You remember when Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon and said it was a small step for him but one giant leap for mankind. Just reverse this statement and you'll understand how I feel about every of the Arpaviva's releases: a bold step for me and a small step for the humanity. But nevertheless, I believe that the Arpaviva CD 003 was worth all the effort and work we all put in it during this past year. The CD turned out to be as beautiful as I thought it would be. I couldn't have done it without: Jenny Q Chai, Relja Penezic, Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Robert Carl, Adrian Car and Meg Wilhoite.

This album is a "one woman show" by Jenny Q Chai. Jenny's "normal" repertoire is solo piano music by Ligeti, Schoenberg, Debussy etc. But on this CD she displays all of her talents combined: she plays piano and sings in English, French and Chinese; she is also an actress, a percussionist and a harmonica player.

It is an album dedicated to various kinds of love. First you'll hear the "evergreen songs" by the giants: Cage, Ives, and Rzewski, followed by the four of the New York Love Songs (the title cut) - the songs I wrote in NY in 1997-1998. The CD also spotlights emotionally powerful Intimate Rejection for solo piano, by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, an accomplished young composer. I know that Ashley will be surprising us even more in the years to come.

In order to "end" the album I wrote a piano piece called Loveling. (For those of you who know me well - this is not one of my spelling mistakes).

The album New York Love Songs has to do with how I feel about NY - a melting-pot of forward-thinking artists in tune with the spirit of New York City.

All the best!
Victoria Jordanova

August 20th 2010, Los Angeles, California