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Soundfiles & Videos
 
Sound files below for chamber works
                                    orchestral and choral works (see below chamber works)
      vocal works and more!
Featuring the ACO, Matt Haimovitz, Julian Wachner with Trinity Novus Wall Street, Christina Jennings,
JACK Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, The Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Lincoln Trio, Christopher Taylor, Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and many others
ARTEMISIA links (below as well, under videos)
See/ hear Orchestral, Choral and Opera works, and videos below Chamber Music
Quick Links (newer links in construction)
 

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Sinfonietta in three movements

Trinity Wall Street Novus

conducted by Julian Wachner

 

Nightingales (2021) for Two Solo Violins and Orchestra (17:00)

UWSO with Oriol Sans conducting

A Consortium with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra

Chamber works

 

The Artist's Muse

For flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano & percussion (21:00)

For The Chameleon Arts Ensembl, e of Boston, for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston (2016)premiered May 20, 2017, Boston
For the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, and dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky


Musical portraits of seven women- in works by Petrus Christus, Picasso, Da Vinci, Cezanne, Vermeer, Sargent and Klimt

Artist's Muse

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High Wire Act

High Wire Act

for flute, violin, viola,cello and piano

Commissioned by BrightMusic featuring

Christina Jennings

Inspired by Alexander Calder's Cirque Calder

(can be seen at the Whitney Museum of Art)

http://whitney.org/Collection/AlexanderCalder/8336195

I. High Wire Act

II. Tight-Rope Walker

III. Aerialist

IV. Trapped Bird

V. Troupe Finale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Wire Act, III. The Aerialist - Christina Jennings and Brightmusic
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C'e La Luna

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High Wire Act, IV. Trapped Bird - Christina Jennings and Brightmusic
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High Wire Act, V. Troupe Finale - Christina Jennings and Brightmusic
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C'e La Luna Questa Sera?

for violin, cello and piano

Lincoln Trio from CD Notable Women

C'e La Luna Questa Sera? - Lincoln Trio
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Nonet

for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion, french horn and harp

Chicago Chamber Musicians

A Fromm Foundation Commission

Nine Muses

Nine Muses for Flute Quartet

1. Clio, 2. Calliope, 3. Urania, 4. Thalia, 5. Euterpe, 6. Polyhymnia,

7. Erato, 8. Melpomene, 9. Terpischore) Performed by PANdemonium 4 (Kimberlee Goodman, Lindsey Goodman, Lisa Jelle, and Alison Brown Sincoff), Otterbein University, Westerville Ohio, February 16th, 2020. www.LindseyGoodman.com

collage CLIO 15.jpg

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Violinists in My Life

Eleanor Bartsh, violin, Thomas Kasdorf, piano

I. Eleanor Bartsh

II.Wei He

III. Miranda Cuckson

IV. Desiree Ruhstrat

V. Curt Macomber

Nonet, move. 1, excerpt - Chicago Chamber Musicians
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Nonet, move. 2, excerpt - Chicago Chamber Musicians
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Nonet, move. 3 - Chicago Chamber Musicians
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Violinists in My Life, excerpt II. Wei - Eleanor Bartsch
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Van Gogh Nocturnes

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Violinists in My Life, excerpt from III. Miranda - Eleanor Bartsch
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Night Cafe at Arles

from Van Gogh Nocturnes

Christopher Taylor, piano

Violinists in My Life, excerpt V. Curt - Eleanor Bartsch
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Song for Andrew for violin, viola, cello and piano - Vicennium Void
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Song for Andrew

for violin, viola, cello and piano

Dedicated to the memory of Andrew Imbrie, Vicinnium Void

 

Night Cafe at Arles, from Van Gogh Nocturnes - Christopher Taylor
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Wet Ink, Song for Andrew

Wet Ink

A 2014 Bennington Conference Commission

for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano

Commissioned by the Bennignton Chamber Music Festival, when Schwendinger was faculty composer, in a performance by Vicennium Void featuring Christopher Janwong McKiggan, Geoffrey Herd, Leah Gastler, Kevin Downs, and featuring clarinetist Kai-Ju Ho

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Creature Quaret
JACK, Christopher Taylor, Jamie Van Eyck and Laura Schwendinger

JACK Quartet

with Ari Streisfeld, Christopher Otto, John Richards and Kevin McFarland  with

Christopher Taylor and Jamie Van Eyck during recording session for QUARTETS at Oktaven

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Colin Clarke’s review, in the May/June edition of Fanfare, reads

