American Counterpoints Receives Two GRAMMY® Nominations - Named One of NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2024
American Counterpoints Receives Two GRAMMY® Nominations - Named One of NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2024
American Counterpoints Receives Two GRAMMY® Nominations
Best Classical Compendium
Best Classical Instrumental Solo for Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto
Named One of NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2024 and Top 10 Classical Albums of 2024
Experiential Orchestra
James Blachly, Music Director
Curtis Stewart, Violin Soloist
Available Now on Bright Shiny Things
“This important – arguably long overdue – album spotlights two versatile mid-20th century artists whose music fell into neglect.”
– NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2024
"a fine example of the sober yet seething angularity of its era, leavened with warm strings and hints of Coplandesque expansiveness"
– The New York Times on Perry's Violin Concerto
“It’s not often you can claim a CD offers true revelations, but that’s the case with this fascinating release”
– The Strad
Stream the Album Now
Downloads and CDs available for press on request.
jamesblachly.com | experientialorchestra.com | curtisjstewart.com | brightshiny.ninja
American Counterpoints – the newest album and co-creation between James Blachly, GRAMMY®-winning founder and Music Director of Experiential Orchestra, and GRAMMY®-nominated violinist Curtis Stewart, whom The New York Times credits with “combining omnivory and brilliance” – celebrates the centenary of composer Julia Perry, as well as the work of fellow composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.
This album, which Tom Huizenga of NPR Music writes presents “strong performances” by the Blachly-led Experiential Orchestra and a “committed performance” of Perry’s Violin Concerto by Curtis Stewart, received two GRAMMY® nominations in the categories of Best Classical Compendium and Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The 2025 GRAMMYs will take place Sunday, February 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network and stream live and on demand on Paramount+. This is the first GRAMMY nomination for the music of Julia Perry.
In addition to the world premiere recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, American Counterpoints includes her Prelude for Strings, Symphony in One Movement for Violas and Basses, and Ye, Who Seek the Truth, as well as Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 1 and Louisiana Blues Strut for solo violin. Curtis Stewart’s We Who Seek complements both composers’ works, and serves as the album’s finale. The album is produced by GRAMMY-winner Blanton Alspaugh and Soundmirror.
American Counterpoints has also been named as one of NPR Music’s 50 Best Albums of 2024 across all genres, as well as one of NPR Music’s Top 10 Classical Album of 2024. NPR’s Tom Huizenga reports, “After the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, steps (albeit small ones) have been taken to better represent the work of Black American composers, past and present. This important – arguably long overdue – album spotlights two versatile mid-20th century artists whose music fell into neglect. The once-celebrated Julia Perry died in 1979, leaving her arresting violin concerto in disarray. Recently reconstructed, it receives a committed performance by Curtis Stewart, keen to the score's chromatic nuances. Her Prelude is serene, unlike the experimental Symphony in One Movement, which probes dark harmonies with the urgency of a search party. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, an agile pianist-composer who collaborated with Max Roach and Marvin Gaye, channels Handel in his neoclassical Sinfonietta No. 1 and conjures gritty southern styles in Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk for Violin. These strong performances by the Experiential Orchestra will hopefully spark a resurgence in the music of these exceptional composers.”
Julia Perry (1924-1979) was an African American composer, born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised in Akron, Ohio. Her early career was filled with promise: she spent two summers at the Berkshire Music Center, studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and briefly with Nadia Boulanger, won the Prix Fontainebleau and two Guggenheim Fellowships, and her Study for Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. But tragically, many of her roughly 100 compositions remain unknown. Perry suffered a paralytic stroke in 1970. As musicologist J. Michele Edwards writes, “Her letters reveal her effort to walk, talk, and conduct again. She did learn to write with her left hand and resumed composing; however, she endured tragic emotional and financial difficulties.”
