Shift and Riff
Guitar Quartet
Eric Sessler
About
The piece was commissioned to celebrate the Curtis Institute guitar program; it’s a quartet because usually there are four students in the department,” he says. “Guitar I and IV are standard. Guitar II uses a capo at the first fret and Guitar III has the capo at the third. This allows the music to shift (and riff) between the sound worlds created by the three sets of open strings. However, for the Curtis performance, Xiabo playing guitar II tuned his entire guitar up a half step to avoid using the capo.
Performance
| Eric Sessler |
Shift and Riff |
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Duration
08:00 |
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Commissioning Year
2016 |
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Premiere
March 17, 2017 Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA |
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Recording
May 7, 2024 Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA |
Artists
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Eric Sessler Composition
Eric Sessler received his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School and his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He is a 1993 Curtis graduate, having studied composition with Samuel Adler, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem.
Dr. Sessler’s recent projects include music written for Anthony and Demarre McGill, a string quartet for the Dover Quartet, new works for guitarist Jason Vieaux, a flute concerto for Jeffrey Khaner with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and a duet for flute and guitar featuring Bonita Boyd and Nicholas Goluses at the National Flute Association Convention. He has received numerous awards, including the ASCAP Foundation Award, the Charles E. Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Theodore Presser Music Foundation Award; and grants from American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, and the Philadelphia Music Project. His music is recorded on ACA Digital Recording, New Focus Recordings, and Musicaphon Records, and is published by Silver Sun Press, Verlag Neue Musik, and Les Productions d’OZ. Dr. Sessler’s Organ Concerto was featured on Opus 76—a showcase recording of the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall on the Kimmel Cultural Campus in Philadelphia with renowned organist Alan Morrison as soloist.
In addition to his work at Curtis, Dr. Sessler serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s pre-college division. Dr. Sessler joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1999.
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Ruqi Jiang Guitar
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Muxin Li Guitar
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Radomir Romashkov-Danilov Guitar
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Xingxing Yao Guitar
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