Steven Beck - Louis Karchin: Dark Mountains / Distant Lights (2019)

Composer Louis Karchin releases a collection of chamber works, featuring violinist Miranda Cuckson, pianist Steven Beck, and oboist Jacqueline Leclair. Partially inspired by the iconic romance of Venice, Karchin marries a fascination with the intricacies of subtle hybrid instrumental timbres with a penchant for elegantly articulated structures. Over a career spanning more than four decades, composer Louis Karchin has amassed a portfolio of more than 90 compositions, appeared as conductor with numerous ensembles, and co-founded new music groups including the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM, the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the Washington Square Ensemble, and the Harvard Group for New Music. Described by critic Andrew Porter in The New Yorker as a composer of fearless eloquence, his works have garnered distinguished honors, including three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and Koussevitzky, Barlow, and Fromm commissions.