AMERICAN COUNTERPOINTS | CULTURAL ATTACHÉ - REVIEW

AMERICAN COUNTERPOINTS – Experiential Orchestra/James Blachly/Curtis Stewart

by: Craig Byrd | March, 2024

Compositions by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Julia Perry are highlighted in this album. 

Perkins’s Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk and Sinfonietta No. 1 anchor the first half of this album from the Grammy Award-winning Experiential Orchestra. 

Perry’s very brief Prelude for Strings (a beautiful work) separates those two works by Perkins. She returns with her Symphony in One Movement for Viols and String Basses, Ye, Who Seek the Truth and her Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (a world premiere recording).

Violinist/composer Stewart closes out the album with By Julia Perry and the solo work We Who Seek.

There aren’t too many albums, however good they might be, that make me stop everything all at once to listen to a second time. This is that album.  Founder/conductor Blachly and the Experiential Orchestra could very well find themselves on track for a second Grammy Award for this incredible recording.

For those wanting to explore more of Julia Perry and her work, The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival takes places in New York from March 13th – March 16th.