Check out the full interview with violist Jesse Morrison here: https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2026/02/26/interview-violist-jesse-morrison-talks-new-release-transitions/

Jesse Morrison’s Transitions, featuring my Partita for Solo Viola is out today. The album is available for streaming and download.

Also available on Bandcamp & Apple Music.

From the Liner Notes:

The album begins with a newly commissioned work, Partita for Solo Viola by composer Derek David, written in reverence to the unaccompanied masterpieces of Johann Sebastian Bach. Rather than imitation, David offers conversation. His Partita draws on personal experiences shaped by friendship, love, devotion, alienation, longing, mental illness, and tragedy during a specific period of his life. These emotional states are translated into music of striking intimacy, where lyricism and fracture coexist. Morrison guides the listener through this landscape with unforced authority, allowing each movement to breathe, to question, and ultimately to resolve in its own quiet eloquence.

— Jesse Morrison

I am so thrilled and excited to announce that my Partita for Solo Viola will be featured on Jesse Morrison's upcoming Album "Transitions," available on **FEBRUARY 27** on ALL streaming platforms. The album is beautiful throughout, and I'm incredibly honored to have been included in this meaningful project!

Writing for (and working with) Jesse has been an incredible experience. Take a listen to the preview track below!

February 27, 2026 | Transitions Album Release!
Violist Jesse Morrison's Transitions, featuring A Partita for Solo Viola, is released on Wolfe Records and available on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp.

For more information about Jesse’s Project, Read Here.

New Gallery Concert Series released the performance of Duet for Violin and Viola with violinist Lilit Hartunian and violist Anna Griffis. Enjoy!

Tikkun Olam ~ Together in Song, a concert offering healing, hope, and peace during these challenging times.  In a time filled with mistrust and division, Koleinu, Boston’s Jewish Community Chorus, A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus of Boston Workers Circle, and Mizrahi multi-instrumentalist Yoni Avi Battat, will collaborate to strengthen our connections with the rich, multicultural sounds of our wide Jewish musical heritage.

Hello friends,

I just turned 40! I am excited to share with you a big premiere in the spring and many activities in the Yiddish music world.

On April 18, 2026, soprano Rose Hegele with pianist Elias Dagher will premiere my song cycle Di Freyd fun Yidishn Vort on the New Gallery Concert Series. Started in 2024 and having worked on it with my last two Byrdcliffe Artist Residencies, this work is the culmination of incorporating secular Yiddish poetry into my compositional style and I am very excited to share with you the end result.

In the Yiddish world, I just finished my first semester as a Freed Fellow at KlezKanada where I led the festival chorus and opening festival chorale; also, I was able to perform as a solo singer and with Frank London’s City of God. I am teaching a course at Lehrhaus Somerville on October 29th entitled “Yiddish Music From the Shul to the streets, to the stage (and back again)” as well as a series on Jewish mode in the spring. Each class will touch on specific elements of Yiddish music and I hope you can join me for these musical-cultural discussions (musicians and non-musicians welcome!). 

As conductor/music director, A Besere Velt will be performing with internationally renowned Golden Thread Septet May 10, 2026 and in a joint concert with Koleinu and Boston’s Jewish Community Chorus on November 16th at Congregation Kehilath Israel. I will also be returning as faculty at Yiddish New York, conducting the chorus and accompanying the Private Vocal Coaching for Advanced Singers with Judy Bressler (Schedule here).

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to receive updates about upcoming news, including the commercial release of my Partita for Solo Viola (on Jesse Morrison’s Transitions album), a tour and recording session of my Clarinet Quintet “Oh World, Goodnight” with Del Sol Quartet and Nicholas Davies, and my continued work in Partimento and teaching at MIT.

Check out my full calendar here: https://www.derekdavid.com/calendar

Best,
Derek David
www.derekdavid.com

Host Janna Sailor interviews violist Jesse Morrison about his newly recorded album of solo viola works entitled "Transitions", soon to be released on all major streaming platforms!

The second, fifth, and sixth movements were featured.

On Sunday, September 14th, I am honored to be on of the hosts for the 10 hour Workers Circle Yiddish Song Marathon, leading the 11:00am—12:00pm block with the theme "Long Live the Yiddish Chorus”. Join me on the livestream!

From The Workers Circle:

Celebrate 125 years of the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring / אַרבעטער רינג with 125 songs from the Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection, a five-volume masterpiece digitized and available to all on yiddishsongs.org.

Over the course of 10 hours, Yiddish performers and culture-makers from across the globe will share their favorite songs and recollections, including rarely seen historical footage of memorable performances from decades ago.

Do you have a favorite song from this incredible collection? Let us know! 

This event is free but donations to support our Yiddish programming are welcome.