Jonah Sirota - Strong Sad (2018)

STRONG SAD, the debut solo album from Jonah Sirota, the Grammy-nominated former violist of the Chiara Quartet, features new elegies by eight composers. The elegy as a musical form has often found a home in the plaintive middle-register voice of the viola—it tugs, and makes us aware of our inner landscape. While some of these works may refer to lost friends and loved ones, STRONG SAD reaffirms that mourning is too important to save only for funerals, and that sadness, when given a chance to breathe, can be our best path to deep and lasting contentment and joy. Featuring new works by Jonah himself, Paola Prestini, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Robert Sirota, A.J. McCaffrey, and Rodney Lister, as well as a new work from the improv duo Mondegreen (Jonah Sirota and Kurt Knecht).