“The Creature Quartet: Hymn for Lost Creatures is in one sense a sort of Carnival of the Animals for our time, presenting a procession of musical portraits of various animals. It is the composer’s “personal response to the current mass extinction of species”; the creatures chosen are therefore extinct, mythological, or endangered. Perhaps, therefore, it is at heart a carnival of compassion. The trajectory of the work is described in some detail by Schwendinger in the booklet notes; the strength of the music is such that one need not work through that description to realize the power of her music, this despite the fact that the animation artist Pauline Gagniarre was commissioned by Wisconsin Union Theater to provide an animated video to present each creature in order as the music plays (the captivating video is freely available on vimeo.com). Gestural and yet powerfully organized, Schwendinger’s voice is highly individual. The performance by the JACK Quartet is impeccable, and as a studio recording it is technically more secure than the live Vimeo video. The sheer intensity of both music and performance thereof is spellbinding, as if the passion of the composer for her subject shines through like a light.”

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Garden of Earthly Delights

for flute, oboe, violin, cello, mandolin and guitar, for the Cygnus Ensemble

Garden of Earthly Delights - Cygnus Ensemble
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Creature Quartet

Premiered by the JACK Quartet at

Union Concert series

Based on 12 endangered, extinct and

mythological creatures

Birds

1) Ivory Billed Woodpecker

2) Passenger Pigeon

3) Dodo

Mythological

4) Yeti

5) Chupacabra

6) Nessy

Endangered (or hunted)

7) Javan Rhinoceros

8) Mustang

9) Tasmanian Devil

Extinct

10) Western Lowland Gorilla

11) Thylacine

12) Northern Right Whale

Yeti, from Creature Quartet - JACK Quartet
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Chupacabra, excerpt from Creature Quartet - JACK Quartet
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Tazmanian Devil, excerpt from Creature Quartet - JACK Quartet
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Javan Rhinocerous, excerpt from Creature Quartet - JACK Quartet
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Northern Right Whale - JACK Quartet
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Bryant Park Lincon Trio.jpg

Until the Sunrise (2014)

for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (9:25)

For Lakeshore Rush of Chicago

Inspired by the sunrise over the Lake Michigan

At 7:24 of video

from ARC of FIRE

for piano trio

Arc of Fire

Memento Mori (9:09) from Arc of Fire\

A Chamber Music America

Commission for the Lincoln Trio

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Mise-en-Scene (2010)

for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (9:25)

For Boston Musica Viva

Brushstrokes (2010)

For flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion

For the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players

WORLD PREMIERES CONCERT SERIES (13:00)

Links to sound files here

1) Contrapposto
2) Mobile
3) Chiaroscuro
4) Kinetic Sculpture 5) Pointillism

6) Sfumato 7) Collage

Total

(1:12) (1:32) (2:03) (2:30) (2:20) (2:30) (1:33)

From Elissa Birdeye's review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer review
"The title of the program derived from the world premier centerpiece of the evening, Laura Elise Schwendinger’s Mise-en-scene (2011). But it also provided a context for the other pieces on the program. Schwendinger explained before the performance that mise-en-scene refers to all the elements (lighting, sound, props, stagecraft, etc) which create the feel and image seen in either a theater piece or a film. Her work, in nine short, continuously played movements, described a story, and even without program notes, it would have been possible to imagine what was going on onstage. She described her music as “zany,” but perhaps another term would be “looney” in the sense of the fiendishly difficult and evocative music by Carl Stallings that underpinned the familiar Looney Tunes cartoons. Schwendinger’s music was clear, delightful, and descriptive, almost an opera without words."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NONET (2005)

A FROMM Foundation Commission

for flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion

a Fromm Foundation Commission
for the Chicago Chamber Musicians

and at ASPEN. August 8, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DUO for flute and piano

an early and accessible work by Laura Elise Schwendinger (1986) 3:48

RAPTURE for flute and piano

2007) 7:14

Jayn Rosenfeld, flute & Stephen Gosling , PIano

https://soundcloud.com/user527919643/rapture-for-flute-and-piano

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Rapture%20cover_edited.jpg
Flute

Aurora for flute and piano

A National Flute Association Young Artist Competition Commission  (2018) 8:00

High Wire Act

for flute, violin, viola,cello and piano

Commissioned by BrightMusic featuring

Christina Jennings

Inspired by Alexander Calder's Cirque Calder

(can be seen at the Whitney Museum of Art)

http://whitney.org/Collection/AlexanderCalder/8336195

I. High Wire Act

II. Tight-Rope Walker

III. Aerialist

IV. Trapped Bird

V. Troupe Finale

Mathieu Dufour and MPL. play Duo.jpg

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Solo works
All the Pretty Little Horses
for solo cello
(5:48)
Ruth Boden
at
FOCAM Festival
2018
image Far Over the Misty Mountains cover
Cover Iridos.jpg

