A delicious musical buffet

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Tyler Kline, composer

Mijung An, Ariadne Antipa, Brandon Baltodano, Logan Barrett, Sarah Abigail Del Monte, Ann DuHarnet, Megan Honggokusuma, Grace Huang, Eunmi Ko, Ying Long, Christy Sallee, E-Na Song, Jescelyn Wijaya, Agnieszka Zick, pianists

A plentiful crop of fifty musical miniatures titled ORCHARD has been recently released by the NEUMA label (www.info@NeumaRecords.org) in an engagingly packaged double CD.

The creative product of American composer Tyler Kline, the charm of ORCHARD lies principally in its disarmingly unassuming character and in its refusal to have a one-fits-all label affixed to it.

As varied as the fifty fruits and spices musically portrayed in multiple ways, the many styles and concepts featured in ORCHARD variously evoke at times the folk primitivism of Bartók, at others the aleatory approach of John Cage, now the pioneering minimalism of Terry Riley, and elsewhere the sparseness of Anton Webern.

There are instances when one discerns the influence of the mockingly Gallic style of Poulenc. At one moment one is briefly deceived into thinking one is hearing the music of Debussy or maybe that of one his avant-garde predecessors. Eric Satie maybe? No, this is all Tyler Kline, a defiantly original maverick out to prove nothing other than the fact that music – contemporary new music at that – is meant to be played and listened to with no strings attached and for once enjoyed, for heavens’ sakes.

Kline’s creation gives fourteen young and gifted pianists a chance to play new music by an equally young and extremely gifted young composer. Some of the young artists get to give us tastes of exoteric produce that bears names unfamiliar to many of us: yuzu, mangosteen, datil, granadilla, horned melon, durian, sandcherry, bael, paw paw… Throughout 82 minutes of listening we feast on a mostly tropical fruit buffet rich in taste and variety – the creation of Tyler Kline (www.tylerklinemusic.com ), composer, music producer, classical radio station announcer, and the author of one of the most delicious musical buffets this listener has ever tasted.

Rafael de Acha    ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”