Rounder Songs Album Release

Emily Pinkerton’s driving force as a songwriter and ethnomusicologist is to explore the musical and social ties that bind the Americas. For two decades, she has traveled between the U.S. and Chile, playing fiddle, banjo, guitar, charango and guitarrón.

In her solo career, Pinkerton writes songs that blend Appalachian and Andean traditions. She draws on her studies with legendary musicians Alfonso Rubio, Chosto Ulloa, Patricia Chavarría and others, including extensive fieldwork with rural poet-singers of central Chile. Performance highlights include concerts at Sala América in Santiago, Chile, the Panama Jazz Festival and collaborations with Venezuelan violinist Eddy Marcano.

Most recently, Pinkerton founded old-time trio, The Early Mays. Known for watertight vocal harmonies and stirring arrangements, The Mays just performed on NPR’s Mountain Stage and hit the top of the National Folk-DJ charts this August with their latest release “Chase the Sun.” Last year, they won the Neo-Traditional Band Competition at The Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia, not far from the home county of the Hammons Family, whose music was the first inspiration for Rounder Songs. More info at: https://www.emilypinkerton.com/2017

Patrick Burke works as a composer and educator in Pittsburgh. He draws inspiration from his background as a classical pianist, an amateur rock and folk guitarist, and a performer in a gamelan ensemble. Formally tight, narrative structures are balanced with lyricism and expounded with a dream-like logic inspired by filmmakers such as David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Patrick has been commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, IonSound Project, and others; and his music has been performed throughout North America by ensembles including eighth blackbird, the Minnesota Orchestra, Present Music and Citywater Ensemble.

As a founding member of NOW Ensemble, Patrick contributed the title track to their second album, Awake, which reached the #2 position on Amazon’s classical album charts, and #1 on iTunes. Recent compositions have been called “indie-classical at its finest” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), and “glittering fun…at once very sophisticated and instantly accessible” (Third Coast Digest). Patrick is currently scoring a film and preparing to launch a Patreon page to produce a book of 24 new etudes for piano–publishing one new piece every two weeks–for the beginner/intermediate level piano player. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Musicianship and Music Technology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. More info at https://www.patreon.com/patrickburke

NOW Ensemble is a dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century. With a unique instrumentation of flute (Alex Sopp), clarinet (Alicia Lee), electric guitar (Mark Dancigers), double bass (Logan Coale), and piano (Michael Mizrahi), the ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members.

Having recently celebrated ten years together as an ensemble, they have brought some of the most exciting composers of their generation to national and international recognition. In recent seasons, NOW has performed at the Apples and Olives Festival in Zurich, Switzerland, Town Hall Seattle, Da Camera Houston, Lincoln Center, and the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert series. Highlights of the 2017-18 season include premieres of new works by composers Andres Martin and Sean Friar, and the release of NOW Ensemble’s fifth album, Rounder Songs, released by New Amsterdam Records on November 17, 2017.

Collaborations and partnerships in 2017-18 include residencies at the University of Texas, Austin, The Toledo Museum of Art, and the continuation of a two-year residency with San Diego’s Art of Élan as their Ensemble in Residence.

One of NOW Ensemble’s main goals has been to create a musical paradigm in which continuous collaboration between composers and the performers is taken as a given. This philosophy has been put into practice in residencies at numerous institutions including Yale, Princeton, University of Virginia, and the New College of Florida. NOW Ensemble’s performances have been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and live on WNYC, and its sophomore album Awake charted at #1 in Amazon’s Classical Chamber Music Charts. “Plan of the City,” NOW’s collaboration with film maker Joshua Frankel, was praised in the Washington Post as “one of the best matches of visuals to music I’ve seen.” Since 2004, NOW has worked with over 60 of today’s most exciting composers, including Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, Missy Mazzoli, Judd Greenstein, Kathryn Alexander, Jason Treuting, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Sean Friar. NOW has performed at such venues as Miller Theater, Merkin Hall, the Bang on a Can Marathon, The Kitchen NYC, The Stone, the Carlsbad Festival, the Festival International Chihuahua, the Look and Listen Festival, The Music Gallery Toronto, Sarasota’s New Music New College, the Southern Exposure Series, Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge, Cal Arts, MIT, and Juilliard. More info at: http://nowensemble.com

Anna Roberts-Gevalt is a voracious and curious musician who nestles in the space between ancient ballads and new sounds. After spending years in Baltimore’s underground art scene, she now resides in Brooklyn, NY. She fell in love with the sound of banjo in college, moved to the mountains, and learned with master musicians in Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. She has been a fellow at the Berea College Traditional Music Archive and OneBeat (Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation); three years artistic director of Kentucky’s traditional music institute, the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School; and co-curator of Baltimore’s Crankie Festival. She is a summer 2017 fellow at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, and recently studied in a workshop with Meredith Monk. More info at: http://www.annaandelizabeth.com/bio.html