For Your Consideration
Best Classical Compendium
Remembrance & Renewal
Tess Remy-Schumacher & Friends
Original Cover Art - Gloria Domina
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Last year this album Remembrance and Renewal evolved after a long phase of incredible losses among our family and friends. It seeks a healing way to transform grief musically into loving memories while honoring loved ones, celebrating their lives and finding peace in remembrance.
Each loss redefines our life; we must find new purpose and hope through creating beauty from pain endured. The healing power of music leads us through this challenging journey and empowers us to grow with optimism and resilience.
May Remembrance and Renewal provide healing power for everyone’s challenges in life.
Producers, Recording, Editing and Mixing: Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon at Onyx Lane
Copyright Information: Tess Remy-Schumacher
Composers: Adam Barrett Berry, Connor Chee, Billie Eilish/Finneas O’Connell, Zachary C. Daniels, Samuel Magrill, Pablo Casals, and Michael Staudt
Featured Soloist: Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello
Performers: Vivian Fang Liu, Piano; Connor Chee, Piano; Robert Glaubitz, Baritone; Christina Giacona, Clarinet; Hong Zhu and Patrick Conlon, Violin; and Chris Prather, Conductor
Cover Artist: Gloria Domina
Graphic Design: Bryan Evans
TRACK 1
Remembrance and Renewal: Scenes from a Life, Suite for Cello and Piano
Adam Barrett Berry, Composer; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Vivian Fang Liu, Piano
TRACK 2
Elegy
Connor Chee, Composer; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Connor Chee, Piano
TRACK 3
When the Party’s Over
Billie Eilish/Finneas O’Connell, Composers; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Vivian Fang Liu, Piano
TRACK 4
Lullaby
Zachary C. Daniels, Composer; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Vivian Fang Liu, Piano
TRACK 5
Utitia’q’s Song
Samuel Magrill, Composer; Robert Glaubitz, Baritone; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello
TRACK 6
Song of the Birds
Pablo Casals, Composer; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Vivian Fang Liu, Piano
TRACK 7
In Memoriam
Michael Staudt, Composer; Christina Giacona, Clarinet; Hong Zhu and Patrick Conlon, Violin; Vivian Fang Liu, Piano; Tess Remy-Schumacher, Cello; Chris Prather, Conductor
Adam Barrett Berry calls his composition and the album’s title song Remembrance and Renewal, a “…bittersweet longing for what was lost. But that’s only a small portion the piece. Primarily the piece is a series of poignant memories, reflecting on the profound joy of knowing and loving another human being so deeply. This depth of love and of feeling is imprinted on your soul forever.“ Having commissioned this work, I am moved by its beauty. Its healing qualities musically expresses the essence of the album’s journey.
This 2023 the version for cello and piano of Connor Chee’s Elegy is a beautiful tribute honoring his beloved late grandfather. I fell in love with this work during the creation of this album.
First hearing Billie Eilish’s and Finneas O’Connell’s performance of When the Party’s Over during the 2020 Grammy Awards helped me endure a particularly difficult phase of my life. The music changed me and became an integral part of this album’s concept.
Last year Zachary Daniels completed Lullaby for his son Oliver in a cello and piano version for this album, truly expressing a new beginning of this new life with beautiful melodies.
Last summer while reading Native American songs and poems: an anthology / edited by Brian Swann, Dover Thrift Editions (1996) I was deeply moved by an old Inuit poem originally from Franz Boas’ Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 7 (1894). Boaz noted that “This song was composed by a young man named Utitiaq, who went adrift on the ice when sealing, and did not reach the shore until after a week of hardships and privations.” This poem about loss and new beginnings looks to a future full of optimism and resilience. My colleague at the University of Central Oklahoma, Samuel Magrill, agreed to interpret musically this poem Utitia’q’s Song for baritone and cello.
In 1961 legendary cellist Pablo Casals in political exile, performed Song of the Birds, the old Catalonian folk song, for the first time in 40 years at the White House for President Kennedy. After the loss of his homeland, Casals used his voice and cello to promote freedom and new beginnings the rest of his life.
In 2021 Michael Staudt’s In Memoriam was his tribute to honor of my mom’s passing, concluding the musical journey of this album. This new 2024 arrangement for two violins, clarinet and cello marks a new beginning.
Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher is a featured Solo Artist on Kitt Wakeley's 2023 GRAMMY® winning CD "An Adoption Story.” She won 1st Prize at the International Carlo-Zecchi Competition in Rome, multiple Silver and Bronze Medals at the Global Music Awards, Grand Prize of the 2022 Akademia Music Award and 2023 Hall of Fame Inductee, Best Instrumentalist of the 2023 InterContinental Music Awards, and the CL Shaddock Award of the 2023 Mississippi Music Awards.
She was a 2022 Native American Music Awards nominee, a 2023 and 2024 Josie Music Awards nominee, and is a Featured Artist on Kirsten Copley’s 2023 GRAMMY® nominated CD “Aquamarine.”
As a concert soloist, she performed in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the U.S., including Wigmore Hall in London, Jubilee Hall in Singapore, Bradley Hall in Chicago, and repeatedly Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. Among her 20+ albums are premiere recordings of David Maslanka's Cello Concerto "Remember Me" and Carter Pann's Cello Concerto "High Songs" both with UCO Wind Symphony under conductor Dr. Brian Lamb.
Dr. Remy earned her DMA and MM from the University of Southern California and her Artist Diploma (terminal degree) from the Musikhochschule Koeln, Germany.
She studied with Boris Pergamenschikow, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Lynn Harrell, and Jacqueline du Pre. Dr. Remy was a Visiting Scholar and Performance Fellow at Harvard University 2010-2012. Previously, she was tenured faculty at James Cook University, Australia. Currently, she is Professor for Cello and cofounder of the Brisch Center for Historical Performance at UCO. She serves as a voting member for the Recording Academy and a GrammyU mentor.
With gratitude... I am deeply grateful to my husband David for his constant love and support always! This album is dedicated to you!
Sincere thanks to my friends who contributed much time and heart for Remembrance and Renewal:
Producers, editors, recording engineers and musicians Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon; Chamber music partners: Connor Chee, Vivian Fang Liu, Christina Giacona, Hong Zhu, Patrick Conlon and Robert Glaubitz; Conductor/composer Chris Prather, and composers Adam Barrett Berry, Connor Chee, Finneas O’Connell, Zachary Daniels, Samuel Magrill, Pablo Casals and Michael Staudt; Cover artist Gloria Domina and graphic designer Bryan Evans.
This album marks a new beginning and RENEWAL of my musical journey.
May Remembrance and Renewal provide healing power for everyone’s challenges in life.