Artist Led, Creatively Driven
MAKSIMAL
Daniel Temkin
Release Date: May 8th 2026
ORC100425
Daniel Temkin (b.1986)
Maksimal (2022)
1. I White Heat
2. II Continuum
3. III Circle Games
Ryan McAdams, conductor
Francisco Fullana, solo violin
Maksimal Ensemble
Dreamed Landscapes (2017-18)
4. I Starfield
5. II Glaciers crumbling, assembling
6. III Echoes of the Horizon
Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano
Ocean’s Call (2015; rev. 2021)
7. I Hanging Cliffs, Rising Mist
8. II The Bitter Salt of the Sea
9. III Lullaby Waves
Aizuri Quartet
Ryan McAdams, conductor
Francisco Fullana, solo violin
Maksimal Ensemble
Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano
Aizuri Quartet:
Emma Frucht, violin
Miho Saegusa, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello
Larger Than Ourselves
Album foreword by Daniel Temkin
Is architectural beauty ever absolute, with contours and recesses so exact they can’t help but lure us in? Could a physical landscape – say, steep fjord cliffs jutting into the sea – possess something like truth? Can discrete events in our lives merge as a single continuum where past, present, and future all connect? Do underlying truths bind us together?
Each piece on this album started with concrete images or ideas – tangible artifacts of our physical world – yet, while composing, the music would invariably lead me to abstract, penetrating questions about the nature of experience, perception, and connection. These works had a fundamental essence beneath their surface calling out for me to explore, and their music beckoned an awareness of forces or experiences larger than ourselves. This is the true spirit of MAKSIMAL.
In 2016, violinist Francisco Fullana led a moving early performance of my string quartet Ocean’s Call, and we began to envision a concerto together that later became Maksimal. Weaving soloistic virtuosity into nimble ensemble dialogue, Maksimal’s bright sounds and Danish title nod to modern Scandinavian music. In “I. White Heat” taut soloist and ensemble alternations are a modern riff on Baroque concerto grossos. Rapid violin bow strokes pair with a log drum, simmering in fierce energy until catching musical flame and spilling over into cascading woodwinds. “II. Continuum” unfolds as a musical dream: amorphous low clusters rise, distant violin soliloquies sing, and the clusters return, descending onto the final movement’s doorstep. In “III. Circle Games,” rippling bells sound and playful chases ensue, until their variations peter out and a solo violin winds us back to where we started at the next bell ripple. In its fast-slow-fast shape and soloist cadenzas, Maksimal behaves like a concerto, but it strives philosophically beyond archetypes, with transforming motives and large arcs that invite us to explore memory, connection, and links between past and present.
Dreamed Landscapes references both physical terrains and landscape painting, where entire worlds lie bounded within a canvas. Its three movements portray galaxies, glaciers, and canyons. Eschewing photographic rendering, they instead focus on impressionistic nuance and internal reflection: What do we feel while immersed in these landscapes? What could our mind’s eye see in a dream of them? In “I. Starfield” small accents twinkle in a blurry eliding cosmos, while streaking scales flash as bright comet light. In “II. Glaciers crumbling, assembling” brittle articulations reference sharp ice cracks, rumbling arpeggios represent avalanche decay, and rising chords emblematize stark frozen cathedrals protruding from arctic oceans. In “III. Echoes of the Horizon” staccato attacks denote red canyon boulders, while an afterglow of sympathetic resonance (and meticulously shaded overtones), pulls us inside elusive silhouettes of echo, light, and shadow. Like the earlier violin concerto, Dreamed Landscapes can satisfy as three alternating character studies, but its deeper essence lies in metaphor as a wide sonic palette refers to nature’s transcendent and numinous qualities.
