Natalie Draper & Anne Laver: Interlaced: Music for Organ, et al.
Acis

An inner sleeve photo on Interlaced suggests composer Natalie Draper and organist Anne Laver could easily pass for siblings, and certainly the performances presented on the release exemplify the kind of closeness sisters share. The fifty-five-minute recording is the culmination of a six-year artistic partnership that's clearly been beneficial to both: Draper's gifted Laver with terrific material to perform, and the organist in turn has delivered sterling renderings of the composer's material. Adding to the release's appeal, a small coterie of guests appears on half of the eight compositions, with violinist William Knuth, trombonist Heather Buchman, mezzo-soprano Katherine Suzanne Weber, the José “Peppie” Calvar-led Hendricks Chapel Choir, and sopranos Katerina Skafidas and Ashley Vance participating. While the orchestral timbres afforded by Laver's organ would have provided more than enough stimulation to the listener on their own, the album in no way suffers when her contributions are joined by theirs.

Often presented as a solo instrument, the organ here becomes an enthusiastic creative partner. Interlaced also eases the connection organ has to the customary liturgical setting with compositions that sonically might evoke that context but reflect Draper's individual sensibility above all else. The seed for the album was planted in 2019 when Laver, Associate Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University, approached Draper, then newly appointed to the Setnor School of Music faculty, to compose her first work for organ. From that commission others developed, with workshops and performances strengthening their connection into a genuine artistic partnership.

That Draper didn't have an organ background before creating the initial work proved freeing in that she didn't come to the collaboration steeped in the instrument's centuries of tradition. Laver clearly noticed this too, as revealed in her observing how quickly Draper “adapted to the organ and made it an extension of her compositional voice.” If the organ itself sounds spectacular, it's attributable in part to the fact that three different ones were used in the recording process, the historic Holtkamp organ at Syracuse University, the Quimby organ at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Syracuse, and the Eastman School of Music's eighteenth-century Italian Baroque organ housed at Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery.

Interlaced captivates instantly when Knuth's violin enters alongside organ to intensify the music's mesmerizing effect. Triplet violin patterns arc acrobatically alongside alternately gleaming and burbling chords, the music swooping and percolating incessantly for seven minutes. In no way does Laver take a back seat during the performance, yet there's also no denying the forcefulness of Knuth's attack. The album generally alternates between pieces featuring the organist alone and partnering with another, and consistent with that the title work's followed by Pattern Dances, scored for solo organ and comprising five parts packed with a constellation of timbral colours. The full glory of instrument and performer is captured when the work advances from the insistent “Pulse” to the brooding “Breathe,” animated “Glide,” melancholy “Tiptoe,” and gyroscopic “Spin.”

Buchman's blazing trombone deepens the oceanic sway of Laver's rippling textures in Out of the Depths, after which the organist delivers Perpetual Motion alone, the three-minute piece recalling early Glass in not just title but dizzying character too. The sound-world shifts dramatically when soprano Skafidas and mezzo-soprano Suzanne Weber partner with Laver for the haunting A Study in Breathing: Allein zu dir, the effect of their interlacing voices coupling with the organist's enriching accompaniment lustrous. As the recording moves into its final third, the aptly titled Joyful Canons and oft-serene Three Meditations for Organ make further compelling cases for the artistry of composer and performer until Cloths of Heaven, featuring soprano Vance and the Hendricks Chapel Choir, brings the set to a blossoming close with a miniature choral epic set to text by W. B. Yeats.

October 2026