Sono Luminus Releases Cellist Hannah Collins' RESONANCE LINES

Sono Luminus announces the September 24, 2021 release of Resonance Lines from cellist Hannah Collins. Making her label debut with this album, Collins created a tribute to people with whom she has had inspiring interpersonal connections, celebrating the rich collaborative worlds that lead to these works which are performed alone.

The album features music by composers from the Baroque to the 21st century: Giuseppe Colombi, Kaija Saariaho, Caroline Shaw, Benjamin Britten, and a world premiere recording by Thomas Kotcheff.

Cellist Hannah Collins is a dynamic performer who uses diverse forms of musical expression and artistic collaboration to build connections and community. Winner of the Presser Music Award and De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, she takes an active role in expanding the repertoire for the cello by commissioning and premiering solo works by composers such as Caroline Shaw and Timo Andres, and by co-creating interdisciplinary projects-most recently working with visual artist Antonia Contro and violinist Clara Lyon on Correspondence, a multimedia installation exhibited at the Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago.

Each piece on Collins' Resonance Lines makes distinct references to music from the past, and in doing so, sheds light on the unique personalities of the creative collaborators and how they used their voices to shape elements from their collective musical histories into new, personally relevant forms. "That the repertoire on this album also highlights the voices of female, LGBTQ+, and multiracial composers reflects an intersection of identities which resonates with my own experience as a musician, artist, and person," says Collins.

With the title and concept of the album, Collins draws upon her studies in both biomedical engineering and music. Resonance Lines, a term borrowed loosely from physics, refers to the energy emitted or absorbed by an atom as it transitions between different energy states. This is a unique and innate quality for each type of atom that can only be measured and observed under the right enabling circumstances.

Collins reflects, "An ideal artistic collaboration feels like the discovery and realization of deeply held potential for shared creativity-a sympathetic resonance or surge of energy in the colloquial sense-that is revealed when the right conditions are in place. It may feel lucky or it may feel destined, and in special cases, the 'resonating' artists are able to nurture and develop their complementary qualities with lasting effect. This album is a collection of music grown of such pairings, collaborations between composers and cellists joined by shared experiences that lead to creative sparks, unique musical gestures, and new sound worlds."

Hannah Collins Explains the Connections Between the Music on Resonance Lines:

Kaija Saariaho's Dreaming Chaconne is a variation on one of the earliest known works for the cello, Giuseppe Colombi's Chiacona from 1670. It is one of a set of variations individually written by over 30 different composers that were compiled together as a fiftieth birthday present for Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen.

Caroline Shaw's in manus tuas, composed for Hannah Collins in 2009, is based on a 16th century motet by Thomas Tallis and is intended to capture the sensation of a single moment of hearing the motet in the particular and remarkable space of Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut.

In the Suite No. 1 for Cello Solo, Op. 72, Benjamin Britten looks to J.S. Bach as a model, building a dance suite that reaches even further into the past with forms such as the Bordone and March. The influence of Britten's long-term collaboration with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich also shines through in bold flashes of humor and virtuosity.

Thomas Kotcheff's Cadenza (with or without Haydn), written for Collins in the summer of 2020, is an action-packed sixteen-minute cadenza for the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major, Hob.VIIb:1, which can be performed independently of the concerto. It was inspired in part by Frederic Rzewski's 2003 solo piano work Cadenza (con o senza Beethoven), an extended cadenza based on Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. Kotcheff's work contains musical nods to the other works on this album and ties everything together in an energetic and surprise-filled adventure. This is the world premiere recording of the work.

More about Hannah Collins: Solo and chamber music performances have taken Hannah Collins to festivals such as Orford Centre d'arts, Kneisel Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival, and Musique de Chambre à Giverny. She is a member of the Bach Aria Soloists, Cantata Profana, and Grossman Ensemble (2020-22), and frequently performs on modern and Baroque cello with The Knights, A Far Cry, Quodlibet Ensemble, the Sebastians, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

Over the past decade, New Morse Code, Collins' "remarkably inventive and resourceful duo" (Gramophone) with percussionist Michael Compitello, has developed projects responding to our society's most pressing issues, including The Emigrants, a documentary chamber work by George Lam, and dwb (driving while black), a chamber opera by Roberta Gumbel and Susan Kander. They were recently named the inaugural grand prize winners of the Ariel Avant Impact Performance Prize which will support the development and touring of new works addressing sustainability goals and scientific innovation.

Hannah Collins holds a degree in biomedical engineering from Yale University and earned graduate degrees from the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and the City University of New York. She is also an alumna of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program run by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute. She currently teaches at the University of Kansas School of Music and is on the artistic staff of Avaloch Farm Music Institute. www.hannahcollinscello.com

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