Michael Rosin: Instruments

On May 1, Blue Griffin Recording releases Instruments by award-winning composer and keyboardist Michael Rosin. Instruments features a collection of world premiere recordings of works inspired by “instruments” of antiquity. Whether calculating our position, telling time, or simply resonating, each of these instruments have been used to make sense of our existence and understand our place in the universe. 

Rosin’s orchestral works have generally encompassed grand themes befitting the size of the ensemble: stars, galaxies, and dimensions of time and space. So when considering similar themes for chamber works made up of much smaller ensembles, Rosin attempted to maintain that same mystery of “Musica universalis” through an exploration of the tools that helped us discover the inner workings of the universe. 

Rosin states: “A violin and a compass, a viola and a telescope, a cello and a pendulum—they are all one and the same. Therefore, Instruments is a play on words, but also very honest. These are instruments, those are instruments, and we humans use our fingers and opposable thumbs to operate these instruments in order to achieve a higher understanding.”

Each of the larger works employs a different standard ensemble. Armillary Sphere is for string trio (violin, viola, and cello), Astronomical Quadrant is for piano trio (violin, cello, and piano), and the Part II (tempo canon) of Orrery is for a piano quartet (violin, viola, cello, and piano). The smaller works–the duets and the solo–were composed with these specific performers in mind. I worked closely with each of them to develop convincing and idiomatic music for their respective instruments (Compass for the violinist Patrick Galvin, Telescope for the violist Marlena Pellegrino, and Pendulum for the cellist Dave Eggar).

In 2025, Michael Rosin was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship in Music Composition from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which has funded this album. Rosin was also awarded the Duino Prize in Music Composition for his piano quartet Spira mirabilis in June 2022. In early 2023, Rosin’s orchestral work Stellarium was one of five works chosen for performance from an international call for scores; the concerts were held in the Lincoln Center area by the New Conductors Orchestra. This was the second time Stellarium was selected, as it was also chosen from the orchestra readings of the Mostly Modern Festival to be premiered at the first orchestral concert, in June 2022.