Shawn Crouch Releases New Album CHAOS THEORY AND OTHER CHAMBER WORKS

"CHAOS THEORY AND OTHER CHAMBER WORKS", album from award-winning composer SHAWN CROUCH. CROUCH engages with the scientific and social world around him for inspiration, receiving awards from institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Meet the Composer (NPR), and commissions from American Modern Ensemble, Prism Quartet, Chanticleer, Seraphic Fire, Eighth Blackbird, newEar Contemporary Ensemble, and San Francisco Choral Artists, amongst others. This is the first album devoted entirely to his works and consists entirely of world premiere recordings.

Two works are autobiographical in nature: BURNOUT for mixed quartet was inspired by the toxic political climate of 2020, and exhausting news cycles fueled by social media. 95 SOUTH, for flute, clarinet and bassoon documents the composer's journey from post-graduate life in New England, to fatherhood in Florida. TIME MANAGEMENT for percussion trio is a 'composer's composition' that plays with our experience of time and expectations of musical form. The first movement, "Start-Stop" starts in the middle of the work, and part two, "Canons with Interruptions" is a series of canons that unfold over time, gradually coalescing by the end of the work.

CROUCH demonstrates his interdisciplinary flair and love of science in CHAOS THEORY (for large ensemble, conducted by the composer), a vivid presentation of the complex system that underlies what appears on the surface as unpredictable; SUSPENDED CONTACT for alto sax and percussion, an "aural blueprint" of the moment a drop of water lands on water; and ORBITAL VARIATIONS, theme and variations written for solo cellist CRAIG HULTGREN, that explores the "gravitational pull" of a central pitch, complete with "sling shots" and original source artwork.

Dr. CROUCH has received degrees from the University of Miami, Yale School of Music, and the New England Conservatory. He is Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music where he is also artistic director of ENSEMBLE IBIS. He is a BMI composer published by G. Schirmer, Mark Foster, and HoneyRock Publishing, and is commissioned by ensembles in the United States, Canada and Europe including The Cleveland Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, Blow, Cantori New York, California E.A.R. Unit, Chanticleer, Del Sol String Quartet, the Esoterics, Eighth Blackbird, the Lunar Ensemble, Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, Non Sequitur, newEar Contemporary Ensemble, Plexure Trio, Phoenix Chorale, Prism Quartet, San Francisco Choral Artists, Santa Fe Chorale, Seraphic Fire, the Yesaroun' Duo, and Volti. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Prize, ASCAP, BMI, Yale University, Society of Composers Inc., Meet the Composer and the Percussive Arts Society.

[SWITCH~ ENSEMBLE]
CRAIG HULTGREN (cello)
ENSEMBLE IBIS, DIR. SHAWN CROUCH YESAROUN' DUO
BLT TRIO
ANDREW ANGELL (percussion)
MIHO TAKEKAWA (percussion) MELANIE VOYTOVICH (percussion)

DIGITAL MASTERING by GRAMMY-nominated artist AARON WESTMAN

Acis is an imprint of ACIS PRODUCTIONS whose mission is to present emerging and established talent. Producer GEOFFREY SILVER recently received a GRAMMY nomination for AMERICAN ORIGINALS project with leading African-American countertenor, REGINALD MOBLEY and the AGAVE ensemble.

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