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"A Closer Look Reveals," the new album from composer & pianist Michael R. Oldham, is a deeply personal album that begs the listener to do exactly that: take a closer look. Whether it is taken literally in regards to seven portraits by the provocative Austrian painter, Egon Schiele in "The Egon Schiele Pieces," or more personally in pieces like, "All of My Unrequited Loves," "You Called Me On My Birthday," "Forgive Me," "The Witching Hour," or "Letters of Recommendation for New Romance."
This is an album about love, romance, heartbreak, unrequited loves, sensuality, personal demons, personal growth, moving on, starting over...and the confusion, frustration, and beauty that accompanies all of that. All music composed and performed by Michael R. Oldham. (ASCAP) Impostor's Thought Balloons Publishing (ASCAP) Recording, engineering, mixing, & mastering by Nick Stetina. www.nickstetina.com Recorded at Kiwi Audio in Batavia, IL. www.kiwiaudio.com |
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the ARtists
Michael R. Oldham (b. 1989 Braidwood, IL) is a composer and pianist who weaves artwork, story, and imagination into his work. Whether experimenting with looping videos on Instagram as the "parts" of a piece that anyone can play (Music In Segments - 2018), utilizing repeating gif images of old silent films as inspiration for a twelve-movement work (Music In Gifs - 2019), or translating great works of art into music (Suggestion Box: Art - 2020, The Egon Schiele Pieces - upcoming), as well as recent ad work, Michael's thirst for unusual storytelling through music is never quenched.
Michael's work as an art song composer has been keeping him busy lately, from a Wicker Park, In Caricature, commissioned for Chicago Fringe Opera's A City of Works, as well as his 8-part art song project, Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love.
A new song by Michael is also out now: It Gets Lonely Sometimes.
In life, people get letters of recommendation for new jobs, proposals, grants, and more. How come there isn't a tradition of obtaining one of these letters when someone is in pursuit of a romantic partner? Michael's piece, Letters of Recommendation for New Romance, muses on exactly that concept. It is also the first single from his forthcoming album, A Closer Look Reveals, out October 29th. Also from the same album, Song for Uncertain Times is available on Bandcamp and streaming now.
A project birthed from the 2020 quarantine, Suggestion Box: Art, is out on Bandcamp. This EP came about with a call for submissions from Michael's followers on Instagram and Twitter. He asked for works of art that inspire them and then created a 6-movement work based on those suggestions (completed May through July of 2020).
Continuing this trend, his work as composer-as-storyteller is ever-present in the albums, EPs, and singles he has self-released. Recent albums include Three Vignettes (2017), which is a work with short stories for violin and piano, The Los Angeles Miseries (2016), which is a set of pieces for solo piano on perspectives attained while driving across America from Chicago to Los Angeles, Grand Delusions on a Small Scale (2015), which features early solo piano works, as well as Fantasies for Piano (2014), which is a six-movement dissection of some of his favorite songs by artists including Fiona Apple, Dirty Projectors, My Brightest Diamond, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and Sufjan Stevens.
Michael's first full-length album, In Select Theaters, is out now on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms. The album is inspired by old film and storytelling and features visual pieces like Music In Gifs, Alternate Music for 'How to Steal A Million,' A Muse on Old Hollywood, and the Edward Hopper inspired In Select Theaters. Also check out his ethereal piano and electronics piece Sentiments Unannounced but in Tired Eyes (Version 2018).
NPR Music mentioned his solo piano piece, Phantasmagorical Religious Exercises on their Tumblr once.
Michael has received the Georges Delerue Memorial Scholarship award in film scoring, and has participated in an internship with Paramount Pictures. His music has garnered awards from Berklee's Contemporary Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition, the Music Institute of Chicago's Generation Next Young Composer's Competition, the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, as well as premieres at the New England Conservatory, the Kennedy Center, Chicago's WFMT radio, and the Green Lake Music Festival in Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Michael earned his Bachelor's degree in Film Scoring and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied briefly at Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. He also keeps quite busy as a rehearsal and performance pianist in and around Chicago, including work with Chicago Fringe Opera and Chicago's illustrious improv institution, Second City.
Michael's work as an art song composer has been keeping him busy lately, from a Wicker Park, In Caricature, commissioned for Chicago Fringe Opera's A City of Works, as well as his 8-part art song project, Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love.
A new song by Michael is also out now: It Gets Lonely Sometimes.
