Sono Luminus releases Sonic Alchemy featuring music by Mozart, Arvo Pärt, and Pēteris Vasks
Sono Luminus Releases New Album Sonic Alchemy
Featuring Violinist YuEun Kim, Pianist Mina Gajić, and Cellist Coleman Itzkoff
Music by W.A. Mozart, Pēteris Vasks, and Arvo Pärt
Release Date: October 13, 2023
Pre-Order Available Now
CDs or press downloads, including album booklet, available upon request.
On October 13, 2023, Sono Luminus will release Sonic Alchemy, a new album from a formidable trio – violinist YuEun Kim, pianist Mina Gajić, and cellist Coleman Itzkoff – featuring music by W.A. Mozart, Pēteris Vasks, and Arvo Pärt. Sonic Alchemy explores music by composers offering a new perspective on how we perceive time. All three artists on the album have recorded for Sono Luminus before, as part of the label’s Boulder Bach Festival album released last year. In addition, pianist Mina Gajić's Sono Luminus album with violinist Zachary Carrettin, Boundless, was released in 2020 and made the Top 10 on The Billboard Classical Chart. Her album Confluence: Balkan Dances & Tango Nuevo was also released in 2022 on Sono Luminus.
Sonic Alchemy weaves together music spanning several centuries – from 1782 to 2013 – connected by a common quality of creating ephemeral moments that seem removed from time, encouraging deep, meditative listening.
“Sonic Alchemy is inspired by the transformation and fluidity of life, represented by the seasons in nature, and in humankind in the way people connect through religion and spirituality,” Mina Gajić says. “In that way we can look towards Mozart–Adagio and see how it ‘converts’ to a trio while remaining true to itself at the same time. Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel is as mirrored reflections in water, movement and stillness appearing simultaneously. Vasks’ Castillo Interior echoes the same thoughts but this time they seem to refer to something internal, very personal. In this respect I was glad to collaborate with colleagues who – like myself – walk the line between historical and modern instruments, crossing into practices and repertoires of the 21st century.”
Vasks’ White Scenery from 1980 is part of his larger work, The Seasons for piano. The piece is notated in a non-traditional way, with simple dots placed on the page to indicate how many seconds each note should last. Icelandic composer Páll Ragnar Pálsson, who has contributed the album’s liner notes, writes, “Although Vasks is referring to the snowy landscape, perhaps of his beautiful homeland Latvia, it is also tempting to see White Scenery as a blank page, tabula rasa, a space for us to just be, rid of time and meaning.” The other piece by Vasks on the album, Castillo Interior for violin and piano from 2013, conjures images of the ancient Baltic landscape, and was written in remembrance of the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila.
Sonic Alchemy includes three pieces by iconic Estonian composer Arvo Pärt: Fratres from 1977, Spiegel im Spiegel from 1978, and Mozart-Adagio (after Sonata K. 280) from 1992. Pálsson writes in the liner notes, “His compositional method, which has been written about extensively, is based on a fixed relation between two voices. One is the melody and the other his distinct version of countervoice consisting only of one of the three notes that make up the fundamental triad. But for music that is so mathematically constructed, how can it sound so spiritual and pure? Pärt himself has compared his method to how we perceive the subjective and objective worlds. One represents our thoughts and feelings, doings, and mistakes, the other the unchangeable, the things in life that we cannot control like God, death, and love. It is perhaps in this space between those worlds where the fundaments of our existence lie, and time stands still.”
The album is anchored by two of W.A. Mozart’s Fantasias for solo piano – the D minor, K. 397 from 1782 and the C minor, K. 475 from 1785. Pálsson writes, “Despite the roughly 200 years that separate Mozart from Vasks and Pärt, there are elements that connect them. Similarly to Pärt and Vasks who needed to find a way to deal with the oppressive rule of the Soviet Union, Mozart also made a well-known declaration of independence. He left the archbishop in Salzburg and the financial security that followed and embarked on a path of what we would call freelance composing today. All of them needed to get away from an authority that demanded something much more primitive than they were willing to provide. Their youthful playfulness, sheer joy of creating and giving combined with clarity and depth of thought was stronger than the cage around them.”
About the Artists:
Award-winning South Korean violinist YuEun Gemma Kim concertizes internationally as soloist and chamber music collaborator in a wide variety of repertoire on modern and baroque period instruments. She moved to the United States in 2013 to attend University of Southern California, where she studied with Midori Goto. In 2022 YuEun was named Artist-in-Residence with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and Concertmaster of The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s, Los Angeles. Recent performances include collaborations with American Bach Soloists, Boulder Bach Festival, Voices of Music, and Blue Hill Bach. She was a top prize winner at Boulder International Chamber Music Competition Art of Duo, a semi-finalist at the Qingdao International Violin Competition in China and at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, and recently received the Jeffrey Thomas Award from American Bach Soloists.
