Nico Muhly

The music on this recital was specifically written or arranged for duo violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun. It highlights the personal and professional connections between Philip Glass and Nico Muhly, a longtime colleague and admirer of Glass's work. Glass's miniaturist works, Mad Rush and In the Summer House, create a maximum effect when paired with Muhly's minimalist Four Studies and Honest Music.

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Within the space of his short, yet incredibly illustrious career, Nico Muhly has contributed his talents as an arranger to recordings by Bjork, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Rufus Wainwright and The National, while also enjoying a successful sideline as a composer in his own right, presenting works in conjunction with a variety of high profile orchestras - he even finds time to work as a performer and conductor for Philip Glass on his various film soundtracks. Mothertongue is the sophomore solo effort from Nico Muhly, following up on the wide acclaim of his 2006 debut, Speaks Volumes, and marking a further step towards genre cross-pollination and a more avant-garde approach to the conventions of composed music. By this point, any notions of comfortable, conservative Americana are out the window and you're confronted by a highly experimental clash of vastly different musical schools. Quite unlike anything you're likely to encounter, this second album from Nico Muhly shows even greater ambition than its predecessor, establishing a language that's far removed from the kind of easy-going post-Blue Notebooks modern composition that's become so widespread. Very highly recommended.

Nonesuch Records releases an album from longtime friends and collaborators Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and Nico Muhly, Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music. Peter Pears comprises nine songs written by the duo plus three gamelan transcriptions by ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee that inspired the songs. Bartlett and Muhly perform the Peter Pears music on May 24 at New York City’s (Le) Poisson Rouge (LPR) as part of its tenth anniversary festival, June 6 at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and June 8 at LSO St Luke’s in London presented by the Barbican.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra present First Light, the first fruit of Kuusisto’s tenure as the ensemble’s Artistic Director, on which two eminent New York composers are cast in a Nordic light. The album offers the world premiere recording of Nico Muhly’s Shrink (Concerto for Violin and Strings), a unique, remotely-recorded rendition of Philip Glass’ The Orchard by Kuusisto and Muhly, and Kuusisto’s new string orchestra arrangement of Glass’ “Mishima” String Quartet No. 3.

Two world premiere recordings of works by the brilliant Nico Muhlyare at the heart of this new album by Omega Ensemble, an album that explores the American modern tradition through four remarkable by works by Muhly and the great Philip Glass.