WATCH OVER US (Yvonne Lam)

The Grammy award-winner and former Eighth Blackbird violinist Yvonne Lam releases her first solo album on July 28, 2023 (Blue Griffin BGR 647). “Watch Over Us” includes compositions for solo violin and electronics by some of the most accomplished women alive today. Featured is the world premiere recording of “Watch Over Us” by Nathalie Joachim (written for Lam) and the transcription for violin of Missy Mazzoli's "Tooth and Nail". Also on the collection, music by Katherine Balch, Anna Clyne, Eve Beglarian, and Kate Moore.

“Even though I am the only live performer in each piece, it never feels like a solo,” writes Lam in the liner notes. “I actually feel that I am in a way per­forming with the composer, who created the fixed media part exactly to their taste. Over time, performing with these tapes felt akin to playing with a longtime chamber music partner whose intentions you can divine with your gut and whose sounds combine with yours to become something larger than the sum of its parts.”

The recording’s title composition, “Watch Over Us” by Yvonne Lam’s Eighth Blackbird colleague Nathalie Joachim, was originally intended as a documentary film score. Though the film itself never materialized, Lam said her premiere performance of the work, along with “other works for solo violin and electronics by remarkable women” inspired this album.

“I’ve been a fan of Anna Clyne’s music for well over a decade,” writes Lam. “Rest These Hands" is technically acoustic but I included it because of the poignant poem written by her mother that is read over the solo violin.” Lam says she’s been eager to play Kate Moore’s "Syn­aesthesia Suite" since she first learned of its existence. “I love the kaleidoscope of colors created by the track, and the vast arc of the musical journey Kate takes us on.”

Yvonne Lam was violinist and Co-Artistic Director of Eighth Blackbird from 2011-2019, winning a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for the album Filament with the venerable ensemble. As a youngster, she began playing violin by mistake: she thought she was learning to play guitar. She ultimately went on to earn degrees in violin at Juilliard and Curtis.

TRACKS

[01] Missy Mazzoli: Tooth and Nail (10:02)

[02] Katherine Balch: Apartment Sounds (03:08)

[03] Nathalie Joachim: Watch Over Us (08:01) (world premiere recording)

[04] Anna Clyne: Rest These Hands (09:11)

[05] Eve Beglarian: Well-Spent (04:52)

[06] Kate Moore: Synaesthesia Suite (17:43)