24 AMERICAN CAPRICES | GRAMOPHONE - FEATURE

Video of the Day: Curtis J Stewart performs 'Modern Love'

Cutis Stewart pays tribute to his musical inspirations

Today’s Video of the Day is a performance of Modern Love by violinist Curtis J Stewart.

This comes from Stewart’s new album, 24 American Caprices, where he pays tribute to seminal recordings by a diverse range of artists who have influenced his own experience as an American. References include Dolly Parton, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, and Taylor Swift.

The album also pays tribute to violinists Niccolò Paganini and Henryk Wienawski, interpreted to fit Stewart’s own style.

Featured artists include violinists Tai Murray, Deborah Buck, Melissa White, Njioma Grevious and Ruben Rengel. Stewart’s students from The Julliard School, the Special Music School in New York, and the Perlman Music Programme also recorded seven caprices.

Speaking about the album, Stewart said: ‘Musical aspects of each inspiration are abstracted and imbued with challenging violin techniques emulating the sounds and styles of their origin. In the full meaning of caprice, these violin fragments dance and sing lightly from inspiration to ornamentation, both with flights of fantasy and fastidious settings of referenced material, creating playful musical dialogue around American lineage and individual perspective in Classical music’.

24 American Caprices is out now on Bright Shiny Things.