"I am an incurable fan of the Meridian Arts Ensemble.  They have a passion for creative innovation and a commitment to presenting music that elicits attentive ears and open minds.  A Meridian concert assumes that, deep down, a listener wants to experience beauty, coherence, humor, contrast, uncertainty, and even challenge presented in the context of virtuosity, precision, and ardent emotional persuasiveness.  The relationship between performer and listener is taken very seriously.  Just as the Meridians search for significance, depth, sincerity, and “stretch” in repertoire, they hope for a listening audience that seeks relief from escapist fluff and entertainment.  Undivided, active participation is required, and will reward the listener with a broadened palette of emotional, intellectual, and possibly visceral artistic references.  To have one’s brass chamber music presented by this remarkable ensemble is a privilege beyond comprehension."

Coming soon:
MAE ninth CD, now in the final stages of production!

BRINK RELEASED

Meridian's 8th album on Channel Classics is now available and features mind-bending music by David Sanford, Elliott Sharp and Nick Didkovsky.  This is the one you've been hearing about....and is also the first album from the ensemble to feature their newest member Brian McWhorter who joined the group in 2001. It is available for purchase here.

Praise for Brink on Progrography:

“I dreamt of bleating sheep in burning fields, of shepherds with horns in their hands who heralded the arrival of three mad wizards in chariots of sound. When I awoke I was on the brink of a strange, new place. And so I did the only thing I could: I jumped. Winged, black notes soon encircled me and carried me off to strange worlds: barren places where rocks grew out at improbable angles, Seussian nightmares, young brass battling old cello and venerable violin, carmina burana as conceived in the mind of an opiated Miles. Living in Meridian Art Ensemble’s world for extended periods might lead to madness. But a brief visit to Brink and back begets lucidity. We face our demons, see they’re only figments, a series of small black dots contrived to make a monster. In my responsibility to you, the reader, I should tell you where Brink really begins, and that’s beyond the fringes of rock into the avant-garde or (gulp) modernism. The line that runs through Stravinsky to Zappa to Zorn intersects them as interpreters. For the purposes of Progrography, imagine the horn sections of The Grand Wazoo in isolation, distilled, distorted, in contentious dispute with one another for sixty minutes. The music is drawn with remarkable clarity (moreso if your system supports the Super Audio/Surround 5.0 format) but the images are alien nonetheless. Brink contains three commissioned pieces from modern composers David Sanford, Elliott Sharp and Nick Didkovsky. Their work, forged in brass, evokes everything from Charlie Brown’s teacher on a bender to mechanical pigeons, ranges from funky to frumpy. Didkovsky and his endless anagrams say it the best: a limited number of letters (horns and drums) twisted into a weird and wonderful language. Liberating stuff, as any Brink must be, especially for we bleating heart liberals.”    - Dave Connolly, Progrography