Album of the Week #20: Ithaka by Lydia Kakabadse

Check out our new ALBUM OF THE WEEK! 

Each week, we will post a different album that will make your Wednesday way easier! This week, listen to:

Ithaka, by Lydia Kakabadse

About the album:

British composer Lydia Kakabadse (with roots in Greece, Austria, Russia and Georgia) reflects her cultural heritage in music that has western and mediterranean elements while this is strongest in her choral music, it is heard to good effect in her chamber works, which are often written in modal intonation; her previous recorded collections have been very positively reviewed. This album is in two parts first the stunning choral work Odyssey absolutely traditional in its rich harmony but carrying one or two surprises, a work commissioned by the Hellenic Institute at Royal Holloway College in 2018; and a set of songs written in 2018 and 2019 spanning a range of styles from ballad, to arioso to folk jazz, Romantic, antiphonal and minimalistic! 

The performers are all top rate: Clare McCaldin is an outstanding mezzo-soprano with a significant recorded legacy already. Paul Turner specializes in chamber music and accompanying singers and instrumentalists. Sara Trickey is becoming well known as a fine violinist and Cecily Beer is in great demand as both singer and harpist. The Choir of Royal Holloway is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Britain.

Source: Presto

About Lydia:

Lydia Kakabadse is a British composer, known for her compositions for choral, chamber and vocal music. She has a unique style - it incorporates tonal and modal harmonies with Middle Eastern traits and melody. She is also a Latin enthusiast, and has written original Latin texts for her vocal works.

She was already on Donne's Meet the ComposHer. Read the complete interview here.

Follow LYDIA:

WEBSITE

MAY 13

ENEA VERARDINI - ITALY
Death 13 May

More about her

Find scores by Enea Verardini:

MARIA MARGHERITA GRIMANI

More about her

Find scores by Maria Margherita:

 Check here last year's composers of the day

13 MAY 2019

PATRICIA LEONARD - USA  

BORN 13 MAY

A native of Boston, Patricia Leonard’s early musical training began with piano studies, followed by composition studies at The New England Conservatory. She received a degree in Composition from The Boston Conservatory of Music. Principal composition teachers include Larry Thomas Bell and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici.

Ms. Leonard’s music is performed frequently in the U.S. and in Europe, and her music has been premiered by acclaimed ensembles and artists such as the New York Piano Quintet, featuring members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Broadway singer Timothy Shew; Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Eddie Daniels and renowned contemporary music pianist Christopher Oldfather.

Ms. Leonard’s compositions have been reviewed as “arresting and evocative with innovative harmonies” by New York Concert Review; the New Music Connoisseur reviewed her musical style as “revealing musical sophistication and a high level of craftsmanship” and “wildly imaginative and vivid storytelling with virtuosic variety.” 

Ms. Leonard is a founding member and Deputy Executive Director of New York Composers Circle and shared the group’s inaugural concert in May 2003 with guest composer, David Del Tredici. She is also a Board member of The League of Composers/ISCM, and a member of International Alliance of Women in Music, and New York Women Composers. Also an opera judge, Ms. Leonard panels the annual Violetta DuPont, Gerda Lissner and The Licia Albanese – Puccini vocal competitions for aspiring young opera singer.

♫ LISTEN 

Demonstrations of Love by Patricia Leonard

➺ Patricia Leonard's Website 

ELIZABETH TURNER - UK    

Very little is known about Elizabeth Turner, apart from the fact that she published a "Collection of songs" and "Six lessons for the harpsichord" in 1756. She must have had some reputation, since the subscribers to these works included, among others, George Frederick Handel and William Boyce. A paper by Margaret Yelloly in "Early Music" February 2005, reports that her career began in 1744 and that she died in 1756.

Contemporary sources, mainly newspapers, throw some light on the brief professional career of Elizabeth Turner, an 18th-century singer and composer popular in her time, but of whom little is known today. Her musical output was slender, but as one of the first published women composers at a time when it was rare for women either to compose or to perform in public, her career has particular social and historical interest.

♫ LISTEN 

Andante afetuoso for harpsichord by Elizabeth Turner  

➺ Find Scores by Elizabeth Tuner