EMILY PINKERTON | WORK SAMPLES

The Early Mays - Original Songs with Folk Trio

Rounder Songs - Song Cycle with NOW Ensemble

Looking for Violeta - Folk Opera with Quantum Theatre

Student Ensemble Recordings

Student Work Samples

Original Songs with The Early Mays

On a Dying Day (Finalist in USA Songwriting competition)

The Early Mays on NPR’s Mountain State 2022

CHASE THE SUN

Rounder Songs

AN Appalachian-inspired song cycle for Voice, Banjo, Flute, Clarinet, Electric Guitar, Bass & Piano

Released on New Amsterdam Records, 2017

Independent Music Award, 2019

Rounder Songs Album Release at National Sawdust

IV. Three Forks of Hell (Trad., Arranged and Adapted by Emily Pinkerton)

v. Darling Corey (Trad., Arranged and Adapted by Emily Pinkerton)

Link to complete work, including movements co-composed with Patrick Burke

Looking for Violeta

A theatrical work about the life of Chilean musician Violeta Parra

produced by Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA

Emily Pinkerton, composer | María José Galleguillos, playwright

Files below were recorded live (from soundboard feed) in an outdoor theatre.

103-year old Nicanor Parra—poet, mathematician, and lifelong atheist—arrives in the afterlife, to his great bewilderment. He finds himself in a large space, criss-crossed with strands of thick, wool yarn, like the material his sister Violeta used to use to create large embroidered tapestries. Hanging on to a single thread, he walks slowly, calling for her in sorrow, asking all the questions that have haunted him since her tragic death fifty years before his.

Condensed Score

After Nicanor calls for his lost sister to appear, several figures emerge from giant tapestries that depict musicians and dancers. They are friends and relatives of the Parra family (perhaps memories, perhaps spirits), and join with Nicanor to entice Violeta to reunite with her older brother, and begin a journey back to their childhood years in rural, southern Chile.

Score

This song, from the last part of the play, takes us to the final years of Violeta’s life—the height of her compositional creativity and a period of professional and personal disappointment. Her long relationship with Swiss musician Gilbert Favre begins to unravel, as he travels to Bolivia in search of new artistic frontiers. Violeta’s words show her effort to harness inner strength, but they are tinged with irony. Gilbert’s sung responses reflect the deep, but conflicted, affection he holds for her.

Score

STUDENT ENSEMBLE RECORDINGS

Songwriters of South America

SACAR LA VOZ by Ana Tijoux, Andrés Celis, Jorge Drexler

Recorded remotely by College of Saint Rose “Songwriters of South America” Ensemble during COVID-19 pandemic.

Juliana Castrillón (voice), Emy Díaz (voice), Ce’Nedra Morales (voice), Corinne Pelkie (violin), Ana Carolina Seixas-Peronico (electric bass), Emily Pinkerton (voice) with support from María Carvajal and Kyla Silk.

Edited by Emily Pinkerton

Mixed and mastered by Sean Wendell

Black Roots of Country

SAMPLER

Excerpts from “It Ain’t Easier” by Yola, “Roustabout” (trad. from Dink Roberts), and “All I Have to Offer You is Me” by Charlie Pride

Mia Longo (voice), Evan Randall (guitar), Grace Briggs-Neal (bass), David Cuttino (voice), Corinne Pelkie (voice and fiddle), Patrick Hughes (cello), Nick Dwarika (bass), Allison Jones (voice and banjo), Ana Carolina Seixas-Perônico (banjo), Emily Pinkerton (guitar),

Recording and rough mixes by Emily Pinkerton and Eyobed Tadesse

Saint Rose Chorale

Songs from Camp meeting, Shape note, Bluegrass and Gospel Hymn Traditions

December 5, 2023

Featuring special guests Dr. Risa Faussette (Department of History and Political Science), Mah’lee Woods (Gospel Artist and Guest Director), and Gracie Lineham (Music Industry Alum, Pianist, Singer/Songwriter)

STUDENT WORK SAMPLES FROM CLASSES