Inspired by Big Sur and California’s Pacific coast, Ocean’s Call is a testament to Mother Nature’s rugged power, awesome beauty, and magical aura. In “I. Hanging Cliffs, Rising Mist” airy harmonics wisp as fog, while a dark cello represents ocean rocks far below. Winding like a coastal path, a varied poetry of melody, plucking, ringing chords, and silence, leads to a final coda where the fog harmonics transform into light glinting off ocean waves. “II. The Bitter Salt of the Sea” begins by imitating wind, tinkling shells, and lapping water. It then moves as waves might, at first with short, crisp, splashes, next in broader macro-currents extended over the ocean, and finally in violent storm torrents. The spacious, ebbing, chords of “III. Lullaby Waves” (written for my wife Qing) roll in and out – enduring and timeless – and we are subsumed into a great oceanic calm. Here, as with the album’s other works, Ocean’s Call is as much spiritual ethos as musico-pictorial portrayal; its sounds invite us into a place where we can explore our connection to something broader that calls out to us.
Daniel Temkin
Daniel Temkin
Composer
Daniel Temkin (b.1986) is an award-winning classical composer whose instrumental and vocal works are known for their rich color, visceral intensity, and subtle beauty.
Daniel’s orchestra pieces have been heard worldwide in performances with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia, Bath Festival Orchestra in England, and Indianapolis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic in the U.S.
Daniel has worked closely with PRISM Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, NZTrio, Garth Newel Piano Quartet, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Kinetic Ensemble, and the Jokubaviciute-Kim Duo, as well as with soloists David Shifrin, Ida Kavafian, Francisco Fullana, Alexi Kenney, Nikki Chooi, Emi Ferguson, Ashley Jackson, Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, and Annie Jacobs-Perkins.
With commissions from respected institutions like Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, Astral Artists, and Austin Chamber Music Center, Daniel has had performances at the Dresden Festival, Banff, Fontainebleau, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Caramoor, as well as concerts with many regional new music groups and chamber series around the U.S.
Daniel appears on over fifteen commercial recordings as composer and percussionist. Maksimal is his second solo album, following his debut COLORS (also on Orchid Classics), which featured an all-star cast and received widespread critical praise, including its live album-release concert at the Crypt Sessions in NYC which featured performances by members of CMS Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, the Met Opera, New York New Music Ensemble, and others.
Outside the concert hall, Daniel’s music has been heard on APM’s “Performance Today with Fred Child,” on PBS Philadelphia’s WHYY television, on Sirius XM’s portrait series “Living American,” and on national radio in Hong Kong and New Zealand. Daniel is also an active guest lecturer with visits to many noted global universities and conservatories including Curtis, Rice, Manhattan School of Music, Duke, Cornell, Shanghai Normal University, Tianjin Juilliard, and Victoria University of Wellington.
Daniel trained in percussion at Rutgers University, also studying theory and aesthetics at Princeton and in the renowned Rutgers Philosophy Department. He went on to earn degrees in composition at New England Conservatory, Curtis, and the University of Southern California. Daniel has received numerous accolades, including the Marilyn K. Glick Prize, two BMI awards, a Presser Foundation award, and grants from Aaron Copland Fund, Amphion Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum. Daniel previously taught at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, where he held the Samuel L. Williams endowed chair in Music.
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Francisco Fullana
Violin
Described by conductor Gustavo Dudamel as an “amazing talent,” Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana has performed to acclaim across the globe, appearing as soloist under the baton of Dudamel, Sir Colin Davis, Hans Graf, Thomas Wilkins, Jeannette Sorrell, Gemma New, Alondra de la Parra, Joshua Weilerstein, Christoph Poppen, François Lopez Ferrer, Pablo Gónzalez, José Luis Gómez, Nuno Coelho and many others.
With repertoire spanning 300+ years, Fullana has notable range, bringing nuance in Baroque performances of Bach and Vivaldi, passionate sound in Romantic concertos of Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Brahms, Bruch, and Lalo, and keen precision in music of composers today. He has appeared with the Indianapolis Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, Bayerische Philharmonie, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and with many Latin American orchestras including Spain’s Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra, Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa, and Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.
Fullana is Artistic Advisor and Soloist with Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, former Artist in Residence with the renowned Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, former Principal Violin of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a regular guest leader of many conductorless chamber orchestras.
With six solo albums on the Orchid Classics and Berlin Classics labels, Fullana’s critically acclaimed discography includes collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, several Baroque-themed albums, and duo albums Spanish Light and Cosmopolitan with pianists Alba Ventura and Matthias Kirschnereit that feature 20th-century sonatas by Turina, Debussy, and Janacek. Gramophone hailed Fullana’s renditions as “brilliantly played,” while BBC Music Magazine, profiling his album Bach’s Long Shadow, describe Fullana as a “rising star” whose playing has “the warmth of Itzhak Perlman…[and] the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng.”
