Latest release: out everywhere on CD and digital, May 16, 2025 on Neuma Records
Into the Night
1. Into the Night
2. Over Here
3. Clarity
4. Easy Does It
5. Lament
6. I Cry Too
7. So, Fly Sky High
8. Over There
9. Motion
All music composed and performed by Jeannine Wagar
Mixed and mastered by Erdem Helvacıoğlu
What excites and terrifies a conductor the most? For some, it is exploring their inner composer for the first time. At least, that is what celebrated orchestra director, Jeannine Wagar, has found:
After a lifetime in musical performance, Into the Night is my first substantial foray into my own inner musical psyche, my own meditation as composition. It reflects familiar themes in my emotional world and helped me discover new ones – also me. Through the process, I found in myself a profound sense of mystery and hope.
There is something about going from day to night, light to dark, waking to sleeping, knowing to unknowing, conscious to un-. It is a regular expedition we undertake alone, always with a mysterious destination in mind… I’m obsessed with the timelessness of time and what happens in between.
With the boundless possibilities of a virtual orchestra at her disposal – no pesky rehearsal restrictions or acoustic constraints – Wagar has tapped into the ambient flow of her creative dreamworld and carries us along, soaring above the thermals of her emotional depth.
As a conductor I am used to being surrounded by live physical players. For this limitless project, I gave myself permission to blur the distinctions between (sampled) acoustic instruments and electronics. This virtual orchestra, chorus, pianist, and percussionists all rose out of their mortal bodies and joined me to explore new areas of my internal concert hall, bringing light to the dark, and life to the night.
Fayetteville, Arkansas-based musician, Jeannine Wagar, has enjoyed an international conducting career, from Thailand to Germany, Mexico to New York. She is a specialist in contemporary music having conducted ensembles such as Bang on a Can All Stars, San Francisco Chamber Players, and Cuicani Chamber Orchestra. Jeannine is also a professional pipe organist, church musician, jazz pianist, author, research scholar on Latin American music and radio and television personality.
She began composing in her 70’s.
Her long association with Eleanor Hovda continues to reverberate.
