Purchase link: https://mollyjoycemusic.com/product/lean-back-and-release/

Lean Back and Release was written in the winter of 2013 in New York City, and was first performed professionally on the 2014 Bang on a Can Marathon. Upon starting the work, I knew that I wanted to create a very gradual descent for the violin in range that drives the whole piece. I imagined the violinist gradually “leaning back” and finally “releasing” the distinct low register of the violin. Therefore, I also wrote two accompanying violin tracks in order to propel this descent. The two accompanying tracks were previously recorded by the violinist and subsequently processed electronically with delays and distortion.

Lean Back and Release is dedicated to Adrianna Mateo, and special thanks also to Andrew McKenna Lee for recording and mixing.

Lean Back and Release

Winner of ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Leo Kaplan Award.

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Scored for organ and orchestra, Over and Under explores the possible uniform and divergent relationship between such immense instrumental bodies. This relationship evolves so that by the end of the piece, the organ and orchestra have ultimately switched roles, and in order to reach this outcome the two instrumental bodies must begin in contrasting positions and gradually progress to replace one another.

Special thanks to organist Weston Jennings, conductor David Yi, and the Yale Philharmonia for realizing the work, it is a truly dream of mine to write a piece for organ and orchestra, specifically with the Woolsey Hall organ, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Over and Under

Purchase link: https://mollyjoycemusic.com/product/high-and-low/

High and Low sets out to exploit how high is high and how low is low on the piano, and everything in between. I specifically wanted to challenge the traditionally two-handed texture to one that expands to as many as five layers at a time, and in essence one that is beyond the physical nature of the piano itself.

The work was commissioned by my best man, best friend, and one of my favorite collaborators, Robert Fleitz. It was premiered in April 2017 at The Juilliard School in New York, NY, and written in the spring of 2017 in New Haven, CT.

High and Low

An early orchestral work written as a tribute to Dmitri Shostakovich who, in a personal letter to John McLeod, accepted the dedication of the work in 1973.
A description of the piece is given at the start by the announcer. The BBC SSO is conducted by Christopher Adey.

'Generates excitement - an orchestral tour de force' (The Guardian)

The Shostakovich Connection by John McLeod

A sample of various pieces:

Extracts from:

"A Shade or Two Darker"
"Cloudmine"
"Numb"
"Vault"
"Coordinates"

More information is available online: www.nicholasolsenmusic.com

Nicholas Olsen - Example Extracts

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on bandcamp:
https://isaacschankler.bandcamp.com/track/the-moonlight-sonata-but-the-bass-is-a-bar-late-and-the-melody-is-a-bar-early

sheet music:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/22sq0p19lundped/moonlate12102018.pdf?dl=0

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The Moonlight Sonata but the bass is a bar late and the melody is a bar early

Listen to tracks from the 2018-19 cohort of the Adopt a Composer project!

The year-long project pairs leisure-time music groups with emerging composers, leading to a premiere performance, recording and radio broadcast.

Nicholas Olsen - Example Extracts

Nicholas Olsen Music

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