Archive for December, 2020

Year of the New Lullaby!

Happy New Year Fans of the New Lullaby Project!

Thank you for redeeming a bit of 2020. I hadn’t planned on 2020 being the year of New Lullabies for me. I had planned a year of Cage, chamber music and touring, but a chance New Lullaby collaboration at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with performance artists Laura Sofía Pérez & Jasmine Yeh in January planted a seed that would blossom into two new creations as the pandemic decimated the performing arts.
 
The prospect of recording close to 50 New Lullabies still to be recorded had been a major financial hurdle. Catherine and I had spent the prior 18-months re-organizing our basement with plans to rent short-term, but the Boston Housing Gods decided in June that we had too many rooms for a single family, so no rentals would be allowed in the basement. With Catherine’s blessing, some advice from engineer friends and mentors, I began building a home studio. As the saying goes, If I can’t make money on it, at least I can deduct it for business!
 
At this time, I had a conversation with the director of the American Composers Alliance, Gina Genova, regarding my longtime dream of publishing scores from the New Lullaby Project in an anthology; btw, a collection is different than an anthology. I had received grants from the ACA for the performance of multiple pieces by Thomas L. Read, and the ACA introduced me to the music of Tom Flaherty, so I knew they were a legit organization of awesomeness. They rest, as they say, is history.
 
I’m extremely happy with the album and anthology. I have plans for another album and anthology volume to be released in early 2021.
 
To all of the patient composers and longtime audience members who have expressed support of the project through attending concerts this year online, purchasing the albums and anthology, and writing me directly: THANK YOU!!
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
May we Dream Well!
Aaron
 
Lullabies Performed in 2020 (+/-)
Scott Wheeler – Nachtlied
Ken Ueno  – Ed è subito sera
Jacob Mashak – Lulubye
Ian Wiese – Seeketh Not Its Own
Michael J Veloso – Little Dancer
Patricia Julien – After Many Days Without Rain
Jim Dalton – A World of Your Own
Garrett Shatzer – Lullaby for D—
Laurie Spiegel – Watching Rain – world premiere
Stefanie Lubkowski – Drifting – world premiere
Anthony R. Green – Counting Backwards – world premiere
 
Kincaid Rabb – Water Lilies – world premiere
Francine Trester – Lullaby for Our Time – world premiere
Roger Éon – Berceuse
Stephanie Ann Boyd – Esperanza

New Lullaby Concert, 12/10/11, Francine Trester, Hayg Boyadjian, John McDonald, Martin Schreiner, Demetrius Spaneas, Patricia Julien and Jacob Mashak

John McDonald – Upward
Thomas L. Read – The moon through the window shines down
Thomas Schuttenhelm – Wiegenlied
Barnaby Oliver – The Pillow That You Dream On
Agustín Castilla-Ávila – Perseiden
Charles Turner – White Potatoes
Eric Schwartz – Song Softly Sung, In Trying Times
Tim Pence – The Sleeping Guitar
 
New Lullabies Received
Curtis K Hughes – Lullibule
Stepan Rak – Lullaby
 
Special Thanks to Your Heaven Audio, Steve Hunt, Groupmuse, Alex Fedorov, Jeffrey Means, and Simon Berry.
 
 
Listen to all of the New Lullaby Project Releases and order the Anthology: https://alcguitar.bandcamp.com/

New SCORE Anthology Published!

Nights Transfigured, 15 solos for guitar
Dec. 21, 2020

Published by the American Composers Alliance (ACA), ‘NIGHTS TRANSFIGURED’ is the 1st of a multi-volume endeavor exploring  the over 60 compositions written for my New Lullaby Project since 2006. These compositions assert that the sonic boundaries of the guitar are only limited by the composer’s imagination and physical abilities of the player. Whether a student, amateur, or professional there is a lullaby for you. Recordings of works featured are on the 2010 ‘New Lullaby’ and the just released ‘Nights Transfigured’.