A respected chamber artist, Fullana performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and he has appeared at the Marlboro Festival, Music@Menlo, LaJolla Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Da Camera Society, Yellow Barn, and Perlman Music Program. His collaborators include leading artists such as violinist Viviane Hagner, violist Nobuko Imai, pianist Mitsuko Uchida, guitarist Jason Vieaux, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Takács, and Cleveland quartets.
A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fullana also received the Pro Musicis Foundation Award, and won top prizes in Japan’s Munetsugu Angel Violin Competition, the Johannes Brahms International Violin Competition, the Julio Cardona International Violin Competition, and the Pablo Sarasate Competition.
Fullana graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid under the tutelage of Manuel Guillén, before earning degrees at the Juilliard School where he mentored under Donald Weilerstein and Masao Kawasaki. He completed an Artist Diploma from USC’s Thornton School of Music working under renowned violinist Midori. Fullana performs on the 1735 “Mary Portman” ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, provided graciously on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
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Ryan McAdams
Conductor
Leading top orchestras, opera companies, and new music groups, American conductor Ryan McAdams is recognized worldwide for his incisive, passionate, and deeply musical performances.
McAdams has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony, as well as the BBC Philharmonic, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Israel Philharmonic, Ireland National Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, Vancouver Symphony, and many groups in Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, and Russia.
In the opera world, McAdams has led productions with Opernhaus Zürich (Switzerland), Opera National de Lorraine (France), and Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio Tornio, and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Italy). He has appeared with several U.S. companies including Opera Saratoga, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and St. Louis Opera Theatre, and he toured with Irish National Opera in Dublin, Amsterdam, and at London’s Barbican. McAdams also previously served as Assistant Conductor of New York City Opera and New York City Ballet.
Principal Conductor of Ireland’s Crash Ensemble, and former Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony, McAdams has premiered works by noted composers, including Donnacha Dennehy, Ted Hearne, Lembit Beecher, Christopher Cerrone, and Chris Rogerson, as well as over 30 new works at the Juilliard Composers Concerts. McAdams led the 103rd birthday celebration concerts for Elliot Carter at the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan, and also served as Assistant Conductor on the St. Louis Symphony recording of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic Symphony.
After training in piano and conducting at Indiana University and the Juilliard School, McAdams received a Fulbright Fellowship to serve as Apprentice Conductor of Sweden’s Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under the mentorship of then-Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert. McAdams also served as Apprentice Conductor of the Chateauville Foundation under Lorin Maazel, as a Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood under James Levine, and as Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Music Festival under David Zinman. Receiving the Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award and the Aspen-Glimmerglass Opera Award, he became the first conductor to hold both accolades.
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Maksimal Ensemble
Ryan McAdams, Conductor
Francisco Fullana, Solo Violin
Douglas DeVries, Flute 1
Garrett Hudson, Flute 2
Andrew Parker, Oboe
Stas Chernyshev, Clarinet 1
Ann Hung, Clarinet 2
Micah Doherty, Bassoon
Max Paulus, Horn
Russell Haehl, Trumpet
Ryan Rongone, Trombone
Sarah Burke, Percussion 1
Alec Warren, Percussion 2
Todd Quinlan, Percussion 3
Yvonne Chen, Piano
Samuel Park, Violin
Sergein Yap, Viola
David Olson, Cello
Ryan Avila, Bass
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Ryan MacEvoy McCullough
Piano
Pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough is a rare artist active in top echelons of classical and contemporary music. With pianistic finesse, deep musicality, and a polymath mind, McCullough blends performance, composition, sound recording, instrument building, and pedagogy, into a unique, penetrating, artistic sensibility.
As a concerto soloist, McCullough has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, and Colburn Conservatory Orchestra. He also soloed with Cornell’s Ensemble X in a rare performance of distinguished electro-acoustic composer Jonathan Harvey’s “Bird Concerto with Pianosong,” and appeared with ensembleNewSRQ in Pierre Boulez’s virtuosic nonet “Sur Incises.”
