Awakening - Billy Childs

Awakening
Composed by Billy Childs
Performed by
- The Lyris Quartet -
Alyssa Park, violin
Shalini Vijayan, violin
Luke Maurer, viola
Timothy Loo, cello
Recorded during the 2013 Hear Now Festival!
Program Notes:
Commissioned by the Ying Quartet, Awakening depicts Child's emotional, physical and spiritual journey in dealing with his wife's serious illness and recovery. Wake Up Call's opening tremolo/trill in the second violin and viola, set against snap pizzicato in the cello and the twelve-tone opening pronouncement in the first violin, express his initial shock at learning of her hospitalization. The White Room conveys the powerlessness and urgency he experienced waiting at her bedside through a plaintive melody set against bi-tonal harmonies. Song of Healing is an ode to recovery and rediscovery, the viola's melody expressing the slow process of healing and a new respect for the transient and delicate nature of life.
Composer Bio:
Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Billy Childs demonstrated an aptitude for piano by age six and at 16, began studying theory and piano at USC-sponsored Community School of the Performing Arts. He earned a BM from USC's composition program in 1979 as a student of Robert Linn. His education continued with a jazz apprenticeship to Freddie Hubbard and JJ Johnson. Childs' remarkable career has encompassed commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Brass Quintet and Kronos Quartet, as well as a 25-year solo recording career with releases on the Windham Hill, Stretch/Concord and Shanachie labels, garnering him ten GRAMMY nominations and three awards. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Chamber Music America composer’s grant, his collaborations range from performances with Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, the American Brass Quintet and Chris Botti, among many others, to a violin concerto for Regina Carter and the Detroit Symphony. Upcoming commissions include new works for the Ying and Kronos quartets.

[@johnm.kennedy2]

Beautiful. The ending so wonderfully optimistic, really needed for these times.

[@mmorseca]

VERY well played!