Through the research work of the non-profit organization Videmus led by Dr. Louise Toppin, in partnership with Boosey & Hawkes, many of Julia Perry’s unpublished works are now being discovered and made available for performance for the first time. The core of the effort to publish Perry’s music has been the three-person Videmus editorial team of Louise Toppin; conductor Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Akron Symphony; and James Blachly. Blachly first encountered Perry’s music in 2014, and in addition to his work on the editorial team, has championed Perry’s music in performances for the past five years. With Toppin, he co-directed the Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in March 2024. The four-day Festival brought together 140 performers and scholars in New York in the largest Julia Perry celebration in the world to date. Blachly has also brought Perry’s music to new audiences through performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Experiential Orchestra, and Johnstown Symphony Orchestra.
Known as “Perky," Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was said to have had a musical talent rivaled only by Leonard Bernstein. He played jazz piano with Max Roach, studied conducting at Berkshire Music Center, and was a prolific and accomplished composer. While he composed roughly 30 works in a classical idiom, the vast majority of his compositions were for film and television.
American Counterpoints aims to dramatically change the visibility and reputation of these two extraordinary African American composers, bringing their works to a much wider audience and a place of higher prestige, as well as to help inspire more frequent performances of their music throughout the world.
Of their intention in making this album, Curtis Stewart and James Blachly say:
"The title American Counterpoints refers to the compositional technique of interweaving independent melodies into a powerful whole, and the strength, integrity, and imaginative music that results. It underscores how these two masterful composers were required to create new musical paths for themselves because the mainstream of classical music did not have a place for them centerstage. Julia Perry flourished in Europe, with only limited success in the United States. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's boundless musical talents found most success in film and television, jazz and popular music. Yet despite being marginalized and largely ignored for many decades, both composers are essential to American classical music, and our intention with this album is to advocate for their music to claim its rightful place within the core of our American repertoire."
The juxtaposition of the two composers on the album forms its own counterpoint, adding a layer to the compositions themselves; Curtis Stewart’s final track weaves together all three compositional voices.
ALBUM TRACKLIST
American Counterpoints
James Blachly, Experiential Orchestra, Curtis Stewart
Bright Shiny Things | Release Date: March, 1, 2024
1. Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Curtis Stewart, violin
2. Prelude for Strings by Julia Perry, Arr. Roger Zahab
3-5. Sinfonietta No. 1 by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
I: Sonata Allegro
II: Song Form-Largo
III: Rondo-Allegro furioso
6. Symphony in One Movement for Violas and String Basses by Julia Perry
7. Ye, Who Seek the Truth by Julia Perry, Arr. Jannina Norpoth
8-13. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Julia Perry
I. Slow; Moderate; Fast; Moderate
II. Slow; Moderate; Fast
III. Moderate
IV. Fast
V. Slow; Fast
VI. Fast; Moderate; Fast
Curtis Stewart, violin
14. We Who Seek by Curtis Stewart
Curtis Stewart, violin
Album co-curated by Curtis Stewart and James Blachly
Executive Producer James Blachly
Director of Artistic Planning Pauline Kim Harris
Produced by Blanton Alspaugh (Soundmirror)
Engineering, Mixing and Mastering by Mark Donahue (Soundmirror)
Composer Julia Perry’s Previously Unavailable Catalog of Music Published by Videmus Inc. Through New Relationship with Boosey & Hawkes
Composer Julia Perry’s Previously Unavailable Catalog of Music Published by Videmus Inc. Through New Relationship with Boosey & Hawkes
Julia Perry (Photo: Rider University Libraries’ Julia A. Perry Collection); high resolution photos available here.
