2018 MSR Classics
(S)yn(e)sth(e)te
(S)yn(e)sth(e)te is an album exploring the relation between sound and color, the streams of colors from blue to orange. Synesthesia in music has been associated with composers throughout the history of music. Interestingly, many composers and musicians have specific associations with certain pitches and keys – E major, C minor, D major, etc – that can be drastically different from one another, or surprisingly similar. My synesthesia came on gradually, starting with certain notes and colors, but leading to connections with more impressionistic-like watercolors, that is, more of light and shadow, and the blended tones of colors. One thing is certain: synesthesia is an extremely personal experience to synesthetes.
2018 National Sawdust Tracks:
The War Below
After more than 6 years, Rome prize-winning composer and percussionist Andy Akiho releases his sophomore album on National Sawdust Tracks. The trailblazing compilation of two new major works, ‘Prospects of a Misplaced Year,’ and ‘Septet,’ features The Knights, Vicky Chow, Ian David Rosenbaum, Friction Quartet, and Akiho himself on steel pan.
2017 Arpaviva Recordings:
Cindy Cox: Hierosgamos
HIEROSGAMOS, a collection of piano works by Cindy Cox, one of the most important composers of her generation and one of the most original American composers writing for piano today.
SEPTEMBER 2014 Naxos Records:
Life Sketches: Piano Music of Nils Vigeland Jenny Q Chai, piano
Life Sketches is the latest digital re- lease of the esteemed Classical label Naxos. This world première recording is the product of a long-time collabora- tion between the Chinese pianist Jenny Q Chai and American composer Nils Vigeland.
The five pieces on this recording span forty years in their date of composition and constitute about half of the music for solo piano written by composer Nils Vigeland. They appear in reverse order of composition, from most recent, 2013, to oldest, 1973. Of the seventeen individual movements, the most common link between them is duration – more than half of them are less than three minutes long and, with the exception of all in due time, none are longer than six minutes.
Download CD One-sheet LifeSketches
ArpaViva CD003:
New York Love Songs; Jenny Q Chai, Piano & Voice
Jenny Q Chai plays the part of both pianist and vocalist for this recording. NYLS is a conceptual album dedicated to the avant-garde reinterpretation of the solo pianist/vocalist genre, with Victoria Jordanova’s song-cycle New York Love Songs as the title cut. First on the album are the evergreen songs written by American musical giants John Cage, Charles Ives, and Frederic Rzewski, presented here as the miniature apotheosis of each composer’s style. NYLS also spotlights the work of the accomplished young composer Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, completing Jordanova’s curatorial vision of a melting-pot of forward-thinking artists in tune with the spirit of New York City.
