Today, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN premieres Night Triptych, the latest album from American classical guitar duo, Duo Noire (Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett).
Originally conceived in 2015 as a way to make classical music more gender inclusive, Night Triptych features world premiere recordings of newly commissioned works by Clarice Assad, Courtney Bryan, Golfam Khayam, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Gity Razaz, and Gabriella Smith, all composed for Duo Noire.
Here’s what Duo Noire had to say about Night Triptych:
Our eyes were opened to the ways in which, year after year, many major concert series and albums feature less than 5% of music by women. We felt like classical music was impoverishing itself by not including the artistry of incredibly gifted women composers like the ones we collaborated with on this album, who we feel have made extraordinary contributions to our instrument and new music in general.
Night Triptych is out June 22, 2018 on New Focus Recordings, but you can pre-order it here.
About Duo Noire
Duo Noire is a “virtuosic pair” (I Care if You Listen) of pioneering African-American classical guitarists, Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett. Offering “profoundly enjoyable” premieres of contemporary music with “spectacular precision” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Duo Noire is breaking new ground in the world of guitar chamber music. Their work has been featured in Chamber Music Magazine, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Classical Guitar Magazine, and on the cover of the Guitar Foundation of America’s journal, Soundboard.
Recent highlights include performances at Beijing’s Peking University, Omaha Under the Radar, Georgetown University, the April in Santa Cruz festival, and the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, as well as collaborations with GRAMMY-winner William Coulter, MacArthur Genius Jason Moran, and Broadway star Alicia Hall Moran. Their debut album was the premiere recording of the inspired minimalist piece, FIGMENTS. It was praised as “a unique and entrancing album that exists at the unusual intersection of minimalism and impressive classical guitar technique” (I Care if You Listen).
Thomas and Christopher are graduates of the Yale School of Music.