IRIDOS for SOLO FLUTE (3:35)

Featuring Christina Jennings

https://vimeo.com/333581545

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Chamber Music with Voice

Chamber music with voice

Kay Ryan Settings

for mezzo, cello and piano

excerpt from II. If the Moon Happened Once- Erin K. Bryan, Leo Altino, Christopher Taylor

If the moon happened once, it wouldn’t matter much, would it? One evening’s ticketpunched with a round or a crescent. You could like it or not like it, as you chose. It couldn’t alter every time it rose; it couldn’t do those things with scarvesit does.

Kay Ryan Settings, excerpt II. If the Moon Happened Once - Erin K. Bryan, Leo Altino, Christopher Taylor
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in just- Spring

Dawn Upshaw with Gilbert Kalish, piano

on TDK Naxos Voices of Our Time

purchase at

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=DV-VTDU-EUR

in just- spring - Dawn Upshaw
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About A Mountain

for Mezzo-Soprano and Flute (Picc, C, Alto, Bass) (11:30)

link to information and page with sound files here

https://schwendinger.music.wisc.edu/About%20a%20Mountain.html

Commissioned and premiered by Julia Bentley and Mary Stolper (see article in Time Out Chicago)

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About a Mountain was commissioned by Julia Bentley and premiered at De Paul College in Chicago with flutist Mary Stolper.

"How does one write a sign to warn earthlings (or aliens) away from a radioactive mountain 10,000 years from now? What language should be used? Or what simple iconography? This is an honest-to-god dilemma explored in John D’Agata’s 2010 nonfiction work, About a Mountain. The essayist and University of Iowa creative writing professor examines the U.S. government’s attempts during the last eight years to transform Nevada’s Yucca Mountain into a dumping ground for nuclear waste. The project has been derailed, in part by the impossibility of developing warning placards that could remain universally understandable during its 100-century-plus lifespan. Earlier this year, while reading About a Mountain, local mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley became fixated on the idea of the ephemerality of language. That concern has led to an exciting collaboration with composer Laura Schwendinger."

By Doyle Armbrust, Time Out Chicago

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Songs of Heaven and Earth

-excerpt from IV. I Never Believed

Four settings of T'sai Yens' 17 Songs to a Tartar Reed Whistle

for mezzo voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and harp (26:00)

Theater Chamber Players Kennedy Center for the

Performing Arts, Leon Fleischer and Dina Koston, Directors & Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano

Songs of Heaven and Earth, excerpt IV. I Never Believed - Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center
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Love Sonnets, Aviary

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Cortona Duo, Rachel Calloway and Ari Streisfeld

Cortona Duo, Rachel Calloway and Ari Streisfeld

Watch Now
Cortona Duo with Ari Streisfeld & Rachel Calloway
Love Sonnets for mezzo and violin (15:00)

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Sonnet 147 My love is as a fever, longing still

Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds

http://icareifyoulisten.tv/duo-cortona-love-sonnets-by-laura-schwendinger/

Aviary cover.jpg

AVIARY

for percussion Ensemble

Four players and piano

A fantastical work, a walk through

an imaginary bird house after hours

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Orchestra works and Concerti

Orchestra works and Concerti

Chiaroscuro Azzurro    

                

for violin and chamber orchestra                                  

A Miller Theater Commission                   

Premiered by Jennifer Koh and ICE

 

Recording on Albany 3 Works

with Curtis Macomber,

Matt Haimovitz and Christina Jennings,

Nicole Paiement conducting

On Albany CD (Troy 1390)                             

to purchase                                                    

3 Works for Solo

Chiaroscuro Azzurro, for violin and chamber orchestra, move. 1 excerpt - Curtis Macomber
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Chiaroscuro Azzurro, move. 2 excerpt - Curtis Macomber
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Chiaroscuro Azzurro, move. 3 excerpt - Curtis Macomber
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Nightingales   

                

for Two Violins and Orchestra

 

Nightingales (2021) for Two Solo Violins and Orchestra (17:00)

UWSO with Oriol Sans conducting

A Consortium with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra

 

