What others are saying

David Katz: “To re-examine what The American Prize has written about your music over a number of seasons points up most compellingly a composer with a personal and often unique point of view. That is an ability, or perhaps more accurately, a talent, to be celebrated, for it is far too rare. I hope you enjoy the attached, sent with appreciation and considerable enjoyment. More please!”

David Katz: “Having been involved in judging the works of composers for many years, including many with exceptional skills and technique, I find that originality in sound world or focus—that is, a personal style—is the most rare. Especially now, when virtually every era of music has been recorded and is readily available, to not simply imitate what others have done (and usually not as well), can be counted as one of the greatest gifts, it seems to me.”

Jason Noble: “I was particularly drawn to… the humorous elements in Ian Guthrie’s Those Left Behind…”

Mark Messersmith: “Not sure what I was expecting, but certainly nothing this wonderful. I like it better each time I listen to it. The commotion, confusion, dislocations, woodpecker sounds, a little of Copland’s great landscapes feelings under the surface. Optimism but with anxiety, fear and apprehension. Very American. You really captured the inspiration behind the painting [in Those Left Behind].”

Ronald Beckett: “Ian Guthrie’s song entitled Song of the [W]ood, written to a text translated by Renzo Montagnoli was sung by our Nicole Foley. I found it fascinating with its rich accompaniment and haunting alternation between major and minor[.]”

David Bridges: “I find myself leaving [Guthrie’s String Quartet no. 1] humming the melody.”

Jonathan Middleton: “[Tropical Sabbath] appears to capture the challenge of bringing darkness to the tropics. A very interesting challenge.”

Eric Simonson: “I enjoyed listening to your Soundscape Retreats. And this is an apt title; because I hear in them atmospheres which are oblivious to us, incidental and unintentional. The expansive sound clouds at the beginning are reminiscent of Ives and Debussy, with occasional “wrong note” harmonies. But then there are those brief interruptions of silence at the end which are indicative of the music’s becoming self-conscious. The mid-register lyrical gestures (that there seem to be more of in the second piece) are like figures in a landscape–is this the listening subject’s consciousness? I am most enchanted with the third piece which starts with that stormy rumbling that gives way to the clearer ostinato rhythms. There are moments, very clear, of things happening at different speeds. The ostinato rhythms re-emerge and re-populate the texture, leading to an exciting finish.”

Robert McBride: “That piece was the “Pastoral” from the Switzerland collection of Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage, played by superstar pianist Stephen Hough. Liszt was a superstar composer-pianist of the 19th century; a superstar composer-pianist of the future is Ian Guthrie, who you will hear today on our program Thursdays@Three, where he will play one of his own pieces for piano, ‘Lake of Sunlit Shadows’.”

John Haek: “It is.. personally gratifying to see the continued influence of the incredible natural environment of the Pacific NW on [his] creative work.”

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