MOHAMMED FAIROUZ

CHORALE FANTASYfor String Quartet

CHORALE FANTASYfor String Quartet

MOHAMMED FAIROUZ

Chorale Fantasy was written in response to the Borromeo String Quartet’s initiative to com-mission a set of chorale preludes. This short work lives in the world between maqam (Arabic modes) and gentle counterpoint. It opens with a short introduction leading to a violin line with unheard lyrics against an insisting drone. It then conspires into a whirling dance reaching a vocal climax and returns at the end to the gentleness of the opening. All of the parts of Chorale Fantasy are written within the singing range of the human voice. The work is affectionately dedicated to the Borromeo Quartet.

—Mohammed Fairouz

Chorale Fantasy is recorded on "Native Informant," Naxos American Classics CD 8.559744, performed by the Borromeo String Quartet.

Mohammed Fairouz, born in 1985, is one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded composers of his generation. Hailed by The New York Times as “an important new artistic voice” and by BBC World News as “one of the most talented composers of his generation,” Fairouz melds Middle-Eastern modes and Western structures to deeply expressive effect. His large-scale works, including four symphonies and an opera, engage major geopolitical and philosophical themes with persuasive craft and a marked seriousness of purpose. His solo and chamber music attains an “intoxicating intimacy,” according to New York’s WQXR.

A truly cosmopolitan voice, Fairouz had a transatlantic upbringing. By his early teens, the Arab-American composer had traveled across five continents, immersing himself in the musical life of his surroundings. Prominent advocates of his instrumental music include the Borromeo and Lydian String Quartets, the Imani Winds, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, violinists Rachel Barton Pine and James Buswell, clarinetist David Krakauer, and conductors Gunther Schuller, Fawzi Haimor, and Yoon Jae Lee.

He has been recognized as an “expert in vocal writing” by the New Yorker magazine and as a “post-millennial Schubert” by Gramophone Magazine. Among the eminent singers that have promoted his wealth of vocal music are Kate Lindsey, Sasha Cooke, Lucy Shelton, D’Anna Fortunato, David Kravitz and Randall Scarlata.

Commissions have come from the Borromeo Quartet, Imani Winds, New York Festival of Song, Da Capo Chamber Players, New Juilliard Ensemble, Cantus Vocal Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, Counter)induction, Alea III, Musicians for Harmony, and many others. Recordings of his music are available on the Naxos, Bridge, Dorian Sono Luminus, Cedille, Albany, GM/Living Archive, and GPR labels.

Mohammed Fairouz is the subject of a documentary by BBC World Service TV, has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and BBC/PRI’s The World, and has been profiled in Symphony, Strings, New Music Box, and the Houston Chronicle, among others.

His principal teachers in composition have included György Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, and Richard Danielpour, with studies at the Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory. His works are published by Peermusic Classical. He lives in New York City.

© Copyright 2013 by Songs of Peer, Ltd.International Copyright Secured

All Rights Reserved

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Chorale FantasyMohammed Fairouz

(2010)

© Copyright 2013 by Songs of Peer Ltd.International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.

for the Borromeo String Quartet

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