  • Download the PDF HERE via the ACA website
  • Physical scores are avaialble on BANDCAMP, the ACA website, or order it from your local music dealer (local is great!)
  • Institutional orders with a discount must be made via the ACA website

Nights Transfigured features new lullabies inspired by composers’ children, song and the intimacy of singing to another, the end of night, poetry, longing for sleep, our troubled times, gentle motion, and of course, the melding of stars and moonbeams. They are lullabies of passage and being, longing and loneliness, marking time, memory, and yet these sonorous landscapes are also inhabited by warmth, hope, and peace.

There is a variety of musical languages–tonal, 12-tone, contrapuntal, North Indian, minimalist, and quasi-improvisational, with many using a mix of them while requiring many extended instrumental techniques. American Composers Alliance is honored to publish and distribute this collection of scores, in partnership with curator, guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan.

One of the leading classical guitarists of his generation; Aaron Larget-Caplan is an enthusiastic ambassador for new music. Following his groundbreaking 2015 release ‘John. Cage. Guitar.’ (Stone Records), Aaron returned to his New Lullaby Project with première recordings, available on Bandcamp and iTunes, and the publication of the score collection.

The score volume includes the following pieces:

3    Francine Trester          my darling’s slumber
6    Agustín Castilla-Ávila   Perseiden
10  Stephanie Ann Boyd    Esperanza
15  Carson Cooman           Unfolding the Gates of Dawn
18  Scott Wheeler               Nachtlied
23  Alan Fletcher                 Lullaby in Three Voices
27  Thomas L. Read           The Moon Through The Window Shines Down
31  Patricia Julien               After Many Days Without Rain
34  Barnaby Oliver             The Pillow That You Dream On
36  David Leisner               Disturbed, A Lullaby
41  John McDonald             You Are Alone To Sleep
45  David McMullin             Sleeping Light, Spinning World
48  Vineet Shende              Reva’s Lullaby
52  Eric Schwartz               Song Softly Sung, in Trying Times
54  Demetrius Spaneas      A Child Sings at Thanksgiving

60 pages, with composer notes on the works and biographies.

Curator’s note (excerpt):

The solos found in this first volume give an introduction to the more than 60 compositions written between 2006-2020 by over 50 composers from nine countries. Volume one contains compositions from Austria, Australia and the USA, and have lullabies inspired by composers’ children, song and the intimacy of singing to another, the end of night, poetry, longing for sleep, our troubled times, and of course, the melding of stars and moonbeams. On a theoretical level there are a variety of musical languages: tonal, 12-tone, contrapuntal, North Indian, First Nation, additive, minimalist, and quasi-improvisational. A few will stand out for their use of extended techniques, only three require scordatura, and harmonics abound!

These compositions assert that the sonic boundaries of the guitar are only limited by the composer’s imagination and physical abilities of the player. Whether a student, amateur, or professional there is a lullaby for you.

New ALBUM – Nights Transfigured

NIGHTS TRANSFIGURED, Vol. 2 of the New Lullaby Project

Aaron Larget-Caplan is more than one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation; he is an enthusiastic ambassador for his art. Following his groundbreaking 2015 release ‘John. Cage. Guitar.’ (Stone Records), Aaron returns to his New Lullaby Project with the première recording of a second volume of contemporary lullabies in Nights Transfigured. Compositions written between 2008 and 2020 by 14 composers from Australia, Austria, France and the United States, these new lullabies give a compelling argument for the listener to examine their relationships to contemporary music, the lullaby, and how to bridge the chasm between audience and living composers.

When Covid-19 canceled touring and public performances, Aaron constructed his own studio, L’atelier des Artists Boston, and recorded the album in September 2020. It is an exhilarating representation of 21st century composition for guitar and the album demonstrates how extraordinarily welcoming Aaron is in his expansive ideas about what can be embraced in the musical idea of lullaby.

