Records: Adjacence by Dan Lippel
Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times) and “precise and sensitive” (Boston Globe) has carved out a unique and diverse career that ranges through solo and chamber music performances, innovative commissioning and recording projects, and performances in diverse contexts. He has premiered more than fifty new solo and chamber works, many written for him, recording several on the independent label he co-founded and directs, New Focus Recordings. Recent performance highlights include recitals at UC Davis, Le Poisson Rouge in New York, Sinus Ton Festival (Germany), National University of Colombia in Bogota, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), and the New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland Classical Guitar Societies, featured solo performances at the Connecticut Guitar Festival, ZKM in Karlsruhe Germany with the SWR Experimental Studio Freiburg, MATA Festival, and WNYC's Greene Space, and chamber performances on the Ultima Festival (Norway), Dutch National Opera, Macau Music Festival (China), Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Ojai Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Aspekte Festival (Salzburg), Kunst Universitaet Graz (Austria), Sydney Festival, Bard Festival, Alpenglow and Newburyport Chamber Music Festivals, and at Teatro Amazonas (Manaus, Brasil), Sibelius Academy (Finland), and Zankel and Weill Halls at Carnegie Hall. Lippel has been a member of the new music ensemble counter)induction since 2019, FretX duo with Mak Grgic since 2015, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2006, and new music quartet Flexible Music from 2003, as well as a guest with many other ensembles including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York New Music Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Talea Ensemble, Either/Or Ensemble, Cantata Profana, Wavefield Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Axiom Ensemble, Classical Cafe, Cygnus Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Pink Noise Ensemble, in addition to performing with many chamber collaborators in smaller ensemble formations and orchestra part engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York City Opera, and American Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Lippel, guitarist {Official Site}
Adjacence highlights music involving guitar that invests in a variety of musical parameters, including Ken Ueno’s exploration of a just intonation scordatura, Tyshawn Sorey’s deft balance between intricately through-composed material as a springboard for improvisation contrasted with Tania León’s structured open form score, Mario Davidovsky and Charles Wuorinen’s tightly argued modernism, Nico Muhly and Peter Adriaanz’s personal approaches to minimalism, Sidney Marquez Boquiren and Peter Gilbert’s programmatic expressionism, Bernadette Speach’s timbral exploration, and Tonia Ko and Carl Schimmel’s instrumentation driven invention. The album is both a compendium of several avenues in contemporary guitar chamber music as well as an expression of a conviction that underlying musical components bind together diverse aesthetics more than they separate them.
This recording has been funded in part by support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program, University of California at Berkeley Music Department (Ueno), the International Contemporary Ensemble (Sorey), University of New Mexico Music Department (Gilbert), and the Roger Shapiro Fund (Wuorinen). Many thanks to Pete Harden, Bernadette Speach, Neil Beckmann, and Jeffrey Irving for assistance with obtaining and collating scores and clarifying performance details; Ken Ueno, William Anderson, Peter Gilbert, Karola Obermueller, Ross Karre, and Peter Adriaansz for facilitating funding support; Jessica Slaven, Eric Huebner, and Scott Fraser for help coordinating recording logistics; Haruka Fujii, John Chang, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and counter)induction for creating the circumstances that allowed for the creation of some of these works; Marc Wolf and Neil Beckmann for behind the scenes label collaboration; Kate Gentile for bringing so much to the design; David Crowell for artful and enthusiastic work on sessions which didn’t have a template; Ryan Streber for ever inspiring virtuosity and musicianship behind the controls; and of course to the composers and performers, thank you so much for lending your inspiring artistry to this project and sharing it with all of us.
releases November 15, 2024
Executive producer: Daniel Lippel