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Reacting to the Landscape

by Whistling Hens

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $18 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    4 panel digipak with a booklet insert with information about the album and the composers, and it is signed by the performers (soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Reacting to the Landscape via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    4 panel digipak with a booklet insert with information about the album and the composers

    Includes unlimited streaming of Reacting to the Landscape via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      $18 USD

     

  • Whistling Hens commissioned a coloring book featuring women composers. Made in collaboration with Dynamic Doodle Co., the PDF coloring book includes: Victoria Bond, Amy Bormet, Jenni Brandon, Rebecca Clarke, Ashi Day, Melika Fitzhugh, Cherise Leiter, Dannielle McBryan, Diana Rosenblum, Jennifer Stevenson.

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Sheet Music

    Transcribed by Natalie Groom from soprano and violin to soprano and clarinet (Bb or A). Delivered as PDF. Includes: C score, Bb clarinet score, A clarinet score.
    ships out within 3 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Sheet Music

    Transcribed by Natalie Groom from soprano and violin to soprano and clarinet (Bb or A). Delivered as PDF. Includes: C score, Bb clarinet score, A clarinet score.
    ships out within 3 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

1.
Thursday 02:08
Text by Edna St. Vincent Millay
2.
Scat 2 04:29
3.
Text by Lory Bedikian Dear Cousin - The country is on fire again. Today, rockets hit nearby. Lebanon is so small everything can be heard. ​ For years we have known the language of bombs. But tonight, tonight it is quiet. ​ The country is falling. People have fled their homes. Children are dead. Here, in the eastern part, we are safe, for now. ​ Sorry for writing you late. Everything is shut down. I have no work. Indoors most of the time. We sit and wait for news. Our lights flicker on and off like the winter moon. ​ People's hearts have turned hard as rocks. No one walks the streets. Only the old men at the corner argue until dusk. They are so close to death, they don't tremble as we do. ​ For now, this much. It is difficult to write. Our ears are accustomed to explosions and running feet. ​ But tonight, tonight it is so quiet, so silent you could hear ​ the strike of a match. -Lory Bedikian
4.
Text and libretto by Ashi Day, adapted from works by Marcel Schwob, Wilhelm Hey
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Text by Jenny Factor (www.jennyfactor.net)
11.
Text by Mark Twain.
12.
Text by Mary Buchinger (www.marybuchinger.com)
13.
Text by Christina Rossetti.

about

Whistling Hens’ debut album, Reacting to the Landscape, is a long-awaited project that includes nine world premiere recordings of works by seven living American women composers: Victoria Bond, Ashi Day, Melika Fitzhugh, Cherise Leiter, Dannielle McBryan, Diana Rosenblum, and Jennifer Stevenson.

Showcasing five title commissions, soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom masterfully present a wide variety of styles, sounds, and stories: a short dialog between a “joyfully callous” soprano spurning the clarinetist (Thursday); toe-tapping nonsense syllable scat sounds (Scat 2); a letter to a war-ridden country (Letter from Beirut); a mini play on themes of the resilience of women and girls (The Green Child); five American folk songs, from sassy to serene to saucy (American Folk Suite); an embrace of the warmth of womanly saints (A Woman Keeps Opening); an exploration of Eve’s first day on earth (Eve’s Diary); heartfelt observations of nature (Say I Am a River); and a final lullaby on the passing of loved ones (It’s Bedtime).

The album title, Reacting to the Landscape, comes from an interview in which former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conductor Marin Alsop (the first female to lead a major orchestra in the U.S.) said,

“People ask why a course like this [for women conductors] is necessary, and I think it's a disingenuous question. It's only necessary because of the reality. It's not something I'm making up. I'm just reacting to the landscape...Because I have quite a thick skin, I don't mind being the one out front, trying to elbow my way in. But I think, as that person out front, it's important for me to create a pathway for people coming through. I don't want it to be so hard for the next generations.”

So why women composers? Why now? Whistling Hens is just reacting to the landscape.

Released October 1, 2022.
Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Engineer: Jonathan Galle
Producers: Robert Armstrong, Natalie Groom, Jennifer Piazza-Pick
Editor: Natalie Groom
Record Label: Strange Woman Records
Album Cover Art: Mahsa Yahosseini
Album Design: Leda Black

Recorded January 4-5, 2022 in Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
© all rights reserved

linktr.ee/whistlinghens

credits

released October 1, 2022

Jennifer Piazza-Pick, soprano; Natalie Groom, clarinet.

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all rights reserved

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about

Whistling Hens Lanham, Maryland

Whistling Hens was founded by soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom to perform and commission music by women composers and create a financially and artistically equitable future for women in music. The name comes from a quote by a male music critic who said of Lili Boulanger in 1918, "women composers are at best whistling hens.” ... more

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