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Catalyst Quartet

Uncovered Vol. 3 - C-TP, GW, WGS

Azica Records
Release Date: February 3, 2023

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Winnipeg - CLASSIC 107 interview
Violist Paul Laraia chats with Classical101 - Columbus OH
Interview w/ WGTE
We are the Catalyst Quartet
1 Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - String Quartet No. 1 “Calvary” / 1.Allegro  
2 Adagio  
3 Allegro vivace  
4 William Grant Still - Lyric Quartet / The Sentimental One  
5 The Quiet One  
6 The Jovial One  
7 George Walker - String Quartet No. 1 Lyric / Allegro  
8 Molto adagio  
9 Allegro con fuoco  
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The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of his own position as a Black composer in the 1970s in relation to his forebears, we can say that “the situation has changed today; it has not changed very much, but it has changed.” The compositions featured here were written roughly between 1940 and 1956, and they represent Walker and Perkinson in their youths and Still in his prime. Each is a testament to these composers’ important place in the history of concert music in the US, their negotiations of competing aesthetic traditions of the 20th century, and their creative and deliberate engagement with what musicologist Eileen Southern referred to as “Black musical materials” in their compositional styles.

George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 “Lyric” is in a way the most youthful music here, being the artist’s ?rst major composition. Walker ?nished the quartet in 1946 while he was a student at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, just one year after he had ?nished his Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute, where he had studied composition with Samuel Barber’s teacher Rosario Scalero. The abrupt and dissonant opening gesture of the ?rst movement quickly gives way to a harmonic lushness that portends the middle movement, which remains one of his best remembered works and is often performed alone as the Lyric for Strings.

  • The Catalyst Quartet guides us through musical innovations on PBS: Arizona Encore
    Posted At: September 19, 2023
    Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through...

  • Catalyst Quartet.....Redefining classical music / WFMT: Sounds Classical
    Posted At: September 15, 2023
    WFMT - Sounds Classical Hosts Kristina Lynn and LaRob K. Rafael are joined by members of the Catalyst Quartet, Karla Donehew Perez and Paul Laraia, to discuss their initiative to redefine and reimagine classical music in the 21st century through their programming. The Program Playlist Includes:“Banner”Jessie MontgomeryCatalyst Quartet/Studio OrchestraAzica ACD-71302“Credo: Infrastructure (Live)”Catalys...

  • Sunday Baroque chats with Catalyst Quartet cellist Karlos Rodriguez about 'UNCOVERED Vol. 3'
    Posted At: June 6, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • Strong, resonant performances by the Catalyst Quartet showcase three gems on Uncovered Vol.3 / theWholenote
    Posted At: June 5, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • Catalyzing Blackness, Volume Three: The Catalyst Quartet / New Music Buff
    Posted At: April 21, 2023
    The Catalyst Quartet plays 20th Century music by Black Americans New Music Buff's Allan J. Cronin writes….This is the third volume in the Catalyst Quartet’s wonderful and insightful survey of neglected works by black composers. The first focused on music by the black English composer Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1875-1912), the second on music of late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century American composer F...

  • Catalyst Quartet uncovers remarkable composers and Chamber Music Northwest audience was on its feet / Oregon ArtsWatch
    Posted At: April 20, 2023
    CQ concert for CMNW at The Old Church featured Fanny Mendelssohn, Germaine Tailleferre, and short works by several contemporary composers.Oregon ArtsWatch - ANGELA ALLEN writes…..Funny–when Catalyst Quartet played April 16 at The Old Church, its touted new-music repertoire didn’t thrill the audience as much as Fanny Mendelssohn’s early 19th-century String Quartet in E-Flat Major, No. 1, Op. 22. She wrote th...

  • Catalyst Quartet cellist: Karlos Rodriguez chats about 'Uncovered, Vol. III' with Harmonious World
    Posted At: March 24, 2023
    The Catalyst Quartet released Uncovered, Vol. III: George Walker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still at the beginning of the year.The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projec...

  • BBC Music Magazine reviews the third in the Catalyst Quartet's series devoted to repertoire by Black American composers
    Posted At: March 21, 2023
    Uncovered, Vol. 3Perkinson: String Quartet No. 1, ‘Calvary’; Grant Still: Lyric Quartette; G Walker: String Quartet No. 1, ‘Lyric’Catalyst QuartetAzica Records 71357   55:00 mins The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the variou...

