Robert Paterson and American Modern Ensemble: The Four Seasons

Robert Paterson and American Modern Ensemble

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About The Album

Robert Paterson’s The Four Seasons consists of four song cycles, with a total of twenty-one songs, for four different voice types: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone. Each voice type represents a different season: Summer Songs (soprano), Autumn Songs (mezzo-soprano), Winter Songs (bass-baritone), and Spring Songs (tenor). The four critically-acclaimed singers on this album, soprano, Marnie Breckenridge, mezzo-soprano, Blythe Gaissert, tenor Alok Kumar, and bass-baritone David Neal have worked closely with Paterson, and gave the world premieres of these works with American Modern Ensemble, one of America’s most beloved new music ensembles.

The songs on this album are all settings of poems by various poets (listed below in the track listings), and each cycle is for voice and chamber ensemble consisting of flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello. This ensemble is commonly called a Pierrot ensemble, named after the ensemble that Arnold Schoenberg used for his work Pierrot Lunaire. To date, Paterson has composed more works for this type of ensemble than anyone in the world.

The Four Seasons was produced by Grammy® winning producer and engineer Adam Abeshouse, and recorded at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music’s Mary Flagler Cary Hall (Summer Songs and Autumn Songs), the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Winter Songs), and in the Ladd Concert Hall Skidmore College’s Arthur Zankel Music Center (Spring Songs).

About Robert Paterson

A 'modern day master' and often the 'highlight of the program' (The New York Times), Robert Paterson’s music is loved for its elegance, wit, structural integrity, and a wonderful sense of color. Paterson was named The Composer of The Year from the Classical Recording Foundation with a performance at Carnegie's Weill Hall in 2011. His music has been on the Grammy® ballot yearly, and his works were named ‘Best Music of 2012' on National Public Radio. His works have been played by the Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, BargeMusic, the Albany Symphony Dogs of Desire, among others.  Paterson’s choral works were recorded by Musica Sacra and maestro Kent Tritle, with a world premiere performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 2015.

Season highlights included The Nashville Opera world premiere of THREE WAY in January, 2017 and then Nashville performed the opera at BAM in Brooklyn, June, 2017. The New York Premiere of his opera, The Whole Truth with a libretto by Mark Campbell, sold out in January 2016, at Dixon Place in New York City. Other premieres & commissions include Shine for the American Brass Quintet,  Moon Music for the Claremont Trio, and Graffiti Canons for the Volti Choir of San Francisco. Notable awards include winner of the Utah Arts Festival, the Copland Award, ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a three year Music Alive! grant from the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, and yearly ASCAP awards. Fellowships include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Aspen Music Festival.

Paterson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). Paterson gives master classes at colleges and universities, most recently at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Paterson is the Artistic Director of the American Modern Ensemble and resides in NYC with his wife Victoria, and their son, Dylan. For more information, visit robertpaterson.com.

About American Modern Ensemble

American Modern Ensemble (AME) spotlights contemporary music via lively thematic programming. AME performs a wide repertoire, using a varied combination of instrumentalists, vocalists, and conductors, and the ensemble often highlights AME's house composer and founder, Robert Paterson. Since its inception in 2005, AME has performed hundreds of works by living composers, and has received critical success in The New York Times, Time Out, the New Yorker, among others. Sold out crowds at BAM, Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, the Rubin Museum, Dixon Place, and National Sawdust are a winning testament to AME’s fifteen-year track record as to what is 'right' about classical music today.

AME includes on-stage chats with composers and the creative team, allowing audience members to learn even more about the creative process. AME provides a welcoming environment for audience, creators and performers. Over 95% of the composers we program participate and attend our shows, including luminaries such as John Luther Adams, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Aaron Jay Kernis, Libby Larsen, Steven Mackey, Paul Moravec, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, and countless others. AME also enthusiastically performs works by America's most talented, emerging and mid-career composers.

AME produces stellar recordings via its house label, American Modern Recordings (AMR), which has received fantastic reviews in Gramophone, the LA Music Examiner, The New York Times, Sequenza21, and New Music Box, and our albums have made it to the Grammy® Ballot in past seasons.

AME’s summer home is now at the Mostly Modern Festival (MMF), located in Saratoga Springs, New York. This festival celebrates the music of our time. It is educational, with robust outreach initiatives. Other residencies include Princeton University, James Madison University, Keene State College, the CUNY Graduate Center, Adelphi, Rutgers, and many more. AME is deeply invested in collaboration. Some examples are On Site Opera, Cutting Edge New Music Festival, Prototype Opera Festival, American Opera Projects, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.

American Modern Ensemble Album Artists

Summer Songs: Robert Paterson, conductor; Marnie Breckenridge, soprano; Sato Moughalian, flute; Pascal Archer, clarinet; Matthew Ward, percussion; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Esther Noh, violin; Dave Eggar, cello

Autumn Songs: Robert Paterson, conductor; Blythe Gaissert, mezzo-soprano; Sato Moughalian, flute; Pascal Archer, clarinet; Matthew Ward, percussion; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Esther Noh, violin; Dave Eggar, cello

Winter Songs: Robert Paterson, conductor; David Neal, bass-baritone; Sato Moughalian, flute; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Matthew Ward, percussion; Blair McMillen, piano; Robin Zeh, violin; Robert Burkhart, cello

Spring Songs; Robert Paterson, conductor; Alok Kumar, tenor; Grace Law, flute; Nuno Antunes, clarinet; Samuel Z. Solomon, percussion; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Victoria Paterson, violin; Peter Sachon, cello

Tracks

Disc 1

Summer Songs
1. I. Summer Music (May Sarton) 3’58”
2. II. The Kite (Anne Sexton) 4’56”
3. III. Childhood (Sharan Strange) 4’44”
4. IV. Moths (Jennifer O’Grady) 4’39”
5. V. Summer Night, Riverside (Sara Teasdale) 5’19”

Autumn Songs
6. I. Ascension: Autumn Dusk in Central Park (Evelyn Scott) 4’16”
7. II. Under The Harvest Moon (Carl Sanburg) 3’25”
8. III. All Hallows’ Eve (Dorothea Tanning) 2’10”
9. IV. November for Beginners (Rita Dove) 4’45”
10. V. Leaves Before The Wind (May Sarton) 4’33”

Total Time: 42’52”

Disc 2

Winter Songs
1. I. Icicles filled the long window (Wallace Stevens) 2’37”
2. II. Dark Day, Warm and Windy (A. R. Ammons) 3’22”
3. III. The Snow Man (Wallace Stevens) 4’11”
4. IV. Boy at The Window (Richard Wilbur) 4’07”
5. V. Old Story (Robert Creeley) 2’56”
6. VI. Neither Snow (Billy Collins) 3’28”

Spring Songs

7. I. English Sparrows (Washington Square) (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 3’32”
8. II. April 5, 1974 (Richard Wilbur) 3’24”
9. III. Done With (Anne Stanford) 5’20”
10. IV. The Widow’s Lament in Springtime (William Carlos Williams) 4’54”
11. V.  Spring Rain (Sara Teasdale) 3’30”

Total Time: 41’26”

GRAND TOTAL: 1:24:18

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