Discover
Celebrating America in Sound: The Pacifica Quartet’s American Portraits
In honor of the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary celebration, Cedille Records is proud to support the Pacifica Quartet as it completes a bold and timely trilogy of recordings. American Portraits, scheduled for release in 2026, will be the final album in a three-part series (and eventual boxed set) that captures the diversity, complexity, and richness of American musical voices.
This culminating volume will feature newly commissioned works by two of America’s most celebrated composers: Gabriela Lena Frank and Jennifer Higdon. Each piece will be centered around a powerful text that reflects the American experience — and that will be brought to life by renowned actress Sigourney Weaver, who will serve as narrator. These commissions promise to create an evocative and deeply personal musical narrative that complements the Pacifica Quartet’s expressive artistry.
American Portraits follows the Pacifica’s Grammy-nominated American Stories, featuring clarinetist Anthony McGill, and American Voices, which includes a collaboration with Uniting Voices (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir). Together, the three albums form a vibrant musical journey across generations, genres, and communities. American Portraits has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, recognizing its significance as part of the nation’s cultural commemoration.
Thanks to your generosity, Cedille is able to make visionary projects like this possible —bringing together extraordinary musicians, composers, and collaborators to shape how the story of America will be heard for years to come.
Recommended
Commissioned by Cedille Records specially for our 2025 Emerging Artist Competition winner, oboist Oliver Talukder, as a companion for his Briefly Gorgeous album, Powder is a two-track single of Two Songs for voice, oboe/English horn, and piano by Delfin Demiray, who was Talukder’s classmate at the Curtis Institute of Music. The first song features Chicago mezzo, Sophia Maekawa, while Talukder performs the second song’s special effect and extended technique-infused vocal line himself (as an “overdub”), demonstrating yet another facet of his artistry.
Winner of Cedille Records’ 2025 Emerging Artist Competition, Chicago-born oboist Oliver Talukder makes his solo recording debut with Briefly Gorgeous. Joined by pianist Moriah Trenk, Talukder presents an album inspired by themes of identity, love, family, and belonging. Drawing on his Mexican and Bengali heritage and his Chicago upbringing, the program explores where classical music intersects with Latino and South Asian traditions, creating a musical portrait shaped by Talukder’s unique story.
With the new month comes a new featured playlist on Spotify — or, in this case, a refresh of our Artist Debuts on Cedille playlist, originally created in 2022 to celebrate the inaugural album by the first Emerging Artist Competition winner, saxophonist Julian Velasco.
The update is to celebrate oboist Oliver Talukder, winner of Cedille’s second competition, as well as other artists who have made their Cedille debus since 2022. (Oliver’s track will be added on Friday when his album, Briefly Gorgeous, is released.)
Enjoy Cedille’s Weekly Featured Release.