Videmus Inc. Publishes Julia Perry’s Previously Unavailable Catalog of Music
Through New Relationship with Boosey & Hawkes
www.videmus.org | www.boosey.com/composer/julia+perry
NEW YORK, NY (December 5, 2024) – Videmus Inc. announced today that through a new relationship with Boosey & Hawkes, one of the world’s leading classical music publishers, it will make available the previously unpublished music of composer Julia Perry, whose work fell into obscurity after her death in 1979 and is only now beginning to receive the attention it has so richly deserved. Directed by Dr. Louise Toppin, Videmus is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the promotion of concert works by African American, women, and under-presented composers, providing access to the work of marginalized composers through educational programming, performance opportunities, and scholarly research. In 2024, Julia Perry’s centennial year, the Estate of Julia A. Perry assigned all copyrights for her unpublished work to Videmus Inc. Perry’s music is also currently GRAMMY-nominated for the first time, as part of the American Counterpoints album from Experiential Orchestra, music director James Blachly, and violinist Curtis Stewart.
Julia Perry (1924-1979) was an African American composer, born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised in Akron, Ohio. Her early career was filled with promise: she spent two summers at the Berkshire Music Center, studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and briefly with Nadia Boulanger, won the Prix Fontainebleau and two Guggenheim Fellowships, and her Study for Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. But tragically, many of her roughly 100 compositions remain unknown. Perry suffered a paralytic stroke in 1970. As musicologist J. Michele Edwards writes, “Her letters reveal her effort to walk, talk, and conduct again. She did learn to write with her left hand and resumed composing; however, she endured tragic emotional and financial difficulties.”
As a non-profit, mission-based organization, Videmus supports the research, publication, recording, and performances of Perry’s music, creating accurate materials serving the practical needs of performers and providing regularly updated editions. Videmus intends for this endeavor to serve as a model for others seeking to bring works of unjustly ignored composers to light. Additionally, the publication of Perry's works will help scholars to reconstruct her musical and personal journey, providing a valuable resource to future biographers. For distribution of Perry’s works, Videmus is proud to partner with Boosey & Hawkes to make Perry’s music available worldwide through print, performance, and licensing.
Louise Toppin says, “Julia Perry’s prominence in music history as an African American woman composer has been erased for too long. Her story as a rising star in the world of composition and conducting during the years of extreme segregation in the United States is both compelling and astonishing. Her compositions (although to date her known output is small) show craftsmanship of the highest caliber that appeal to performers and audiences alike. Many of her compositions remain lost. Videmus is devoted to uncovering any works that still lie in publishers’ archives, university libraries, or in public or private collections. The neglect Perry’s music has faced is not unique. We hope that this endeavor might serve as a model for others seeking to bring additional works of unjustly ignored composers to light.”
“During her too-brief career, Julia Perry’s compositions earned praise in every esteemed musical circle from New York to Paris, despite the immense systemic challenges she faced,” says Steven Lankenau, Senior Vice President of Boosey & Hawkes. “She is an indisputably important figure in the history of 20th-century American music, and Boosey & Hawkes is proud to partner with Videmus to bring her unpublished works to the public as this noteworthy composer’s larger legacy continues to unfold.”
Julia Perry’s Works to be Published:
The Julia Perry catalog published by Videmus, which will be released across multiple years, includes a broad range of works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, songs, and piano music.
The following works are immediately available from Boosey & Hawkes:
Three Spirituals for Orchestra (1965–67)
Prelude for Piano (1946/1962)
Prelude for Strings (Prelude for Piano 1946/1962; arr. for strings by Roger Zahab, 2020)
Symphony in One Movement for Violas and String Basses (1961)
Quartette for Wind Quintette (Symphony No. 13 for Wind Quintet) (1963/1976)
Quinary Quixotic Songs for Bass-Baritone and Five Instruments (1976)
Works planned for future release include Four Spirituals for orchestra, Contretemps for orchestra, Hymn to Pan for choir, and The Selfish Giant: A Sacred Musical Fable (piano reduction of a three-act opera).
The Path to Publication:
The path to publication of Julia Perry’s catalog was complex and spanned many years, involving a dedicated volunteer working group of musicians and scholars galvanized by a desire to bring her music to a wider public, and brought together by Dr. Louise Toppin at Videmus Inc.
