P r e s s
Learning through the Ears
American Composers Forum: Resonance, Jul 2020
"In 2014, President Barack Obama announced that his administration would begin the process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, restoring full diplomatic relations with the island nation after 50 years of tense, frozen relations. In 2015, Third Sound presented the first concert entirely comprising contemporary American music, and with all composers in attendance, to take place in Cuba since before the Cuban Revolution. This concert would be presented as part of Festival de Música Contemporánea de La Habana, a festival that Composer and leader of Third Sound, Patrick Castillo attended just one year prior. The Festival was founded in 1984 and since its inception has included the music of composers contemporary music from all over the world. We sat down with Patrick and fellow composers who joined him and his group for the historic 2015 concert, Jeremy Gill and Kati Agócs to reflect their travels."
Third Sound: Heard in Havana
Textura, Jun 2020
"Heard in Havana shows how difficult, if not impossible, it would be to reduce the multitude of artistic possibilities currently in play to a single, unified expression. This comprehensive collection resoundingly shows the degree to which contemporary American classical music resists easy definition."
Third Sound's Heard in Havana Celebrates a Diversity of Sound
I Care If You Listen, 2 Apr 2020
by Adam O'Dell
"On Heard in Havana, Third Sound celebrates seventy-eight minutes of great music from ten composers who, in all likelihood, have very different relationships with what it is to be 'American.' Right now–especially right now–that’s music worth listening to, and an idea worth appreciating."
Henry Cowell's New World Is Still Very Much With Us
San Francisco Classical Voice, 10 Apr 2018
by Joe Cadagin
"At the end of [Wang Lu's Urban Inventory], Castillo pushed the ensemble toward an overpowering final chord that called to mind those radiant cadences that end many of Messiaen’s works. Seconds after the cutoff, I had ordered Third Sound’s recording of Urban Inventory from Amazon—it was one of the finest works of new music I’ve heard in a while."
Direct from Havana, Third Sound delivers a smart, attractive mix of new music
New York Classical Review, 13 Jan 2016
by George Grella
"The five-member ensemble—flutist Sooyun Kim, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, violinist Karen Kim, cellist Michael Nicolas, and pianist Orion Weiss—presented an unexpected sound. ... There is a big, colorful quality to the way they play ... with an energetic commitment to beauty."
New York-based Third Sound ensemble debuts in Old Havana
I Care If You Listen, 15 Dec 2015
by Arlene & Larry Dunn
"Throughout this historic concert, Third Sound played with a level of commitment, joy, and ensemble cohesion that belies the short time they have worked together."
A New Music Journey From The U.S. To Havana
NPR Classical, 9 Dec 2015
by Anastasia Tsioulcas
"When you think of Cuban music, contemporary classical most likely isn't the first — or possibly even fifth — genre that springs to mind. But a group of American composers and musicians couldn't resist an opportunity to travel to the island to present their own music and seek out their Cuban colleagues' work — and frankly, neither could I. We traveled together last month to the Havana Festival of Contemporary Music, for the event's 28th edition."