American Counterpoints Experiential Orchestra, James Blachly, Curtis J Stewart

• Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932 - 2004): Louisiana Blues Strut:
• 1 Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk for Violin 03:35
• Prelude for Strings:
• 2 Prelude for Strings 02:47
• Sinfonietta No. 1:
• 3 Sinfonietta No. 1: I. Sonata Allegro 03:54
• 4 Sinfonietta No. 1: II. Song Form-Largo 05:18
• 5 Sinfonietta No. 1: III. Rondo-Allegro furioso 06:43
• Symphony in One Movement for Violas and String Basses:
• 6 Symphony in One Movement for Violas and String Basses 08:00
• Ye, Who Seek the Truth:
• 7 Ye, Who Seek the Truth 04:21
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra:
• 8 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: I. Slow; Moderate; Fast; Moderate 08:03
• 9 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: II. Slow; Moderate; Fast 02:32
• 10 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: III. Moderate 02:52
• 11 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: IV. Fast 01:22
• 12 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: V. Slow; Fast 03:43
• 13 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: VI. Fast; Moderate; Fast 04:30
• Curtis Stewart (b. 1986): We Who Seek:
• 14 We Who Seek 04:49
• Total Runtime 01:02:29

Info for American Counterpoints

American Counterpoints is the first album released by Experiential Orchestra since their Grammy® Award in 2021, and is the co-creation of Grammy®-winning conductor James Blachly, and 4-time Grammy® Nominee Curtis Stewart.

Featuring the world-premiere recording of Julia Perry's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, the album asserts the central importance of composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson in American classical music, juxtaposing early and late works of both composers and interweaving their compositions with original music by Curtis Stewart.

Curtis J Stewart, violin
Experiential Orchestra
James Blachly, conductor

Curtis J Stewart
Praised for “combining omnivory and brilliance” (The New York Times), four-time GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of American self determination to the concert stage. Tearing down the facade of “classical violinist,” Stewart is in constant pursuit of his musical authenticity, treating art as a battery for realizing citizenship. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures and musics. Stewart’s 2023 album of Love., a tribute to his late mother Elektra Kurtis-Stewart, has been nominated under Best Instrumental Solo in the 2024 GRAMMY Awards.

JazzTimes raves, “he shows his audience the colors inside of himself—color(s) not yet invented. Far from self-indulgent, it is self-revelatory. It is vulnerable. It is creation.”

As a soloist, Curtis Stewart has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Cal Performances, Washington Performing Arts, Virginia Arts Festival, The Juilliard School, and the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, among many others. He has made special appearances with Los Angeles Opera and singer-songwriter Tamar Kali; as curator and guest soloist with Anthony Roth Costanzo and the New York Philharmonic “Bandwagon,” touring performance installations from NYC’s Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art; to MTV specials with Wyclef Jean; and sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Seal. Stewart’s 2021 album of quarantined song cycles and art videos, Of Power (Bright Shiny Things), was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Stewart has been commissioned to compose new solo, chamber, and orchestral works by the Seattle Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall’s Play/USA, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and members of the New York Philharmonic, The Knights, La Jolla Music Society, Sybarite5, the New York Festival of Song, Newport Classical Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Eastman Cello Institute, and more. In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, a national organization dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by diverse and innovative American composers. Among his recent commissions, he composed The Famous People, five recompositions of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, for a premiere by violinist Gil Shaham with the Virginia Symphony in March 2023.

In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, a national organization dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by diverse and innovative American composers.

Curtis Stewart is a member of award-winning ensembles, PUBLIQuartet (Chamber Music America Visionary award, winner Concert Artist Guild, 2023 Grammy Award Nomination) and The Mighty Third Rail (Best Music, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Comic Book Theater Festival). PUBLIQuartet’s album What Is American (Bright Shiny Things) was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award. He has held chamber music residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, and made return appearances at the Newport, Detroit, Vision, NYC Winter Jazz Festivals. Curtis Stewart has worked with many of today's forward-thinking musicians, including Henry Threadgill, SilkRoad Ensemble, Jessie Montgomery, Alicia Hall-Moran and Jason Moran, Mark O’Connor, Julia Bullock, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Billy Childs, Alarm Will Sound, Linda Oh, JACK Quartet, members of Snarky Puppy, Don Byron, Matt Wilson, among many others.

An avid teacher, Curtis Stewart teaches Chamber Music, Improvised Chamber Music, and “Cultural Equity and Performance Practice” at The Juilliard School; directs the Contemporary Chamber Music program at the Perlman Music Program; served on the board of Concert Artist Guild; conducted several orchestras and opera pit orchestras; and for 10 years led all levels of music theory and string orchestra at the Laguardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.

Stewart was born into a musical family – his father is avant jazz tuba pioneer Bob Stewart and mother Elektra Kurtis, a soulful Greek jazz violinist – who formed the framework of his sound world through daring improvisation, rigorous western classical training, and conceptual composition.

Experiential Orchestra
The Grammy-winning Experiential Orchestral (EXO) brings audiences close to the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.

EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.  

EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The album won the Grammy®️ for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 – the first Grammy ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, will be released on the Bright Shiny Things label in March 2024.

EXO is led by Music Director James Blachly and Director of Artistic Planning Pauline Kim Harris. EXO:Chamber, a series of chamber concerts, was inaugurated in 2023, curated by EXO’s Creative Team directed by Pauline Kim Harris. The Creative Team includes Henry Wang, concertmaster; Michelle Ross, co-concertmaster; Alexander Fortes, co-concertmaster; Lady Jess, principal; and Sami Merdinian, principal. EXO’s Artistic Advisors are Patrick Castillo, Brad Balliett, and Doug Balliett.

James Blachly
is a Grammy®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. He serves as Music Director of the Experiential Orchestra and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, and WDR Funkhausorchester.

With the Experiential Orchestra (EXO), Blachly has conducted the works of Arvo Pärt at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker,sit within the orchestra at Lincoln Center, and engage with Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn. During his most recent season, he led the Experiential Orchestra in a subscription concert at the Phillips Collection, in an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and gave the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with soloist Curtis Stewart.

In the upcoming season, EXO will perform Arvo Pärt’s Passio at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, continue its innovative EXO:Chamber concerts, and release the world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto with Curtis Stewart as part of an album of world premiere recordings titled American Counterpoint, which also includes music by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Stewart. American Counterpoint is set for release in March 2024, marking Perry’s 100th birthday.

James Blachly’s reputation as a powerful advocate for under celebrated composers was sealed with his world premiere recording with EXO of English composer Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1930masterpiece The Prison. Released on Chandos Records, The Prison won a2021 Grammy Award and was widely acclaimed by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Gramophone, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, The Guardian, and many others. Blachly is the editor of the new Wise Music Group critical edition that has not only made modern performances and this recording possible, but has also contributed to renewed interest in Smyth's work. This is the first-ever Grammy Award for music by Smyth, who lived from 1858-1944 and struggled her entire career to have her music judged on its merits rather than on the basis of her gender. ‍

With the Johnstown Symphony, James Blachly has conducted the orchestra at the Flight 93 Memorial for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, in a former steel mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, and dramatically expanded access to the symphony throughout the region. During his first eight seasons with the Johnstown Symphony, Blachly has emphasized long-term relationship building with community leaders, expanding youth programs and education initiatives including annual side-by-side performances with the youth orchestra, initiating a youth concerto competition, and holding auditions for local talent to perform with the symphony on “Johnstown’s Got Talent” pops concerts.

Blachly has dedicated himself to using music to bring the Johnstown community together, creating an annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert and a Juneteenth concert in partnership with the NAACP, from which he received a commendation. During the 2023-24 season, he continues his innovative programming, bringing the symphony to the legendary War Memorial for the first time for a subscription concert, bringing Carnegie Hall’s Link Up education initiative to Johnstown for Young People’s Concerts, and expanding the JSO’s series of concerts in unconventional spaces. Over the course of his directorship, both individual and season ticket sales have increased by more than 50%, and individual giving has increased 80%, a testament to the energy and enthusiasm that has defined his tenure.

In 2020, Blachly was invited to serve as the Associate Editor and Orchestral Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, directed by Dr. Louise Toppin. He has over seen the compilation of a database and website detailing more than 1,300 published works for orchestra by African diaspora composers. At the invitation of founder Charles Dickerson, he assisted in curating a concert celebrating works for orchestra by African Diaspora composers, and was one of six conductors to lead the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at the League of American Orchestras conference.

A strong supporter of composers of our time, Blachly has commissioned and premiered more than 40 works by composers including Jessie Montgomery, Courtney Bryan, Viet Cuong, Michi Wiancko, Kate Copeland Ettinger, Tommy Daugherty, Patrick Castillo, Brad and Doug Balliett, and many others. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with soloists Paul Jacobs, Michelle Cann, Charles Yang, Julia Bullock, Dashon Burton, Helga Davis, Sarah Brailey, Andrés Cárdenes, Michael Chioldi, KarenKim, Andrew Yee, and more.

Dedicated to finding new ways of empowering audiences, Blachly is in demand as a speaker on Listening asLeadership, bringing his conducting expertise and passion for music to Fortune500 companies, schools, and other organizations. He has also conducted dozens of educational concerts for thousands of school children. For ten years he conducted workshops and clinics for the New York Philharmonic, served asEnsemble Director for the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids program, and conducted clinics and appearances throughout western Pennsylvania for the JSO. From 2010to 2015, he performed benefit concerts of Mahler symphonies with New York freelancers to launch what is now Make Music NOLA, a thriving El Sistema-Inspired program in New Orleans. In 2022, Blachly held a week-long artist residency at Montclair State University featuring composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery. During the residency, he delivered keynote lectures on composition, conducting, and choral techniques, culminating in an Experiential Orchestra-style immersive performance. In 2016, Blachly was the only conductor from the U.S. invited to participate in the Young Conductor’s Showcase as a part of El Sistema’s 40th Anniversary celebration, and he was also the only U.S. conductor to be invited as Conducting Fellow in Maestra Marin Alsop's final year at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

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