NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Viola, Vol. 1

Description

Featured Video

About the Anthology

Curated by violist Michael Hall, this collection of 20 works for viola is ideal for active performers looking for exciting new repertoire, teachers searching for fresh contemporary works for their studios, or student performers seeing out unique and culturally-relevant new works to fulfill 21st century repertoire requirements.

These works, 18 of which were composed in the 21st century, represent a broad range of compositional styles from composers living and writing today, and were curated for intermediate through advanced players.

The NewMusicShelf Anthologies of New Music are a bold, new publishing initiative aimed at bringing new and unknown composers and repertoire to student and professional performers alike. With an emphasis on works not found in the traditional publishing ecosystem, each volume is curated by performers who have a reputation for championing new music, with an eye toward selecting works with a range of styles and difficulties that are suitable for concert and recital performance.

With this innovative mode of publishing, NewMusicShelf advocates for self-published composers in a way previously unheard of in the realm of classical music: all self-published composers retain full ownership of their work while earning a generous royalty on every sale. Your support of this project directly benefits these composers, and also helps NewMusicShelf to continue to promote the works of the many excellent composers writing today. We encourage you to explore these composers' catalogs in greater depth, and hope that these songs inspire many fruitful and rewarding collaborations!

Works in this volume

Composer	Work Title	Year Composed
Chester Biscardi	The Viola Had Suddenly Become a Voice	2005
Nicolas Bizub	Paragon	2014
Mario Carro	Luna de abajo	2017
Chong Kee Yong	Temple bell still ringing in my heart	2002
Andrea Clearfield	Convergence	2012
Paul Coletti	"III. Fantasia" from Three Pieces for Solo Viola	2015
Diana Cotoman	Détresse	2016
Peter Dayton	Fantasy, for Viola and Piano	2009
Rob Deemer	Cantastoria: The First Stone	2015
Marianna Filippi	Astraeus Welcomes the Storm	2019
Stacy Garrop	"Stasis" from Torque	2006
Rachel Grimes	"First Self-Portrait Series" from Music for Egon Schiele,/em>	1995
Marisa Sharon Hartanto	Brownian Motion, Particles in the Sun	2018
Martin Hebel	Fractured Lens	2019
Michael Kovell	Prelude	2014
Tony Manfredonia	Looking Down from Above	2018
James Mobberley	Subject to Change Without Notice	2013
Antonio Celso Ribeiro	"broken windows - swallowed anger" from Syrian Requiem	2014
Alyssa Weinberg	Meditation	2015
Evan Williams	The Devil in the Belfry	2018

Audio Samples

Videos

About the Curator

Michael Hall lives in Chicago and has performed and taught across Europe, Asia and the United States. Described by the New Music Connoisseur as “utterly masterful,” and Chamber Music Today as having “superb technique,” he recently made his Chicago Orchestra Hall solo debut performing the world premiere of Kim Diehnelt’s “Montegar,” and concluded a recital tour to Vienna, Austria and Udine and Tolmezzo, Italy

Compositions written for Michael Hall include four recently released commercial recordings: Narong Prangcharoen’s Antahkarana, Mara Gibson’s Canopy and James Mobberley’s Subject To Change Without Notice, which received accolades from Gramophone Magazine, American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, NewMusicBox and “I Care If You Listen.”

Michael believes strongly in the expressive power of collaborating with diverse disciplines in the arts. Cross-curricular interests naturally led to Michael’s Young Composers Project, funded by the City of Chicago with a Neighborhood Arts Grant. The project combined Howard Gardner’s concepts of Multiple Intelligences with the basic building blocks of music to teach math and creative writing to children grades K-6 in public elementary schools on Chicago’s South Side.

Michael also serves as the Co-Artistic Director, as well as the Director of Educational Programs with the newly founded Bandung Philharmonic in Indonesia. Collaborating with composers, teaching institutions, and visual artists, Michael strives to reach children in schools in communities of every size - from large cities to the smallest of villages.

Hall has served on the faculties of VanderCook College of Music, Illinois Wesleyan University, Chicago Academy for the Arts, Guilford College, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and taught adjunct at the University of Chicago. Additionally, Hall serves on the Board of the American Viola Society. Hall received his Doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a Masters and received his Bachelor degree from Ball State University. His teachers include Michelle LaCourse, Scott Rawls, Peter Kamnitzer, Linda Geidel and the LaSalle and Tokyo string quartets.

Hall plays a viola made by Ferruccio Varagnolo. Hall and his wife, Kristine, who is the most inspiring 5th grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools, have two daughters. Hall has logged over 3,000 miles hiking through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and other mountain chains throughout the world, is an avid amateur photographer, loves dark chocolate and ran the Chicago Marathon.

 

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A Note on Binding

To adhere to recommendations by the Music Library Association, and to aid in library shelving, the NewMusicShelf Anthologies are perfect bound books. The accompanying instrumental parts use saddle stitch binding. Since perfect binding frequently prevents books from lying flat (which is especially helpful for pianists), you may choose to have the anthologies rebound for use in performance. Most copy shops are able to - quickly and cheaply - shave off the spine of a perfect bound book and rebind it with a coil/spiral. Coil binding is usually preferable to comb binding in this instance because coils preserve the pages better, and turn more quietly, provided that the coil is wide enough to accommodate page turns.