ICE cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman's latest recording consists of rare viola da gamba music from the Belle Epoque. "Ronde de Saisons" was released on Olde Focus Recordings (an imprint of ICE guitarist Dan Lippel's New Focus Recordings) on February 3. The disc features the premiere recording of a quartet by Ottorino Respighi and two by Henri Casadesus—all of which Kivie transcribed from manuscript—each notated for an ensemble of quinton, viola d’amore, tenor viol, and bass viol. .
Makaris (founded and directed by ICE cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman) celebrated All-Hallows Eve by releasing an EP and music video of Tam Lin, an original fairytale folk opera, co-composed by Elliot Cole and Fiona Gillespie.
Bicoastal mashup! Founding violist Wendy Richman recently performed on Artistic Director George Lewis's residency at UCLA, where she teaches academic music courses. The residency was sponsored by new music group Bent Frequency and included UCLA faculty and Los Angeles-area freelancers.
Congratulations to Nathan Davis on the premiere of "I am the utterance of my name: Divining Mary Magdalene". This new music-theater piece explores the web of clashing myths, beliefs, symbols, and decrees surrounding the life of Mary Magdalene, and was created by playwright/performer Sylvia Milo and composer/percussionist Nathan Davis, with lighting by Ensemble-member Nicholas Houfek.
Sumna is the third solo album of Kivie Cahn-Lipman (founding cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, founder of baroque band ACRONYM and HiP Scottish ensemble Makaris, and co-founder of viol consorts LeStrange and Science Ficta). Here he offers first recordings of new cello solos written for him by Daijana Wallace, Édgar Guzmán, and Vincent Calianno, along with a modern classic by Caroline Shaw and a multitracked cello octet by Kaija Saariaho. Cahn-Lipman's passion for early music emerges both in the opening track (a fresh take on HIF von Biber's solo violin Passacaglia, a seventeenth-century masterpiece), and the title track (a commission from Mario Diaz de Leon for unaccompanied viola da gamba). Listen here