  • Catalyst Quartet violist: Paul Laraia chats 89.5Classical Austin
    Posted At: March 17, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • Catalyst Quartet violinist: Abi Fayette discusses 'Uncovered Vol. 3' with 89.1WMHT: Schenectady NY
    Posted At: March 14, 2023
    The Catalyst Quartet released Vol 3 - Uncovered earlier this year. The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions ...

  • Catalyst Quartet violist: Paul Laraia chats with Classical101 - Columbus OH about new 'Uncovered Vol. 3'
    Posted At: March 13, 2023
    Recording showcases Black American composersClassical101 - Columbus OH - Jennifer Hambrick writes….Works by three notable African American composers are featured on the most recent volume in a groundbreaking recording series entirely devoted to works by Black composers.The third volume of the Catalyst Quartet’s Uncovered recording series (Azica Records) showcases shimmering performances of string quartets b...

  • Catalyst Quartet - Uncovered, Volume 3 is the WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: February 28, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • Catalyst Quartet - Uncovered Vol. 3 is Ideastream Public Media: WCLV - Recording of the Week
    Posted At: February 14, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • Catalyst Quartet marks Black History Month with benchmark recording by black composers / CLASSIC 107
    Posted At: February 6, 2023
    Winnipeg - CLASSIC 107 Chris Wolf writes….On Friday, February 3rd, the renowned Catalyst String Quartet released their third recording in their “Uncovered” Series of recordings. The Uncovered series, as recorded by the Catalyst hopes to expose the unjustly overlooked music by Black composers to a wider audience, and throw some light on whom these composers were and their important impact on music.Uncovered ...

  • Catalyst Quartet - Uncovered, Vol. 3 makes Violinist.com - For the Record
    Posted At: February 3, 2023
    The lives of William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, which unfolded between 1895 and 2018, encompassed the regime of racial terror that characterized the US following Reconstruction; the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the US in the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the US today. Indeed, as Perkinson said of ...

  • 97.9 Bandon Community College celebrates Black History Month with the Catalyst Quartet's new 'Uncovered, Vol. III'
    Posted At: February 3, 2023
    97.9KBOG writes…..The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.As a Harvard-trained histo...

  • Catalyst Quartet set to release 'UNCOVERED Vol. 3' in February / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: December 15, 2022
    The digital-only album is the third issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers.BroadwayWorld's Chloe Rabinowitz writes….On Friday, February 3, 2023, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet will release UNCOVERED Volume 3: George Walker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still on Azica Records. The digital-only album is the third issue ...

  • Western Michigan's 89.9WMUK chats with Catalyst Quartet cellist: Karlos Rodriguez ahead of Fontana season
    Posted At: September 28, 2022
    Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through...

  • The Catalyst Quartet continues Uncovered series with new Florence B. Price album / Hollywood Soapbox
    Posted At: April 28, 2022
    Hollywood Soapbox - John Soltes…..The Catalyst String Quartet is working on a multi-year project that brings awareness to Black composers, some of whom have been under-recorded in the annals of classical music, according to press notes. The expansive project is called Uncovered, and Vol. 2 focuses on Florence B. Price. The recording features the quartet alongside the piano work of Michelle Cann.For those wh...

  • Catalyst Quartet violinist; Karla Donehew Perez discusses Uncovered, Vol. 2 with Classical 101- WOSU
    Posted At: April 26, 2022
    Classical 101: WOSU - Jennifer Hambrick…The Catalyst Quartet (from left to right): Karlos Rodriguez, cello, Paul Laraia, viola, Abi Fayette, violin, and Karla Donehew Perez, violin. Since its founding in 2010 by the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization, the Catalyst Quartet has shared an important mission with its parent organization—to promote diversity in classical music.The quartet continues that mission wi...

  • 95.5KHFM chats about 'UNCOVERED Volume 2' with Catalyst Quartet cellist - Karlos Rodriguez
    Posted At: April 20, 2022
    “You and I could go to chamber concerts for years and never hear a program as full of surprises and discovery as this one. And we’ve been missing out.” – San Francisco Chronicle  On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet ...

  • Catalyst String Quartet's Abi Fayette and Karlos Rodriguez discuss the Music of Florence Price with New Jersey Net
    Posted At: April 12, 2022
    On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and p...

  • Florence Price would give her unqualified approval to these sterling Catalyst Quartet treatments of her work / textura
    Posted At: March 23, 2022
    textura writes…..A terrific follow-up to the inaugural set featuring the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Catalyst Quartet's second volume in its UNCOVERED series is devoted to the music of Florence B. Price (1887-1953). A third is scheduled to follow, with works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still, and George Walker. The series is important for many reasons, first and foremost for bringing ...

