From Rock to Rachmaninoff, GRAMMY® Nominee Kip Winger Shines With SYMPHONY OF THE RETURNING LIGHT

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“A leading voice in contemporary classical composition.

—WholeNote

Kip Winger has spent decades moving between musical worlds, but Symphony of the Returning Light and the Violin Concerto “In the Language of Flowers” make a particularly compelling case for the composer he has become. Recorded with the Nashville Symphony under conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, the album brings together two world-premiere recordings that reveal very different sides of Winger’s orchestral writing. Symphony of the Returning Light is the larger, more introspective work, an autobiographical piece built around the idea of atonement and a lost soul sending messages back to itself through Morse code. Those rhythmic signals become part of the musical architecture across its four movements: “S.O.S.,” “Eleos,” “Metamorphosis,” and “Metanoia,” as Winger layers melody, orchestral color and recurring themes around them. It’s an inventive concept, but the emotional journey is what ultimately gives the symphony its weight.

The Violin Concerto “In the Language of Flowers” takes a different path, with Nashville Symphony concertmaster Peter Otto at its center. Winger uses floriography—the symbolic language of flowers—to tell a love story across four movements named “Forsythia,” “Viscaria,” “Ambrosia,” and “Wisteria,” giving Otto plenty of room to bring both virtuosity and lyricism to the solo part. The concerto grew out of Winger’s collaboration with Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony, with Otto himself contributing insight as Winger refined the score. Paired with Symphony of the Returning Light, it makes for an album that can be cerebral without feeling academic and technically ambitious without losing its emotional pull. The Nashville Symphony brings both works vividly to life, while Guerrero gives Winger’s ideas the space and scale they need. For listeners who still associate the name Kip Winger primarily with rock, there’s plenty here to expand that picture.

Kip Winger is a GRAMMY®-nominated composer and multi-platinum recording artist whose career has taken an unusually wide path through rock, classical music, ballet and theater. After touring as a bassist with Alice Cooper and performing with artists including Alan Parsons, Roger Daltrey, Bob Dylan and the Hollywood Vampires, he founded Winger in 1987. But composition had been part of his musical ambitions since childhood, and over the past two decades he has increasingly devoted himself to orchestral work. His ballet Ghosts, commissioned by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, was performed internationally, while Conversations with Nijinsky, originally commissioned by San Francisco Ballet, earned Winger a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and ultimately led Guerrero to commission the two works heard on this recording. With Symphony of the Returning Light and “In the Language of Flowers,” Winger continues a second musical chapter that no longer feels like a departure from his career—it feels like an essential part of it.

For more information on Kip Winger, visit kipwinger.com.