When Julia Perry died without a will on April 24, 1979, twenty-one of her approximately one hundred works had been published, and there was no mechanism to secure permission to publish the rest of her music. Beginning in 2021, the Akron Symphony sought a legal solution, and with the support of Probate Judge Elinore M. Stormer of Summit County, Ohio, an estate was opened in Julia Perry’s name on October 12, 2022. Over the course of two years, the estate granted permission for performances and recordings, and ultimately transferred copyrights to Perry’s unpublished music to Videmus Inc. in September 2024.
Concurrent to the legal process, Louise Toppin brought together a Julia Perry working group in 2021 to coordinate the various efforts underway internationally to promote Perry’s music and to share new research with each other. Since then, the core of the effort to publish Perry’s music has been the three-person Videmus editorial team of Louise Toppin; conductor Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Akron Symphony; and conductor James Blachly, music director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Experiential Orchestra.
For over 30 years, Louise Toppin has specialized in performing, promoting, commissioning, and educating students on music by African American composers, including lectures around the world, co-founding and directing the George Shirley Competition, and her creating of the African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP) a digital online catalog including over 3,000 songs searchable by voice type, and over 1,400 works for orchestra. She also brings her decades of experience working with heirs, including her work with the heirs of Margaret Bonds, which ultimately led to the successful publication of Bonds’ music in recent years. In co-curating with James Blachly the four-day 2024 Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, Toppin gathered scholars at The New School to deliver 14 lectures and keynote addresses on Julia Perry’s life and music. Through her direction of Videmus, Toppin wrote grants and raised funds for the legal fees as well as engraving and editorial costs.
In Perry’s hometown of Akron, Ohio, conductor Christopher Wilkins began researching Perry’s works in 2018 and created the Julia Perry Project with the Akron Symphony in 2021, including six archival recordings of previously unheard works, and recorded interviews with violinist, conductor, and scholar Roger Zahab, and Ophelia Averitt, a neighbor and friend of Julia Perry. Since 2021, Wilkins has led multiple reading and recording sessions and performed many of Perry’s unpublished works with the Akron Symphony. He also spearheaded the legal effort with Akron attorneys Dave Lieberth and Kevin Davis.
Conductor James Blachly first encountered Perry’s music in 2014, and in addition to his work on the editorial team, has championed Perry’s music in performances for the past five years. With Louise Toppin, he co-directed the Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in March 2024. The four-day Festival brought together 140 performers and scholars in New York in the largest Julia Perry celebration in the world to date. Blachly has also brought Perry’s music to new audiences through performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Experiential Orchestra, and Johnstown Symphony Orchestra. His latest album with Experiential Orchestra, American Counterpoints on the Bright Shiny Things label, features the first commercial recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra performed with soloist Curtis Stewart, and is currently nominated for two 2025 GRAMMY® Awards in the Classical Compendium and Best Classical Instrumental Solo categories. This is the first GRAMMY nomination for the music of Julia Perry.
In addition to the editorial team of Toppin, Wilkins, and Blachly, the assistance of composer, conductor, violinist and scholar Roger Zahab has been essential in the path to publication. Zahab has been researching and creating editions of Perry's music for more than 30 years, including his widely performed arrangement Prelude for Strings, and has given several notable premieres of her works both as a violinist and conductor. He is also one of the only musicians alive who had direct communication with Julia Perry during the final years of her life.
About Julia Perry:
Julia Amanda Perry
Born: March 25, 1924, Lexington KY
Died: April 24, 1979, Akron OH
Julia Perry is a unique figure in American music. In her twenties, she gained international recognition for her modernist classical compositions, while also publishing vocal and choral works inspired by Black American musical traditions. She composed across nearly every genre, including orchestral and choral works, operas, chamber music, solo instrumental pieces, and vocal compositions. Her eclectic style constantly evolved as she experimented with new forms and responded to the shifting cultural landscape around her.
