Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis Releases New Album FIVE MINUTES For Earth

Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis announces FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on April 1, 2022.

Kondonassis asked fifteen of today's most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience inspired by Earth in one of its many conditions or atmospheres. FIVE MINUTES is also a metaphor for the urgent and compressed timeframe that remains for our global community to find and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

All composers generously contributed their works to this project, and each solo is written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis: Jocelyn Chambers, Chen Yi, Michael Daugherty, Daniel Dorff, Reena Esmail, Keith Fitch, Patrick Harlin, Stephen Hartke, Nathaniel Heyder, Takuma Itoh, Aaron Jay Kernis, Philip Maneval, Máximo Diego Pujol, Gary Schocker, and Zhou Long. Read about the composers and their music in the album liner notes: https://bit.ly/FIVEMINUTESLinerNotes

The music on the album both honors the Earth and expresses our collective concern about the climate crisis (in album order):

• Itoh's Koholā Sings imitates the song of the humpback whale (koholā means humpback whale in Hawaiian). He says, "The piece tries to encapsulate the awe that we feel when seeing these impossibly large creatures, even for a fleeting moment."
  
• Michael Daugherty's Hear the Dust Blow recalls the devastating dust storms of the 1930s in Oklahoma and Texas. He says, "I have recast the old American folk song, 'Down in the Valley,' and created music which alternates between a melancholy Dust Bowl lament and a celebration of a better life to come in the 'promised land' of California."
  
• In On Hearing Nightbirds at Dusk, Aaron Jay Kernis invokes the sound of birdsongs as a way to reorient to the natural world at the end of the day. Kernis contemplates, "But as the seasons change and flight patterns with them, how much longer can we rely on these sounds around us to invoke the cycles that shape our lives and the flow of Earth's time?"
  
• Dark Mountains by Chen Yi was inspired by what the composer describes as, "the vast and magnificent blue mountains on Earth, which are boundless, desolate, and indistinct."
  
• Máximo Diego Pujol's Milonga para mi Tierra is influenced by the Argentine Pampas, the fertile lowlands, and translates to Milonga for My Earth. Pujol says, "This piece is a love song dedicated to the place where we live."
  
• Reena Esmail's inconvenient wounds imagines the moment when a crack in a glacier opens, and then spreads. Esmail says, "inconvenient wounds is about finding threads of hope in a world that is slipping away ... as Leonard Cohen says, 'the cracks are how the light gets in.' May we see into the cracks; and may we move toward the light."
  
• In Gary Schocker's Memory of Trees, a singer stands in a forest, singing about how it may soon be just an empty place. The piece begins as a medieval troubadour song.
  
• Keith Fitch's as Earth dreams requires the harpist to de-tune three strings by a quarter step, to give the music a chiaroscuro quality. The piece references a timeless standard from the Great American Songbook, Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust.
  
• Jocelyn Chambers' Melting Point describes the melting glaciers across the Arctic. Chambers experiences synesthesia - seeing color when hearing sound. She has written this piece to feel glacier hues of yellow, green, and blue.
  
• In Philip Maneval's The Demise of the Shepard Glacier, the composer depicts the receding of this once mighty glacier. He says, "It is my hope that this project contributes to the growing consensus that we must do all we can to stop and reverse the incalculable damage of global warming on our planet, and our future."
  
• Patrick Harlin's Time Lapse is written to be paired with any time lapse video. He says, "Time-lapse photography helps up to realize that the human sense of time is not the universal sense of time. This perspective also makes visible some of the most dramatic and damaging changes brought about by humans. Seeing - at the right time scale - is believing."
  
• Zhou Long's Green celebrates this color of nature. He says, "Green symbolizes the spirit of life. The music is exquisitely provocative, its sound filling the distant space, evoking the communion between man and nature."
  
• In Earthview, Nathaniel Heyder imagines an otherworldly being's view of our planet. He says, "Earthview is a musical commentary on the ways in which man corrupts and alters the natural landscapes of our planet to accommodate the growing technological and societal ambitions of the modern world."
  
• Daniel Dorff's Meditation at Perkiomen Creek evokes what the composer describes as the "mystical solitude" of the place that inspired the work.
  
• Stephen Hartke's Fault Line is a new exploration of a sketch for an etude that Hartke began in 1975. Kondonassis offered the title. Hartke says, "I happily seized upon it as I felt it matched the sonic world evoked in the piece with its extensive and angular use of pedal glissandos, and the dramatic intrusions of pedal buzzes."

Kondonassis says, "Ever since I became active in earth-conservation over twenty years ago, I have had a sense that the harp could be a strong metaphorical protagonist in the story of Earth: majestic but fragile, feminine yet fiercely powerful, and strikingly diverse but appreciated primarily for its most classically beautiful facets. These works represent wildly varied treatments of the harp idiom that run the gamut from heart-wrenchingly poignant to gut-wrenchingly strident, with gorgeous melodies and haunting sonorities enhanced by just about every innovative, contemporary effect in the book. My producer and I made the choice to let the natural acoustics of the harp ring through on this recording - to capture each sound deeply and authentically, whether an intimately voiced line or a wailing scream in the uppermost register of the harp. The result is this musical ode to our Earth in all its glory, beauty, and pain - past, present, and future."

