Tina Davidson's New Album, "Barefoot," featuring the Jasper String Quartet and Natalie Zhu

Released on New Focus Recordings, the album highlights five of Davidson’s chamber music pieces for varying combinations of strings and piano

Composer Tina Davidson has released her new album, Barefoot —featuring the Jasper String Quartet and pianist Natalie Zhu. Released on New Focus Recordings, the album highlights five of Davidson’s chamber music pieces for varying combinations of strings and piano. The album was recorded in Gore Recital Hall at the University of Delaware in September 2023.

The album includes 5 works: Tremble (2013), Barefoot (2011), Wēpan (2014), Hush (2017), and Leap (2021), which all look inward toward Davidson's ties to music and how they can be a portal to a more holistic sense of being in the world. Barefoot follows the publication last year of Davidson’s memoir Let Your Heart Be Broken (Boyle & Dalton), which traces Davidson’s extraordinary life in equally lyrical language, juxtaposing memories, journal entries, notes on compositions in progress, and insights into the life of an artist – and a mother – at work.

Davidson shared, "The works on this album are about personal thoughts and feelings. Barefoot is that urge to be outside and have contact with the earth; the urge to dance and turn and spin before God. Tremble is the sense of excitement, fear or love—the thing that causes the body to resonate in anticipation. Leap, written during the Covid pandemic, is where I found myself when I was pushed off the edge by circumstance. Hush is the remembrance of soothing a child. 'Hush,' I say, 'Hush, hush.'”

Listen to the teaser video below:

To purchase and listen to the album, click here.

Composer Tina Davidson has been commissioned by well-known ensembles such as the National Symphony Orchestra, OperaDelaware, Roanoke Symphony, VocalEssence, Kronos Quartet, Cassatt Quartet, and public television (WHYY-TV). Many orchestras and ensembles, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Relâche Ensemble, and the Orchestra 2001, have widely performed her music. Davidson was commissioned by GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn as part of her 27 Encores project. The work, Blue Curve of the Earth, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2013, and again in 2018 on Hahn’s new album, Retrospective.

The Jasper String Quartet comprises violinists J Freivogel and Karen Kim, violist Andrew Gonzalez, and cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel. The ensemble has released eight albums, including its most recent release, Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung (2023). The Quartet’s 2017 release, Unbound, was named by The New York Times as one of the year’s 25 Best Classical Recordings.

Pianist Natalie Zhu is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Musical Fund Society Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the Astral Artists Award. She has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has given solo recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and more.