STILLPOINT, by Awadagin Pratt

STILLPOINT

by Awadagin Pratt

supported by

Cordâme Wonderful recording! Inspired writing by 6 composers in a wide variety of styles. The playing is superb as well and beautifully recorded. Love it! Favorite track: Still Point [composed by Judd Greenstein].

Joost de Wall Wonderful album that will end up high in my 'best of 2023' list. Code is probably the most beautiful piece that I have heard this year. Favorite track: Code [composed by Paola Prestini].

more...

	/

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes 24pp booklet of exclusive liner notes and artist biographies

Includes unlimited streaming of STILLPOINT via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

Purchasable with gift card

$15 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$7 USD or more
Subscription

Subscribe now to receive all the new music New Amsterdam Records releases, including this album and 36 back-catalog items, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. You’ll also get access to subscriber-only exclusives. Learn more.

Subscribe Now $85 USD/year or more

1.	Rounds [composed by Jessie Montgomery] 14:22	buy track
2.	Code [composed by Paola Prestini] 17:23	buy track
3.	Time Past, Time Future [composed by Alvin Singleton] 12:29	buy track
4.	Castillo Interior [composed by Pēteris Vasks] 11:42	buy track
5.	Untitled Composition for Piano and Eight Voices [composed by Tyshawn Sorey] 10:35	buy track
6.	Still Point [composed by Judd Greenstein] 12:40	buy track

about

Internationally acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt announces his new album STILLPOINT

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” (NPR 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 touch weaves together the disparate voices of the composers and ensembles throughout STILLPOINT. His masterful musicianship and unique voice casts 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.

credits

released August 25, 2023

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

license

about

Awadagin Pratt Cincinnati, Ohio

Awadagin Pratt - pianist, pedagogue, conductor, and curator-of-artistic-moments - is actively inventing the musical world he hopes to live in. And you’re invited.

contact / help

Contact Awadagin Pratt

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Awadagin Pratt, you may also like:

Rough Magic
by Roomful of Teeth

supported by 179 fans who also own “STILLPOINT”

I love this album. My students are confused by it at the beginning as I play it with my office door open, but they wind up getting curious. I also introduced one to "Just Constellations," and they were mesmerized. Way to go, RoT! arnisking
go to album
Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
by Wild Up

supported by 179 fans who also own “STILLPOINT”

Another part of this project's extensive dedication to the works of the truly great Julius Eastman, whose legend and status as one of America's major composers grows expidentially with the passing of each and every year. Gavin Hellyer
go to album
Blueprinting
by Aizuri Quartet

supported by 176 fans who also own “STILLPOINT”

string music brought to the very extremes of what string music can be nah
go to album
Moments Remixes
by Michael Vincent Waller

There’s a quiet beauty to this remix album of compositions by Michael Vincent Waller, with contributions from JLin, Prefuse 73, & more. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 1, 2024
go to album
Thinking of Blue Almonds Part One
by Lou Lyne & the Blue Almond Project

Somber, beautiful string meditations abound on the debut album by Oxford cellist and composer Lou Lyne and her ensemble. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2024
go to album
Ki moun ou ye
by Nathalie Joachim

Vocalist, flutist, and composer blends traditional instrumentation with jazz-inflected neoclassical arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 22, 2024
go to album
Behind the Wallpaper
by Spektral Quartet, Julia Holter, Alex Temple

supported by 173 fans who also own “STILLPOINT”

Tiny Holes sounds intriguing. Looking forward to the full drop. Will there be a vinyl release as well? You can count me in if so. mjwhite99
go to album