NouLou Chamber Players and Nick Finch are releasing their debut album Cellostatus on May 16th with the Bright Shiny Things label. It's been eight years (and a pandemic) in the making, with three concertos from composers Dorian Wallace, Alyssa Weinberg, and Ljova.
Recorded at the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast, Jason Seber conducts three works specifically written for Finch:
Manusa (Wallace) explores "freethought and secular values," and further grapples with political violence in Bangladesh in 2013 (manusa is a Bengali word for "human") and the 2023 mass shooting at Old National Bank in Louisville, ultimately using the five stages of grief developed by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross as a structural framework.
Weinberg's Caligo (Latin for "mist" or "dizzying fog") is a single-movement work conceived as a dialog between cello and orchestra that the composer says hovers in the "endless mist, infinitely suspended, floating ethereally through the vast and cavernous haze."
The title concerto Cellostatus by Ljova is a comment on the ubiquitous use of smartphones on the New York City subway, as observed by the composer, and the many facets of our digital-first world.
