Projects

Sánchez' composition NEFERTARI was a project spanning almost half a decade, with its genesis in the news of a family member's illness, and its working out a process of descent, new understanding, and transcendence. NEFERTARI is a musical transmutation of Queen Nefertari’s tomb, a space designed as a liminal zone between worlds, a bridge between the physical and the spiritual. The three-movement, sixty-two-minute work for soprano, prepared piano, and sistrum is sung in ancient Egyptian - translated, transliterated, and vocalized for this project in a monumental effort in collaboration with Egyptologists Gonzalo Sánchez and Edmund Meltzer - from the hieroglyphs covering the walls of Nefertari’s tomb.

Kayleen and Paul Sánchez began making music together in 2009, and were married in 2010. As the duo Far Song, they specialize in new music, and have performed world premieres of works by composers including Graham Lynch, David M. Gordon, Shawn Okpebholo, and Paul Sánchez. They have been featured together on CD releases on the Albany Records, Innova Recordings, and Soundset Recordings labels.

David M. Gordon is a Chicago-area composer. Sánchez and Gordon have collaborated on various projects, and Sánchez has commissioned and premiered three of David's works: Fabular Arcana, a concerto for retuned piano and orchestra; Mysteria Incarnationis, for soprano, prepared piano, and violin; and "Consolation New," for one pianist on two microtonally-tuned pianos. Sánchez recorded Gordon's works on the CD Mysteria Fidei. 

Graham Lynch, "One of the most original voices in 21st century British Music" (Piano Professional Magazine), is based in Penzance, England. Lynch and Sánchez have collaborated on a number of projects, and Sánchez has performed world premieres of several of Lynch's works, including a number of piano works which Graham wrote for Paul: White Book 3, "The Couperin Sketchbooks," and "Absolute Inwardness." Sánchez' album Seria Ludo features several of Graham's solo piano works.

The press has described Shawn Okpebholo's music as "devastatingly beautiful" and "fresh and new and fearless" (Washington Post), "affecting" (New York Times), "lyrical, complex, singular" (The Guardian), "searing" (Chicago Tribune), "dreamy, sensual" (Boston Globe), and "powerful" (BBC Music Magazine). Okpebholo and Sánchez have collaborated on four albums: Okpebholo: Steal Away; Dreams of a New Day; Lord, How Come Me Here?; and an upcoming album featuring Songs in Flight.

Cecilia Rodrigo, daughter of Joaquín Rodrigo, describes Paul Sánchez as being "among the great artists who has most contributed to the promotion and learning of the life and music of Joaquín Rodrigo in the United States." Sánchez has been interested in the music of Joaquín Rodrigo since his childhood, and attributes his love for classical music to hearing Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez as a boy. In 2001, he met Cecilia Rodrigo, and they have remained in contact since then. From 2005–2007, Sánchez was a Fulbright fellow in Barcelona, Spain, where he studied with Maria Teresa Monteys and Alicia de Larrocha and earned his Master of Spanish Music degree. The music of Rodrigo was one focus of his time in Spain. In 2019, Cecilia Rodrigo asked Sánchez to create a concert in honor of the 20th anniversary of the composer's passing; Rodrigo: A Life in Music, was the result. 

Paul Sánchez has loved Spanish music since his childhood, and while the music of Joaquín Rodrigo holds a particularly special place in his heart, his interest in Spanish music more broadly led him to earn a Master of Spanish Music degree under Maria Teresa Monteys and Alicia de Larrocha as a Fulbright fellow in Barcelona from 2005–2007.