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 21^st 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, 21^st 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

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