An accomplished performer, Perry excelled as a mezzo-soprano soloist, orchestral and choral conductor, violinist, and pianist. She trained with some of the most esteemed teachers and institutions in the field. She studied voice and composition at Westminster Choir College, worked with composer Luigi Dallapiccola at Tanglewood, received orchestral conducting training through the extension division of the Juilliard School, and attended Nadia Boulanger’s renowned composition class at Fontainebleau.
In November 1951, Perry moved from New York City to Florence, Italy, to continue her studies with Dallapiccola. While in Italy, she gained increasing recognition as a composer, with critics especially praising her setting of the Stabat Mater, noting her sensitivity to the language and her compelling performance as the vocal soloist. Perry spoke fluent Italian, setting an Italian text in a vocal-orchestral cantata and creating an Italian version of her opera The Cask of Amontillado. She also wrote original poetry and prose—often composing her own texts and librettos—and translated seventy-eight African fables into English from a book she had acquired in Italy.
Her achievements were recognized through two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Marian Anderson Awards for vocal excellence, a "Grand Prix" in Boulanger’s class, prizes from the National Association of Negro Musicians, a National Institute of Arts and Letters award, and eight residencies at MacDowell.
After touring European cities with support from the U. S. Information Service—conducting her own compositions and lecturing on American music—she returned to the United States permanently in 1959. The 1960s began with promise, with support for recordings and more offers from publishing houses. In 1965, the New York Philharmonic performed her Short Piece for Orchestra.
However, despite her efforts to earn a living as a composer, Perry found that doors were not open to her in the United States as they had once been in Europe, and several of her most significant works were never performed or published. After suffering a paralytic stroke in 1970, she continued to compose with her left hand, despite the lack of professional opportunities, until her death on April 24, 1979. Through the research work of Videmus, in partnership with Boosey & Hawkes, many of Julia Perry’s unpublished works are now being discovered and made available for performance for the first time.
About Videmus Inc.:
Videmus Inc. is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the promotion of concert works by African American, women and under-presented composers. The organization’s vision is to provide access to marginalized composers through educational programming, performance opportunities, and scholarly research. Videmus produces recordings, created an annual competition for students ages 14-35, created and maintains a scholarly research database, produces concerts and conferences, encourages research and publication in scholarly books and journals, creates editions for publication, and collaborates with other organizations to strengthen the diverse perspectives of our industry.
Videmus Inc. was founded and incorporated (501c3) in Massachusetts (1986) by Vivian Taylor. For the first ten years the arts organization presented concerts in New England and world premiere recordings of African American composers including William Grant Still, Donal Fox, T.J. Anderson, David Baker, Olly Wilson, George Walker, Undine Smith Moore, Florence Price, Julia Perry, Margaret Bonds, and Betty Jackson King.
In 1997, Videmus Inc. appointed Louise Toppin as the Director of the organization and under her leadership, its catalog of recordings expanded to include the world premiere vocal recordings of Leslie Adams and Robert Owens with tenor Darryl Taylor, the world premiere of William Grant Still opera Highway One, USA, the first recordings of the Sphinx organization finals, the world premiere recording of Leslie Adams’ 24 etudes on two CDs (Maria Corley and Thomas Otten, pianists), and many more.
Videmus’s recording strategy has been to fill in historic gaps by documenting the works of well-established composers such as Still, Baker, Bonds, Price, Moore, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Hall Johnson, Adolphus Hailstork, and many others, while presenting world premiere recordings (symphonic, chamber and solo) of newer composers such as Richard Thompson, Stephen Newby, Bill Banfield, Nkeiru Okoye, Robert Morris, and many more. In addition to its own recordings, Videmus has assisted many artists with repertoire, liner notes and introductions for their recordings that have received GRAMMY nominations, including Lawrence Brownlee and Will Liverman.
Videmus continues to curate concerts throughout the United States, has created scholarship programs including the Bridges Award and The George Shirley Vocal Competition; conferences such as “Reflecting on the Past Reaching Toward the Future” and the four-day “Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival” co-presented with Experiential Orchestra, created a database in the African Diaspora Music Project; and published scores of vocal, instrument, chamber and orchestral repertoire with Classical Vocal Reprints, Hal Leonard, Hildegard Press, Carl Fischer and Boosey & Hawkes.
