This percussion quartet combines standard percussion instruments like marimba and vibraphone with the sounds of objects like paper, a take-out container, a wire music stand, and tuned glass bottles. The title came to me from rock-climber Emily Harrington, who repeated "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" like a mantra during her record-setting climb of El Capitan. This phrase struck me as oddly musical and I wanted to capture a sense that within any larger sweep of time, there are an infinity of instants being articulated. In the quartet, sudden tempo changes in are often smoothed over with complex rhythms; polymetric mutterings in different instruments coalesce as their timbres blur together. I hope the quartet captures something of the slipperiness of time.

percussion: Jonathan Collazo, Gabriel Costache, John Ferrari, Daniel Matei
conductor: Scott Allen Miller
recording and sound engineering: Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie
Recorded at LeFrak Concert Hall, Queens College, CUNY. Special thanks to George Katehis and Jeff Nichols.

(NYT article on Emily Harrington: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/sports/emily-harrington-free-climb-yosemite.html )

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast (2022) for percussion quartet

Marc Yeats is an internationally renowned composer and visual artist whose compositions have been performed by the most noted of orchestras and ensembles across the globe. These include UK companies such as The London Sinfonietta and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Halle Orchestra and Chorus. Further afield, Marc’s work has also been performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Atlanta based, Chamber Cartel, and many others. His compositions have gained great acclaim through many radio broadcasts for the BBC and also been broadcast in many other countries including the US, Germany and New Zealand.

Marc’s relationship with the BBC is both strong and enduring, starting with a BBC Scotland performance by the Edinburgh String Quartet more than 20 years ago. His first orchestral work – I See Blue – conducted by Martyn Brabbins, received much acclaim when first performed around the same time. This led to specific BBC commissions, including a piano concerto to open Piano 2000 in Manchester, with Kathryn Stott as soloist, and a solo harpsichord piece ‘Rhema’, performed by Mahan Esfahani and broadcast in 2010 by BBC Radio 3 from the Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall in Leeds.

Selection as one of just 10 to attend the legendary Hoy Summer School in 1994 brought Marc into contact with the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. At the completion of the course, Max was keen to support and promote Marc’s work, and conducted his first commission with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the St. Magnus Festival in 1997. He and Marc continued to share ideas, and Max took a great interest in Marc’s visual art and compositional work with mobile technologies and a range of asynchronous structural approaches to composition.

Marc is excited to have recently been appointed composer-in-residence to Yeovil District and Dorchester County Hospitals, a position he has also held with other UK and US organisations. Work such as My Blood Is As Red As Yours’ (an orchestral and choral piece commissioned by the Halle to celebrate World Aids Day in 2008 and performed at the Bridgewater Hall) and recent work, such as ‘shapeshifter’ and ‘the observation quartets’ continues to enhance his reputation as a leading contemporary composer.

Tess is a singer songwriter from Cabinteely, Dublin, living and writing between London and Europe.  This page has mainly demos from music in progress as well as in-production 'Stanzas For Music'.  More of Tess' music is on www.soundcloud.com/tesscallaghan

Scott Allen Miller is a composer, educator, and bassist in New York, NY. His visceral music is concerned with memory, thought, and the passage of time, expressed through unconventional performance techniques, evocative microtonal harmonies, and a constantly-evolving approach to timbre and melody. Whether writing instrumental or vocal music for forces large or small, a primary concern is to establish a sound world unique to each composition. Miller has recently been commissioned by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, Occasional Symphony, Nebula Ensemble, and Omnibus Ensemble. 

Miller currently studies with Jason Eckardt as a Ph.D. student at The CUNY Graduate Center. He graduated from the Peabody Conservatory in 2015 where he studied with Kevin Puts, earning Master of Music degrees in composition and music theory pedagogy. Previously, Miller studied composition and double bass at SUNY Fredonia where he received a Bachelor of Music degree through his work with bassist Harry Jacobson and composers Robert Deemer, Karl Boelter, and Sean Doyle. As a Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2016, Miller had the privilege of studying with Christopher Theofanidis and Stephen Hartke, as well as participating in masterclasses and brief lessons with Kaija Saariaho, Ted Hearne, Sean Shepherd, Donald Crocket, and Timo Andres. Other summer programs include the Atlantic Music Festival (2018) and the Charlotte New Music Festival (2013). Additional teachers with whom Miller has taken lessons and participated in masterclasses include Nils Vigeland, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Ludwig, Christopher Dobrian, Pierre Jalbert, Richard Danielpour, Zhou Long, George Tsontakis, Christopher Rouse, Michael Hersch, Daron Hagon, Paul Colman, Marc Mellits, and Lansing McLoskey. Recent awards include the 2015 Macht Orchestral Composition Competition for Pillars, erased and the 2013 Ethos Laureate Prize for his chamber opera Randall’s Leaf. Miller was a Finalist in the 2016 BMI Student Composers Awards and received an Honorable Mention from the 2016 Minnesota Composer’s Institute. 

Miller has taught music theory, form and analysis, ear training, and composition at the Peabody Preparatory, Carroll Community College, and as a private tutor. He is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY College of Staten Island where he teaches musicianship, harmony, and counterpoint.

boston/dc-based composer + performer (rested field)+ writer