Panorama Olivia de Prato

• Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980): Tooth and Nail:
• 1 Mazzoli: Tooth and Nail 09:58
• Jen Shyu (b. 1978): Jeom Jaeng Yi:
• 2 Shyu: Jeom Jaeng Yi 08:49
• Angélica Negrón (b. 1981): Panorama:
• 3 Negrón: Panorama 09:05
• Miya Masaoka (b. 1958): Mapping a Joyful Path:
• 4 Masaoka: Mapping a Joyful Path 09:14
• Samantha Fernando (b. 1984): Balconies:
• 5 Fernando: Balconies 06:53
• Total Runtime 43:59

Info for Panorama

Violinist Olivia De Prato releases her second solo album on New Focus, Panorama, exploring the multi-dimensionality of expression and identity. Composers Missy Mazzoli, Jen Shyu, Angélica Negrón, Miya Masaoka, and Samantha Fernando contribute pieces for solo violin with and without electronics that probe questions of dislocation and return.

Olivia De Prato’s album Panorama speaks to the personal journey we all must take. It is the journey of who we are — our identities both fundamental and created by experiences, and when we are — how we see ourselves in relationship to our past and our future. These five evocative works display her airy, rose-gold tone and her exquisite attention to detail. Her acute sensitivity to balance and timbre fosters a genuine interplay between herself and the protean, multilayered electronic sounds.

Missy Mazzoli’s Tooth and Nail for violin and electronics is inspired by the timeless music of the jaw harp. At the beginning, over a fast-moving ostinato, she lays out the motives she will explore in the piece. Aching glissandi emerge, and a sweet, long-limbed melody grows ornamentation like blossoms on a vine. It has a sense of wide-open space, ancient times, people on the move. The ostinato drives us forward, so much so that when it is overtaken by soft pools of color, we still feel its haste. Sections re-emerge, like stories re-told through time. The piece winds down gradually, gathering its breath. The ostinato is replaced by a heartbeat pace and then a slow, simple bassline. The motives from the beginning come back as memories, the story told again.

Jeom Jaeng Yi (Fortune Teller) by Jen Shyu is composed for speaking violinist, and inspired by the writing of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, an American writer, producer, performance artist, and filmmaker. The piece is a sorrowful question, searching, forward facing, and full of emotion. Based on the rhythms of speech, the music follows winding, open-ended phrasing. The violin sings. It moves forward episodically, not only asking questions but bearing witness to Cha’s story. A deeper emotional layer is revealed as De Prato speaks the text along with the violin’s music, intensifying our perception of what we’ve heard before.

Angélica Negrón’s delicate Panorama is a coloristic tableau made from transparent, unique layers of sound. The work opens with saturated timbres, from which the violin emerges in a soft, ethereal voice. Long lines of glissandi form a sinuous melody, fragile and somehow searching. A scene changes, and the electronics take on a rhythmic, energized profile. The violin locks in with low pizzicatos and persistent pedal tones, while the electronics build tension as they double the pace. On top of all this, the vibrant-hued timbres from the beginning seep in, the rhythmic patterns reappear, and we still hear the fast pulsing edge in and out. The long violin lines from the beginning hover over, weightless. With masterful pacing the simple materials are transformed into a complex, multi-dimensioned organism.

Mapping a Joyful Path by Miya Masaoka is a virtuosic tour de force for both performer and composer. Masaoka “speaks” violin fluently, fully engaged with its repertoire of extended techniques and timbres, and De Prato effortlessly navigates this music, making disparate sounds cohere in a jaw-dropping performance. The piece is rooted in an omnipresent electronic tone — starting with a sine wave and slowly transforming into more complex colors. The violin’s music dances around this ground point, leaning hard against it with microtonal double stops, but untethered with music that is more gesturally and timbrally motivated, like an acrobat touching down to jump even higher. Every new passage is a new statement, a new angle. Stay on this joyful path, but don’t worry about the destination.

Balconies by Samantha Fernando can be played by five individual violinists, live, or by multi-tracked violin, where the soloist plays with four recorded parts, as happens here. The work starts with a held chord, where the consistency of De Prato’s tone creates a fine-grained, luminous hum — a rich possibility. Motives and lines awaken out of the suspense, transforming it from a mass of sound into a cloud of kinetic energy. We witness this blossoming effect from multiple vantages, each time to an unexpected but transient resolution that prepares for the next awakening.

Olivia De Prato, violin

Olivia De Prato
Internationally recognized as a soloist as well as a chamber musician, Austro-Italian violinist Olivia De Prato has been described as “flamboyant ... convincing” (The New York Times) and an “enchanting violinist” (Messaggero Veneto, Italy). After moving to New York City she has quickly established herself as a passionate performer of contemporary and improvised music, breaking boundaries of the traditional violin repertoire and regularly performs in Europe, South America, China and the United States.

Her chamber music activities include appearances the Bang on a Can Marathon in NYC, the Lucerne Festival with Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble Modern Festival, June in Buffalo, the Wien Modern Festival, the Shanghai New Music Week, and Lincoln Center Festival with Steve Reich and Brad Lubman. In 2010 and 2011 she toured Europe and South Africa with Grammy-award winner Esperanza Spalding and the Chamber Music Society ensemble on violin and viola.

De Prato is a member of the new music ensembles Signal and Victoire and is the co-founder and first violinist of the Mivos Quartet, which focuses on the performance of contemporary string quartets.

As a guest artist, she has presented solo and chamber music masterclasses for young musicians and composers at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, UC San Diego, Princeton University, New York University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and internationally at Universidad Eafit (Colombia), Shanghai Conservatory (China), Universidad Salvador (Brazil), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), and MIAM University (Turkey).

As a guest artist, she has been invited to hold solo and chamber music master-classes for young musicians and composers at Brooklyn College, CUNY, UC San Diego, Princeton University, NYU, UNLV, as well as internationally at Universidad Eafit (Colombia), Shanghai Conservatory, Universidad Salvador (Brazil), “Yong Siew Toh Conservatory” (Singapore), MIAM University (Turkey).

De Prato has collaborated closely with composers Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Anthony Braxton, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Beat Furrer, Dai Fujikura, Michael Gordon, Helmut Lachenman, David Lang, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Benedict Mason, Meredith Monk, Krystof Penderecki, Bernard Rands, Steve Reich, Ned Rothenberg, Julia Wolfe, and Georg Friedrich Haas. At the Lucerne Festival Academy 2007 she worked with composer Peter Eötvös on his new Violin Concerto “Seven” conducted by Pierre Boulez.

Her discography includes recordings on Tzadik, New Amsterdam Records, Sunnyside Records, New Focus Recordings, Mode, Cantaloupe, Porter Records, and Harmonia Mundi. She also self-released a live recording of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Filarmonica de Staat Sibiu (Romania).

Olivia De Prato studied at the University of Music and Arts in Vienna and received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music. She received her Master of Music as a member of the first graduating class from the Contemporary Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music.

This album contains no booklet.