  • Uncovered, Vol. 2: Florence Price is beautifully performed by the Catalyst Quartet w/pianist Michelle Cann / BBC Music Magazine
    Posted At: March 17, 2022
    On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet released UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and p...

  • Catalyst Quartet lovingly documents the music of 'Florence B. Price,' securing this great composers legacy / New Music Buff
    Posted At: March 13, 2022
    New Music Buff's Alan J Cronin writes…..I’m a couple of weeks late for Black History Month but right in the middle of International Women’s Month. Both of these groups are woefully under represented in the arts, hence the need to put more energy and funding into the promotion such as we see in this fine release from Azica records.This is the second volume by the enterprising Catalyst Quartet‘s project to fi...

  • Catalyst Quartet's 'Uncovered, Vol 2.' Complex, romantic chamber music from Florence B. Price / LIMELIGHT
    Posted At: March 8, 2022
    LIMELIGHT's Will Yeoman writes……This outstanding new release is part of Catalyst Quartet’s Uncovered Project, which aims “to collect all of the known and discoverable string quartet works by historically important black composers, in order to record them at the highest level and be a resource for their broader study, performance, and inclusion in the standard classical canon.”Where the first volume in the p...

  • 'UNCOVERED Volume 2' is a delicate, perfectly weighted performance by Catalyst; a recording to die for / theWholeNote
    Posted At: March 4, 2022
    GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and piano quintet works of compose...

  • Catalyst Quartet - UNCOVERED Volume 2 makes The New York Times: 5 Classical Albums You Can Listen To Right Now
    Posted At: February 24, 2022
    “You and I could go to chamber concerts for years and never hear a program as full of surprises and discovery as this one. And we’ve been missing out.” – San Francisco Chronicle  On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet ...

  • Thanks to groups like the Catalyst Quartet, Florence Price can finally take her place in the American canon / the arts fuse
    Posted At: February 23, 2022
    the arts fuse - Jonathan Blumhofer writes…..This is an album that’s at once musically significant but, more than that, thoroughly enjoyable. How tragic that, largely on account of her race and gender, Florence Price’s music was almost erased.The more one hears of Florence Price’s music, the more one becomes aware of how significant the recent resurgence of interest in her music is. That nearly all of it has...

  • Where has Florence Price been all our lives? / GRAMOPHONE
    Posted At: February 18, 2022
    On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet released UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and p...

  • Pandora: Classical Playlist features tracks from new Catalyst Quartet release; UNCOVERED Volume 2
    Posted At: February 10, 2022
    Florence Beatrice Price was the first African-American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered her Symphony No. 1 in E minor in 1933. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price lived and worked in Chicago, Atlanta and Little Rock. She was widely unknown in the years after her death in 1953 until the discovery of dozens of her scores in an Illin...

  • Catalyst Quartet - Price String Quartet in G Major: I. Allegro makes 99.5CRB - Instant Replay
    Posted At: February 9, 2022
    On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releaseD UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and p...

  • Catalyst Quartet - Uncovered, Volume 2: Florence B. Price is the WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: February 4, 2022
    Today!! Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The digital album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music. Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet ...

  • Catalyst Quartet releases; 'Uncovered, Volume 2: Florence B. Price' / The Violin Channel
    Posted At: February 4, 2022
    The Violin Channel writes….The New York-based Catalyst Quartet has recently released the second installment in their UNCOVERED series, which presents recordings of works by African-American composers who have long been neglected by the canon.The new album concentrates on the chamber music of Florence B. Price (1887-1953), a prolific composer and arguably the first female African-American composer to gain na...

  • On 'UNCOVERED Volume 1' the Catalyst Quartet covers an american master; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor / the arts fuse
    Posted At: January 23, 2022
    On February 5, 2021, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet released UNCOVERED Volume 1 on Azica Records. The first of a multi-volume set, Volume 1 features the works of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor including his Quintet in G minor for Piano and Strings with pianist Stewart Goodyear, Fantasiestück, and Quintet in F sharp minor with clarinetist Anthony McGill.Catalyst Quartet poses, "Over the course of time there ...

  • Good news that Florence Price's music is being advocated by the Catalyst Quartet / THE REHEARSAL STUDIO
    Posted At: January 10, 2022
    THE REHEARSAL STUDIO's STEPHEN SMOLIAR writes…..At the beginning of next month, Azica Records will release the second volume in the UNCOVERED series of albums recorded by the Catalyst Quartet. That release will take place about a year after the appearance of the first volume, which was devoted entirely to the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The second volume will also focus on a single composer, Florence ...
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