Liminal Highway Film and EP, NY Times Review, New Opera Announcement!
Dear Friends,
Hope you’re staying safe.
I’m so excited to announce Liminal Highway, a new EP and film featuring by my dear friend and collaborator Tim Munro. A 17-minute work for flute and electronics, Liminal Highway was originally commissioned by Miller Theatre and New Music USA; Miller has created a wonderful launching page for the release. The audio is released on New Focus Recordings, and you can find a link to stream or purchase it from your favorite music retailer here. Tim and I talked extensively about the project with Classical Post if you want an “inside view.”
The film for Liminal Highway was directed and produced by the dynamic Four/Ten Media team and shot on the amazing SS United States, a decaying and decommissioned ship that now lives in the Philadelphia Harbor. It was inspired by a poem by John K. Samson (of the Weakerthans), who mixes the personal and political with verve and lyricism. John kindly granted us permission to include the poem with the digital release.
In other news, my most recent project, Don’t Look Down, an 18-minute concerto for prepared piano and percussion quartet premiered via livestream at Caramoor. The video, featuring Conor Hanick and Sandbox Percussion, will return this fall to the Caramoor page, so keep an eye out for that. In the meanwhile, wanted to share that it received plaudits from the New York Times’s Anthony Tommasini, who called it the “highlight” of the program. You can hear a short clip here!
I’m excited for all of the other upcoming projects that are forthcoming including a new concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony, a quartet for Hub New Music, but I’m perhaps most excited that word of my new opera, In a Grove, leaked out early. It’ll received it’s world premiere in February 2022 at Pittsburgh Opera. The libretto is by Stephanie Fleischmann and directed by Mary Birnbaum. I can’t wait to make this piece with these fantastic collaborators.
Thanks for reading!
Chris