The new album is only part of a Kondonassis's larger vision for her FIVE MINUTES for Earth project. Her royalties from the recording release will be donated to earth causes and initiatives. After the works are premiered and released, the music will be available to harpists worldwide, and for each verified performance of any work in the FIVE MINUTES collection - by any harpist, anywhere in the world - Kondonassis' non-profit organization Earth at Heart will make a donation to a recognized earth conservation organization. The beneficiary organizations include The Rainforest Alliance, The Sierra Club Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservancy, and Wildlife Fund. The concept of the project is built upon the idea of bringing the classical music community together in support of earth conservation and "paying it forward" through one's artistic contribution, where the creation and performance of music actually generates funding for earth causes. The project also encompasses planned live, multi-media concerts, a unique video for each track, and a separate published collection of Earth-inspired solos for younger harpists to be published by Theodore Presser.

As founder and director of the non-profit organization, Earth at Heart, Kondonassis says, "Climate change, air quality, water pollution, man-made disasters, and diminishing resources are all inconvenient topics that have become increasingly politicized. Sometimes we instinctively know something deserves our attention, but we need a bit of inspiration to push us into action. As a musician, I see the profound impact of the arts all around us on a daily basis. That is why I founded Earth at Heart. When we see an idea expressed in the language of music, dance, visual art, or poetry, those sensory experiences often open the mind and heart to interaction and reaction in ways that mere facts may not. With every passing moment, we lose ground in the battle to protect our environment from the dire consequences of waste, neglect, and abuse. Action is the goal, but a visceral call to engagement can be the catalyst. There is not a minute to lose in our battle to protect the future of our planet, and an open heart and inspired commitment can make all the difference."

FIVE MINUTES also builds upon Kondonassis' commitment to the advancement of new music and her passion for inspiring composers to write for the harp. She has promoted countless new works through her numerous recordings, commissions, and performances, including the world premiere series of Bright Sheng's Never Far Away: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra with the San Diego Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, and most recently, she was the dedicatee and soloist in the world premiere series of Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto; Kondonassis' recording of Higdon's Harp Concerto earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2020. Her extensive discography includes works by Rorem, Rochberg, Erb, Liebermann, Paulus, Fitch, Lash, Montsalvatge, Takemitsu, Cage, and Carter, among others.

Royalties from several of her other projects are donated to earth causes and her first children's book, entitled Our House is Round: A Kid's Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters, was published in 2012 by Skyhorse Publishing and praised as "the perfect children's introduction to environmental issues" by The Environmental Defense Fund. The book was licensed as a featured title by Scholastic Books and was released in an updated paperback edition with the title My Earth, My Home in January 2022.

Yolanda Kondonassis is celebrated as one of the world's preeminent solo harpists. She has performed around the globe as a concerto soloist and in recital, pushing the boundaries of what listeners expect of the harp. Also a published author, speaker, professor of harp, and environmental activist, she weaves her many passions into a vibrant and multi-faceted career.

Praised by Gramophone for her "keen sense of dramatic timing and a range of colour that's breathtaking," Kondonassis has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and downloads worldwide and her extensive discography, released on the Telarc, Azica, Oberlin Music, New World, and Channel Classics labels, has earned universal critical praise and includes over twenty titles and over two-dozen world-premiere recordings. She was nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her world premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto with The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (Azica, 2019). Her 2008 album of music by Takemitsu and Debussy, Air (Telarc), was also nominated for a GRAMMY Award.

Since making her debut at age 18 with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Kondonassis has appeared as soloist with countless major orchestras in the United States and abroad such as The Cleveland Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, Odessa Philharmonic (Ukraine), and New World Symphony to name a few. Other appearances include engagements at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Taiwan's National Concert Hall. She has been featured on CNN, PBS, Sirius XM Radio, and National Public Radio, and is a frequent guest on podcasts and live social media events.

Committed to the advancement of contemporary music for the harp, Kondonassis has promoted numerous new works through her vast recorded catalog and in live concert premieres. In 2021, Kondonassis presented the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' Elegy . . . for those we lost, for trumpet and harp, a tribute to the families and victims of COVID-19, as part of The Cleveland Orchestra's Adella Live series and available as a single on Azica Records. As author of The Composer's Guide to Writing Well for the Modern Harp (Carl Fischer, 2019), she recently released two educational companion videos for composers. With her book, she standardized and streamlined the language and symbols used to denote the large spectrum of techniques and special effects on the harp, even making music composition software symbols accessible through her website. A new volume to be published by Theodore Presser in 2022 and co-curated by Kondonassis, The Earth Collection, will feature three new compositions by Kondonassis and other earth-inspired works written especially for the publication. Additional published books include On Playing the Harp, The Yolanda Kondonassis Collection, and The Yolanda Kondonassis Christmas Collection, all published by Carl Fischer.

Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Kondonassis attended high school at Interlochen Arts Academy. She continued her education at The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a student of Alice Chalifoux. Kondonassis' long list of national and international honors includes top prizes in the Affiliate Artists National Auditions in New York, the Maria Korchinska International Harp Competition in Great Britain, two Solo Recitalists Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a 2011 Cleveland Arts Prize. In addition to her active performing and recording schedule, she heads the harp department at The Cleveland Institute of Music, is the founding Artistic Director of The Maine Coast Harp Institute, and has presented master classes around the world. Yolanda Kondonassis plays a Lyon & Healy Salzedo Model concert harp.

For more information on Yolanda Kondonassis, visit www.YolandaHarp.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.