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Breathe: Music of Reena Esmail

by Vijay Gupta, Suzana Bartal, Peter Myers

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about

SUPPORTING COVID-19 RELIEF IN INDIA: for the first month of this release (April 30-May 31), a portion of proceeds of this release will benefit COVID relief efforts in India.

The program of this album was initially presented in February 2020 as a live performance at the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts in Los Angeles, CA, with "Varsha" performed in its original version for solo cello by Peter Myers. The tracks with piano were subsequently recorded by the performers at Morgan Auditorium of the University of La Verne, California.

"Darshan" and "Varsha" were recorded at All Saints Church in Pasadena, California.

credits

released April 30, 2021

Engineer: Louis Ng
Album artwork: Ginevra Petrucci
Album design: Victor Boyda
Special thanks to the University of La Verne Music Department and to All Saints Church.

Artist biographies:

Suzana Bartal, Piano
French-Hungarian pianist Suzana Bartal was born in Timisoara (Romania) and started her musical education in her hometown. From 2005 onwards she studied in Lyon and Paris, and earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music.
Winner of the prestigious New York Concert Artists Concerto Competition in 2013, she has performed in venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris (Big Hall), Salle Pleyel, Auditorium Radio France, Auditorium du Louvre and Auditorium du Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts in Los Angeles, Merkin Hall in New York, Milton Court in London and the Palazetto Bru Zane in Venice.
Suzana’s recording of the complete Liszt "Années de pèlerinage" was released in March 2020 on the label Naïve and has received praiseful reviews. The album was rewarded by the Liszt Society in Budapest, was chosen "CD of the Day" on Radio Klassik Austria and received 5-star reviews on the German magazine Fono Forum and the British Classical Source. She has been appointed artistic director of the Festival "Piano à Riom" starting 2020.

Reena Esmail, Composer
Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, to bring communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music. A resident of Los Angeles, Esmail is the 20-23 Swan Family Artist in Residence with Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the 20-21 Composer in Residence with Seattle Symphony.
She has been commissioned by ensembles including Kronos Quartet, Imani Winds, Richmond Symphony, Town Music Seattle, Albany Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Juilliard415, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Amherst College Choir and Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Conspirare
Esmail currently serves as Co-Chair of the Board of New Music USA, and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting musical traditions of India and the West.

Vijay Gupta, Violin
Vijay Gupta is an esteemed violinist and speaker, dedicated to creating spaces of belonging, healing and wholeness through music. Hailed by The New Yorker as a “visionary violinist...one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music,” Vijay is the founding Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a community of musicians fostering connection for people in recovery from homelessness and incarceration in Los Angeles.
Vijay enjoys a protean career as a collaborator and communicator, sharing his work with communities, companies and campuses across America. Vijay has collaborated with artists such as the Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and served as a member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years. A riveting speaker, Vijay has shared his work with corporations, campuses, conferences and communities across America. Vijay delivered the 33rd annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy and his 2010 TED Talk, “Music is Medicine, Music is Sanity”, has garnered millions of views.
Vijay is the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship. Vijay plays on a 2010 violin made by Eric Benning.


Peter Myers, Cello
Praised for the warmth of his sound and range of color, American cellist Peter Myers has served as Assistant Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Opera since 2017, and is internationally known as a chamber musician. He is a founding member of SAKURA, a unique and innovative quintet of cellos, as well as the Saguaro Piano Trio, which placed first in the 2009 International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg, and he has concertized in the US, Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Laos, Pakistan, and Mongolia. He has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival (including appearances on tour with Musicians from Marlboro), and has also appeared as guest principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Myers studied at the Colburn Conservatory with Ronald Leonard and completed his graduate studies with Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California. For several years, he served as Co-Director of Music for the American Contemporary Ballet (Los Angeles), and was a Young Artist in Residence of the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles). He is also active as a composer and arranger. He lives in San Francisco and plays an 1876 cello by Claude-Augustin Miremont.

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Vijay Gupta Los Angeles, California

Vijay Gupta is a violinist, speaker and citizen-artist dedicated to creating spaces of wholeness through music. He is the founder of Street Symphony, a community of musicians dedicated to engaging people in reentry and recovery living in LA's Skid Row. Vijay Gupta is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. ... more

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