TERRY RILEY: The Palmian Chord Ryddle & At the Royal Majestic. World Premiere Recordings by the Nashville Symphony & Giancarlo Guerrero

Nashville Symphony & Giancarlo Guerrero in
World Premiere Recordings of
TERRY RILEY: The Palmian Chord Ryddle & At the Royal Majestic
Tracy Silverman, Electric Violin / Todd Wilson, Organ

First album of Riley's orchestral works in 25 years to be released November 10 on Naxos

“Both onstage and on disc the [Nashville Symphony] has developed a considerable reputation for specializing in American music, appropriate to a stellar representative of America’s self-proclaimed Music City.” New York Times

Nashville, TN/New York, NY – October 24, 2017 – Continuing its commitment to championing the most important voices in contemporary American music, the GRAMMY® Award-Winning Nashville Symphony will release the world premiere recordings of Terry Riley’s The Palmian Chord Ryddle andAt the Royal Majestic on November 10, 2017. To be released globally by Naxos, this collection is the groundbreaking composer’s first recording by a major American orchestra in over 25 years. 
 
Now in his sixth decade of composing, Riley launched the Minimalist movement with his landmark 1964 composition In C, which paved the way for future innovators including Steve Reich and Philip Glass. In the years since, this revolutionary artist has continued to break new musical ground, drawing inspiration from jazz and Indian music, and experimenting with electronic music in such pioneering works as A Rainbow in Curved Air. Riley’s latest collection shows his musical palette expanding even further, revealing his innate penchant for exploration and his close collaboration with singular instrumental soloists.
 
Commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, The Palmian Chord Ryddle is a kind of musical autobiography in which electric violinist Tracy Silverman’s “one-man string quartet” sets the pace for sparse but radiant orchestration. “The Palmian Chord Ryddle leaped into my consciousness as a very spontaneous work,” says Riley, “full of the things in music that I find colorful, dynamic, beautiful, challenging, humorous, loving, friendly, joyous, stark, and universally minded.” The work is an outgrowth of Riley’s longstanding collaborative partnership with Silverman, the Nashville-based musician credited with introducing the electric violin to contemporary American orchestral music.
 
At the Royal Majestic is another recent example of Riley’s work with a symphony orchestra and a virtuosic soloist, in this case organist Todd Wilson. Its title refers to “the mighty Wurlitzer housed in grand movie palaces,” and the music draws on a wide variety of genres including gospel, ragtime, Baroque chorales, and boogie. The organist is also required occasionally, as Riley notes, “to coexist in a large orchestral soup with many parts having equal prominence.”
 
Nashville Symphony Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero says, “Through its collaborations with a diverse array of composers and soloists, including banjoist Béla Fleck, electric bassist Victor Wooten and pop star Ben Folds, the Nashville Symphony has become known for its adventurous spirit. Our latest collaboration with Terry Riley pushes us into even more exciting musical realms, and we are genuinely honored to work with an artist whose impact is still felt across the American musical landscape, from pop to classical to electronica.”
 
ABOUT NASHVILLE SYMPHONY
The GRAMMY® Award-winning Nashville Symphony has earned an international reputation for its innovative programming and its commitment to performing, recording and commissioning works by America’s leading composers. The Nashville Symphony has released 28 recordings on Naxos, which have received 20 GRAMMY® nominations and 11 GRAMMY® Awards, making it one of the most active recording orchestras in the country. With more than 170 performances annually, the orchestra offers a broad range of classical, pops and jazz, and children’s concerts, while its extensive education and community engagement programs reach up to 60,000 children and adults each year.
 
ABOUT GIANCARLO GUERRERO
Giancarlo Guerrero is the five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Music Director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 2009 and has committed to serving through the 2024-25 season. A passionate proponent of new music, Guerrero has championed the works of several of America's most respected composers. He has presented eight world premieres with the Nashville Symphony, including Béla Fleck’s The Impostor banjo concerto, Terry Riley’s Palmian Chord Ryddle electric violin concerto, and the 2016 performance and recent GRAMMY®-winning recording of Michael Daugherty’s cello concertoTales of Hemingway. Maestro Guerrero has appeared with many of the prominent North American orchestras, including those of Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., among others.  For more information, visitwww.giancarlo-guerrero.com.
 
ABOUT TRACY SILVERMAN
Tracy Silverman defies musical boundaries. He was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. He has contributed significantly to the repertoire and development of the six-string electric violin, inspiring several major concertos composed specifically for him, including works by John Adams, Terry Riley, Kenji Bunch, and Nico Muhly. His career has taken him to the world’s finest concert halls to work with esteemed orchestras, and conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marin Alsop, and Neeme Järvi, among others. Silverman has also recorded with the band Guster, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, jazz legend Billy Taylor, composer Terry Riley, and the Calder Quartet. His third electric violin concerto, Love Song to the Sun, was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras including the Anchorage Symphony.
 
ABOUT TODD WILSON
Regarded as one of today’s finest concert organists, Todd Wilson is head of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and director of music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, he is curator of the E.M. Skinner pipe organ at Severance Hall, and house organist for the Aeolian organ at the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio. An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Todd Wilson holds the Fellow and Choirmaster certificates. He has been heard in concert as soloist and with orchestras in many major cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. In October 2004 he performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic featuring the new organ at Disney Hall, and in January 2005 he performed his Japanese debut recital in Tokyo. An active interest in improvisation has led to his popular improvised accompaniments to classic silent films.