Large ensemble version:
For string orchestra
Duration: 10 minutes
Commissioned by the JACK Quartet and National Sawdust
String orchestra version commissioned by the Albany Symphony
Please contact Nina Shekhar at ninashekhar@ninashekhar.com for all rental inquiries.
Program note:
From today’s orchestras to the Titanic, classical musicians respond to catastrophe in the most peculiar way – play some Bach tunes. As intensely, beautifully, devotedly, and ignorantly as possible. Because Bach must be our universal healer, our vaccine, our band-aid, our paycheck.
Above the Fray pokes fun at this phenomenon by warping and distorting Bach’s famous “Prelude” from Cello Suite no. 1, unraveling its passages into threads that transform, detune, and degrade at different rates for different performers over the course of the piece. Unlike Western art tradition which believes that classical music is a one-size-fits-all solution, this piece dares to ask what if we all are not the same? What if we each have infinitely unique identities that morph differently under different circumstances? What if our responses to a piece of art wildly differ from each other and change over the course of our lives? And what if art itself is not a static monolith, but rather something dynamic that we allow to breathe, reshape, decompose, and reincarnate into new lifeforms over time?
Audio Recording:
Performed by the JACK Quartet:
Christopher Otto (violin), Austin Wulliman (violin), John Pickfold Richards (viola), and Jay Campbell (cello)
Performances:
March 4th, 2023
Aizuri Quartet concert: “The Art of Translation”
Performed by the Aizuri Quartet (presented by Texas Performing Arts)
McCullough Theatre (University of Texas-Austin), Austin, TX
March 3rd, 2023 (string orchestra version)
Performed by the Seattle Symphony
Seattle, WA
February 24th, 2023 (string orchestra version)
Performed by the Seattle Symphony
Seattle, WA
February 19th, 2023
Aizuri Quartet concert: “The Art of Translation”
Performed by the Aizuri Quartet
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Urbana, IL
July 14th, 2022
Seal Bay Festival concert: Eliot Fisk (guitar) & Cassatt String Quartet
Performed by the Cassatt String Quartet
SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME
July 13th, 2022
Seal Bay Festival concert: Cassatt String Quartet
Performed by the Cassatt String Quartet
The Colonial Theatre, Belfast, ME
July 12th, 2022
Seal Bay Festival concert: Eliot Fisk (guitar) & Cassatt String Quartet
Performed by the Cassatt String Quartet
Vinalhaven School (Smith Hokanson Memorial Hall), Vinalhaven, ME
June 3rd, 2022
Oregon Symphony Presents: Open Music with Nathalie Joachim
Performed by members of the Oregon Symphony
Concert curated by Nathalie Joachim and Gabriel Kahane
Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland, OR (tickets available here)
June 17th, 2021
Civic Orchestra of Chicago concert
Performed by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois (performance streamed online)
June 12th, 2021 (string orchestra version)
2021 American Music Festival: Albany Symphony Season Finale Concert
Performed by the Albany Symphony Albany Symphony (David Alan Miller, conductor)
Palace Theatre, Albany, NY
December 11th, 2020
National Sawdust 2020 Digital Discovery Festival: JACK Quartet
Performed by JACK Quartet
Commissioned by National Sawdust
Brooklyn, NY
