Margaret Brouwer

Composer Margaret Brouwer's new album featured in Gramophone

Gramophone Review: BROUWER Reactions: Songs and Chamber Music

By Donald Rosenberg

Margaret Brouwer covers a lot of emotional territory in the music on her new CD, ‘Reactions’, which comprises works composed between 2005 and 2020, including one written in the throes of the pandemic. The American composer has the expressive skills to evoke the passions she sets out to describe – love, ecology, racism, even being trapped in telephone hell.

Read the full review HERE

New album of chamber and vocal music by Margaret Brouwer

New album of works by Margaret Brouwer released on April 8 on Naxos

World premiere recordings of 21st century chamber and vocal music by the award-winning composer

(Brouwer) has a talent for taking the simplest melody and through her expansive array of compositional techniques, develop it into a polished musical gem. — ClevelandClassical

Margaret Brouwer is a composer who wears her heart on her sleeve. Her new album, “Reactions - Songs and Chamber Music”, (Naxos 8.559904, rel. April 8, 2022) is a collection of chamber music and songs that explicitly express the composer’s emotions, moods and unique view of the state of affairs of the world.

The centerpiece of the album is Declaration, for mezzo-soprano, violin and piano. This set of four songs has texts ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Brouwer herself, which address the fundamental issues and effects of violence and war and the equality of all people.

In Rhapsodic Sonata, for viola and piano, Brouwer expresses a more personal, and no less deep, emotion: the joys and difficulties of love. The most recent work on the album is “I Cry – Summer 2020” for violin and piano. It’s the composer’s response to the pandemic, isolation, loss, and racial injustice that she, and much of the rest of the world, suffered in 2020. Brouwer effectively fits all of it into this compact four minute piece.

The collection concludes with comic release, persuasively performed by Mari Sato as both violinist and narrator. “All Lines Are Still Busy" dramatizes a “please hold” moment that we all can relate to.

Most of the selections on the album were recorded in Cleveland at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where Brouwer was head of the composition department from 1996 – 2008. The recordings were made in 2021, at the height the pandemic.

Brouwer is that rarity, a contemporary composer whose music is accessible and engaging for a wide range of audiences, but whose work doesn't sound like movie music. — St. Louis Post Dispatch

Reactions
Songs and Chamber Music by Margaret Brouwer

Rhapsodic Sonata · Declaration · The Lake
I Cry - Summer 2020 · All Lines are Still Busy

with Eliesha Nelson, viola; Shuai Wang, piano;
Sarah Beaty, mezzo-soprano; Mari Sato, violin; and Brian Skoog, tenor

Naxos (8.559904)
Release Date: April 8, 2022

Track List

[01-03] Rhapsodic Sonata
I. Cáritas 10:31
II. …fair as the moon, bright as the sun… 04:47
III. Blithesome Spirit 04:54
Eliesha Nelson, viola; Shuai Wang, piano

[04-07] Declaration
I. Thorn 04:29
II. Scattering in Fear 02:30
III. …all men and women are… 01:12
IV. Whom do you call angel now 05:30
Sarah Beaty, mezzo-soprano; Mari Sato, violin; Shuai Wang, piano

[08] I Cry - Summer 2020 03:57
Mari Sato, violin; Shuai Wang, piano

[09] The Lake 11:09
Brian Skoog, tenor; Shuai Wang, piano

[10] All Lines Are Still Busy 06:19
Mari Sato, violin and narrator

Total Time = 55:18

Recommended tracks for classical radio:

[2] Rhapsodic Sonata: …fair as the moon, bright as the sun…

[7] Declaration: Whom do you call angel now

[8] I Cry - Summer 2020

Visit Margaret Brouwer's website
Bios, photos and more on Brouwer's
Digital Press Kit

Request a copy of this CD


The composer Margaret Brouwer has been praised for her “gift for both lyricism and humor” (American Record Guide), with her music described as “utterly luminous in its beauty” (St. Louis Post Dispatch).

The 2022 recording of Brouwer’s music, “Reactions” (Naxos Classics) features performances by members of Blue Streak Ensemble, a chamber group that Brouwer founded in 2011. It is one of a dozen titles in her discography, which includes recordings of selections from her catalogue of over 200 orchestral, chamber, vocal and keyboard compositions.

Margaret Brouwer is in high demand for new works, as evidenced by the extensive list of orchestras, chamber ensembles and festivals who have commissioned and performed her music. Topping the list are the St. Louis, Seattle, Dallas and Royal Scottish symphonies and the City of Birmingham Orchestra. She was head of composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music (1996 – 2008), and her long list of awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters and Cleveland Arts Prize.

Classical Post highlights Margaret Brouwer's "Voice of the Lake"

'Voice Of The Lake' Oratorio Highlights Environmental Concerns

July 11, 2019

In response to the 2014 algae bloom in Lake Erie, Cleveland composer Margaret Brouwer decided to create an environmental oratorio with hopes of increasing interest around Lake Erie and other threatened bodies of water.

After two years in the making, Brouwer’s 80-minute oratorio, “Voice of the Lake,” premiered at the Cleveland Institute of Music in October. The performance is now available on DVD and YouTube.

Composed of four parts, the oratorio opens with “At the Lake,” a joyful tribute to Lake Erie. The piece progresses with “The Public Hearing,” which portrays the conflict of opinion in Cleveland as to whether it is safe to dump dredged sediment into the lake. The third part tells the story of “Evening Near the River,” during which two campers come across the algae-filled lake and see some of its causes and solutions. Finally, the piece ends with “Sunrise at the Lake,” a resolution to clean up Lake Erie.

