Upcoming Delos release “Boiling Point” featuring the ALIAS Chamber Ensemble is already bringing in the headlines! Check out some of the quotes from The Tennessean‘s feature and Kenji Bunch interview, ALIAS finds its ‘Boiling Point’:
“Last year, the 12-member ALIAS Chamber Ensemble earned a Grammy nomination for its first CD, “Hilos.” The group performs selections from the follow-up, “Boiling Point: Music of Kenji Bunch” (Delos Records), at a CD release party, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Country Music Association…
“What Kenji is doing with contemporary classical music now is akin to what Aaron Copland was doing in that he’s really capturing the American sound,” says Matt Walker, cellist with ALIAS. “It’s combining all kinds of different influences just as America itself combines different influences in its culture. He’s really a quintessentially American composer.”
MiChelle Jones: That piece, “Boiling Point,” isn’t exactly what one might expect from chamber music.Kenji Bunch: The definition has become much broader. … For instance, I play in a bluegrass band … and I consider what we do a form of chamber music. It’s all acoustic instruments; nothing’s amplified … technique and virtuosity is important; it requires us to listen to each other and adjust to things as they happen. That’s really the same kinds of skills — even though the material and the medium are so different — as playing in a string quartet, which I’ve also done for years.
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Michele Jones: Speaking of “Drift,” the press release described it as “a memorial to lost compositional ideas.” That sounds intriguing.
Kenji Bunch: I would have to say that “Drift” is possibly my all-time favorite thing that I’ve written. A lot of people would be surprised by that because it’s not something that you walk away whistling.
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— MiChelle Jones, The Tennessean
Find the full feature and review on www.blogs.tennessean.com!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8EJkNNy5IA]
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