For Immediate Release
NEW YORK YOUTH SYMPHONY
MAKES RECORDING DEBUT
WITH MUSIC BY FLORENCE PRICE,
VALERIE COLEMAN AND
JESSIE MONTGOMERY
 
FIRST STUDIO ALBUM BROUGHT YOUNG MUSICIANS TOGETHER DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC
 
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, the remarkably resourceful personnel and musicians of the New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), with Music Director Michael Repper, found a way to come together during a time of separation to make their debut recording. Featuring four works by three African American women composers – Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery – the orchestra’s first studio recording includes a number of premieres and will be released on AVIE Records on 8 April 2022, one day before the 115th anniversary of Price’s birth. 
The New York Youth Symphony comprises some of the world’s most talented and awarded young musicians, aged 12 to 22. On planning the recording, the orchestra’s Executive Director Shauna Quill describes how “this music and this venture brought us a rare sense of unity during a time of great separation, providing hope and light in a very dark time.” With education a core tenet of NYYS’ mission, she emphasises the recording process as “an important and invaluable skill for our students to learn.” Michael Repper (above) – a highly sought-after young conductor who is an ardent advocate for positive change through music – adds, "We put a lot of thought and energy into creating a special project that NYYS students could accomplish during this difficult time. I couldn’t be prouder to have led this amazing orchestra in these performances, and for the resiliency of the students who always play at such a high level and with incredible spirit."
 
The theme of unity permeates the project which brought the musicians together in multiple ways, even when they had to play while separated. Recorded in November 2020 at the DiMenna Center in New York City, each socially distanced section of the orchestra was recorded individually, sometimes playing to click track. The logistics were masterminded by Grammy Award-winning producer Judith Sherman, who remarks, “the whole orchestra was never in the same room at the same time, but you wouldn’t know by listening to the result. The skill and resilience of these young musicians is an inspiration.”
Two recordings of works by Florence Price are firsts. Ethiopia's Shadow in America is the first recording of the work by an American orchestra. Her Piano Concerto in One Movement, with soloist Michelle Cann (left), is the premiere recording of the composer’s newly-discovered original orchestration. Price’s compositional voice blends the African American folk songs and dances of her heritage with the central European Romantic tradition in which she was trained. Her tone poem Ethiopia’s Shadow in America evokes the injustices experienced by people of African descent. Her Piano Concerto in One Movement features the exuberant soloist Michelle Cann, a champion of the composer’s music, who gave the New York and Philadelphia premieres of the work.
 
Umoja – meaning “unity” in Swahili – by Grammy-nominated flautist, entrepreneur and composer Valerie Coleman originated as a simple song for women’s choir. Its transformation as a work for orchestra – given its first recording here – maintains its feel of a drum circle and sharing of history through a traditional “call and response” form.

In her rich and colourful single-movement symphonic work Soul Force, NYYS alum Jessie Montgomery drew on Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in which he states, “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
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This spring, in addition to celebrating their new release, NYYS looks forward to further re-unification as the orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall’s main stage on 13 March for a concert of works by Jonathan Cziner, Samuel Barber and William Grant Still; and on 22 May performing works by Liza Sobel, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, and Rogers & Hammerstein. Other spring concerts include jazz nights on 7 March at Dizzy’s Club, and 9 May at The Times Center; and chamber music on 25 and 26 April at Scandinavia House, and 4 May at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
 
All media enquiries, image or interview requests, please contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@avierecords.com, +44 7788 662 461 or +1 917 907 2785
 
For a CD copy or downloadable high-res audio files, please send your request by return e-mail.
 
Title:
Works by Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery

Artists:
New York Youth Symphony
Michael Repper, conductor
Michelle Cann, piano

Release date:
8 April 2022

Catalogue number:
AVIE Records AV2503 (digital and single CD digipack)

Track list:
Florence Price (1887–1953)
Ethiopia’s Shadow in America (1932)
1. I. The Arrival of the Negro in America when first brought here as a slave:
Introduction – Allegretto (7.22)
2. II. His Resignation and Faith: Andante (3.04)
3. III. His Adaptation: Allegro. A fusion of his native and acquired impulses (3.19)
 
Valerie Coleman (b.1970)
4. Umoja: Anthem of Unity for orchestra (2019) (13.28)
Florence Price
5. Piano Concerto in One Movement (original version of 1934) (17.06)
Jessie Montgomery (b.1981)
6. Soul Force (2015)
 
Recording: 15–18 November 2020, Mary Flagler Cary Hall, DiMenna Center, New York
Producer: Judith Sherman
Engineer: Isaiah Abolin
Assistant Engineers: Neal Shaw, Teng Chen, Joe Cilento
Piano Technician: Joel Bernache
Production Assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Editing: Judith Sherman, John Kilgore, Jeanne Velonis
Mixing: John Kilgore, Judith Sherman, Michael Repper at John Kilgore Sound Mastering: Judith Sherman, Jeanne Velonis