About Boosey & Hawkes:
Boosey & Hawkes, a Concord company, is the world’s largest specialist classical music publishing company. Together with its sister company Sikorski, it owns an unrivaled catalog of music copyrights including the works of such major 20th century composers as Stravinsky, Copland, Britten, Bartók, Shostakovich, Prokofieff, Khachaturian, Strauss and Rachmaninoff. In the 21st century, Boosey & Hawkes continues to publish the very best in new music and has exclusive agreements with many of the leading international classical composers of today, including John Adams, Unsuk Chin, Anna Clyne, Sofia Gubaidulina, Karl Jenkins, James MacMillan, Olga Neuwirth, Steve Reich and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Boosey & Hawkes is a global publisher, with offices in the cultural hubs of New York, London, and Berlin, as well as a network of agents in other countries. It promotes its repertoire throughout the music world and seeks to lead artistic and creative taste, and continue to invest in development towards a fully digital future.
Boosey & Hawkes serves many different customers: licensing and renting music for performance, recording and broadcast; licensing music for film, TV, advertising, video games and online use; and publishing sheet music for purchase.
Boosey & Hawkes’s extensive catalog of printed and digital music for the professional, student and leisure markets ranges from instrumental, band and choral to market-leading tutor books and creative teaching materials.
Dec 6: Current GRAMMY Nominees James Blachly, Curtis Stewart, and Experiential Orchestra Give DC Premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin from Nominated Album American Counterpoints
Dec 6: Current GRAMMY Nominees James Blachly, Curtis Stewart, and Experiential Orchestra Give DC Premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin from Nominated Album American Counterpoints
Photo of James Blachly and Experiential Orchestra by Allison Stock. High resolution images available here.
2025 GRAMMY®-Nominated Conductor, Soloist, and Ensemble Perform Music from Nominated Album American Counterpoints at Library of Congress on December 6, 2024
Experiential Orchestra Conducted by Music Director James Blachly with Violin Soloist Curtis Stewart and Narrator Ling Ling Huang
Featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin
with Soloist Curtis Stewart
2025 GRAMMY-Nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo & Best Classical Compendium
Listen: https://lnkfi.re/American-Counterpoints
Plus Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
Reimagined with Narration by Ling Ling Huang
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm
Pre-Concert Conversation at 6:30pm, Whittall Pavilion
Library of Congress | Thomas Jefferson Building | Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC
Ticket Information: Free with RSVP
Note: This event is currently at capacity, but additional tickets will be released. You can join the waitlist here, and you will be notified when tickets become available. RUSH passes will also be available to walk-up patrons who do not have tickets.
Washington, D.C. – On Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm, the GRAMMY Award-winning, New York-based Experiential Orchestra (EXO) led by Music Director James Blachly brings one of its signature, immersive performances to the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium (Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 1st Street SE) to mark a trilogy of milestones – the Library’s 100th Anniversary, and two significant birth anniversaries for transformative composers Arnold Schoenberg (his 150th) and Julia Perry (her 100th). A pre-concert conversation with the artists will be held at 6:30pm in Whittall Pavilion. Tickets are free but an RSVP is required.
EXO's performances have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and bring listeners close to the music through imaginative and interactive experiences. At the Library of Congress, EXO gives the D.C. premiere of African American composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin with five-time GRAMMY nominee Curtis Stewart, who made the first commercial recording of this landmark 1965 work with EXO as part of their recently released album, American Counterpoints (Bright Shiny Things). In March, EXO, Blachly, and Stewart performed Perry’s Concerto for Violin at Lincoln Center as part of the 2024 Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival, co-presented by EXO and Videmus. For this concert, Stewart will play legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler’s Guarneri instrument from 1730, part of the Library of Congress’s collection.
