Two Puppies

Two Puppies

When I found it, amidst centuries of other artwork at the Fukuoka Art Museum in early 2014, "Two Puppies" by Rosetsu Nagasawa (1754-1799) jumped off the canvas and cried out for music.

Turning point

That trip, my first to Japan, was a turning point for me. Up until then I had absolutely no interest in living anywhere but the UK, but the thrill of discovering this most special of places for the first time gave me itchy feet. Fast forward ten months and I had moved to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and was writing a piece named after Nagasawa's painting for clarinet trio.

The players

I am now seeking funds to film and record the piece in 2019 with Trio Axis Mundi, a Romanian chamber ensemble composed of Vlad Răceu (violin), Eva Butean (piano), and Aurelian Băcan (clarinet). Since we have recording equipment and a location available to us, I am happy to say that the entirety of the funding raised will be used to pay the players.

Freedom

Crowdfunding contemporary music recordings gives a level of artistic freedom which is unmatched by any other method of funding, and your support is received with enormous gratitude. As the composer Marc Yeats so eloquently puts it, crowdfunding grants “Freedom to make things happen without going through our normal cultural gatekeepers whose decisions so often result in a ‘no’ to way too many amazing projects. Freedom to appeal directly to audiences and fans, and engage new people directly in what you’re doing and bring them on the journey with me so we can make stuff happen together.”

Easy

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Trio Axis Mundi. From left to right: Vlad Răceu, Eva Butean, Aurelian Băcan