In life, people get letters of recommendation for new jobs, proposals, grants, and more. How come there isn't a tradition of obtaining one of these letters when someone is in pursuit of a romantic partner? Michael's piece, Letters of Recommendation for New Romance, muses on exactly that concept. It is also the first single from his forthcoming album, A Closer Look Reveals, out October 29th. Also from the same album, Song for Uncertain Times is available on Bandcamp and streaming now.
A project birthed from the 2020 quarantine, Suggestion Box: Art, is out on Bandcamp. This EP came about with a call for submissions from Michael's followers on Instagram and Twitter. He asked for works of art that inspire them and then created a 6-movement work based on those suggestions (completed May through July of 2020).
Continuing this trend, his work as composer-as-storyteller is ever-present in the albums, EPs, and singles he has self-released. Recent albums include Three Vignettes (2017), which is a work with short stories for violin and piano, The Los Angeles Miseries (2016), which is a set of pieces for solo piano on perspectives attained while driving across America from Chicago to Los Angeles, Grand Delusions on a Small Scale (2015), which features early solo piano works, as well as Fantasies for Piano (2014), which is a six-movement dissection of some of his favorite songs by artists including Fiona Apple, Dirty Projectors, My Brightest Diamond, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and Sufjan Stevens.
Michael's first full-length album, In Select Theaters, is out now on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms. The album is inspired by old film and storytelling and features visual pieces like Music In Gifs, Alternate Music for 'How to Steal A Million,' A Muse on Old Hollywood, and the Edward Hopper inspired In Select Theaters. Also check out his ethereal piano and electronics piece Sentiments Unannounced but in Tired Eyes (Version 2018).
NPR Music mentioned his solo piano piece, Phantasmagorical Religious Exercises on their Tumblr once.
Michael has received the Georges Delerue Memorial Scholarship award in film scoring, and has participated in an internship with Paramount Pictures. His music has garnered awards from Berklee's Contemporary Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition, the Music Institute of Chicago's Generation Next Young Composer's Competition, the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, as well as premieres at the New England Conservatory, the Kennedy Center, Chicago's WFMT radio, and the Green Lake Music Festival in Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Michael earned his Bachelor's degree in Film Scoring and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied briefly at Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. He also keeps quite busy as a rehearsal and performance pianist in and around Chicago, including work with Chicago Fringe Opera and Chicago's illustrious improv institution, Second City.
A native of Temple Hills, Maryland, Bass-Baritone, LaRob K. Payton developed a love for singing at an early age. He found a spirit in the Gospel songs he sang, passion in the R&B he heard, and nuance in the Classical music he studied.
A graduate of DePaul University where he received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, LaRob has studied with world-renowned teachers, directors, and coaches and has had musical opportunities that include traveling internationally to study language, culture, and music in Urbania, Italy (Musica Nelle Marche) and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Istituto de Bel Canto). He has performed leading operatic roles such as Pistola (Falstaff), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Colline (La Boheme), Giove (La Calisto), Thoas (Iphigenie en Tauride), Father/Vater (Hansel und Gretel) and been a soloist in orchestral chamber works (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler), (Soundscapes of Color, Dzitko).
As an Arts Administrative Specialist, he concurrently works at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the Learning and Creative Engagement Department, sits on the Board of La Caccina as Diversity and Community Engagement Advisor, and is an active consultant with the recently formed Black Opera Alliance and Black Administrators of Opera groups.
LaRob continues to sing around the Chicago area (William Ferris Chorale/North Shore Baptist Church) and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Hearing in Color, an organization dedicated to supporting those whose contributions and stories have been historically excluded from classical spaces.
LaRob also uses his voice to connect people from different communities as a newly appointed host of Chicago's Classical music station, WFMT (98.7 FM) to continue decentralizing the predominantly white, European, male-centered classical consciousness.
A graduate of DePaul University where he received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, LaRob has studied with world-renowned teachers, directors, and coaches and has had musical opportunities that include traveling internationally to study language, culture, and music in Urbania, Italy (Musica Nelle Marche) and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Istituto de Bel Canto). He has performed leading operatic roles such as Pistola (Falstaff), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Colline (La Boheme), Giove (La Calisto), Thoas (Iphigenie en Tauride), Father/Vater (Hansel und Gretel) and been a soloist in orchestral chamber works (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler), (Soundscapes of Color, Dzitko).
