Critically acclaimed Daniel Asia has been heralded by Fanfare Magazine as “…a terrific contemporary American composer…”, “…a composer of fertile imagination…freshness seeps into his scores…”. On this recording, Asia’s writing covers a time span from 1975- 2017. The pieces presented here cover a broad and evolutionary compositional terrain. Almost every work includes music of humor and an evanescent lightness as well as music of seriousness that reaches towards transcendence and a place of reverence.
Daniel Asia has been an eclectic and unique composer from the start. He has enjoyed grants from Meet the Composer, a UK Fulbright award, Guggenheim Fellowship, DAAD, MacDowell and Tanglewood fellowships, ASCAP and BMI prizes, Copland Fund grants, Fromm and Barlow Foundation commissions, among numerous others. He was honored with a Music Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1991-1994 he was the Meet the Composer Composer- in Residence of the Phoenix Symphony.
Asia’s five symphonies have received wide acclaim from live performance and their international recordings. The Fifth Symphony, commissioned for the Tucson and Jerusalem symphony orchestras in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, is based on the poetry of the Jewish-American writer Paul Pines, the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, and Psalms.
His orchestral works have been commissioned or performed by symphony orchestras across the world.
In the chamber music arena, Mr. Asia has written for, and been championed by, the Dorian Wind Quintet, American Brass Quintet, Meadowmount Trio, Cypress Quartet, Andre-Michel Schub (piano), Carter Brey (cello), Alex Klein (oboe), Benjamin Verdery (guitar), John Shirley-Quirk and Sara Watkins (baritone and oboe), Jonathan Shames (piano), among others. Under a Barlow Endowment grant, he completed work for The Czech Nonet, the longest continuously performing chamber ensemble on the planet, founded in 1924.
1. Piano Set I: I. Tensely Energetic
2. Piano Set I: II. Dreamlike, with Much Rubato
3. Piano Set I: III. Exuberante!
4. Piano Set I: IV. Metronomic; Absolutely Steady
5. Piano Set I: V. Nostalgic; Cantabile
6. Piano Set II: I. Aggressive and Antagonistic
7. Piano Set II: II. Askew
8. Piano Set II: III. Playful
9. Piano Set II: IV. Meditative
10. Piano Set II: V. Askew
11. Piano Set II: VI. Dominant-Inferior
12. Piano Set II: VII. Mutually Combative-Energetic
13. Piano Variations: I. Majestic
14. Piano Variations: II. Calm and Placid
15. Piano Variations: III. Lively
16. Piano Variations: IV. Majestic
17. No Time: Ruminative, Pondering
18. Ragflections: A Gentle, Easy Swing
19. Iris: I. Jauntily
20. Iris: II. Slow, Almost Lethargic
21. Iris: III. Impetuously
Daniel Linder performs: Piano Set I, Variations for Piano, No Time, and Ragflections
Daniel Linder/Fanya Lin perform: Piano Set II
Dana Muller/Gary Steigerwalt perform: Iris
