In Faded Sepia by Trio Garibaldi
Featured UBC Faculty: Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet & David Fung, piano with Marina Thibeault
Release: March 2026 on ATMA Classique
Description:
With In Faded Sepia, the Garibaldi Trio offers a musical journey where memory, lyricism, and stylistic contrasts intertwine in a remarkably rich sonic palette. The album brings together works by Lowell Liebermann, Dorothy Chang, and Stephen Chatman, along with a vibrant tribute to Duke Ellington through original arrangements by Yuri Kuriyama. Through these works, the trio showcases the full sonic range of the clarinet, viola, and piano. This intimate yet expansive ensemble allows for a seamless transition from profound lyricism to a more vibrant energy, with occasional nods to jazz.
The recording’s central theme is Dorothy Chang’s Persistence, and more specifically its “Song, in Faded Sepia” movement, which inspired the album’s title. Like an old photograph whose contours have softened with time, the music evokes a memory. Fragments of a familiar theme reappear, like fleeting images that cannot be held onto. Between the almost diabolical fervor of Liebermann‘s trio, the virtuosic and luminous sweep of Chatman‘s Garibaldi Suite, and the timeless elegance of Ellington revisited with freedom and imagination, In Faded Sepia weaves a sensitive dialogue between tradition and modernity.