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UNCSA Media will release “Desert Pass,” a new album from the chamber ensemble Zéphyros Winds, featuring works by three of today’s most vital voices in contemporary classical music, on June 20. Released through the UNCSA media publishing arm, UNCSA Media, the album includes “The Light is the Same” by Reena Esmail and world premiere recordings of “Tatu” by David Sanford and “Desert Pass” by UNCSA alum Tyson Gholston Davis.
This new recording, the fourth release on UNCSA Media, offers a bold portrait of 21st-century chamber music from a diverse array of new voices writing for the woodwind repertoire. From Hindustani music of India to Miles Davis, to abstract expressionist artwork, the works on the album draw from a rich and expansive world of musical styles and genres.
At the center of the album is the world premiere recording of “Desert Pass” (2023), a contemplative and evocative work by Tyson Gholston Davis, a 2019 graduate of UNCSA’s high school music program. Commissioned by Zéphyros Winds and dedicated to Saxton Rose, a bassoonist in Zéphyros and Dean of the UNCSA School of Music, the piece responds to Helen Frankenthaler’s 1976 painting of the same name. Like the canvas, the music flows through a series of metamorphoses in color and character, creating a lush and expressive soundscape for wind quintet.
UNCSA Media, “Desert Pass”
“Frankenthaler’s painting offered me a space to explore shifting atmospheres and fluid textures,” said Davis. “The musical form mirrors her brushwork — continuous, expansive, and ever-evolving.”
“The Light is the Same” (2017) by Reena Esmail explores the duality and convergence of two Hindustani raags — Vachaspati and Yaman — mirroring the text by the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi: “Religions are many / But God is one / The lamps may be different / But the Light is the same.”
Esmail stated, “I spent the last half of 2016 trying to make sense of what was happening in our country and in our world. In my search for texts for another work, I came across these wise words from Rumi. He states so beautifully that, even if our methods for searching for meaning and happiness look very different, the things we seek are so similar.”
“Tatu” (2018) by David Sanford is a radical, genre-defying composition inspired by Miles Davis’s “Dark Magus” and the sonic experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Written for Zéphyros Winds in 2018, “Tatu” challenges the expressive range of the woodwind quintet through a dense and immersive soundscape, „in the spirit of the 2003 film ‘The Five Obstructions’ by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth,” said Sanford. “I am challenged by the idea of creating a similarly charged and homogenous soundscape using woodwind quintet, likely the most disparate timbres of a traditional chamber ensemble.”
“I’m honored to contribute to this important new release from UNCSA Media,” said Saxton Rose, Dean of the UNCSA School of Music and member of Zéphyros Winds. “The works featured on this album reflect our ensemble’s mission to champion contemporary music by both acclaimed and emerging composers. Each piece pushes the boundaries of virtuosity, sound, and expressive potential for wind instruments in exciting and meaningful ways.”
He added, “I’m especially proud to present the world premiere recording of “Desert Pass” by Tyson Davis, one of our exceptionally talented high school alumni. His remarkable accomplishments since his time at UNCSA are a testament to his artistry and vision.”
Now in its 30th season, Zéphyros Winds brings together five virtuosic soloists to perform a wide range of music for winds with “impeccable precision and rapt lyricism.” (The Chicago Sun Times). The ensemble gained attention in 1995, when, one year after its formation, it won both the First and Grand Prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, becoming the first wind quintet in the competition’s history to do so.
Zéphyros had its New York concerto debut opening the 2004 Mostly Mozart Festival and has since appeared at the nation’s most prestigious concert venues, including The Library of Congress, Wolf Trap, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Dumbarton Oaks, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.
Also recognized for their exceptional work as educators, Zéphyros has given master classes at UNCSA, The Yale University School of Music, The Juilliard School and The Eastman School of Music, among numerous others.
