Toccata-Humoresque for guitar trio (2011)
Toccata-Humoresque was composed in 2011 for Presti (a guitar trio comprised of Olga Amelkina-Vera, Lynn McGrath, and Valerie Hartzell, active between 2010 and 2014) as a response to the dearth of original repertoire for guitar trio. The group recorded the work on their eponymous debut album in 2013. In the program notes to the CD, Jonathan Leathwood writes:
“Olga Amelkina-Vera’s Toccata-Humoresque is an archetypal player-composer project: a piece that has undergone many changes in the process of performing and rehearsing. The final version emerges as a self-portrait of the members of Presti, full of humor, emotion and lively exchange. It also strongly reflects the composer’s origins: Amelkina-Vera grew up in Belarus, later receiving her formal musical education in Texas; she wryly remarks that whatever musical influence you think you recognize in her music, you are probably right. Still, an Eastern European flavor often comes through in its tremolando-based textures and Slavic-tinged harmonies.”