Through these four parts, Brouwer attempts to reveal the significance of the lake, which is used as a recreational site, natural habitat and source of drinking water for potentially 11 million lakeside residents. Due to phosphorus runoff from fertilized farms and leaky septic systems, however, the lake was filled with algae, much of it poisonous. In order to convey the reality of the situation, Brouwer took phrases from public hearing transcripts in relation to the algae bloom. The result is a libretto based more so on factual information than on poetry.

The video of the performance is now available for purchase on DVD for $30, of which $8 will be donated to the North American Lake Management Society.

The performance features the Blue Streak Ensemble, Blue Streak Ensemble Chamber Singers and the Cleveland Institute of Music Children's Choir. The soloists include soprano Angela Mortellaro, mezzo Sarah Beaty, tenor Brian Skoog and bass Bryant Bush. The show was conducted by Cleveland Opera theater director Domenico Boyagian.

— Kristine Liao

WXXI features Margaret Brouwer's "Voice of the Lake"

Music expresses love, concern for Great Lakes

By MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI

Composer Margaret Brouwer lives in Ohio, near Lake Erie. She loves the natural beauty of the Great Lakes and she’s worried about them.

She has composed her love for Lake Erie -- and her concerns for its future --  into a musical work called "Voice of the Lake."

Listen to the feature here

"The Great Lakes are actually the largest body of fresh water in the world," and yet, she says, "We take it so for granted. People don’t realize what a wonderful natural treasure we have." 

She’s concerned about farm runoff that feeds toxic algae blooms, people dumping trash, and the dirt being dredged from the Cuyahoga River being dumped in the lake.

In her music, she started with sounds of people interacting with the lake.

"I think a lot about sounds before every piece that I write, and the sounds that I want to create," she explains, "so I was thinking a lot about the sounds of the lake, the sounds of the children splashing in the water." 

In addition to depicting the ways that people interact with the water, she includes scenes showing innovative ways people have tried to control and stop the algae, and a portrayal of a public hearing about lake dumping.

"I really believe that music should be two equal parts: One would appeal to the intelligence, to your brain -- and one would appeal to your soul and your heart and your emotions.  All the music is pretty emotional, actually."

"A lot of it is beautiful, wonderful, happy music (in) the first part, and there’s angry music, there’s very sad music, too," she says. "The soprano plays the role of the person who loves the lake and sings about it in the first part, and then she is very upset and angry in the second part about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  In the other parts, her arias are very, very sad.  She doesn’t understand; she doesn’t know what to do about it. She’s trying to figure it out." 

In the end, Brouwer says, "I don’t really give an answer in this piece, other than showing the people who are doing something.  The children ask people to help; they say, 'we need help', and they’re asking everyone to work together to help the lake."

Brouwer says she struggled with how exactly to end the piece.

"I could have made it fictional, and had it be something where people were all leaving the area because there was no good drinking water and people were dying, because that could happen," she says. "Right now, I just decided to leave it up in the air with what’s going to happen, who’s going to get involved." 

"Voice of the Lake" has been performed at an International Symposium for the North American Lake Management Society in Cincinnati and at the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, as well as in more traditional concert settings. Brouwer also plans to someday turn it into an opera, with a story set in and around the lake. A recording is now available on DVD and to watch on YouTube

Classical Music Daily features "Voice of the Lake"

Margaret Brouwer's new environmental oratorio
is now available on DVD and at YouTube

... the message Brouwer’s piece delivers is one that needs to be heard. - Classical Voice North America

In August 2014, an algal bloom in Lake Erie poisoned the drinking water of the four hundred thousand residents of Toledo, Ohio, USA. 'Lake Erie is in trouble, and getting worse by the year', wrote The New York Times. The dire situation of pollution in this Great Lake is the inspiration for American composer Margaret Brouwer's work, Voice of the Lake. A live performance of this critically-acclaimed work, which took place at the Cleveland Institute of Music on 19 October 2018, is now available to watch on both YouTube and on DVD.

Brouwer has always been keenly passionate about the environment, and this interest often informs her compositions. In an interview with Cleveland Classical she said, 'The creation of the work started with my personal wish for Lake Erie to be clean'. Brouwer has more to say in an article on RockTheLake.com.

Voice of the Lake (2016-18) is an eighty minute oratorio for vocal soloists, choirs and chamber ensemble which brings to life the ongoing environmental concerns that are affecting Lake Erie: a recreational treasure, expansive natural habitat, important economic engine, major shipping channel and the source of drinking water for eleven million people. A musical vista of nature and the lake, the lyrics are by Margaret Brouwer with additional text gleaned from public record transcripts including Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and the US Army Corps of Engineers, with a short video by Joshua Lipton.

The video features the Blue Streak Ensemble, Blue Streak Ensemble Chamber Singers, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Children's Choir, with soloists Angela Mortellaro, soprano, Sarah Beaty, mezzo, Brian Skoog, tenor and Bryant Bush, bass, conducted by Cleveland Opera Theater Director Domenico Boyagian. The DVD is available to purchase (for US$30, of which $8 will be donated to the North American Lake Management Society) at margaretbrouwer.com or watch now on YouTube.

Posted 27 June 2019 by Keith Bramich