New Music Wednesdays - "Mountain Suite," by Ezra Donner

Occasionally, I will surf around on Soundcloud, listening to new music and discovering new composers. This week, it was Ezra Donner's "Mountain Suite," where even the short preview is enough to draw you in. Check it out.




This 30-second preview makes me want to count the days until it is available on April 22nd! Here's what the composer has to say about his work:

When I was in college, I wasn't actually a very good music theory student. I had great teachers, but instead of doing my theory homework, I liked to go to the music library and check out recordings. One of the fateful things I got was a Smithsonian Folkways recording of traditional American fiddle music.

I remember listening with amazement and wonder to this recording. Here was a rich and sophisticated musical tradition that was part of the broader sphere of Western music, but which had evolved separately from the European art music tradition. The musicians were highly trained and were clearly virtuoso musicians in their own tradition, and it was all the more intriguing for me that this musical tradition was, in my estimation, quintessentially “American.”

It’s a well-known fact that many great composers of the past integrated so-called vernacular musical styles into their work. I do not believe that other genres of music need to “rescued” or “sanitized” by Classical composers, but I do believe that we as Classical composers need to access these other musical styles to enrich our own work. I am proud to acknowledge my diverse sources of musical inspiration, and I think the best composers are those who do not ignore the rich musical traditions in their own backyard.

Mountain Suite, a digital EP featuring the Budapest Chamber Orchestra, will be available on CDBaby, Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify on April 22 (Earth Day). The release features new music for string orchestra inspired by the beauty of America’s natural landscapes.

Click here for more information!

You can contact Ezra Donner on Twitter @EzraDonner or on his website, EzraDonnerComposer.com. If you know of any notable new music, contact me via Twitter or my website, both of which are accessible from the sidebar of this page. Thanks for reading New Music Wednesdays!