American Stories

Anthony McGill, New York Philharmonic principal clarinet and 2020 Avery Fisher Prize winner, and the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet present an album illuminating experiences that have shaped America through works by Richard Danielpour, James Lee III, Ben Shirley (all three world-premiere recordings), and Valerie Coleman. McGill describes it as a project driven by the desire to “expand the capacity for art and music to change the world.”

Danielpour’s Four Angels pays tribute to the four young Black girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing and to civil rights advocates who refused to be intimidated by racial violence. Lee’s Quintet for Clarinet & String Quartet reflects on the Native American experience and echoes elements of Native music. Ben Shirley’s High Sierra Sonata, which inspired the album’s scenic cover art, evokes California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and the camaraderie and perseverance of runners in the region’s annual high-altitude marathon. Coleman’s Shotgun Houses celebrates the life of Muhammad Ali and the West Louisville, Kentucky, neighborhood where she and the legendary prizefighter were raised.