well before getting to the end, with my reaction being best summarized by words like “meh” or “oy.”

Whether or not I succeed is another question, as yet unanswered. However it winds up, it will not be a pianistic tour de force.

Transfiguration

News flash. My latest album, TRANSFIGURATION, will be released on Friday, July 23. A COVID project, the album includes music for 2, 3 and 4 violas, all performed by Brett Deubner, at the height of the shutdown, alone at Kaleidoscope Studios in Union City, NJ, while I watched/listened on-line from home.

SEA AND SKY. For 2 violas. Music composed while watching the waves roll in on the beach at Cape Cod.

SONATINE. For 3 violas. Music composed for a family of string players I had occasion to meet during the time I was living & working in Philadelphia.

TRANSFIGURATION. For 4 violas. Music inspired by the thought that no matter our faults, we are all capable of change and can be better.

To purchase, click the BUY button. [button color=”info” link=”https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6355/” size=”default” target=”_self” block=”false”]BUY[/button]

American Music Fairness Act

For those recorded musicians in the U.S., sharing a letter to send to your representative in Congress in support of the American Music Fairness Act.

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For nearly a century, American radio stations have exploited a loophole in the law that has enabled them to broadcast music without compensating the music makers behind the sound recording. This injustice has allowed major broadcast radio conglomerates to earn billions of dollars annually without a single cent going to the artists, performers, instrumentalists, and producers who make the music. This loophole has left American artists and studio professionals as one of the lone professions in the world where their work can be taken without permission and without compensation.

Fortunately, the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act (AMFA) (H.R. 4130) was recently introduced in the House to right this wrong. AMFA establishes a terrestrial performance right for sound recordings, and ensures that artists and music makers are fairly compensated when their songs are played on AM/FM radio, just like they are on competing digital, online, and streaming platforms. By establishing a performance right, the bill would also unlock foreign royalties earned, but not collected, by American creators whose music is played overseas. And, AMFA supports true local radio stations with important safeguards that protect small, medium, and non-profit community broadcasters.

In the recent past, Congress has proven that it can work together to advance creators’ rights and keep America as a beacon of creativity. Now, I hope, Congress can continue these important reforms and close the antiquated radio loophole.

Please support music makers, and co-sponsor the American Music Fairness Act.

Sincerely,