Bryce Dessner continues to carve a unique path in new music at the highest level with major concert dates and the release of new album, El Chan (Deutsche Grammophon, 5 April), with Katia and Marielle Labèque. El Chan features debut recordings of three works: Concerto for Two Pianos performed by the Labèque Sisters, Orchestre de Paris and Matthias Pintscher, El Chan for two pianos dedicated to film director Alejandro Iñárritu (The Revenant, Babel, Amores Perros etc.) and Haven, for two pianos and two guitars and which will be premiered live in concert during the Minimalist Dream House tour in April 2019.
The tour will see Dessner on stage with Katia and Marielle Labèque alongside David Chalmin, as well as special guest Thom Yorke who will give the world premiere of a new work: Philharmonie de Paris (April 7), Auditorium de Lyon (April 8), Barbican, London (April 9) and Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (April 10).
A visionary and important force in new music, Bryce Dessner is one of the most sought-after composers of his generation: a Grammy Award-winning classical composer with commissions from the finest ensembles and institutions of today. A pioneering creator with a broad and open-minded musical universe, his collaborations span multiple artforms, with colleagues including Alejandro Iñárritu, Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Caroline Shaw, Bon Iver, Justin Peck, Ragnar Kjartansson, Nico Muhly, as well as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Dessner is known to many as guitarist and founding member of the Grammy Award-winning rock group, The National. He is also highly active as a curator and co-founded and curates: Cincinnati-based MusicNOW festival, HAVEN in Copenhagen; Sounds from a Safe Harbour in Cork and PEOPLE in Berlin. In 2018 Dessner was named a collaborate partner of the San Francisco Symphony, under the direction of visionary conductor and music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
About El Chan:
Arranged for two pianos and performed regularly internationally by Katia and Marielle Labèque, El Chan is dedicated to Dessner’s friend and collaborator, film director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and his wife Maria Eladia Hagerman. The work is inspired by the mythical guardian spirit, ‘El Chan,’ of a pool of water nestled in the canyons close to Iñarritu and Hagerman’s hometown of San Miguel de Allende, in the stunning Mexican landscape, and which has been the source of popular legends for many centuries. Iñárritu in turn created the cover artwork for this new album.
Bryce Dessner’s Concerto for two pianos was written for Katia and Marielle Labèque after the three met during rehearsals with Los Angeles Phiharmonic several years ago and where they formed an immediate bond, both musically and personally. The work premiered with London Philharmonic Orchestra at Southbank Centre in April 2018 and has been performed internationally by – among others – Orchestre de Paris, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Musica Nova in Helsinki (where Dessner was artist in residence) as well as Netherlands Philharmonic. Its US première takes place with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in September 2019.
“There are moments when you marvel at his ability to bleed pigments into each other, like a watercolourist” – Financial Times, after the world premiere of Concerto for two pianos, London April 2018
Other forthcoming highlights of Dessner’s creations in-concert include Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), a major new 70-minute work for 10-voice choir and ensemble which explores the profound impact and influence of the master photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, and which will be premiered by the LA Philharmonic in March 2019; the release of the film The Pope for which Dessner wrote the soundtrack, recorded with London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s Abbey Road Studios; and performances of Voy a Dormir, with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, written for and premiered by mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and St. Lukes Orchestra, commissioned by Carnegie Hall.
