UMass Prof Releases Album of New England-centered Pieces
Album cover, "Filled with the Light," Navona Records Photo: Navona Records
Source: PARMA Recordings
UMass Professor of Voice, Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine recently released “Filled with the Light”, an album of premiere recordings of New England-focused vocal works, on Grammy-winning label Navona Records.
Guarrine, a Wisconsin transplant, says the works reflect pride and admiration for her chosen home.
“The music on this album grows out of a landscape. “Filled with the Light” brings together composers and poets whose artistic lives intersect with New England — its mountains, orchards, and literary imagination,” Guarrine says. “While some of these works span decades, they share a common sensibility: a reverence for nature, language, and the quiet illumination that poetry can bring to everyday life.”
On the album, Guarrine collaborates with her husband, Amherst College and Smith College cello faculty member Karl Knapp, and a longtime mentor, Professor Emerita of Piano at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music Martha Fischer.
The musicians perform works from influential choral composer Alice Parker’s “Three Mountain Hymns” to composer Scott Gendel’s cycle of Robert Frost’s poetry, “A Friendly Visit.” The album’s title comes from New Hampshire farmer and poet Charlie Pratt’s words, featured in Gregory W. Brown’s song cycle “Take the Apple.” “Be joyful, fear not, for you are filled with the light,” Pratt wrote.
Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the Madison Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, San Antonio Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others.
“Filled with the Light” is available on all major streaming platforms.
Listen to selections from the album here.