From the Cedille Records press release:
Pacifica Quartet Presents Works by Pulitzer-Winning Composers on Cedille Records July 10, 2020
‘Contemporary Voices’ album offers string quartets by Shulamit Ran and Jennifer Higdon, plus quintet for alto sax and strings by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
The Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet showcases works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich on Contemporary Voices, the ensemble’s newest Cedille Records album, available July 10, 2020. Contemporary Voices includes the world-premiere recording of Ran’s Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory — String Quartet No. 3; plus Higdon’s Voices and Zwilich’s Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet, with renowned classical saxophonist Otis Murphy making his Cedille label debut (Cedille Records 90000 196). The Pacifica has ties to all three composers.
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Singing saxophone
In Zwilich’s three-movement Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet (2007), a lusciously singing saxophone shares the spotlight with virtuosic string playing. For the recording, the Pacifica, quartet in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, enlisted the services of Murphy, professor of saxophone at IU who has won praise for his “polish and sensitivity” (Chicago Tribune) and “the ability to phrase the music so that it takes on a life of its own” (Saxophone Journal). The Pacifica had recommended Zwilich to Arizona Friends of Chamber Music president Jean-Paul Bierny, who was looking to commission a work for the unusual combination of string quartet and saxophone, according to Brandon Vamos, the Pacifica’s founding cellist. “Everyone in the quartet knew of her work and greatly admired it.” Moreover, Vamos’s parents, violinist Almita and violist Roland Vamos, were members of the Lydian Trio, which commissioned, premiered, and recorded Zwilich’s 1982 String Trio. “I heard her trio many times as a child,” he said.