Todd Coleman releases EP of music for cello

Coleman, associate professor of music, has released an EP of music for cello, featuring cellist Florent Renard-Payen.

“Music for Cello” artwork.

Associate Professor of Music Todd Coleman has released a new EP featuring recordings of three of his chamber music compositions for cello, piano and electronics, performed by French-born American cellist Florent Renard-Payen.

The three works on the album were written between 1995 and 2005, spanning the decade of transition from an undergraduate and graduate student, to assistant professor of music at Grinnell College.

Exquisite Corpse performance photo.

“Undertones” was written for cello and piano and first premiered in 1995 while Coleman was an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University. “Reflections” was written in 1998 for violin, and then transcribed in 2004 for cello and prepared piano (which uses various items such as screws and rubber stoppers placed inside the piano, wedged in between some of the strings to change their sound). “Exquisite Corpse” was written in 2004 for cello, piano, and prerecorded electronic and acoustic sounds, with projected 3D sound and layered video projection.

Florent Renard-Payen

Renard-Payen was the featured cello soloist on all three recordings, with Coleman playing the prepared piano on “Reflections,” and the piano and all other electronic instruments on “Exquisite Corpse.” Patrice Ewoldt played piano on the recording of “Undertones.”

The album is available on all major streaming music platforms. A video of “Exquisite Corpse” can be viewed on YouTube.

Coleman teaches courses in music composition, orchestration, and recording studio techniques at Elon and is the founding coordinator of the Music Production & Recording Arts degree program at the university.