Mortyakova releases sixth piano album

Dr. Julia Mortyakova, chair of the Department of Music at Mississippi University for Women recently released her sixth piano album, her fifth since joining The W faculty in 2012.

The album, “Nocturne: Music by Teresa Carreño, Cécile Chaminade, Mélanie Chasselon, and Olga Harris,” features music composed by the four titular female composers.

“I am passionate about performing and advocating for women composers, so my goal is always to share their music with the world as much as possible,” Mortyakova said.

For this album, Mortyakova utilized the recording capabilities of Kossen Auditorium in Poindexter Hall, and Dr. Valentin Bogdan, professor of music, served as the engineer, recording, editing and mixing the tracks.

“Kossen has state of the art recording facilities and a wonderful Steinway grand piano so it was a natural choice for the recording,” she said.

Mortyakova specializes in performing Carreño, Chaminade and Harris, and music by the three composers has appeared on Mortyakova’s previous albums. Chasselon is a composer that she recently discovered and wanted to showcase her work on the new album.

“This album presents music I have been performing for the past several years, but have not recorded,” Mortyakova said. “Some of the works on the album have actually never been recorded and some have very few available recordings.  For some of the compositions, the sheet music is not easily available, and it is difficult to even attain the scores to study, learn and perform the work.  Therefore, I thought it was very important to document the music so make sure it lives on and acquires new audiences and performers.”

The album is available to stream, free of charge, on all major streaming platforms.