In his first season with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Roger Kalia began Saturday night’s concert by addressing the audience: “These are difficult times. We’ve had to re-imagine our entire concert season.” But how fortunate are we that there IS a concert season, at a time when our society has been poisoned by a costly and enduring pandemic not to mention an acrimonious and divisive political environment. What a balm, then, to be able to turn to the best offerings of the human spirit—art and music—for moments that can nourish and restore the spirit. Saturday night’s uplifting EPO concert was just such an offering…
Nordic Music Under the Green Umbrella - SF Classical Voice
…This was particularly true, and most delicately expressed, in the seven postage-stamp-sized miniatures of Saariaho’s Sept Papillions (Seven butterflies). Related in theme and subtle in their differences, each of the seven depictions, which were performed with exquisite detailing by Eric Byers (founding member of the Calder Quartet), created an illusion of fluttering tones and overtones, occasionally coming to rest to reveal a form in its complete beauty…
by Jim Farber - SF Classical Voice - Link to article
Review: Reykjavik stars Daníel Bjarnason and Víkingur Ólafsson shine under the Green Umbrella - LA Times
Photo: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times
..‘Saariaho’s “Papillons,” performed with ethereal wonder by Calder Quartet cellist Eric Byers (a last-minute replacement for István Várdai, who had a family emergency), is the butterfly in flight heard through the tapping and scraping and subtle pressure of the bow on strings.’..
by Mark Swed - LA Times - Link to article
Sybarite 5 performs Eric Byers' Pop Rocks on Performance Today!
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Eric Byers
: Pop Rocks
sybarite5
Outliers
Bright Shiny Things LLC BTSC-0121
Marcel Tournier
: Au Matin
Mallory McHenry, harp
PT Young Artist in Residence, Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio, St. Paul, MN
Gabriel Pierne
: Impromptu Caprice
Mallory McHenry, harp
PT Young Artist in Residence, Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio, St. Paul, MN
Parish Alvars
: Romance No. 5
Mallory McHenry, harp
PT Young Artist in Residence, Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio, St. Paul, MN
Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
: Paranoid Android
Sybarite5: Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney, violins; Angela Pickett, viola; Laura Metcalf, cello; and Louis Levitt, bass
Interlochen Presents, Dendrinos Chapel and Recital Hall, Interlochen, MI
Nino Rota
: Sarabande e Toccata
Mallory McHenry, harp
PT Young Artist in Residence, Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio, St. Paul, MN
Paul Hindemith
: Sonata for Harp: Movement 1
Mallory McHenry, harp
PT Young Artist in Residence, Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio, St. Paul, MN
Hour 2
Johann Sebastian Bach
: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor: Movement 1 Allemanda
Bella Hristova, violin
Bella Unaccompanied
A.W. Tonegold Records NA
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
: Piano Quintet No. 1
Arc Ensemble
Rockport Music, Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA
Malek Jandali
: Phoenix in Exile
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra; Delta David Gier, conductor
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, SD
John Corigliano
: Red Violin Caprices
Bella Hristova, violin
Music@Menlo, The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton, Atherton, CA
'The Professor and the Madman' Soundtrack Released
Bear McCreary’s music to ‘The Professor and the Madman’ is incredible! I’m honored to be featured as a soloist in the film, out today!
Emmy and BAFTA award-winning composer Bear McCreary's original soundtrack for The Professor and the Madman will be released by Sparks & Shadows on Friday, May 10th. The 18-track album will be available physically through Amazon and select retail outlets and digitally on all major platforms worldwide.
Based on the worldwide best-selling novel by Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman, starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, is an extraordinary true tale of madness, genius, and obsession about two remarkable men who created literary history with the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The project was very personal for McCreary, having lived in Oxford as a child, and whose mother, Laura Kalpakian, is an author who instilled in him an abiding appreciation of the written word. "As a toddler, I would frequently stumble into my mother's office, my footsteps concealed by the relentless cadence of her fingers clacking on the typewriter," recalled McCreary. "I would try to get her attention by knocking over one of the many stacks of hardbound books that formed a labyrinth on the floor. Among those towers of tomes were many editions of the Oxford English Dictionary. When this project came to me, my first call was to my mother. I was nearly breathless with excitement when I told her about it."
McCreary's score for The Professor and the Madman is a modern interpretation of music from the period. James Murray's lilting waltz theme is supported by solo cello, performed by cellist Eric Byers. William Chester Minor's madness is represented by Sandy Cameron's schizophrenic solo violin, while Eliza Merrett is supported with gentle harp and woodwinds. McCreary quoted the period quite literally by incorporating into the drama his own musical setting of Christina Rossetti's contemporary poem "When I am dead, my dearest," performed dramatically by his longtime friend Melanie Henley Heyn. This was a concert piece he had composed independently several years ago, but realized that it fit the film's time period and dramatic needs perfectly. The soundtrack includes both the film version as well as a newly-produced recording of McCreary's complete concert work. - Link to article
Sunday in the Park with the Carlsbad Music Festival - San Diego Story
...Eric Byers’ solo cello recital at Carlsbad Inn’s Village Terrace gracefully embraced two of the festival’s more disparate musical styles, opening with J. S. Bach’s iconic Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major and contrasting it with four recent cello compositions filled with an array of extended techniques and even some simultaneous singing by the cellist. Byers’ serene command of his instrument made comfortable neighbors of these antipodal approaches to the cello...
By Ken Herman - San Diego Story - Link to article
Sybarite5 Celebrates Tenth Anniversary with Outliers - icareifyoulisten
...Eric Byers pays tribute to Bach in his deeply somber and even devastated Sarabande (2014). The players gnash and float, adhering to a traditional sarabande pattern that Byers exaggerates for greater emotional punch...
By Nick Stevens - icareifyoulisten - Link to article
Variety Is the Spice of Hear Now's Musical Life - San Francisco Classical Voice
...Like islands in the storm, there were two pieces that went in a decidedly different direction. Eric Byers’s Sarabande (performed by the Lyris Quartet and Mike Vallero, contrabass) drew inspiration from Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite. Byers, a cellist himself and a founding member of the Calder Quartet, creates an evolving series of deep string sonorities in the slow dance form that elegantly evokes the spirit of Bach. Then in a second section, Byers creates a contrasting atmosphere in which ethereal harmonics create the sense of a starry firmament. Expertly performed, the piece was particularly effective within the intimate setting (and bright acoustics) of the church...
By JIM FARBER - San Francisco Classical Voice - Link to article