Search - W. A. Mathieu, Joan Jeanrenaud, George Marsh :: This Marriage

These spontaneous and composed duets are replete with intimacy, ongoing trust, passionate joining, the cool trick of hearing the sound of another emanating from yourself, and being in another via the music. This album offers duets with Terry Riley, minimalist composer; Hamza El Din, Nubian oud and tar player; Shira Kammen, voilin & violist extraordinaire and early music disciple; Joan Jeanrenaud, cellist and composer, formerly with the Kronos Quartet; Devi Mathieu, divine soprano; and the russet-backed thrushes who live by the creek in Mathieu?s home valley. William Allaudin Mathieu (b. 1937) is a pianist, composer, teacher, recording artist, and author. He has composed a variety of chamber and choral works and made numerous solo piano recordings. He has written three books on music ? The Listening Book; The Musical Life; and Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression. Allaudin was a disciple of North Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath for 25 years. He studied African music with Nubian musician Hamza El Din, jazz with William Russo, and European classical music with Easley Blackwood. In the 1960s, he spent several years as an arranger/composer for Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington, and was the musical director for the Second City Theater in Chicago (which he helped found) and for the Committee Theater in San Francisco. In the 1970s, he served on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Mills College. In 1969 he founded the Sufi Choir, which he directed until 1982. The past two decades Allaudin has devoted to composition, performance, recording, teaching, and writing from his home near Sebastopol, California.