What happens when you throw a choir, some broadway, a uke, a banjo, and an orchestra into an 8-bit synth.

Words by Stephen Kalinich 
Music by Ali Helnwein
Singers: Mariana Popzlateva, Sisu Raiken, Szu-Hua Wang, Jamie Green, Travis Warner & Josh Gronden.

Voyage

Live recording of the premiere of "Traced Upon Cinders".  Either/Or Ensemble, conducted by Richard Carrick, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall. (April 12, 2014 - recorded by Ryan Streber).

"Traced Upon Cinders" is a partner piece to my percussion sextet "Etched in Sand" (2013).  The notes to "Etched in Sand" read:

“To etch is to cut, carve, or engrave a text or design onto a surface (traditionally metal, glass, or stone).  This process leaves a permanent design on the original surface.

“I recall going to the shore as a child and spending hours etching designs into the wet, hardened sand at the threshold of beach and sea.  With the sun on my back I would revel in the glory of these beautiful and ephemeral pieces of art that I created using the sand as my canvas and a stray seashell as my stylus.  As evening encroached, the tide would slowly come in, its regular cycles of crashing waves a whispering reminder of the passing of time.  The gently lapping water would inevitably creep towards my etchings, and as it neared I waited, in tense anticipation, for the arcs of water blindly reaching up the beach.  As the first finger of water washed over my design, the image began its transformation into a subdued echo of itself.  For a short time – an eternity – I would solemnly watch my day’s work gently fade away into the original blank canvas.”

As an adult, I often look back to memories of moments from my childhood.  I trace these images over and over again in my mind, seeking new meanings and connections.  But as time passes their fidelity erodes; they are now cinders of the burning moments they once were, and quickly they do fade.

"Traced Upon Cinders" was written for the Either/Or Ensemble.

-Nina C. Young

Traced Upon Cinders (2014) for 13 musicians

Tuesday Night

Live recording of the premiere of "Vestigia". The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, conducted by Lorraine Vaillancourt, at Salle Claude Champaign (Montreal), November 21, 2014.

Program Note:

In book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, Dido – long in grief over her husband's death – is awakened suddenly from emotional slumber by the visiting Trojan hero Aeneas, proclaiming “Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae” (“I recognize the traces of an ancient fire”). 

Vestigia Flammae is not explicitly narrative in nature; like other recent works, it deals with the central concepts of lost memories, vestigial emotions, and melancholy for the passage of time.  In contrast to those other works, a strain of optimism characterizes this piece: here, renewal is the driving force – the idea of recollecting, re-experiencing, and rekindling traces of old fires.  This piece searches, through ritual and repetition, for remnants of vanished memories, and forgotten music.  The mind has difficulty remembering – fragmented fossils are pieced together – much is lost and gained in the process.  Ultimately an entirely new experience emerges, fraught with nostalgia, complexity, optimism, and simplicity.  It’s a new beginning.

Vestigia Flammae was written for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s 2014 Forum.

Vestigia Flammae (2014) for 15 musicians

AVAILABLE ON ITUNES:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-musical-journey/id995965308

The Musical Journey - APOSTASIS

Conductor - , Professor Alexander Goncharov 
Solo piano and composer - laureate of international competitions Alexey Khevelev

Alexey Khevelev - Judas and Christ. Symphony Orchestra Concert for Piano

An atonal piece for solo violin/ string quartet (yup there's a quartet in there, just playing pppp the whole time).  

Decomposing

Casablanca Quartet

A short medley of a few of the themes from "No Way To Live"

NWTL Short Medley

Khevelev Alexei Alexandrovich, was born on the 24th of December, 1979.
He graduated from the Rostov-on-Don State conservatoire with excellent marks and got two diplomas (degrees).
His teachers of piano and composition were Professor S.I. Osipenko and Professor L.P. Klinichev. In 2006 Alexey graduated the post-graduate courses at the chair of composition of the Rostov-on-Don State Conservatoire.
He is the member of the Union of composers of Russia.
For three years 1998-2000 Alexey had been the grant holder in the nomination of composition of Rostropovich fund. He was the prize-winner of the contest of pianists in Israel in 1999. Alexey got the second prize at the Moscow Skryabin contest of composers in 2001. In 2005 He was the laureate of the second prize at the international contest of composers in Berlin. As a member of the jury Alexey take part in Russian regional and city music contests. Since 2003 Alexey have been teaching composition at the chair of piano at the Rakhmaninov State conservatoire in Rostov-on-Don.
He have been touring as a composer and performer twice in Great Britain, in Canada, Finland, three times in Israel, in Ukraine. He have performed in Moscow State Conservatoire several times.
His symphony and chamber works have been performed in Rostov-on-Don and other cities of Russia.
Awards:
1991. Prokofiev International Festival in the UK, where he received a medal, as the traditions of Prokofiev from his sons Oleg and Sviatoslav
1998 winner of the International Piano Competition in Israel in Kfar Blum. Second Prize. 1997-1998 year, twice winner of the scholarship to them. Shostakovich Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation in the nomination "Composition".
2002. winner of the International Competition. Scriabin in Moscow in the "composition" third prize. Winner of the International Competition "Golden Chanukah" in Berlin, 2nd prize in the nomination "composition" - 2005.
Festivals:
International Festival MAYFEST in the UK in 1994,
repeatedly in the International Festival "Don Musical Spring"
in the festival "Aeolian strings" in Krasnodar,
in the project "Russian Academy of Music" Russian Wanderers "" Samara in 1996, International Festival «Musika Humana» (Ukraine, 2000)
in the Festival of Contemporary Music "Rostov premiere" in 2001, 2004 and 2007
a composer festival «Plug» in Scotland in 2009
two National Festival of Young Composers "One-eighth" and other

Alexey Khevelev - Judas and Christ. Symphony Orchestra Concert for Piano

Alexey Khevelev Composer

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