Hymns for Private Use
BY Akropolis Reed Quintet and Shara Nova
FOR YOUR
GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Akropolis Reed Quintet and Shara Nova, Hymns for Private Use
Best Contemporary Composition
Hymns for Private Use by Nico Muhly
ABOUT
LISTEN
Hymns for Private Use is the 5th album released by the Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet and features original works by composers Annika Socolofsky and Nico Muhly. On Socolofsky’s so much more, Akropolis is joined by 7 small business owners from 4 states whose personal stories of community and sacrifice are woven together on a spoken word track, sourced from over 7 hours of interviews conducted in 2020. Soprano Shara Nova joins Akropolis on Muhly’s Hymns for Private Use, which draws upon 5 spiritual texts from early English sources from the 12th to 18th centuries. These two large-scale works are connected by intimate stories of ambition and devotion made available for each listener’s own “private use.”
ABOUT Akropolis Reed Quintet:
The Detroit based, Billboard charting Akropolis Reed Quintet is a factory of untamed sounds and ideas. Over their 14-year history, they have commissioned more than 150 works with dozens of multi-disciplinary collaborators to pioneer a new musical genre: the reed quintet. With a “collective voice driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure” (The Wire), Akropolis has “taken the chamber music world by storm” (Fanfare). Kari, Matt, Andrew, Ryan, and Tim are united by a shared passion: to use their virtuosic wind power to form lasting relationships.
Winner of 7 national chamber music prizes including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, Akropolis delivers 120 concerts and educational events each year. They are the first ensemble of their kind to grace the stage on noteworthy series like Oneppo (Yale University), Chamber Music San Antonio, Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), Summerwinds Münster (Germany), Flagler Museum (Palm Beach), and many more.
“There's nothing tentative in [Akropolis’] approach, and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works” (The Wire). Akropolis’ 22-23 season features the New York City world premiere of a 30-minute ballet by Pulitzer Prize finalist Augusta Read Thomas, choreographed by New York City Ballet soloist, Troy Schumacher. Akropolis will also perform with GRAMMY-nominated pianist/composer Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman on their Are We Dreaming the Same Dream? project, an album and touring program drawing classical and jazz idioms together to reflect on American identity.
Winner of the 2015 Fischoff Educator Award and a nonprofit organization which has received 5 consecutive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Akropolis runs a festival in Detroit called Together We Sound and an annual, yearlong residency at three public Detroit high schools.
The “pure gold” (San Francisco Chronicle) Akropolis Reed Quintet performs worldwide and is represented exclusively by Ariel Artists.
about shara nova:
Shara Nova has released five albums under the moniker My Brightest Diamond and has composed works for yMusic, Brooklyn Rider, Nadia Sirota, The Crossing, Cantus Domus, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Roomful of Teeth, Aarhus Symfoni, North Carolina Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, American Composers Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, among others.
In 2019, she composed for over 600 musicians along with the Cincinnati Symphony, a piece entitled "Look Around," with director Mark DeChiazza. Her baroque chamber p’opera “You Us We All” premiered in the US in October 2015 at BAM Next Wave Festival. With co-composer and performer Helga Davis, Nova created a four screen film entitled “Ocean Body,” along with director Mark DeChiazza, which premiered at The Momentary in August 2021, shortly followed by the premiere of “Infinite Movement,” her baroque masque for a 100 musicians, set to text by artist Matthew Ritchie, which premiered at The University of North Texas in November 2021.
Many artists have sought out Nova’s unique vocal work, including David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, The Decemberists, Steve Mackey, David Lang, So Percussion, Justin Vernon, Sufjan Stevens, and Tunde Olaniran, as well as Matthew Barney with Jonathan Bepler. Her singing will be featured on “The Blue Hour” with the string orchestra A Far Cry and co-composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Caroline Shaw.
Nova is a Kresge Arts fellow, a Carolina Performing Arts Creative Futures fellow, a Knights Grant recipient, a United States Artists fellow, and a New Music USA 2022 recipient.
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