Craig Urquhart: 'Emergence'

Composer and pianist Craig Urquhart has released ‘Emergence’, his 14th album of original piano compositions. His past albums are a constant in my life, as his writing and playing is consistently beautiful and so it was a delight to receive this latest album.

Emergence is another stunning collection of beautiful solo piano pieces that the composer describes as “a musical exploration of transformation, introspection and unfolding”.

My discovery of Urquhart came initially from my initial interview with Garrett Keast from the Berlin Academy of American Music for a 2021 episode of Harmonious World. In 2022 I interviewed Urquhart for a first episode about Lamentation for Flute and Strings, which had featured on the BAAM album, and then Keast for a second episode. Finally, in 2024, I interviewed Urquhart in person when I visited Berlin and that made a delightful episode.

Solo piano can be - and definitely is here - meditative and contemplative. The opening title track seems to welcome the listener in to Urquhart’s world, before we are taken through a series of musical vignettes where the titles themselves allow us to explore such concepts as Gratitude, Remembering and Endearment. The nine tracks all tell a very personal story and allow us to experience our own stories through the music.

The closing track of the album is Arise: a brief, positive, tune that can only encourage us to start again as we head wherever life takes us.

Leonard Bernstein once said: “Craig’s music reaches through the invisible walls with an immeasurable sense of peace and beauty.” When you have enjoyed Emergence, I can only recommend you return to Urquhart’s other albums to discover more of that peace and beauty.