MARY ELLEN CHILDS composer

Wreck
Performed by Pat O'Keefe (clarinets), Laura Harada (violin), Michelle Kinney (cello), Jacqueline Ultan (cello), Peter O'Gorman (percussion)
Released by Innova Records (2013)
Recipient of 2008 Sage Award for outstanding music for dance

Commissioned by Minnesota's Black Label Movement dance company, Wreck is grounded in the kinetic movement of the body itself and creates a cohesive whole. Set on an ore boat sinking in Lake Superior, the performance presents the crew gathered in the last airtight compartment of the vessel. The score creates evocative sound worlds that would convey the full range of expressive possibilities the story would evoke - moments of joy, reflection, anxiety, fear and everything else  life whose minutes are ticking away might go through.

"Childs' score, which sounds like a soundtrack for some noir thriller infected by the driving obstinate of Steve Reich, carves out a menacing soundscape that drives Wreck to its very last gasp."
-Dance Magazine 

Available for purchase here

Dreamhouse
Performed by  ETHEL string quartet
Released by Innova Recordings (2007)

Dream House serves as a commentary on cycles of time, the rhythm of work, and the intertwined nature of destruction and creation. The stunning video imagery for the work (edited by Daniel Polsfuss) is based on footage collected at three construction sites, including one in which an existing house was demolished to make room for construction of a new home on the same site.

"At it's most angry, such as in "Welding" the music is fiery, at its most reflective, such as in "Very High", it almost sobs as notes punctuate the texture exquisitely." -Gramophone

Available for purchase here

Chamberhouse
Dream House remixed by DJs JamesPatrick and Neverwas
Released by Sugarfoot

Available for purchase here 

Kilter
Released by XI Records (1996)
Performed by Guy Klucevsek (accordion), the SoHo Quartet, Anthony de Mare (piano), Kathy Supové (piano), Phillip Bush (piano), Dora Ohrenstein (soprano)

"An enveloping and entrancing audio quilt composed of organic reeds, sylvan accordion, timepiece xylophone, seductive polyrhythms, and somewhat histrionic wordless vocals."
-Twin Cities Reader

Available for purchase here

Documerica
Performed by ETHEL string quartet
Released by Innova (2015)

Documerica was inspired by the Environmental Protection Agency's Project Documerica (1971), which commissioned photographers across America to document the state of the environment and its impact on society. This album features new work by ETHEL members and music commissioned from four uniquely American artists- acclaimed composer Mary Ellen Childs, Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., Chickasaw Nation's Jerod Impichhaachaaha' Tate and West Point commission James "Kimo" Williams. 

Hailing from different regions, backgrounds and generations, each composer contributes his or her distinctive voice to a score that represents the diversity of America. The music explores a range of American genres—blues, jazz, Native American traditional, bluegrass, and old-time string band—filtered through a distinctly 21st-century lens.

Available for purchase here

LIASIONS
Released by ECM (2015)

Conceived by acclaimed concert pianist Anthony de Mare, LIAISONS is a landmark commissioning, live performance, and recording project based on the songs of legendary musical theater composer Stephen Sondheim. The Project invited 36 of the world’s foremost contemporary composers to choose a song by Sondheim and re-imagine it as a solo piano piece.

Features "Now (Later Soon)"

"The whole undertaking is a triumph." -

Available for purchase here

Powerhouse Pianists II
Performed by Stephen Gosling and Blair McMillen (piano)
Released by AMR (2015)

Features "Kilter"

Produced by Grammy award winning producer Adam Abeshouse, Powerhouse Pianists II allows Gosling and McMillen to apply the full force of their artistry to examples of music for two pianos by living American composers. 

"The frenetic pulse melts into the simple patterns of Mary Ellen Childs' Kilter, which evokes a sense of mystery and mysticism as they become inextricably entwined." -

Available for purchase here

The OPERA America Songbook, Volume I
Released by Schott (2012)

Features "Farmstand Now Open"

OPERA America commissioned the OPERA America Songbook in celebration of the opening of the National Opera Center in September 2012 in New York, NY. Composers with strong ties to the organization were invited to write a song for voice and piano on the theme of opening a new home. 

Available for purchase here

Fantasy 'n' Symmetry
Performed by Quartet of New Generation 
Released by Genuine (2012)

Features "Parterre"

From Handel to Childs and Blecharz to Bach, Fantasy 'n' Symmetrypresents daredevil cross-connections, bridges over centuries and paradoxical symmetries that make one's breath stand still. 

Available for purchase here

Here and Now
Released by Innova Records (2011)
Performed by Zeitgeist 

Features "Faint Object Camera"

Here and Now is the result of Zeitgeist asking thirty Minnesota composers (one for each year of Zeitgeist's existence) to write 150-second long pieces (one second for each year of Minnesota's existence as a state). The album paints a long-exposure picture of Minnesota's long lively compositional scene in the first decade of the new millennium, or simply perhaps thirty love letters to Zeitgeist.

Available for purchase here

Light
Performed by ETHEL string quartet
Released by Cantaloupe Records (2006)

Features favorites from ETHEL's road-tested repertoire
"After Dust" from Dream House

"After Dust" follows a dramatic destruction scene and is heard as the dust settles and excavation begins

Available for purchase here

Manhattan Cascade
Performed by Guy Klucevsek, Accordion
Released by CRI (1991)

Features "Oa Poa Polka"

“Mary Ellen Childs’ quiet pointillistic OA POA POLKA had notes peeping from all over the accordion, with the oompah just barely winking into view.” -The New York Times

Available for purchase here