Violinist Curtis Stewart, conductor James Blachly, and Experiential Orchestra are currently nominated for 2025 GRAMMY Awards for American Counterpoints and Julia Perry's Concerto for Violin in the Best Classical Compendium and Best Classical Instrumental Solo categories. The 2025 GRAMMY Awards take place on February 2, 2025. Listen to the album here.
The New York Times reported of EXO, Blachly, and Stewart’s world premiere recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin:
“Julia Perry, who would have turned 100 this month, achieved some real recognition during her lifetime, but – in a tale all too common for composers who aren’t white men – fell into obscurity after her death in 1979. There have been recent efforts to revive her works, including her Violin Concerto, written in the 1960s and now recorded by the Experiential Orchestra under James Blachly, with Curtis Stewart as the soloist. This brooding, 25-minute piece begins with a passionate violin cadenza, played like the rest of the concerto with heated commitment from Stewart, and then evolves frequently, without defined section breaks. It is a fine example of the sober yet seething angularity of its era, leavened with warm strings and hints of Coplandesque expansiveness. It’s a vigorous work of mid-20th-century Neo-Classicism . . .”
To mark Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birth anniversary, violinist and author Ling Ling Huang (Natural Beauty, Dutton 2023) reimagines his Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) from 1899 for a modern audience, with new narration that expands the concept of the poem by Richard Dehmel that inspired Schoenberg to write this piece.
In celebration of the Library’s 100th anniversary, other works from the Library’s collections will be highlighted, including Irving Fine’s lush Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra and Alan Hovhaness’ touching tribute, In Memory of an Artist.
This concert is presented through the generosity of the Verna and Irving Fine Endowment in the Library of Congress, with thanks to the EXO Creative Team and Pauline Kim Harris, Henry Wang, Ling Ling Huang, and Lady Jess for concept development.
Photo above: Julia Perry, Permission to use this photograph is granted by Talbott Music Library Special Collections and Westminster Choir College Archives (Julia Perry Collection), Rider University. Digital image, copyright 2021.
About the Featured Artists:
James Blachly: www.jamesblachly.com
Curtis Stewart: www.curtisjstewart.com
Ling Ling Huang: www.linglinghuang.com
About Experiential Orchestra:
The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) brings audiences close to the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.
EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.
Recent highlights have included a subscription concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. In January 2024, EXO performed Pärt’s masterwork Passio at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the concert while reclining on yoga mats. In March 2024, the orchestra co-presented a four-day Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, coinciding with Perry’s 100th birthday that month.
EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The album won the Grammy®️ for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 – the first Grammy ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in March 2024.
EXO is led by Music Director James Blachly, General Manager Raphaele de Boisblanc, and Director of Artistic Planning Pauline Kim Harris. EXO:Chamber, a series of chamber concerts, was inaugurated in 2023, curated by EXO’s Creative Team directed by Pauline Kim Harris. The Creative Team includes Henry Wang, concertmaster; Michelle Ross, co-concertmaster; Alexander Fortes, co-concertmaster; Lady Jess, principal; and Sami Merdinian, principal. EXO’s Artistic Advisors are Patrick Castillo, Brad Balliett, and Doug Balliett.
Dec 6: Experiential Orchestra in Transfigured Night Reimagined at the Library of Congress featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto
Dec 6: Experiential Orchestra in Transfigured Night Reimagined at the Library of Congress featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto
Photo of James Blachly and Experiential Orchestra by Allison Stock. High resolution images available here.
Experiential Orchestra in Transfigured Night Reimagined
Presented by the Library of Congress
Featuring the D.C. Premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin
with Soloist Curtis Stewart
Plus Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
Reimagined with Narration by Ling Ling Huang
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm
Pre-Concert Conversation at 6:30pm, Whittall Pavilion
Library of Congress | Thomas Jefferson Building | Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC
Ticket Information: Free with RSVP
Note: This event is currently at capacity, but additional tickets will be released. You can join the waitlist here, and you will be notified when tickets become available. RUSH passes will also be available to walk-up patrons who do not have tickets.
