Ghost Light

Akropolis Reed Quintet
Poet Marsha Music

Released April 9, 2021 on New Focus Recordings

New works by Stacy Garrop, Michael Gilbertson, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Theo Chandler, and Jeff Scott with the poetry of Marsha Music.


Digital Booklet
Press Release

"faultless detail and refreshing artistry...Ghost Light will leave you transfixed long after the final note"
~ I CARE IF YOU LISTEN

"audibly driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure. There's nothing tentative in their approach, and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works." 
~ The WIRE, U.K.

About the album

Over the past two years we’ve premiered a series of works dealing with life, death, and rebirth. With Ghost Light, we wanted to shine a light on ghosts around us, and help you embrace the beautiful cycle of life and death while recalling important moments and practices from our history. For us, some of that history was right beneath us, like the razing of several Black neighborhoods in Detroit in the 1900s. Other sounds composed for us describe deadly lakes of fire, heavenly fields of reeds, and the near-death adrenaline of facing a firing squad. Through these masterful works by composers of various backgrounds and experiences, we hope you are transformed into a ghostly and intoxicating world of dark and light, death and life — rebirth.

Ghost Light is supported by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.

About Marsha Music

Marsha Music, daughter of a pre-Motown record producer, grew up in Highland Park and lives in the Palmer Park district of Detroit. She is a self-described Detroitist and writes about the city’s music, its past, present and future. She is a former activist/labor leader and a noted speaker. She has contributed to significant Detroit narratives, including “Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes: An Oral History of Detroit’s African American Community,” as well as documentaries on HBO, PBS, and The History Channel. Ms. Music has read her poetry with the DSO; written and performed new poetry with the Detroit Opera Theater as part of their 2020 Drive-Thru opera, Twilight: Gods. She recently published her first book, “The Detroitist.”

Additional Credits and Thanks

Producers: Courtney Snyder Ng, Elliott Tackitt, Akropolis
Production Assistants: Thomas Morris
Recorded at First Presbyterian Church in Ypsilanti, MI & Tempermill Studios
Recorded, Edited, Mixed, & Mastered by Dave Schall Acoustic
Album Artwork by Ashton Springer
Publicist: Unfinished Side

Album Videos

  • “Here is range, here is agility and grace”

    ~ The Whole Note

  • “The ensemble has taken the chamber music world by storm. Ghost Light does not dissapoint. The performance standards of Akropolis are award winning for a reason.”

    ~ Fanfare Magazine

  • “The esteemed players balance powerful, adventurous and haunting moments that cultivate chamber sounds like few others would dare to attempt.”

    ~ Take Effect

  • “exploring everything from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to racial violence in their native Detroit. The sheer sound of this group is instantly captivating...a sublime smoothness of tone and texture."

    ~AnEarful

  • Playing together intensively for more than a decade, Akropolis Reed Quintet have evolved a collective voice that appears to be organically integrated. if their technical ability, its scope, precision and finesse, enables these five Detroit based musicians to gel as a unit, total trust has to be a vital factor too. There's nothing tentative in their approach, and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works."

    ~ The Wire UK

  • "The Akropolis are sure-handed in their curation and collaboration as well, as the five pieces here interact and relate to each other in thought-provoking ways, exploring everything from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to racial violence in their native Detroit."

    ~An Earful