New Album: June 18th, 2021 | Curtis Stewart - Of Power
“A post-classical coming of agency album inspired by #BLM featuring songs of resistance and resilience for violin, voice, and electronics with five tracks mastered by Prince’s sound engineer Derek Linzy from Paisley Park.
The album is comprised of original compositions and reimagined works by Charlie Parker, J.S. Bach, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Childish Gambino, John Coltrane, Paganini, Elektra Kurtis, Ysaÿe, & Stevie Wonder.”
Bright Shiny Things & Outside in Music release
GRAMMY®-nominated violinist Curtis Stewart’s
Of Power
A post-classical coming of agency album inspired by #BLM featuring songs of resistance and resilience for violin, voice, and electronics with five tracks
mastered by Prince’s sound engineer Derek Linzy from Paisley Park
The album is comprised of original compositions and reimagined works by
Charlie Parker, J.S. Bach, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Childish Gambino, John Coltrane, Paganini, Elektra Kurtis, Ysaÿe, & Stevie Wonder.
JUNE 18th 2021: Curtis Stewart releases Of Power, [BSTC-0155] a post-classical creation inspired by personal adversity and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Created entirely during the COVID-19 lockdown co-releasing on the Bright Shiny Things & Outside in Music labels with the intention to coincide with Juneteenth - African American Freedom Day.
Available for pre-order at brightshiny.ninja/of-power
Mastered by Dave Veslocki & Prince’s on-demand sound engineer Derek Linzy, - Of Power is a contemporary coming of agency story about resistance, resilience, and the nature of power. Told through violin, verse, and electronics, Curtis’ original songs and reimagined works by Charlie Parker, Bach, John Coltrane, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Beethoven, Childish Gambino, Elektra Kurtis, Paganini, Ysaÿe, and Stevie Wonder weave a confessional narrative through the lens of a Black man searching for authenticity in the classical music world. Each track is accompanied by an original video available on all major streaming platforms.
“I wanted to tear down the practiced facade of a classical violinist to translate personal hardship, protest, and demands for social justice into sustained action and vigilance for the musical community and beyond,” Curtis says. “Of Power treats art as a battery for powering and realizing citizenship.”
Of Power’s inspirations are a mix of public and personal: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the protests surrounding their murders; Curtis’ parents, jazz tubist Bob Stewart and violinist Elektra Kurtis-Stewart; and Curtis’ decade performing in PUBLIQuartet and hip hop poetry trio The Mighty Third Rail.
The album viscerally captures the shock, fear, sorrow, and outrage following George Floyd’s death, feelings that Curtis bottled up over months of isolation juxtaposed with moments of lyrical beauty, such as his solo take on Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely?”
Grammy-nominated violinist Curtis Stewart enjoys an eclectic career bouncing between various realms of music: from MTV specials with Wyclef Jean and sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Seal; to stints at the Kennedy Center with the Jimmy Heath Big Band and performance installations at the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art.
Curtis has performed as a soloist at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as a special guest soloist/curator with the New York Philharmonic, and has made chamber music appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Newport Jazz Festival. His ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail realize a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures, and music. Curtis has worked with today’s forward-thinking musicians, including Henry Threadgill, Alicia Hall-Moran and Jason Moran, Mark O’Connor, members of International Contemporary Ensemble, Billy Childs, Diane Monroe, JACK Quartet, members of Snarky Puppy, Don Byron, Linda Oh, Ari Hoenig, Matt Wilson, and many others.
An avid teacher, he has taught chamber music and Cultural Equity and Performance Practice at The Juilliard School, directed several orchestras and levels of music theory at Laguardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts for ten years, and is currently the Chamber Music and New Juilliard Ensemble Manager at The Juilliard School. Curtis graduated magna cum laude from Eastman School of Music with a BA in mathematics from the University of Rochester. curtisjstewart.com
