Awadagin Pratt - STILLPOINT

STILLPOINT

Awadagin Pratt

On Friday August 25, 2023, the internationally acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt, known as “one of the great and distinctive American pianists and conductors of our time” (All Things Considered), and praised for his “enormous dynamic range [that] encompasses grave quiet to immense thunder” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), will release his new album, STILLPOINT, via New Amsterdam Records. STILLPOINT is a collection of six newly-commissioned works of profound grace, power, and depth, composed by a group of stylistically diverse composers for piano (Pratt), string orchestra (A Far Cry), and vocal ensemble (Roomful of Teeth).

STILLPOINT is a departure from — and a re-imagining of — Pratt's decades-long artistic journey, as he engages with and questions the long established genre-specific norms of classical music. By uniting T.S. Eliot's prescient poem The Four Quartets with his own pioneering musicianship, and with the creative voices of his chosen composers, Pratt explores, in his words, Eliot’s “expression of a particular kind of tension, an understanding of a duality that can exist in life, the struggle for balance, and an acknowledgement of the inexpressible – that which cannot be tidily communicated” as a pathway to ideas not particular to one’s own experience, but universal to the human condition.

The album is a collaboration between Pratt; the Grammy-winning vocal band, Roomful of Teeth; the democratically run string orchestra, A Far Cry; and a stellar array of composers including Alvin Singleton, Jessie Montgomery, Judd Greenstein, Paola Prestini, Pēteris Vasks, and Tyshawn Sorey.

Pratt’s virtuosic performance and unmistakable pianistic touch weave together the disparate voices of the composers and ensembles throughout STILLPOINT. His masterful musicianship and unique voice cast each piece as a part of the greater whole — uniting the ensembles, composers, and philosophical inquiry into one temporal universe where his piano sits at the center.

STILLPOINT is a testament to the collective creativity and musical exploration that defines the genre-fluid landscape. It was born from a transformative encounter between Pratt and composer Judd Greenstein In 2016 when Pratt and Greenstein were invited by Executive Producer Mark Rabideau to serve as adjudicators for a chamber ensemble contest that sought to re-imagine the long established, genre-specific norms of classical music. This encounter ignited Pratt's curiosity, leading him to reimagine his artistic journey. To bring this vision to fruition Pratt engaged composers Alvin Singleton, Jessie Montgomery, Judd Greenstein, Paola Prestini, Pēteris Vasks, and Tyshawn Sorey to compose works for Awadagin in combination with the eight-part amplified vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth and the conductorless string orchestra, A Far Cry.
STILLPOINT takes inspiration from T.S. Eliot's profound poem, The Four Quartets:
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
Driven by his love for literature and poetry, Pratt chose these lines as a means for exploring the truth and beauty found within Burnt Norton through its sibling universe in music.
“These lines have meant a lot to me over the years. A great expression of a particular kind of tension, an understanding of a duality that can exist in life, the struggle for balance, and an acknowledgement of the inexpressible–that which cannot be tidily communicated. The magical, musical first stanza completely captures the manner in which music is heard: its linearity and its potential for entropy in the same moment.
And in this stanza, Eliot offers the tension of seemingly diametrically opposed energies of dance and stillness, not only coexisting but doing so symbiotically. There is so much life in these thoughts, so much to contemplate, and explore that I thought it would serve as a great launching point for a project of this magnitude.”
Pratt believes that artists have the power to build worlds that connect people with the essence of truth and beauty. Through STILLPOINT, Pratt invites listeners to immerse themselves in a musical universe that explores that which is most fundamental to the human experience: a desire to feel connected to something true and beautiful, something timeless and of-the-moment.
STILLPOINT Liner Notes

Tracklist
1. Rounds [composed by Jessie Montgomery]
2. Code [composed by Paola Prestini]
3. Time Past, Time Future [composed by Alvin Singleton]
4. Castillo Interior [composed by Pēteris Vasks]
5. Untitled Composition for Piano and Eight Voices [composed by Tyshawn Sorey]
6. Still Point [composed by Judd Greenstein]
Album Credits
Executive Producer: Mark Rabideau
Producers: Mark Rabideau, Judd Greenstein, Jesse Lewis
Recording Engineer: Francisco Gonzalez Navarro
Engineering Assistant: Christopher Moretti
Editing Engineers: Christopher Moretti, Shauna Barravecchio
Mixing Engineer: Jesse Lewis
Mastering Engineers: Christopher Moretti, Shauna Barravecchio
Piano: Awadagin Pratt
Composers: Alvin Singleton, Jessie Montgomery, Judd Greenstein, Paola Prestini, Pēteris Vasks, Tyshawn Sorey
Sponsors: ArtsWave Cincinnati, Art of the Piano Foundation, Yamaha
License agreement for use of T.S. Eliot poetry: Faber & Faber Limited
Roomful of Teeth:
Estelí Gomez, Mingjia Chen, Eliza Bagg, Virginia Kelsey, Steven Bradshaw, Avery Griffin, Thann Scoggin, Cameron Beauchamp
A Far Cry:
Violin: Adrian Anantawan, Annie Rabbat, Catherine Cosbey, Jae Cosmos Lee, Jesse Irons, Lilit Hartunian, Megumi Stohs Lewis, Michelle Lie, Miki-Sophia Cloud
Viola: Celia Hatton, Nat Farny, Pedro Mendez, Tanner Menees
Cello: Jeremy Harman, Loewi Lin, Mina Kim
Bass: Lizzie Burns, Randy Zigler