Composer & Violist Jessica Meyer's New CD: "I long and seek after"

Jessica Meyer's second album features a variety of pieces alongside multiple vocalists

 

"I long and seek after" was recorded with violinists Johnna Wu and Kobi Malkin, pianist Dan Schlosberg, cellist Caleb van der Swaagh, sopranos Sarah Brailey and Melissa Wimbish, contralto Emily Marvosh, and mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Butcher — plus and the Lorelei Ensemble conducted by artistic director Beth Willer.

The pieces, entitled "Space, in Chains," "Welcome to the Broken Hearts Club," "Things I forgot to tell you," "On fire… no, after you," "The Last Rose," and "I long and seek after," are based on poems and texts by Laura Kasischke, Weatherspoon, Anaïs Nin, Jennifer Beattie, Thomas Moore, and Anne Carson. The texts explore different aspects of love in different life stages.

 

"This album showcases the many collaborations I have had since 2016, setting poetry written by female and underrepresented writers who tackle universal themes such as loneliness, desire, love, heartbreak, justice, and the courage to embark on a journey of discovering oneself," Jessica Meyer said.

 

"I naturally gravitated toward art song for several reasons: the first being the ridiculous amount of hours spent watching MTV in the 80’s and that subsequent imprinting on my musical sensibilities; the second being how so much of my performance career happened to be in collaboration with many amazing vocalists; and finally how thankful I am that the combination of words and music together was the only thing that could attempt to explain or express what was going on inside me as I made efforts to find out exactly who I was."

 

Read more and purchase the album here.

 

 

Jessica Meyer is an award-winning composer and violist whose premieres have included performances by GRAMMY-winning vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, Sybarite 5, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, A Far Cry commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Juilliard School for a project with the Historical Performance Program, and by the Lorelei Ensemble.

She won the 2nd Annual Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer’s Award for writing a piece for the Bangor Symphony and the Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Program Award for a piece for the Argus Quartet.

At home with many different styles of music, Jessica can regularly be seen as a soloist, premiering her chamber works, performing on Baroque viola, improvising with jazz musicians, or collaborating with other composer- performers. In 2023, she joined both the Viola and Chamber Music Faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Her first album, "Ring Out" was released in 2019.