The Jasper String Quartet Releases Insects and Machines - Vivian Fung's String Quartets - on Sono Luminus
The Jasper String Quartet Releases Insects and Machines on Sono Luminus
Premiere Commercial Recording of Vivian Fung’s String Quartets Nos. 1-4
Release Date: October 27, 2023
Available for Pre-Order Now
CDs and press downloads, including album booklet, available upon request.
The Jasper String Quartet Performs Vivian Fung’s Quartets in Concert
Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7pm
Presented by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas
680 Park Avenue| New York, NY
Tickets: www.as-coa.org/events/jasper-quartet-music-vivian-fung
www.jasperquartet.com | www.vivianfung.ca | www.sonoluminus.com
On October 27, 2023, Sono Luminus will release Insects and Machines, the Jasper String Quartet’s new album featuring JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung’s String Quartets Nos. 1-4. This is the premiere commercial recording of Fung’s first four string quartets, composed over a span of 18 years from 2001 to 2019. Truly a collaborative effort, the portrait album was recorded by the Jasper String Quartet (violinists J Freivogel and Karen Kim, violist Andrew Gonzalez, and cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel) with the composer in the studio, in October 2022. The album title is borrowed from the subtitle of Fung’s fourth quartet.
NPR calls Vivian Fung “one of today’s most eclectic composers” and The Philadelphia Inquirer praises her “stunningly original compositional voice.” A recipient of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, the Jasper String Quartet has been hailed as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling,” (The Strad) and described by Gramophone as “flawless in ensemble and intonation, expressively assured and beautifully balanced.” The Quartet’s 2017 album Unbound was named by The New York Times as one of the 25 Best Classical Recordings of the year.
Vivian Fung has long been a friend and admired composer of the Jasper String Quartet. The Quartet first performed one of her works in 2019, and was immediately captivated by the visceral energy and impeccable craft of her writing.
The Jasper Quartet says, “Vivian’s String Quartets Nos. 1–4 reflect a remarkable journey of absorbing, integrating, and synthesizing a unique spectrum of influences into her compositional voice. Unwavering in all of the works is a fierce heart, instrumental fearlessness, and an amazing instinct for texture. We are incredibly grateful to have recorded these works with Vivian in the studio and for the growth we experienced in the process.”
The Jasper String Quartet and Vivian Fung will celebrate the release of Insects and Machines with a concert on Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7pm presented by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York. In spring 2024 at the Kaufman Music Center, the Quartet will collaborate with tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang on the premiere of a new work by Fung addressing climate change, culminating in the world premiere performance on May 30, 2024.
About the Music on the Album
The piece that became the third movement of Vivian Fung’s String Quartet No. 1, “Pizzicato,” was composed while Fung was in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2001, for a reading by the American String Quartet. Fung had been listening to and absorbing influences from the folk music of parts of Asia, including China and Indonesia, and incorporated them into this piece. She went on to compose the other three virtuosic movements of the piece over the next two years, with the Avalon String Quartet premiering the entire work in 2004.
Watch the Jasper String Quartet in Vivian Fung’s String Quartet No. 1
Of her String Quartet No. 2, Fung states, “As a composer, I try to best represent in musical terms my own individual voice in each work that I write. Even though each composition addresses different artistic challenges, issues of my Asian identity underscore much of my work. Oftentimes, the source of inspiration for a work lies in Asian folk materials, as is the case in this String Quartet No. 2, which uses a Chinese folksong as the basis of the introduction, interlude, and postlude.” The piece, which comprises six shorter movements, each a study in a certain mood or affect, was premiered by the Shanghai Quartet at The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in 2009.
Vivian Fung wrote her String Quartet No. 3 in 2013 for the Banff International String Quartet Competition. The piece revolves around a chant. Fung writes, “Evoking non-Western song, the chant is announced by the entire quartet, highly ornamented, powerful, and tuned to suggest the microtonal tendencies found in many non-Western scales. My recent reflections on faith and spirituality come to life in this quartet as a world of varied prayers, sometimes turbulent, sometimes passionate, sung to oneself or among a crowd.”
Fung’s String Quartet No. 4: Insects and Machines from 2019 was influenced by her time in Cambodia. She writes, “I was especially attuned to the persistent noises of buzzing insects that accompanied my walk through the thick jungle, and this cacophony gelled with my emotional reaction to the terrible genocide of the Khmer people. I give voice to this background babbling in this quartet, organizing the various moments as episodes that freely morph from one event into another. One can hear buzzing at the beginning that turns into a waltz, which in turn transforms into a motoric adventure of machine-like chuggings-along.”
About the Jasper String Quartet:
Jasper String Quartet by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Celebrating its seventeenth anniversary in 2023, the Jasper String Quartet is recognized as one of the leading American string quartets on the performance stage today. The Quartet is the Professional Quartet-in-Residence at Temple University's Center for Gifted Young Musicians and is committed to celebrating the diverse array of compositional voices writing for string quartet on every program. Highlights of the 2023-24 season include residencies at Trinity University, Swarthmore College, and the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC. The Quartet is the Founder and Artistic Director of Jasper Chamber Concerts.
