Convergence

Convergence Album Out Now

We are proud to announce the official release of our second album of our Musical Landscapes in Color project, Convergence. The album is available online on Amazon and Presto Music, and for digital streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

Convergence is the second year of our five-year project Musical Landscapes in Color. The album opens with Fanfare and Fantaisie by four-time GRAMMY nominee Patrice Rushen, followed by contemporary composer Andre Myers Changes. Selections from the Nope film suite by Michael Abels, a GRAMMY® and EMMY®-nominee, and the recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music, followed by Umoja: Anthem of Unity by renowned composer and flutist Valerie Coleman, and another work by Abels, Global Warming will conclude the album. Convergence was performed and recorded live on Thursday, October 10, 2024 and is out now.

Album Booklet  |  Concert Program

Meet the Composers

Michael Abels

A Note from the Composer

2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning and Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer Michael Abels is best known for his genre-defying scores for the Jordan Peele films “Get Out”, “Us” and “Nope”. The score for “Us” won a World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, multiple critics awards, and was named “Score of the Decade” by The Wrap. Both “Us” and “Nope” were shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Original Score. Abels’ creative output also includes many concert works, including the choral song cycle “At War With Ourselves” for the Kronos Quartet, the Grammy-nominated “Isolation Variation” for Hilary Hahn, and “Omar”, an opera co-composed with Grammy-winning recording artist Rhiannon Giddens. Abels other concert works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and many others. Recent commissions include “Emerge” for the National Symphony and Detroit Symphony, and a guitar concerto “Borders” for Grammy-nominated artist Mak Grgic. Abels is co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, gaming, and streaming media. Read Michael's full biography here.

michaelabels.com

@_michaelabels

Patrice Rushen

A Note from the Composer

Patrice is an award-winning musician and composer, considered one of the top jazz pianists in the world, is a four-time Grammy nominee, and that’s only a handful of her accolades. Her hit song, “Forget Me Nots” from 1982 has been frequently covered and sampled by other artists including by Will Smith for the hit movie “Men in Black” and George Michael’s “Fast Love”. She has been the first female musical director for many of the entertainment industry’s top award shows including the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, the NAACP Image Awards, and more. Read Patrice's full biography here.

patricerushen.com

@patrice.rushen

Valerie Coleman

A Note from the Composer

Valerie is regarded by many as an iconic artist who continues to pave her own unique path as a composer, GRAMMY®-nominated flutist, and entrepreneur. Highlighted as one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by “The Washington Post”, she was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, an honor bestowed to an individual who has made a significant contribution to classical music as a performer, composer or educator. Her works have garnered awards such as the MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program, Herb Alpert Ragdale Residency Award, and nominations from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and United States Artists. Umoja, Anthem for Unity was chosen by Chamber Music America as one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works” and is now a staple of woodwind literature. Read Valerie's full biography here.

valeriecolman.com

@valerie_coleman_music

Andre Myers

A Note from the Composer

A California-based artist and educator, contemporary composer Andre Myers serves on the faculty of the University of Redlands Conservatory of Music, teaching literary & musical composition, music theory, and computer music. Called “an insightful and skillful new voice” (Times Union), and “ingenious. . . powerful” (icareifyoulisten.com), his music mixes narrative drama, poetry, and meditations on color to create work that aspires to moments of honesty, poignancy, and depth. Read Andre's full biography here.

andremyers.com

Liner Notes, Dr. Bill Banfield

When you begin to hear the music on this collection of dynamic composers and ensemble, the one thing that clearly comes to mind is; this is arts convergence. That happens when wonderful things come together in music to form a new whole set. There is in fact a correlation, an intersection, and the results are a blending, coalescing, and a mingling mix that has meaning and that matter. In this recording, convergence with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) and their invited composers dance, and there is a coming together that rings out beautifully.

The composers; Michael Abels, Valerie Coleman, Andre Myers, and Patrice Rushen are a blend of a most wonderful mix of American modern composers working in the field of orchestral music today. This does not happen often enough! The WCO’s vision and execution for such a blending that matters is rare. This is one reason why you will find enjoyment in the bringing together of sounds on this live concert recording.

We begin our journey by reflecting on the gathering of composers live, mostly to talk about the overall project – Musical Landscapes in Color – and the value and importance of growing up in the culture of music and what it meant. How does the music contribute to the world in which we live today? The composers met to speak to the community before the live concert recording. They gave talks and seminar meetups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, connecting with community groups like the UW Odyssey Project. On concert night, the composers hosted two pre and post-concert discussions with the audience. This level of community engagement with a concert and living composers is rarely done in this capacity, adding to the flavors of the musical feast.

During performance week, one truly felt that we were in the community of a convergence of art and not competition or market demand share, but ‘love people music share’. Several of these composers I personally have known for decades.

This recording is a convergence of sensibilities, voices, traditions, excellence in an ensemble and composer recording. You can feel and hear the sense of appreciation from the audience in this live concert recording, recorded on October 9^th, 2024 in the beautiful Capitol Theater within Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison, WI. Convergence gives us the full measure of great music that leaves you joy filled, wonderstruck and artfully emerged in what we want to expect from the best of our musical journeys.

Bravo, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra!

Dr. Bill Banfield
WCO Composer in Residence | 2021-2024
WCO Composer Curator to Musical Landscapes in Color