The recording session of 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 took place in September 2024 in a gorgeous Clynfyw mansion in Abercych, Wales, surrounded by mist-laced green hills, coppering bracken, ancient trees, and the nearby ocean’s cool, salt-bright presence carrying in on the air. I am so happy this music can finally be released!
All three pieces comprising 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 are coming from my core repertoire that I've performed numerous times within the past years. Nevertheless, these are the 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 of these pieces that will be digitally available on all platforms, as well as an old-fashioned hard copy in a CD form, starting on 23rd January!
@martiepstein 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 (2019)
Written as a response to 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛, this piece reflects the composer’s lifelong connection to Beth March, whose quiet inner world, illness, and death resonated deeply with her own childhood experience of loss. Imagining the scene in which Beth timidly plays the piano in Mr. Laurence’s house, the music represents not only what Beth might have played—simple hymns and improvisations—but also how memory and emotion transform sound as it is heard. Using the Methodist hymn 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒 as a foundation, the work explores Beth’s rich inner life and the expressive power of music as her primary means of connection to the world.
@jobinatinnemans 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 (2020/2021)
The Seven Sisters were the daughters of Pleione and Titan. We know very little about these women: we know that they were desirable, we know the names of their offspring, and we know who fathered each of those children. These works are created to give each sister an identity, based not on their divinity but on human psychology and sibling rivalry.
@walkmango 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐛) (2018)
This work takes its title and fragments of its musical material from the first of Scriabin’s 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑠, Op. 74. Marked “Douloureux déchirant”, Scriabin’s prelude suggests a pain that seeps and flows, and Chen's music explores this heartbreaking sadness as something fluid - rising, dissolving and pulling apart like water under strain.
