Eric Holtan & True Concord – Here I Am: Choral Music of Jocelyn Hagen (SACD hibrid)

“Here I Am,” the latest album from True Concord, features two world premiere recordings of works by Jocelyn Hagen: “The Notebooks Of Leonardo Da Vinci” has been performed more than 50 times worldwide since 2019 and combines visuals, sound, light, and movement. “Here I Am” was conceived at the suggestion of conductor Eric Holtan, who proposed to Hagen that she write a piece honoring the women’s suffrage movement and the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 2020. The piece is performed with live projections of portraits of 47 inspiring women from around the world and across different eras, whose words form the libretto. Founded in 2004 by music director and founder Eric Holtan, the Tucson, Arizona-based ensemble True Concord Voice & Orchestra made its New York City debut in September 2015 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with Mozart’s “Requiem” and Stephen Paulus’s “Prayers And Remembrances.” That same year, True Concord made its international debut with its first album on Reference Recordings, “Far In The Heavens: Choral Music Of Stephen Paulus,” which received a Grammy® nomination in the “Best Choral Performance” category, while the late Stephen Paulus posthumously won the Grammy® for “Best Classical Contemporary Composition.” True Concord received its second Grammy® nomination in 2024 for “A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad” – also released on Reference Recordings.

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Minnesota Star Tribune). She is a pioneer in the field of composition and pushes the boundaries of what musicians and audiences expect with large-scale, multimedia works. She took her first steps in composition as a songwriter – a background that remains clearly evident in her work. The majority of her compositions are for voice – solo, chamber music, and choir. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and rich in texture, colorful, and deeply heartwarming. In 2023, the Minnesota Opera premiered Hagen’s opera “The Song Poet,” which she co-wrote with Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang. The performances were sold out more than six months before the premiere. In 2019, Hagen celebrated the world premiere of her multimedia symphony “The Notebooks Of Leonardo Da Vinci,” which featured video projections by a team of visual artists and highlighted da Vinci’s spectacular drawings, inventions, and texts.

To mark its 50th anniversary, Reference Recordings is now presenting “Here I Am: Choral Music of Jocelyn Hagen” on SACD, produced by Grammy® Award winner Peter Rutenberg of Los Angeles and recorded in superb sound quality by engineer John Polito. Reference Recordings boasts an extensive catalog featuring numerous American and international orchestras, ensembles, solo artists, and choirs that have been honored with multiple Grammy® awards and nominations. “Fresh!” is part of Reference Recordings’ mission to promote unique and outstanding artists and provide them with a strong platform. In recent years, Reference Recordings has been responsible for many award-winning CDs, Hybrid SACDs, and LPs in the genres of classical, jazz, blues, and world music. All releases are recorded with the conviction that the sound of a recording is just as important as the music itself.

MUSICIANS

Eric Holtan: conductor
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Susanna Phillips: soprano
Tucson Girls Chorus, Marcella Mol: director

Recorded May 28 – 31, 2024.

We recommend the use of „L’Art du Son” CD/DVD conditioner for even more sonic improvement.

Lista pieselor

Jocelyn Hagen: “The Notebooks Of Leonardo Da Vinci” (2019, World Premiere Recording)

1.    Painting And Drawing
2.    Practice
3.    Ripples
4.    The Greatest Good
5.    The Vitruvian Man
6.    Invention
7.    Nature
8.    Perception
9.    Looking At The Stars

Jocelyn Hagen: “Here I Am” (2021, World Premiere Recording)

10.    There Is A Girl
11.    The Other Side
12.    Voting For Ourselves
13.    Write The Story