Shining Night is an exquisite album, expertly curated by leading violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, featuring new music and old music in new guises, embracing themes of love, poetry and nature, spanning the Baroque era to the present day.
Anne Akiko Meyers has amassed a multitude of fans and admirers for her exquisitely curated recordings, often exploring her passion for new music, and old music in new guises. Her quest for creative collaborations has inspired countless commissions and world-premieres, with the results infusing Shining Night, an album that embraces themes of love, poetry and nature. Anne's fruitful association with composer Morten Lauridsen led to the arrangement of his popular choral work Sure on this Shining Night, for violin and piano, lending its name to the album's title. From there springs forth an album imbued with music of light and hope, spanning the history of music through Baroque, Romantic, Popular, and current genres.
J.S. Bach's beautiful Air in G and Corelli's colourful La Folia arranged for violin and guitar rub shoulders with Latin-tinged Estrellita (Little Star) by Manuel Ponce, the Aria from Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango. Two of the 20th century's most iconic songs appear in intimate and tender new arrangements: Duke Ellington's (In My) Solitude, and Can't Help Falling in Love, famously crooned by The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.
Anne's collaborators are eminent Italian pianist Fabio Bidini and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux. The release of Shining Night coincides with International Astronomy Day (May 7).
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world's leading violinists and has enraptured audiences for decades. She has collaborated with many of today's most important orchestras, conductors, and composers, and is one of the leading proponents of new music. Anne has made 40 recordings which are staples of classical music radio stations and streaming platforms. Last summer 2021, Anne premiered Fandango by Arturo Marquez, with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with new cadenzas written for her by John Corigliano at the Brevard Music Festival. This fall 2022, Anne will premiere Michael Daugherty's Blue Electra with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. Anne performs on the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Ges, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin.
Jason Vieaux is described by NPR as "perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation". After 25-plus years of international appearances at major festivals and concert series, and as soloist with over 100 orchestras, Vieaux is one of the world's leading guitarists. His Grammy-winning solo album Play was noted as "part of the revitalized interest in classical guitar." Vieaux recorded Four Paths of Light, dedicated to him by Pat Metheny, for his 2021 album, Road To The Sun. Jason's passion for new music has also fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, and many more. Vieaux holds faculty positions at Curtis Institute of Music and Cleveland Institute of Music. He plays a guitar by Gernot Wagner made in Frankfurt in 2013. Fabio Bidini is one of today's most important pianists and pedagogues. He is in high demand in recital, and as a chamber musician, and is a frequent guest of the most prominent orchestras around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, among many others. Bidini graduated magna cum laude from the Cecilia Conservatory in Rome (one of the youngest ever) and studied composition at the Florence Conservatory. His sensational performances at the Busoni and at the Van Cliburn International Piano competitions helped launch his international career. Fabio Bidini holds the Carol Grigor Piano Chair at the Colburn School and is Artist-in-Residence at the Hochschule fr Musik und Tanz in Kln. Mr. Bidini's discography includes 15 acclaimed CDs and he is a Steinway artist.
Critical acclaim for Anne Akiko Meyers
"Anne Akiko Meyers is the coolest thing to happen to the violin since Stradivari." The Denver Post
"Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the most adventurous soloists on the international scene today." Chicago Classical
"Playing that flows from the heart" The New York Times
"a simply outstanding CD." The Whole Note (on Fantasia, AV2385)
