Dear Friends,

I’m excited to announce my debut album with Pentatone, “Don’t Look Down,” featuring Sandbox Percussion with pianist Conor Hanick, mezzo-soprano Elspeth Davis, and produced by Mike Tierney. Stream or download the album here: https://lnk.to/CerroneDontLookDown

The album opens with “Don’t Look Down,” written during the pandemic, which reflects that period’s strangeness and instability. The piece moves from energetic piano and percussion in “Hammerspace,” through an ethereal, deliberately out-of-tune soundscape in “The Great Empty,” to a finale inspired by Brooklyn construction sounds in “Caton Flats.”

For “A Natural History of Vacant Lots,” another piece from the album, Jonathan Maurer created a stunning film featuring dancer Montay Romero. Shot in Altadena shortly before the fires, and edited under evacuation orders, the film adds unexpected resonance to the work’s themes. Watch here: 

Today, Gramophone is featuring the album’s “Ode to Joy” as their Video of the Day. Written for Sandbox Percussion as a portable touring piece for vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, and crotales, it draws inspiration from Frank O’Hara’s poem of the same name, celebrating New York City.

I hope to see many of you this spring as my musical activities continue. “Beaufort Scales” will receive its NYC debut at the Long Play Festival on May 4th (https://bangonacan.org/long-play-2025/), and in a particularly exciting development, Opera Saratoga will present a special outdoor version of “In a Grove,” performed in an actual grove (https://www.operasaratoga.org).

Thanks, as always, for reading,
Chris