24 Paganini/Wieniawski-esque caprices on seminal American recorded music.
a series of musical snapshots for American Classical solo violin and beyond.
There can be joy here.
This project is a playful assertion -
a tacet + stylized American soliloquy on the nature of Classical violin.
It is an acoustic return to what started Curtis’s solo career, the live performance of a caprice at the 2022 GRAMMY® awards.
A hopeful prayer and vision for who we are, have been, and can be.
On BRIGHT SHINY THINGS
recorded with multi-GRAMMY® nominated producer Ryan Streber
at Oktaven Audio
featuring award winning violinists:
Curtis Stewart (12 caprices)
Tai Murray info (9 to 5)
Deborah Buck info (September)
Melissa White info (This Train)
Njioma Grevious info (U.N.I.T.Y.)
Ruben Rengel info (Oye Como Va)
Students of:
the Juilliard School
Special Music School in NYC
Perlman Music Program
(7 caprices)
Press
Feature in the New York Times HERE
Feature in Strings Magazine HERE
Review in STRAD Magazine HERE
Feature on WFMT HERE
Feature in STRAD magazine HERE
Feature in Gramophone HERE
Feature on WRUU HERE
Special Program on Your Classical / American Public Media - “I am the Migration” HERE
Review in Gramophone Magazine HERE
Apple Music - top 10 Classical Albums of July 2026 HERE
Man and Culture feature HERE
Feature in Violinist.com HERE
Review in STRINGS magazine HERE
Feature in “Follow Your Dream” Podcast HERE
Interview on All Classical Radio HERE
Each work lives between fantasy, recomposition, and original post-modern miniature.
They capture facets of Curtis’s American heritage:
a violinist deeply influenced by Classical, Modernist, Jazz, Greek, Contemporary, Electronic and Experimental music.
Accompanying the acoustic performances are short remixes of each Caprice
by Clayton Penrose-Whitmore
more remixes here
aka Pdubcookin
What would it be like…
if Classical music celebrated all of the sides of our American musical life and provenance
with playfulness, curiosity, and "excellence"
as a place of GATHERING.
future partners
various orchestras and chamber groups
are interested in arranging versions of the caprices
and/or the caprice + remix’d version
inviting mc’s from their regions
to create response verses to individual caprices
expressing their American stories
on our concert stages
There are prompts for verse creation for each caprice HERE
LINK for confirmed partners - request access project budget / timeline / logistics
select HighlightS:
more detailed information here
10.2020 With the New York Philharmonic “Bandwagon”
6.2021 At a remote performance for the US / Russian embassy
4.2022 Live at the GRAMMY® Awards
5.2023 part of a lecture “A Place for the Blues in Classical music” at the Starling-Delay Symposium at Juilliard
5.2023 Juilliard class “Performance practice of the Blues” concert at Lincoln Center
6.2023 Featured in residence with WQXR performance in NYC
2.2024 Death of Classical series in NYC
3.2024 University of Wisconsin Madison
3.2024 in residence with the Chicago Symphony Music Now
3.2024 Open Music festival with Oregon Symphony
4.2024 REVERB festival with the Phoenix Symphony
10.2024 Performed at Cleveland Institute of Music, in residence
2.2025 Premiere at Merkin Hall NYC with Special Music School
3.2025 at Princeton University
4.2025 at the Eastman School of music / Gateways Music Festival
5.2025 St louis Guitar festival
6.2025 in residence at Boston University Tanglewood Institute
7.2025 Student Performance at the Bowdoin Composers Festival
11.2025 Seattle symphony presents
3.8.2026 Boston Conservatory “String Masters” series
4.15.2026 at New Music Miami ISCM festival
4.25.2026 Duo versions of the 10 Caprices at Juilliard - featuring the Catherine Cho Studio
5.10.2026 at Gather NYC
6.2026 “I am the Migration” national broadcast on American Public Media centering the stories of Great Migration, my father and connection to the Caprices and their influence
6.19.2026 ALBUM OUT!
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