Catalyst Quartet to Release UNCOVERED Vol. 3 in February
The digital-only album is the third issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 15, 2022
On Friday, February 3, 2023, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet will release UNCOVERED Volume 3: George Walker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still on Azica Records. The digital-only album is the third issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers, which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 3 profiles three American composers who lived through the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the U.S. today: George Walker and his String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric," Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary," and William Grant Still's Lyric Quartet.
All written roughly between 1940 and 1956, these works represent Walker and Perkinson in their youths and Still in his prime, and each is a testament to these composers' important place in the history of concert music and their creative and deliberate engagement with what musicologist Eileen Southern referred to as "Black musical materials" in their compositional styles.
Writer and ethnomusicologist M. Myrta Leslie Santana, says in the liner notes, "William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson share exceptionally fruitful and diverse careers that brought them into the most coveted spaces of the concert music art world. Their biographies leave no doubt as to their stature, and hopefully, the renewed interest in their compositions will, however, belatedly, chip away at the dynamics that often hindered the circulation of their work."
UNCOVERED Vol. 1 featured the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with guest collaborators, pianist Stewart Goodyear and clarinetist Anthony McGill, and was released to critical acclaim in February 2021. UNCOVERED Vol. 2, released in February 2021, is devoted to composer Florence B. Price - including four world premiere recordings - with pianist Michelle Cann. The New York Times described Catalyst Quartet's UNCOVERED Vol. 2 as "one of the most worthwhile recording projects around, notable not just for the serious attention that the quartet is paying to Black composers who deserve it, but also for the excellence of their playing." The Catalyst Quartet's live performance of the works from Vol.1 also received stellar reviews from The San Francisco Chronicle, describing it as "an evening of smart, arresting music by Black composers, executed with skill and panache."
About Catalyst Quartet
The Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagines their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience. The Catalyst Quartet is Ensemble-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in the 2022-2023 season.
The Quartet has toured widely throughout the U.S. and abroad, including sold-out performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Chicago's Harris Theater, Miami's New World Center, and Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York. The quartet has appeared as soloists with the Cincinnati Symphony, New Haven Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, and has served as principal players and featured ensemble with the Sphinx Virtuosi on six national tours. Recent seasons have brought international engagements in Russia, South Korea, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Puerto Rico, and expanded tours throughout the U.S.
The Catalyst Quartet's recordings span the ensemble's scope of interests and artistry. Its debut album, The Bach/Gould Project, features the quartet's own collaborative arrangement of J.S. Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations paired with Glenn Gould's rarely heard String Quartet Op. 1. The ensemble can also be heard on Strum (Azica 2015), the solo debut album of composer Jessie Montgomery, who was a member violinist from 2012-2020; Bandoneón y cuerdas (Progressive Sounds 2017), music for string quartet and bandoneon by JP Jofre; and Dreams and Daggers (Mack Ave. Records 2017), a GRAMMY-winning album with Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Catalyst Quartet members hold degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, and New England Conservatory. The Catalyst Quartet proudly endorses Pirastro strings. Learn more at www.catalystquartet.com
UNCOVERED Vol 3. Track List
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) - String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary"
1. Allegro [5:50]
2. Adagio [4:55]
3. Allegro vivace [6:36]
William Grant Still (1895 -1978) - Lyric Quartet
4. The Sentimental One [6:08]
5. The Quiet One [5:22]
6. The Jovial One [3:20]
George Walker (1922 -2018) - String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric"
7. Allegro [8:20]
8. Molto adagio [5:25]
9. Allegro con fuoco [9:04]
Total Time: 00:55:00
Producer and Recording Engineer: Alan Bise
Cover Image and Graphic Design: Louise Mandumbwa
ACD- 71357
Recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, NY
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