In Eleanor’s Words: Music of Stacy Garrop offers world-premiere recordings of three works by “a rising composer who  . . . excites the enthusiasm of performers and audiences alike” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

A Chicago-based composer with a blossoming career, Stacy Garrop (b. 1969) has “a sharp ear for instrumental color and narrative form: She can tell a story” (Detroit Free Press).

Writings by the revered American stateswoman and humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt are the inspiration for Garrop’s In Eleanor’s Words (2006). Scored for mezzo-soprano and piano, the piece illuminates excerpts from six of the former first lady’s syndicated newspaper columns addressing world peace, human rights, and personal experiences. Artists are mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang.

Silver Dagger (2009) for violin, cello and piano springs from an Appalachian folk song about star-crossed lovers. Garrop skillfully incorporates melodies from three traditional versions of the song in this new work, performed by the Lincoln Trio.

Garrop’s much-anticipated String Quartet No.3, “Gaia” (2008), named for the Greek goddess of the Earth and performed by the Biava Quartet, takes listeners on an engrossing journey from chaos, creation and abundance to cataclysm and renewal. Garrop’s String Quartet No.2, “Demons and Angels”, drew praise from, among others, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Few composers . . . can develop musical ideas as convincingly as Garrop does here.”

Contents:
1. Silver Dagger for violin, cello, and piano
Lincoln Trio

In Eleanor’s Words for mezzo-soprano and piano
2. I. The Newspaper Column
3. II. Are You Free
4. III. An Anonymous Letter
5. IV. The Supreme Power
6. V. The Dove of Peace
7. VI. What Can One Woman Do?
Buffy Baggott (mezzo-soprano), Kuang-Hao Huang (piano)

String Quartet No.3, “Gaia”
8. I. Gaia
9.  II. Creation of Mother Earth
10. III. Dance of the Earth
11. IV. Lamentation
12. V. …et in terra pax
Biava Quartet