The five members of Zéphyros Winds — Jennifer Grim (flute and piccolo), Fatma Daglar (oboe and English horn), Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinet and bass clarinet), Saxton Rose (bassoon) and Zohar Schondorf (horn) — all enjoy accomplished chamber and orchestra careers, as well as teaching and administrative positions at some of the country’s finest music schools.
Tyson Gholston Davis (H.S. Music ’19) is an American composer whose music is characterized by its expansive and resonant textures, imbued with kinetic gestures and a profound connection to the visual arts. His series „Studies on Helen Frankenthaler,“ inspired by the artist’s paintings, has been performed by the Juilliard String Quartet and pianist Jonathan Biss.
In the summer of 2019, Davis was a composer apprentice with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), where his work “Delicate Tension” premiered at the Konzerthaus Berlin conducted by Antonio Pappano. This experience marked a significant milestone in Tyson’s early career, leading to further commissions from ensembles and organizations. His recognitions include the 2024 Copland House Residency Award and 68th BMI Student Composer Award. He holds degrees from UNCSA (high school diploma), a bachelor’s and master’s from The Juilliard School.
Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.
Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, and her music has been featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including “The Singing Guitar” by Conspirare, “BRUITS” by Imani Winds, and “Healing Modes” by Brooklyn Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press.
She holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM ’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM ’11, MMA ’14, DMA ’18) and received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India.
David Sanford has received commissions from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Speculum Musicae, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations, and the Barlow Endowment; his works have been performed by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Chicago Symphony Chamber Players among others.
His honors include the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Radcliffe Institute, and he was the arranger for cellist Matt Haimovitz’s Grammy Award-nominated album “Meeting of the Spirits.” He received degrees in theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, New England Conservatory, and Princeton University, and is currently Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Music at Mount Holyoke College and the director of the David Sanford Big Band.
UNCSA Media is a mission-driven media publishing arm that features the creative projects of faculty and alumni from UNCSA across all disciplines and offers curricular opportunities for students to gain practical career skills in intellectual property and entrepreneurship. With two to three releases per year, UNCSA Media will feature music, film and video, plays, dance, and more, leveraging the conservatory’s five disciplines on one campus and its extensive worldwide network of talented alumni and faculty. UNCSA launched UNCSA Media in September 2023 with the release of “Windows,” a contemporary classical recording featuring UNCSA faculty members performing works by Valerie Coleman, Jessie Montgomery and Reena Esmail, as well as a world premiere commission by Kamala Sankaram, followed by alumna and singer/songwriter Cashavelly’s “Meditation Through Gunfire” in October 2024, and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Ballet Suite” with the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra in May 2025.
UNCSA Media is made possible with funding and programmatic support by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
“Desert Pass” and “The Light is the Same” were recorded at Ovation Sound in Winston-Salem, N.C.; “Tatu” was recorded at the Bill and Judy Watson Chamber Music Hall at UNCSA. Bill Stevens is recording engineer, with Dave McNair mastering.
For more information about “Desert Pass” and other releases, visit: www.uncsa.edu/uncsa-media
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The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a top-ranked arts conservatory and America’s first state-supported arts school. The nation’s only public university of five arts disciplines on one campus, UNCSA prepares emerging artists for careers in dance, design and production, drama, filmmaking, and music at the undergraduate through post-graduate levels, as well as through a specialized high school with free tuition for in-state residents. UNCSA provides industry-leading instruction in an inclusive environment where students are encouraged to leverage the arts as a mechanism for change. Interdisciplinary opportunities arising from the unique arts ecosystem on campus at UNCSA prepare artists to enter an evolving global arts and entertainment industry. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina System when it was formed in 1972. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts was established in 1993 to strengthen the arts by initiating and incubating new ideas within the various constituencies and settings of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). By leveraging the extraordinary talents and creative energies of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to bring distinction to UNCSA, the Kenan Institute acts as a springboard to the broader creative community. For more information visit www.uncsa.edu/kenan.
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May 20, 2025
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