BMOP to Release Two New Albums by Composers-in-Residence

Boston, MA (For Release 1.12.15) - Known as the nation's foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, BMOP/sound today announced the release of two new albums featuring works by former BMOP Composers-in-Residence: Andrew Norman: Play (Release Date: 01/2015; and Elena Ruehr: O'Keeffe Images (Release Date 09/2014). Both recordings offer stellar performances by the fearless Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) led by conductor Gil Rose.

Andrew Norman: Play serves as the collaborative culmination of Norman's two-year tenure as BMOP's Music Alive Composer-in-Residence. A dynamic young composer of chamber and orchestral music, Norman is known for his wit, clarity, vigor, and keen sense of playfulness, qualities displayed to perfection in this album. This recording's two works, Play and its precursor Try, possess a uniquely 21st-century DNA, drawing inspiration for instrumental virtuosity from, among other things, video games. Play demands that the orchestra tackle a multitude of extended performance techniques which, combined with small acts of choice making from both the players and the conductor, insure that no two performances will be alike. "Like much of my music, it tries to make the most of the innate physicality and theatricality of live instrumental performance," explains Norman. BMOP's recording captures and preserves one such brilliant interpretation.

Elena Ruehr: O'Keeffe Images celebrates Ruehr's longstanding collaboration with BMOP, who commissioned and premiered two-thirds of a stunning triptych based on Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings - Ladder to the Moon, Sky Above the Clouds, and Shimmer - during her BMOP Music Alive Residency from 2000-05. This CD also showcases Cloud Atlas, Ruehr's cello concerto written for acclaimed cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, and patterned on David Mitchell's time-jumping novel of the same title. Ruehr says of her music "the idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complex." The result is music of lyrical beauty and expressive depth.

About BMOP/sound

BMOP/sound, the Grammy-nominated signature record label of the acclaimed Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), boasts an eclectic, composer-centric catalog of both rediscovered classics of the 20th century and the music of today's most influential and innovative composers. Since its launch in 2008, BMOP/sound recordings have received numerous accolades including appearances on "Best Of" lists in The New York Times, Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, and Downbeat Magazine, among others; Grammy nominations in 2009 for Charles Fussell: Wilde, in 2010 for Derek Bermel: Voices and in 2011 for Steven Mackey: Dream House. The New York Times proclaimed, "BMOP/sound is an example of everything done right." For more information, visit bmopsound.org.