Well, it’s been a while since I have had a chance to write about new music that I’ve found. Last week, I got to hang out at ACDA 2015 in Salt Lake City. If you didn’t know, that Great Salt Lake is filled with Sea Monkeys.
On our first night, Jenn and I had a chance to go out with an all star cast of composers including Paul Carey, Reg Unterseyer, Jonathan David, Sydney Guillaume, Jake Runestad, and Rachel Fogarty. I had a few moments at the end of the night to meet and chat with Rachel.
We still have a lot of work to do to promote female composers. (Some of my favorites are Dale Trumbore, Andrea Ramsey, and Christina Whitten Thomas.) Rachel is an excellent new addition to my listening library.
There is a clear sense of craft in her music. She writes beautifully for the voice, but seems equally comfortable writing for instruments. There is an emotional immediacy in her writing that is very attractive, but when you scratch the surface, there is great depth. Her music tends toward tonality, but it is not the tonality of a composer trapped in a prison. It is someone who is informed by the tradition that has discovered her own vocabulary without simply imitating.
One of my favorites is this string quartet track, but I highly encourage you to go to her website and listen to some of the solo voice music. It’s just lovely. Go buy her music and commission her to write some more. Here is the link to the place on her website where you can listen. http://www.racheldevorefogarty.com/#!list-of-works/c14o2
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