Washington, D.C. – On Friday, December 6, 2024 at 8pm, the GRAMMY Award-winning, New York-based Experiential Orchestra (EXO) led by Music Director James Blachly brings one of its signature, immersive performances to the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium (Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 1st Street SE) to mark a trilogy of milestones – the Library’s 100th Anniversary, and two significant birth anniversaries for transformative composers Arnold Schoenberg (his 150th) and Julia Perry (her 100th). A pre-concert conversation with the artists will be held at 6:30pm in Whittall Pavilion. Tickets are free but an RSVP is required.
EXO's performances have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and bring listeners close to the music through imaginative and interactive experiences. At the Library of Congress, EXO gives the D.C. premiere of African-American composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin with four-time GRAMMY nominee Curtis Stewart, who made the first commercial recording of this landmark 1965 work with EXO as part of their recently released album, American Counterpoints (Bright Shiny Things). In March, EXO, Blachly, and Stewart performed Perry’s Concerto for Violin at Lincoln Center as part of the 2024 Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival, co-presented by EXO and Videmus. For this concert, Stewart will play legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler’s Guarneri instrument from 1730, part of the Library of Congress’s collection.
The New York Times reported of EXO, Blachly, and Stewart’s world premiere recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin:
“Julia Perry, who would have turned 100 this month, achieved some real recognition during her lifetime, but – in a tale all too common for composers who aren’t white men – fell into obscurity after her death in 1979. There have been recent efforts to revive her works, including her Violin Concerto, written in the 1960s and now recorded by the Experiential Orchestra under James Blachly, with Curtis Stewart as the soloist. This brooding, 25-minute piece begins with a passionate violin cadenza, played like the rest of the concerto with heated commitment from Stewart, and then evolves frequently, without defined section breaks. It is a fine example of the sober yet seething angularity of its era, leavened with warm strings and hints of Coplandesque expansiveness. It’s a vigorous work of mid-20th-century Neo-Classicism . . .”
To mark Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birth anniversary, violinist and author Ling Ling Huang (Natural Beauty, Dutton 2023) reimagines his Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) from 1899 for a modern audience, with new narration that expands the concept of the poem by Richard Dehmel that inspired Schoenberg to write this piece.
In celebration of the Library’s 100th anniversary, other works from the Library’s collections will be highlighted, including Irving Fine’s lush Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra and Alan Hovhaness’ touching tribute, In Memory of an Artist.
This concert is presented through the generosity of the Verna and Irving Fine Endowment in the Library of Congress, with thanks to the EXO Creative Team and Pauline Kim Harris, Henry Wang, Ling Ling Huang, and Lady Jess for concept development.
About the Featured Artists:
James Blachly: www.jamesblachly.com
Curtis Stewart: www.curtisjstewart.com
Ling Ling Huang: www.linglinghuang.com
About Experiential Orchestra:
The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) brings audiences close to the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.
EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.
Recent highlights have included a subscription concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. In January 2024, EXO performed Pärt’s masterwork Passio at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the concert while reclining on yoga mats. In March 2024, the orchestra co-presented a four-day Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, coinciding with Perry’s 100th birthday that month.
EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The album won the Grammy®️ for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 – the first Grammy ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in March 2024.
EXO is led by Music Director James Blachly, General Manager Raphaele de Boisblanc, and Director of Artistic Planning Pauline Kim Harris. EXO:Chamber, a series of chamber concerts, was inaugurated in 2023, curated by EXO’s Creative Team directed by Pauline Kim Harris. The Creative Team includes Henry Wang, concertmaster; Michelle Ross, co-concertmaster; Alexander Fortes, co-concertmaster; Lady Jess, principal; and Sami Merdinian, principal. EXO’s Artistic Advisors are Patrick Castillo, Brad Balliett, and Doug Balliett.