BOSTON, MA (September 1, 2024) – Starting off as a pandemic commissioning project for solo piano, the eight works on the album are the result of a fruitful collaboration with pianist Jihye Chang and eight composers in the Boston area. These etudes, from John McDonald’s lively and rambunctious “Fleetude”, Stratis Minakakis’s traversing “Lowell Etudes”, to the concisely cathartic “Bariolage” by Marti Epstein. In her first solo album, she explores the diverse and talented landscape of Boston's composers. The album release concert will be held October 4, 2024 at Suelly Hall, Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Track Listing
1. A Bit of Noise in the System by Dan VanHassel [03:39]
2. Nam-Ok Lee by Eun Young Lee [04:12]
3. Mind Stretch by Yu-Hui Chang [03:30]
4. belletude by Ketty Nez [05:07]
5. bariolage by Marti Epstein [03:12]
6. Fleetude by John McDonald [05:43]
7. Idée fixe by William David Cooper [06:44]
8-10. Lowell Études: Three Etching on Solitude by Stratis Minakakis
I. [03:35]
II. [04:54]
III. [10:59]

Full Album Credits Here

About the Album

Etudes (short, complete works often with pedagogical intent, focusing on at least one musical or technical idea) are like little snapshots of a composer’s world with their relatively short, tight structure and limited musical ideas. Jihye has been fascinated by the virtuosic and whimsical nature of piano etudes and has featured them in recitals, commissioning projects, and lectures for the past decade. In this album, Chang explores the diverse and colorful landscape of Boston’s composers through the etude genre.

The Boston Etudes was born out of the thirst for creativity and connection during the pandemic years of 2020 – 2021. Jihye’s last concert before the pandemic was in Boston, and she decided to keep the musical connection she made by combining her two passions – new music and piano etudes. Chang commissioned and premiered 8 new piano etudes by 8 composers based in the Boston area (some of whom she had previously worked with, others she met via Zoom!) virtually throughout 2021. Chang played them all together in an in-person premiere in Boston in February 2022 and recorded them in October of the same year. This album bears extra meaning as Boston was the first place in America she visited for a music festival in 1995, and now she teaches at Boston University.

About Jihye Chang

Pianist Jihye Chang is an internationally active performer, educator, and new music specialist. She has received the Henry Kohn Award from Tanglewood Music Center, the Honorary Fellowship from Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, the Yvar Mikhashoff Pianist-Composer Commissioning Award (with Derek Johnson), and the Barlow Endowment’s commissioning award (with Christian Gentry). As a devoted interpreter and promoter of contemporary music, Chang has premiered more than 50 works since 2016, many of them written for her. She has also been a guest artist for various residencies and new music festivals at institutions such as Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Indiana University, Rutgers University, Seoul National University, and UCLA. Her recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur, Ravello/Parma, and Sony Korea.

Her research and performance activities have focused on piano etudes, and she has given recitals and lectures on this topic at various institutions and festivals. Chang is a Senior Lecturer at Boston University and a piano faculty member at the Brevard Music Center.

About Abstraction Music Group

Abstraction Music Group, founded by Boston-based musician David Stevens, exists to promote and support the projects of living composers, performers, and ensembles in the creation of new music. A one-stop shop for administrative and music business support, Abstraction's recent diverse projects include producing "Yiddish Dreams & Futures" Concert in MIT's Kresge Auditorium, Press Relations for Robert Honstein's The Real Charlie Chaplin Soundtrack Album, and engraving Ivan Tcherepnin's last composition There Was No Wind.'

All tracks performed by Jihye Chang, piano
Recorded at Distler Hall, Tufts University, Medford, MA, October 2022
Recording engineer: Peter Z. Atkinson
Editing, mixing, and mastering: Peter Z. Atkinson
Cover image artwork and booklet sketches: Aiden Sung
Design, layout, and typography: Hyunah Kim

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For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact:
David Stevens, (857) 245-5213, Abstraction.MusicGroup@gmail.com