As an Arts Administrative Specialist, he concurrently works at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the Learning and Creative Engagement Department, sits on the Board of La Caccina as Diversity and Community Engagement Advisor, and is an active consultant with the recently formed Black Opera Alliance and Black Administrators of Opera groups.
LaRob continues to sing around the Chicago area (William Ferris Chorale/North Shore Baptist Church) and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Hearing in Color, an organization dedicated to supporting those whose contributions and stories have been historically excluded from classical spaces.
LaRob also uses his voice to connect people from different communities as a newly appointed host of Chicago's Classical music station, WFMT (98.7 FM) to continue decentralizing the predominantly white, European, male-centered classical consciousness.
Laura Smalley is a regular performer in the Chicagoland area: performing with Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Music Theater Works, Forte Chicago, Chicago Fringe Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, The Savoyaires, Singing River Productions, and Slotted Spoon Initiative. She holds a BM in Vocal Performance from DePaul School of Music.
Her cabaret performances include Sleep/Creep/Leap and Reunion: A Night of Sondheim. She is a founding member of the vintage vocal trio The Peppermint Patties, with recent shows including A Very Christmas Cabaret (2018), Won’t You Be My Galentine? (2020), and Home for the Holidays (2020).
Laura is currently the Executive Director of Chicago Fringe Opera, a storefront opera company whose mission is to engage with the Chicago community through intimate performance experiences and empowering local artists.
Her cabaret performances include Sleep/Creep/Leap and Reunion: A Night of Sondheim. She is a founding member of the vintage vocal trio The Peppermint Patties, with recent shows including A Very Christmas Cabaret (2018), Won’t You Be My Galentine? (2020), and Home for the Holidays (2020).
Laura is currently the Executive Director of Chicago Fringe Opera, a storefront opera company whose mission is to engage with the Chicago community through intimate performance experiences and empowering local artists.
The Program
A Muse on Old Hollywood
Song for Uncertain Times
All of My Unrequited Loves
Music in Gifs
I. Midmorning Brunch on Saturn
II. Mad Hatter Romance
III. A Once and Beautiful Dream
IV. Another Torrential Thursday
V. Dance Amidst the Topiary
VI. Entr'acte
VII. So Funny, So Sad
VIII. The Kiss
IX. Frida
X. In Fits of Flora
XI. The Party
XII. Farewell, Until Next Time
Home (from Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love) featuring LaRob K. Rafael
Suggestion Box: Art - Movement III: His Version of Paradise
Alternate Music for "How to Steal a Million"
What Do I Do? (from Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love) featuring Laura Smalley
The Egon Schiele Pieces
V. Preacher
VI. Self-Portrait as St. Sebastian
VII. The Dancer Moa
Phantasmagorical Religious Exercises
Song for Uncertain Times
All of My Unrequited Loves
Music in Gifs
I. Midmorning Brunch on Saturn
II. Mad Hatter Romance
III. A Once and Beautiful Dream
IV. Another Torrential Thursday
V. Dance Amidst the Topiary
VI. Entr'acte
VII. So Funny, So Sad
VIII. The Kiss
IX. Frida
X. In Fits of Flora
XI. The Party
XII. Farewell, Until Next Time
Home (from Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love) featuring LaRob K. Rafael
Suggestion Box: Art - Movement III: His Version of Paradise
Alternate Music for "How to Steal a Million"
What Do I Do? (from Lugubrious Portraiture, or, Art Songs for Those on the Peripheries of Love) featuring Laura Smalley
The Egon Schiele Pieces
V. Preacher
VI. Self-Portrait as St. Sebastian
VII. The Dancer Moa
Phantasmagorical Religious Exercises
Thank you to Nolan Chin, Margaret McCarthy, and everyone at Constellation for making this evening's performance possible. Thank you to Nick Stetina, Brad Showalter, and Kiwi Audio for making this album possible. Thank you LaRob and Laura for taking time to share your artistry with me on this little show. Thank you to my friends, family, and everyone in my life for supporting me and my music, especially those who have given me opportunities to put my artistic voice out into the world. And most of all, thank YOU for coming, listening, laughing, and supporting me on my artistic journey. It can be a long road, but with people like you all in my life, it's a much smoother one. I hope you connect with my music. I hope it brings you joy and solace. I hope it helps you dream. All of my love,
Michael
Michael