YuEun is a core member of the self-conducted chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum. During the pandemic, Delirium Musicum created MusiKaravan, which took YuEun and Artistic Director Etienne Gara on the road in a vintage Volkswagen bus to perform socially distanced concerts for farm workers, winemakers, random passersby, and even the occasional ostrich. MusiKaravan won the Audience Choice Award of the San Francisco Classical Voice for “Best Streaming Series.” She can be heard on Delirium Musicum’s recent debut album, Seasons.
YuEun is also a founding member of “Yu & I,” a duo with guitarist Ines Thomé. Together, they won the Beverly Hills National Auditions, and recently recorded their debut album, A Journey with Yu & I, featuring folk-inspired music from around the world. As concerto soloist, YuEun has performed with symphony orchestras across North America and Asia. Embracing audiences worldwide during the pandemic, her Chopin Nocturne video on YouTube has been viewed more than 14 million times thus far.
Mina Gajić has garnered an international reputation for insightful and dynamic performances of a vast and ever-evolving repertoire including many new works by living composers, concertos and recitals performed on historic Romantic Era pianos, and collaborations on harpsichord and fortepiano. She started her education and music career in Yugoslavia and subsequently performed as concerto soloist and recitalist in Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, China, Bolivia, and across the United States. As duo partner with violinist Zachary Carrettin, she has appeared on four continents, focusing on a diverse repertoire spanning the centuries and various styles—on historic period pianos in addition to modern concert instruments, and including new works composed for the duo.
Notable performances have included critically-acclaimed period instrument renditions of works by Chopin, Brahms, Britten, Ives, Berg, Antheil, and Bartók. Her doctoral dissertation and subsequent research on the work of Yugoslav composer Josip Slavenski connect Balkan folkloric traditions and approaches to twentieth century music between the two World Wars. Her performances of Brahms and Schumann (Érard piano, 1895) can be heard on the audio book Escapement, by award-winning author Kristen Wolf. Additionally, Gajić and Carrettin’s recording of Schubert sonatas on historical instruments (Érard piano, 1835), Boundless, was released in 2020 and made the Top 10 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart the following month. Her recording Confluence: Balkan Dances & Tango Nuevo was released in 2022 on the Sono Luminus label. She performs as harpsichord concerto soloist on the 2023 Boulder Bach Festival album, also on Sono Luminus.
Gajić holds degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Gajić is the founder and Artistic Director of Boulder International Chamber Music Competition—Art of Duo. Former faculty at Sam Houston State University, in 2019 she became Artistic and Executive Director of Boulder Bach Festival.
Cellist and performer Coleman Itzkoff stands at the intersection of baroque/classical/new music, contemporary dance, and experimental theater. Whether premiering works by living composers and performing baroque music on historical instruments in the same concert, delivering enigmatic monologues in a piece of avant-garde dance theater (as well as dancing in said piece), composing, arranging, and recording music for the Amazon film Le Bal des Folles, or simply playing a piece of solo Bach for hospital patients in the time of COVID, Coleman continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be a musician of the 21st century, bringing his diverse range of interests and shape-shifting presence to every room and stage he occupies.
Hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for his “flawless technique and keen musicality,” Coleman has performed in the great halls and festivals of America and abroad. As a soloist, he has had the privilege of being the featured soloist with many great orchestras, including recent appearances with the Houston, San Diego, and Cincinnati Symphonies. As a recitalist, he is allowed to express his eclectic taste and inventive programming, and is constantly experimenting with the form and format of a solo concert, playing with unique lighting, unconventional spaces, and often with an accompaniment of dance or text.
Collaboration is the heart of Coleman’s art making. To that end, he is a dedicated member of several ensembles, including the early music ensembles Ruckus and Twelfth Night, and is a founding member of AMOC, the American Modern Opera Company. Coleman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Rice University, a Master of Music degree from University of Southern California, and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School.
Track List:
Sonic Alchemy
Violinist YuEun Kim, Pianist Mina Gajić, and Cellist Coleman Itzkoff
1. Balta Ainava (White Scenery) by Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946) [8:27]
2. Fratres by Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) [11:38]
3. Fantasia in D minor, K. 397 by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) [6:00]
4. Mozart-Adagio (after Sonata K. 280) by Arvo Pärt [6:33]
5. Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 by W. A. Mozart [12:13]
6. Castillo Interior (Interior Castle) by Pēteris Vasks [13:07]
7. Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt [10:24]
Total Time: [68:27]
Producer: Erica Brenner
Recording, Mixing, Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores Editing Engineer: Erica Brenner
Recording Technician: Joshua Frey
Piano Technician: John Veitch
Photography: Cary Jobe
Graphic Design: Joshua Frey
Liner Notes: Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Recorded at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce VA
August 30 - September 2, 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