, one of four finalists in the Opera Vista International Chamber Opera Competition (Houston, TX) and was commissioned by Robin Becker Dance to write the music for "Into Sunlight", a work about the Vietnam War that has been performed internationally.){kind=link}
There’s no denying the cinematic quality to Lastovicka’s powerful and beautiful work.
Although I knew very little about the composer, it was not surprising that the accolades include being one of 10 composers selected for New York City Opera’s Vox: Showcasing American Composers festival (2007), one of four finalists in the Opera Vista International Chamber Opera Competition (Houston, TX) and was commissioned by Robin Becker Dance to write the music for “Into Sunlight,” a work about the Vietnam War that has been performed internationally.
All Lastovicka’s obvious stature aside, this remix of “Fortune Has Turned” is truly phenomenal. The remix was done by the legendary Jeremy Allom who mixed Massive Attack’s “Blue Lines” and mastered by Emily Lazar who has worked with David Bowie, Evanescence, Sia, The Foo Fighters and Beck, to name but a fraction. How perfect to pick producers who are so firmly in the world of commercial music and yet to intrinsically linked to the most artful of it.
The music is a little like listening to memory.
The orchestration shines while Lastovicka’s heart bleeds through every note. At times both mournful and euphoric, the fluid piano flirts with the sublime French horn while they spin exquisitely around each other.
Then there are the cellos, the violas, the Violins and the gorgeous, gorgeous female voices. All this building and falling, sculpting and teasing a story that clearly needed to be told, and never letting the listener alone for a moment, always bringing more and more.
There is a purity to this music, but that does not hide the longing and the passion of Lastovicka. It’s classical in moments of course, but the modernism and the profound intimacy of every track brings it fully into our world. This could be a soundtrack to so many lives. It’s bewitching and beautiful and so hard to categorize without diminishing.
Chris Lastovicka is a master who is able to write something so timeless and also so timely. It sounds like forgiveness and we all need that. I absolutely loved it.
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Musicians:
Chris Lastovicka: Composer, Piano
Eric Bates: Violin
Anne T. Horvath: Violin
Katrin St. Clair: Violin
Lara Theilmann-Messerly: Violin
Christina M. Coletta: Cello
Damon Gray, Cello
Heidi Mausbach: Cello
Kenneth Woods: Cello
Tom Guth: Cello
Missy Hydock: Viola
Robert Garcia: French Horn
Kristen Johns: French Horn
Laura Backley: Contralto
Diana Cataldi: Mezzo-Soprano
Kimberly Tobola: Soprano
Cynthia Katsarelis: Conductor
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