Nightingales, Eleanor and Arianna..jpg

Waking Dream

for flute and orchestra

Christina Jennings, solo flute

Esprimere

 

for cello and orchestra

Matt Haimovitz, cello soloist

3 Works for Solo Instruments and Orchestra

Esprimere, move. 2 opening - Matt Haimovitz
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Esprimere, excerpt move. 2 - Matt Haimovitz
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Esprimere, move. 4 excerpt - Matt Haimovitz
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Waking Dream, excerpt - Christina Jennings
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Matt Haimovitz, Nicole Paiement and with Schwendinger, during the recording of her cello concerto Esprimere

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Chiaro Di Luna

for string orchestra (3:50)

Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Hungary

https://soundcloud.com/leschwend/chiaro-di-luna-premiered-by-the-franz-liszt-chamber-orchestra

SHADINGS

an ACO UnSafe commission

videos@leschwendinger - password

          An American Composers Orchestra

          with her cousin Leni Schwendinger premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2011

Betes de la Mer

Inspired by the cut outs of Henri Matisse

For orchestra (8:00)

Betes de la Mer, excerpt - UW Symphony Orchestra, James Smith Director
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SHADINGS

Choral Music

For Paris

for Wordless Choir and Solo Viola

Sally Chisholm, viola with Beverly Taylor, conducting

For Paris, for Wordless Choir and Solo Viola - Sally Chisholm and Beverly Taylor
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All Those Who Love You

for Women's Choir

Settings of the Songs of Solomon

-from Six Choral Settings for SATB

Commissioned by Julian Wachner, with the Marsh Chapel Choir, 1995

performed with Trinity at Zankel in 2014

All Those Who Love You from Songs of Soloman - Marsh Chapel Choir
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Llorona

a setting of the old Mexican Folk Song for SATB choir

With or without guitar

Excerpt from Llorona - UW Concert Choir, with Beverly Taylor
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Opera

Opera
 

ARTEMISIA

Schwendinger & Strand, Full length Opera subtitled Subtitled

Composed by Laura Schwendinger with libretto by Ginger Strand, Artemisia tells the story of the Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, who portrayed herself as Susanna in her famous painting Susanna and the Elders. With Christopher Alden - stage director and Lidiya Yankovskaya - conductor

March 9, St. Paul's Chapel, Trinity NOVUS NY

Cast
Heather Buck – Susanna
Augusta Caso – Artemisia Gentileschi
Oliver Mercer – Agostino Tassi/Elder 1
Christopher Burchett – Cosimo di Medici/Elder 2
Richard Troxell – Tomasso/Oculist

Creative Team
Laura Schwendinger – composer
Ginger Strand - librettist
Christopher Alden - stage director
James Smith - assistant director
Mengmeng Wang - Composer assistant and part preparation
Lidiya Yankovskaya - conductor
Zachary Goodman - assistant conductor
Ika Avaliani - scenic, lighting, and costume designer
Kelly Ruth Cole - production and stage manager
Mason Fick – assistant production and stage manager

FULL PERFORMANCE WITH SUBTITLES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble premieres

Artemesia (2019)

 

Cast - Betany Coffland, Artemisia Kyle Stegall, Tommaso Marnie Breckenridge, Susanna Jonathan Smucker, Elder 1 / Agostino Tassi / Holofernes / Occulist Igor Vieira, Elder 2 / Cosimo Nikki Einfeld, Abra Players - Matilda Hofman, conductor Kate Stenberg, violin Leighton Fong, cello Stacey Pelinka, flute Leslie Tagorda, clarinet Anne Rainwater, piano Constance Koo, harp Loren Mach, percussion

 

Creative Team - Laura Schwendinger, composer Ginger Strand, librettist Jenn BeVard, stage director Elisabeth Reeves, stage manager Susan Thieme, producer Andrew Lucia, projection design Allen Willner, lighting design Maggie Whitaker, costume design Angrette McCloskey, set design June 2019, San Francisco. Program: Changing and Unchanging Things, 2019-20 season.

 

Video and Sound Recording: Zach Miley www.leftcoastensemble.org Artemisia was produced, in part, due to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, Fleishhacker Foundation, Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and a Discovery Grant for Female Composers from the National Opera Center.

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Laura at Yaddo, 2014

More Videos







 

Eleanor Bartsch and Thomas Kasdorf
I. For Eleanor From The Violinists in My Life
Link to Eleanor's website: http://www.eleanorbartsch.com/news/

A video about Laura and Leni's ACO UnSafe commission SHADINGS

An American Composers Orchestra with her cousin Leni Schwendinger premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2013

Pauline Gagniarre's trailer

for Creature Quartet

Night City

A video about Leni Schwendinger's "Night Walk" art and work featuring Laura Schwendinger's music High Wire Act