The Jasper Quartet is passionate about connecting with audiences beyond the concert hall and has performed hundreds of outreach programs in schools and community centers. The Quartet received a Residency Partnership grant from Chamber Music America for the 2020-21 season and has received numerous Picasso Project grants from Public Citizens for Children and Youth to support its ongoing work with public schools in Philadelphia. The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association recognized the Quartet's "outstanding and imaginative programming for children and youth in the United States" with their 2016 Educator Award.
Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper Quartet launched their professional career in 2006 while studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith as Rice University’s Graduate Quartet-in-Residence. In 2008, the Quartet continued its training with the Tokyo String Quartet as Yale University's Graduate Quartet-in-Residence. In 2008, the Jaspers swept through the competition circuit, winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Grand Prize at the Coleman Competition, First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs, and the Silver Medal at the 2008 and 2009 Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. They were also the first ensemble honored with Yale School of Music’s Horatio Parker Memorial Prize, an award established in 1945, and selected by the faculty for “best fulfilling… lofty musical ideals." In 2010, they joined the roster of Astral Artists after winning their national auditions.
The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. For more information, please visit www.jasperquartet.com. The Quartet is represented by Artist Manager Marianne LaCrosse of Suòno Artist Management.
About Vivian Fung:
Vivian Fung by Geneviève Caron
JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. Upcoming performance highlights include the world premiere of her fifth String Quartet by Canada’s Lafayette String Quartet and a new piece for Houston’s ROCO; international performances of her critically-acclaimed elegy for the pandemic, Prayer; and the European premieres of A Child's Dream of Toys and Baroque Melting. Mary Elizabeth Bowden tours her Trumpet Concerto to Philharmonia Northwest, Waynesboro Symphony, San José Chamber Orchestra. Fung is the 2023 Composer-in-Residence at Alba Music Festival Composition Program in Italy.
Fung is currently at work on a new project with soprano Andrea Nunez and Royce Vavrek, percussion works for Network for New Music and Ensemble for These Times, a piano work for the “Ligeti Etudes meets 18 Composers” commissioning project, and a commission by Cape Cod Chamber Music Society. Elizabeth Bowden has recorded her Trumpet Concerto with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for future release on Çedille Records.
Fung has a deep interest in exploring cultures through travel and research. As a composer whose trips often inspire her music, Fung has also explored diverse cultures in China, North Vietnam, Spain, and Indonesia. With a grant from the Canada Council, she and Royce Vavrek will travel to Cambodia in 2023 to continue research for a new opera based on her family’s experience surviving the Cambodian genocide.
In 2012, Naxos Canadian Classics released a recording of Fung’s Violin Concerto [No.1], commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble, which earned Fung the 2013 JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year.” Several of Fung’s other works have also been released commercially on the Telarc, Çedille, Innova, and Signpost labels.
Fung is a passionate mentor for young composers, is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and served on the board of the American Composers Forum. Born in Canada, Fung received her doctorate from The Juilliard School. She currently lives in California. Learn more at www.vivianfung.ca.
Track List:
Insects and Machines
The Jasper String Quartet | Vivian Fung, Composer
String Quartets Nos. 1-4
[1-4] String Quartet No. 1 (2004)
1. I. Animato [4:03]
2. II. Interludium [3:37]
3. III. Pizzicato [4:21]
4. IV. Moto Perpetuo – Presto Possible [4:28]
[5-10] String Quartet No. 2 (2009)
5. I. Introduction [1:40]
6. II. Of the Wind [3:01]
7. III. Of Birds and Insects [3:29]
8. IV. Interlude – With Calmness: Klangfarbenmelodie [1:45]
9. V. Of Tribes and Villages [3:44]
10. VI. Postlude: Of Ghosts and Memories [2:51]
11. String Quartet No. 3 (2013) [11:48]
12. String Quartet No. 4: Insects and Machines (2019) [11:27]
Total time: [56:22]
Producer: Dan Merceruio
Recording, Mixing, Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Editing Engineer: Dan Merceruio
Recording Technician: Joshua Frey
Photography: Cover Front/Back - “Scenic Drive” © Julia Fosson
Encaustic Art, pp. 9/10 & digipak inside - Lisa-Marie Mazzucco; p.14 - Geneviève Caron; p. 17 - Joshua Frey
Graphic Design: Joshua Frey
Liner Notes: Vivian Fung
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Recorded at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce VA, October 2-5, 2022
Recorded in Pyramix with Merging Technologies Horus.
Mastered with Merging Technologies Hapi.
Recorded in DXD at 24 bit, 352.8kHz in Native 7.1.4
Mixed and mastered on Legacy Audio speakers. legacyaudio.com
Generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alice M. Ditson Fund.