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Media Relations

IU Southeast's new record label celebrates one year anniversary

Second album set to be released in 2007

The Music Department at IU Southeast and New Dynamic Records will soon celebrate the one year anniversary of their debut release, Influence.

Last October, the department issued the first release of its new recording label, New Dynamic Records. Since that time, Erich Stem — director of the New Music Project and an assistant professor of music on the New Albany campus — said many goals have been achieved.

A second release for New Dynamic Records is scheduled with Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, a Holland-based group. The album will be recorded in February and is tentatively scheduled for release in May 2007. The group was featured in two pieces on Influence and recently was nominated for the Edison Award, the Dutch equivalent of a Grammy.

"They're a fabulous group," Stem said. "They have had a pretty amazing career and have recorded several successful albums. What is impressive about these performers is that they are also versatile as musicians. In my opinion, they have not only set the standard for playing traditional classical music but also for new music."

New Dynamic Records was formed through a larger initiative on campus, New Music Project, which seeks to discover, perform, record and distribute new music by both established and emerging composers of the 21st century. One of the project's goals is to make the label into an all-IU Southeast produced line of CD recordings that combines the talents of faculty and student performers, recording engineers, graphic artists, designers, Web developers and business majors.

"I thought developing a new record label would help us strike while the iron is hot and basically show that IUS is a leader in developing new music, supporting it and discovering it," Stem said. "Today, classical music composers are much different than composers of the past; a lot of them pull from different genres, representing, for instance, jazz and world music. They incorporate these genres into their own unique aesthetic.

"I thought that by creating this label, we could be one of the very few to promote this kind of new music which can connect to younger listeners. In essence, IUS would be one of the few organizations in the country that really supports new music and promotes it to younger listeners specifically."

After receiving a yearly financial commitment through the IU Commitment to Excellence Fund, the New Music Project released Influence, which includes five works by composers Joan Tower, Michael Torke, Perry Goldstein, Robert Gibson and Lu Pei, a local composer. Influence also features recorded performances by the critically acclaimed Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, eighth blackbird and the Amelia Piano Trio.

During the last year, Stem has learned more than a few lessons. One of the biggest challenges has been coordinating schedules with artists who are typically booked two years in advance. Already, Stem has booked a recording with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, whose work will be featured on New Dynamic Records' third album in 2008. The group has existed for 25 years and is one of the oldest new music ensembles in the country.

The label's fourth release is set to include music by the Prism Quartet from New York.

Stem has spent the majority of his time marketing and promoting the new label with help from two music business students. One goal has been to reach younger music listeners, ages 17 to 25. Stem said they're reaching many of the younger demographic by creating a site at www.myspace.com/iusnewdynamic.

"I believe that a lot of new classical music labels and new music in general is targeted too much to the older generations," Stem said. "I don't see that as a problem; I just see that maybe focusing on younger audiences is a great opportunity. They are the next generation of audiences that will listen to this music. My Space has been an absolutely wonderful way to reach them, and we have sold several of our CDs because of that."

Student interns created the design for the logo and CD jacket on the first release. The logo won a Silver Award from the Louisville Graphic Design Association. Then the entire package, which includes the CD artwork, the logo, the cover and insert, won a Gold Award at the Louisville Ad Federation's "Addy Awards" this past April.

For the next release Stem would like to make tracks from the album available for iPod users. Since the New Music Project will record and own the masters to the music from the second release forward, Stem said they will be able to sell individual tracks online.

Learn more about New Dynamic Records by visiting its Web site: http://www.newdynamicrecords.com/.

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