McCullough has premiered works by noted composers John Harbison, James Primosch, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Katherine Balch, and made world premiere recordings of pieces by Nicholas Vines, Milosz Magin, John Liberatore, Sheila Silver, and others. He appears on over ten critically acclaimed recordings with Orchid Classics, Innova, Albany, Yarlung Records, and his own label False Azure Records, and has been heard on PBS’s “Great Performances” and NPR’s “From the Top.”
A consummate chamber musician, McCullough has performed extensively at the Marlboro and Tanglewood Festivals, as well as at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, at the invitation of Artistic Director John Harbison. McCullough is an active interpreter of art song, appearing in frequent collaborations with his wife, acclaimed soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, as well as with renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. McCullough has also collaborated with Mark Morris Dance Group, and contemporary ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Yarn/Wire. His duo Hear Now Hear, with pianist Andrew Zhou, received a Fromm Commission Grant, and released the double-album “sedgeflowers | MANTRA” with its first disc featuring pieces by nine living composers including Liberatore, Zhou, and Christopher Stark, and its second disc showcasing Karlheinz Stockhausen’s sprawling modernist tome “MANTRA” – a 70-minute composition for two pianos with ring-modulation electronic effects, small percussion, and shortwave radio.
A faculty member at Bard Conservatory, McCullough previously taught at Cornell University, and he has given masterclasses at universities throughout the United States. Completing his Bachelor’s degree at Humboldt State University in California while still a teenager, McCullough continued on to Colburn Conservatory and USC’s Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, as well as the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, earning Artist Diplomas and a Master’s Degree. He later completed a Doctorate at Cornell University. His mentors include Deborah Clasquin, John Perry, David Louie, and Xak Bjerken.
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Aizuri Quartet
Emma Frucht, Violin
Miho Saegusa, Violin
Ayane Kozasa, Viola
Karen Ouzounian, Cello
Active from 2012-2025, Aizuri Quartet was recognized as a leading chamber ensemble who helped reshape the identity of the 21st century string quartet genre.
Bestowed the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, the quartet also earned Grand Prize in the coveted M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, as well as top prizes at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan, and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London.
The Aizuris served as Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music (2014-16), Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute (2014), the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (2015-2016), and as artist curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met-Live Series (2017-18). They were consistently praised for their “technical bravado and emotional power” (San Diego Tribune), and for “astounding” and “captivating” performances drawing from a notable “meld of intellect, technique and emotions” (Washington Post).
Beyond their performative skill, the Aizuris especially stood out for their diverse programming. Described as “an adventurous quartet, always in the moment” (Boston Globe), the Aizuris garnered a reputation as “a group…ready for anything” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and as “expert collaborators, who cogently traverse a range of repertoire staples and modern works” on programs that are “genuinely exciting” (New York Times).
Alongside performances of Haydn, Beethoven, and Bartok, the Aizuris regularly commissioned new works and placed them as illuminating foils. On their Grammy-nominated debut album Blueprinting (New Amsterdam Records) the group recorded pieces by Pulitzer-winner Caroline Shaw and Yevgeniy Sharlat, as well as “Lift” by Paul Wiancko and “Carrot Revolution” by Gabriella Smith – seminal works for each composer. The quartet teamed up on large-scale chamber opera collaborations with composers Lembit Beecher and Michi Wiancko, and they were sponsored by New Music USA and the American Composers Forum on the “Intricate Machines Tour,” bringing works by Nina Young, Katherine Balch, Sky Macklay, Phil Taylor and Daniel Temkin to venues across the United States Mid-Atlantic region.
Appearing on this recording as first violin is Emma Frucht, who joined in 2019, alongside violinist Miho Saegusa, violist Ayane Kozasa, and cellist Karen Ouzounian, who were all founding members. The quartet also released recordings with composers Douglas Cuomo and Ilari Kaila, as well as their critically praised sophomore album Earthdrawn Skies (Azica Records) featuring works of Eleanor Alberga, Hildegaard von Bingen, Komitas Vardapet, and Sibelius. The quartet’s collaboration with Daniel Temkin on Ocean’s Call is one of their final recordings.
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