MAKES SONY CLASSICAL DÉBUT WITH NEW
ALBUM SOLOS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE AUGUST 23 – PRE-ORDER NOW
FEATURING ANASTASIA KOBEKINA, COLIN CURRIE, KATIA LABÈQUE, LAVINIA MEIJER, NADIA
SIROTA, PEKKA KUUSISTO AND BRYCE DESSNER
LEAD SINGLE "LULLABY FOR JACQUES ET
BRUNE" OUT NOW
"Dessner […] moves fluidly between rock and
classical and everywhere in between."
– The Guardian,
October 2021
"Dessner, who closely studied the Labèques'
repertoire, throws all manner of writing at the pianists, who
play cascading figures in canon, stuttering syncopations, gently
articulated polyrhythms, jabbing chords and twinkling
starbursts of notes. The orchestra, mesmerized, follows their
lead."
– The New York
Times, December
2023
"It's the sheer brilliance and ebullience of the
music, with insistent rhythms that seem to owe as much to rock
as they do to Steve Reich."
– The Guardian, February
2024
NEW
YORK, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Music
Masterworks announces today a unique far-reaching partnership with
versatile composer, sought-after musical collaborator and guitarist
Bryce Dessner, who is also a
founding member of Grammy Award-winning rock band The National. The
newly inked partnership will see Dessner's classical compositions
released on Sony Classical, while sister label Milan Records will continue to be a home for
some of his celebrated soundtracks. This innovative tailored
approach will give Dessner maximum artistic freedom to pursue these
two essential strands of his creative output.
Dessner will make his Sony Classical début on August 23, 2024 with Solos, a
collection featuring a series of unaccompanied instrumental works
written by the composer over the past few years. Selected from both
his classical and soundtrack worlds, the works showcase not only
Dessner's compositional flair but also the immense talent of his
acclaimed collaborators, many of whom work regularly with him and
are his friends. Featured soloists include cellist Anastasia
Kobekina; violinist Pekka Kuusisto;
pianist Katia Labèque; harpist Lavinia
Meijer; violist Nadia Sirota;
percussionist Colin Currie; and
Bryce Dessner himself on guitar.
Accompanying today's announcement and album pre-order is the first
single from Solos – "Lullaby for Jacques et Brune" – a
lullaby for piano, written by Bryce
Dessner for his godchildren.
Says Dessner of these pieces: Writing a solo piece for me is
always a great challenge and joy, as you have all the personality
and talent of the player plus the physicality and resonance of the
solo instrument, a bit like a Shakespearean monologue. These solo
pieces for violin, viola, cello, harp, percussion, guitar and piano
represent many years of my compositional process. When I began
composing, I mainly wrote solo pieces for myself to play and I have
always loved unaccompanied instrumental music – including the solo
Bach lute and cello suites and the Renaissance lute fantasies of
John Dowland, which I used to play
myself on the classical guitar. These pieces of mine are often
written like poems, where the musical language itself dictates the
form and evolution of the piece, and were often opportunities for
me to explore more deeply my relationship to the instruments they
were composed for. They also represent in each case close
collaborative relationships and friendships I have been very lucky
to develop with the incredible musicians who play them. Katia,
Pekka, Anastasia, Nadia, Lavinia and Colin are all exceptional
artists who brought so much of their amazing talent to these
recordings.
Dessner is a prolific classical composer, whose output has
garnered him a Grammy Award and ranges from intimate chamber pieces
and scaled-down works for solo instrumentalists to full orchestral
scores and concertos.
In addition to his role as one of eight San Francisco Symphony
Collaborative Partners, Bryce
Dessner is currently Creative Chair of the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and Artist-in-Residence at London's Southbank Centre and with the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Major new works include a Piano
Concerto premièred by Alice Sara Ott
and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in January
2024 and now being performed internationally; a Concerto for
Two Pianos premièred by Katia & Marielle Labèque and the London
Philharmonic Orchestra; and a Violin Concerto premièred and
performed internationally by Pekka
Kuusisto. Dessner's in-demand compositions have been
performed by leading orchestras around the world, including the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland
Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia
Orchestra of London and San
Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
He has co-founded several new-music festivals, including the
Cincinnati-based MusicNOW Festival
in 2006, Copenhagen's Haven
Festival and the Cork-based Sounds from a Safe Harbour.
Bryce Dessner's musical career
has been rich and eclectic. Born into a musical family based
in Cincinnati, he started out
learning the flute as a child before switching to classical guitar
in his teenage years, graduating from Yale
University with a Masters in Music before finding fame as a
founder member, guitarist, arranger and writer for alternative rock
band The National.
Alongside his classical compositions, Dessner is also much
sought after as a film composer, with recent and upcoming releases
including the film Sing Sing starring Colman Domingo (due for release by A24 in summer
2024), limited series Manhunt (released in March 2024 on Apple TV), and John Crowley's We Live in Time (due for
release 2024 on A24). Over the years he has garnered great acclaim
for his work on films such as Alejandro González Iñárritu's The
Revenant with the late Ryuichi
Sakamoto and for his music to Netflix's Fernando Meirelles's The Two Popes.
Dessner's many musical collaborations include working with
Philip Glass, Johnny Greenwood, Bon Iver, Steve Reich, Paul
Simon, Bruce Springsteen,
Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift and
Thom Yorke.
Extraordinarily gifted, collaborative, secure in his own musical
language and brimming with ideas, Bryce
Dessner is a singular talent whose addition to the roster is
warmly welcomed as he expands the repertoire with his new music,
bringing with him his trademark original deep thinking, enthusiasm
for all types of music and forward-thinking creative
partnerships.
On this new arrangement with Sony Music, Bryce Dessner commented: "I am very much looking
forward to an ongoing collaboration with Sony Music Masterworks and
their wonderful team on several upcoming projects around my
compositional work."
Per Hauber, President, Sony
Classical added: "As Bryce Dessner embarks on this exciting new
chapter with Sony Classical, we look forward to showcasing his
extraordinary talent and pushing boundaries of classical music
together. We believe Sony Music Masterworks is the ideal new home
for his releases and we warmly welcome him!"
Alexander Buhr, SVP International
A&R adds: "Bryce is a uniquely gifted composer and musician,
and a very important voice in contemporary music. With his broad
range of influences and inspirations he crafts music that is daring
and ambitious, while making instant emotional connection with the
audience. All this is introduced perfectly on Solos. We are
very happy to welcome Bryce to the Sony family."
Bryce Dessner's music is
published by and available from Chester
Music, part of the Wise Music Group.
BRYCE DESSNER –
SOLOS
TRACKLIST:
- Lullaby for Jacques et Brune
Katia Labèque
piano
- Francis
Bryce Dessner guitar
- Tuusula
Anastasia Kobekina cello
- Song for Octave
Katia Labèque piano
- Tromp Miniature
Colin
Currie percussion
- Ornament and Crime I
- Ornament and Crime II
- Ornament and Crime III
Pekka
Kuusisto violin
- A Good Person
Katia Labèque piano
- On a Wire
Lavinia
Meijer harp
- Walls
Bryce Dessner
guitar
- Delphica I
- Delphica II
Nadia
Sirota viola
- Ornament III Piano
Katia Labèque piano
- Song for Ainola
Anastasia Kobekina cello
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical,
Milan Records, XXIM Records and
Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information
please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
CONNECT WITH BRYCE DESSNER
WEBSITE |
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE
PRESS CONTACTS
FOR MUSIC: Larissa Slezak /
Jamie Bertel – Sony Music
Masterworks
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