Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still & George Walker Catalyst Quartet

• Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932 - 2004): String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary":
• 1 Perkinson: String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary": I. Allegro 05:50
• 2 Perkinson: String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary": II. Adagio 04:55
• 3 Perkinson: String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary": III. Allegro vivace 06:08
• William Grant Still (1895 - 1978): Lyric Quartette:
• 4 Still: Lyric Quartette: I. The Sentimental One 06:36
• 5 Still: Lyric Quartette: II. The Quiet One 05:22
• 6 Still: Lyric Quartette: III. The Jovial One 03:20
• George Walker (1922 - 2018): String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric":
• 7 Walker: String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric": I. Allegro 08:20
• 8 Walker: String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric": II. Molto adagio 05:25
• 9 Walker: String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric": III. Allegro con fuoco 09:04
• Total Runtime 55:00

Info for Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still & George Walker

Catalyst Quartet continues their highly regarded series of music by Black composers. Uncovered, Volume 3 includes quartets written by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still, and George Walker.

"Uncovered, Vol. 3" is the third 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 3 profiles three American composers who lived through the various Black artistic, political, and social projects that transformed the 20th century; and the deep contradictions that continue to plague the U.S. today: George Walker and his String Quartet No. 1 "Lyric," Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's String Quartet No. 1 "Calvary," and William Grant Still's Lyric Quartet.

All written roughly between 1940 and 1956, these works represent Walker and Perkinson in their youths and Still in his prime, and each is a testament to these composers' important place in the history of concert music and their creative and deliberate engagement with what musicologist Eileen Southern referred to as "Black musical materials" in their compositional​​ styles.

Writer and ethnomusicologist M. Myrta Leslie Santana, says in the liner notes, "William Grant Still, George Walker, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson share exceptionally fruitful and diverse careers that brought them into the most coveted spaces of the concert music art world. Their biographies leave no doubt as to their stature, and hopefully, the renewed interest in their compositions will, however, belatedly, chip away at the dynamics that often hindered the circulation of their work."

Catalyst Quartet

The Catalyst Quartet
Hailed by the New York Times at their Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor” the Catalyst Quartet, prize winners of the Gianni Bergamo Classical Music Award 2012 (Switzerland) is comprised of top Laureates and alumni of the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Competition.

Known for “rhythmic energy, polyphonic clarity and tight ensemble-playing” (New York Concert Review). The quartet has toured domestically and abroad including sold out performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Chicago’s Harris Theater, the Frank Gehry designed New World Center in Miami, and Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), to name a few. They have also appeared on multiple radio and television broadcasts such as American Public Media’s Performance Today, Chicago (WFMT), Houston (KUHF), Seattle (KING FM), Vermont Public Radio, Detroit Public Television; and have contributed to online and print media including The Strad and Strings magazine.

The Catalyst Quartet has held residencies and given master classes at institutions such as the University of Washington, University of Michigan, Rice University, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, In Harmony Project (UK), Pennsylvania State University, and the University of South Africa. They also serve as principal faculty at the Sphinx Performance Academy at Oberlin College and Roosevelt University. The Quartet has been guest artists at Festival del Sole, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, Strings Music Festival, and the Grand Canyon Music Festival.

The Catalyst Quartet’s debut album, The Bach/Gould Project, featuring their own arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Glenn Gould’s String Quartet can be found on the Azica Records label. They are also featured on the album STRUM, the string works of quartet violinist Jessie Montgomery (available fall 2015).

This album contains no booklet.