Ex Voto is a collection of nine pieces for piano, cello, and violin. I wanted to create music that is more personal and exposed than anything else that I have written. The inspiration for this work came from a visit to the Cloisters in New York and from my Catholic, Italian-American upbringing. The term ex voto comes from the Latin ex voto suscepto, "from the vow made" and is an offering to a saint or divinity given in fulfillment of a vow in gratitude or devotion. The music of Ex Voto is a return to everything that I love about composing: lilting melodies, driving rhythms, and lush harmonies.

The Nashville-based Cristina Spinei (born in Connecticut in 1984) writes music which pulses with the rhythmic energy of the American minimalist tradition – ‘pulling a lot out of only a little material’, as one reviewer put it. Small wonder, then, that she is much in demand with choreographers, and this album presents music written for dance: four string quartets, a duo for cello and percussion and a work for string orchestra – all of them gently mesmeric, like some kind of unhurried ritual.

Voxare String Quartet
Pala Garcia and Joan Plana, violins
Amanda Verner, viola
Aleisha Verner, cello
Sari De Leon Reist, cello
Colleen Phelps, percussion