Nights Transfigured features new lullabies inspired by composers’ children, song and the intimacy of singing to another, the end of night, poetry, longing for sleep, our troubled times, gentle motion, and of course, the melding of stars and moonbeams. They are lullabies of passage and being, longing and loneliness, marking time, memory, and yet these sonorous landscapes are also inhabited by warmth, hope, and peace. On a theoretical level there is a variety of musical languages: tonal, 12-tone, contrapuntal, North Indian, minimalist, and quasi-improvisational, with many using a mix of them while requiring many extended instrumental techniques. The American Composers Alliance will publish a multi-volume anthology of new lullaby project scores beginning in 2021.

Whether a music lover, amateur or professional musician, child, or someone who wishes to doze off peacefully, there is a piece for you. A lullaby’s creation is tied to something never quite forgotten or remembered. Lullabies transfigure our nights, so, then, they must transfigure our dreams.


CRITICAL ACCLAIM

“Aaron Larget-Caplan is a riveting artist. His classical guitar performance was a treasure” ~The Washington Post

“This is not some godawful Classics-for-Baby CD” ~Fanfare (New Lullaby, 2010)

“A fascinating program … with irresistible mastery” ~American Record Guide

“Astounding technical proficiency and artistic delicacy” ~Boston Musical Intelligencer

“Aaron Larget-Caplan is fast becoming perhaps the greatest guitar advocate for the music of John Cage.” ~ Classical Guitar Magazine

 

BIOGRAPHY

Aaron Larget-Caplan is an international recording and touring guitarist, who has premiered over 80 compositions. He is the founder and director of ¡Con Fuego! – a Spanish classical music & flamenco dance trio, and the commissioning-performance endeavor the ‘New Lullaby Project’, which has premiered over 60 compositions from nine countries.

Aaron has five critically acclaimed solo recordings: Tracing a wheel on water (2006), New Lullaby (2010), The Legend of Hagoromo (Stone Records, 2015), John. Cage. Guitar. (Stone Records, 2018), Nights Transfigured (2020), and he is featured as a soloist and in chamber music on four other albums for Albany, Navona, and American Composers Alliance record labels. Aaron’s groundbreaking arrangements of John Cage for guitar solo, and violin-guitar, are exclusively published by Edition Peters and are the first officially sanctioned arrangements of Cage for guitar. Forthcoming publications include solo and chamber music of Cage, Alan Hovhaness, and Reynaldo Hahn. A partnership with the American Composers Alliance will see a multi-volume anthology of New Lullaby Project scores beginning in 2021. Aaron also utilizes his own arrangements of Bach, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and numerous Spanish composers.

Aaron is on faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston and formerly at the Boston Conservatory. He presents lectures for universities, the Guitar Foundation of America, 21st Century Guitar Conference, and Mu Phi Epsilon. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, and his principal teacher was Dmitry Goryachev. He recently received a medal from the Société Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres of Paris, France for his trailblazing work in music, and was Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Raised in Colorado, he resides in Boston where he enjoys espresso with his wife, healer, and muse, Catherine. Aaron performs on an Olivier Fanton d’Andon guitar and Hannabach strings exclusively.

https://www.NewLullabyProject.com

END

 

Artists: Aaron Larget-Caplan (guitar)

Disc: Nights Transfigured, Volume 2 of the New Lullaby Project

Label: Six String Sound

Catalogue number/barcode: 195269049775

Release date: 06 November 2020

Track Listing:

1.      Shatzer: Lullaby for D—

2.      Castilla-Ávilla: Perseiden

3.      Read: The Moon Through The Window Shines Down

4.      Julien: After Many Days Without Rain

5.      Shende: Reva’s Lullaby

6.      Fletcher: Lullaby in Three Voices

7.      Éon: Berceuse

 

8.     McMullin: Sleeping Light, Spinning World

9.     Trester: Lullaby for Our Time

10.   Dalton: A World of Your Own

11.   Spaneas: A Child Sings at Thanksgiving

12.   Boyd: Esperanza

13.   Schuttenhelm: Wiegenlied

14.   Oliver: The Pillow That You Dream On

 

*all première recordings