NICK RELEASES SHORT STORIES IN LONDON WITH THE LONDON SYMPHONY

Nicholas Phan records There Was a Child Went Forth with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Young, at LSO St. Luke’s London

GRAMMY® winning tenor Nicholas Phan releases Joel Puckett: Short Stories in London on 22 August on Avie. The album features Puckett’s orchestral song cycle, There Was as Child Went Forth, which was created for Phan. The album was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Joseph Young. It also features the title track, a string quartet concerto performed by the LSO’s principal players; and the composer’s Trumpet Concerto written for jazz artist Sean Jones.

Avie writes:

“The music is accessible and inward, much like the verses by Walt Whitman. It’s a work of celebration, composed in 2023 for the 225th anniversary of the United States President’s Own Marine Band. Inspiration came from Phan’s love of Whitman, and synergy from Whitman’s written reviews of the Marine Band.”

Critic Tim Smith writes that Phan, “confidently negotiates the elegant, if often challenging, melodic lines, using his flair for producing exquisite pianissimi to particularly haunting effect;” with Mark J. Estren noting that, “Phan is fully comfortable with the varied elements of these settings and the vocal techniques required – his unaccompanied opening of the fourth song comes across especially well – he presents the cycle as engagingly as possible.”