Harp-double-bass duo releases debut CD recorded in Tucson

There is not a lot of repertoire to choose from when you’re a harp and double-bass duo.

So Tucson double-bassist Philip Alejo and Chicago harpist Claire Happel Ashe — the River Town Duo — tapped a few friends to write works for them.

The result is the pair’s debut album “For Claire & Philip” that features several works penned for their unusual instrument pairing.

“Prior to this, none of these pieces existed,” said Alejo, an associate professor at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music.

The album’s title piece comes from Caroline Shaw, a classmate of Alejo and Ashe’s at Yale University, where they met as graduate students. Shaw, a violinist and composer, was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music when she was 30 — the youngest recipient of the honor. Among her accolades is composing works for Reneé Fleming, the LA Philharmonic, Gil Kalish and Anne Sofie von Otter, as well as working with rapper Kanye West on a number of remixes over the past several years.

“When we decided we wanted to do this project, we decided we wanted to get her involved,” Alejo said of Shaw. “She has made a name for herself in American composition. She gets commissions from the biggest artists out there and from orchestras.”

Ashe, who lives and teaches in Chicago, and Alejo recorded the album in Tucson before the COVID-19 pandemic. The duo, whose name is a nod to their shared Midwest roots, scheduled performances and masterclasses around Ashe’s Tucson visits, Alejo said.

“For Claire & Philip” is a project that comes 15 years after they met as graduate students at Yale University.

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While most of their Yale classmates struck out on New York City music careers, Ashe and Alejo yearned for wide open spaces like they had growing up.

“We wanted to forge a different musical path than our other classmates,” he said.

But double-bass and harp duos were pretty rare, and the repertoire was even more scarce. To raise money for the commissions, the pair applied for grants including with the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the American Harp Society and the city of Urbana, Illinois, not far from where Ashe lives. They also got support from family and friends.

The album was released on the fledgling New York City label Furious Artisans, which curates modern classical works by rising artists. Alejo said he is hopeful the pair can tour to promote it later this year, once the COVID-19 health crisis has subsided.

“When we play for people it’s always a surprise because it’s a collaboration of these two massive instruments,” he said. “I love to be able to share the unexpected. And the harp, the sound quality, is so wonderful and never heavy. It’s never agile. For a bass player playing with a piano, it feels like we are always fighting whereas the harp gives us space to work.

“We have this album and there’s no better way to celebrate it than to go out and perform it. Playing live is what we enjoy doing most,” he added.

“For Claire & Philip” is available on all major streaming outlets including Amazon and Apple Music.