Catalog

The three pieces on this compact disc are the results of a collaborative effort between composer John Allemeier and dancer/choreographer E.E. Balcos, who together created an evening-length, dance-theater work based on three murder ballads — folksongs that describe homicides and their aftermaths. As both artists live and work in North Carolina, they fittingly focused their collaboration on murder ballads from that state. Poor Ellen is based on a balled that recounts the 1892 shooting of Ellen Smith by her lover, while Pieces of Silver was inspired by a murder ballad about Frankie Silver who killed her husband with an ax. Deep Water (Omie Wise) tells the story of how Jon Lewis drowned Omie Wise in 1807. Described as "rapturous" by American Record Guide, John Allemeier's music has been programmed at festivals around the world, including Europe, Russia, South Korea, and Brazil as well as in the U.S. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Allemeier also studied at Northwestern University and Augustana College with additional work in Germany and the Czech Republic. He teaches music theory and composition at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

After more than 100 years, the Negro spiritual is still one of the most beloved genres in American music around the world. Designated a National Treasure by the U.S. Congress in 2007, spirituals offer a unique solace and courage to face personal trials. We also celebrate the iconic arrangers who have helped embed the Negro spiritual deep into the patchwork of American music. Composers including Hall Johnson, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price and Harry T. Burleigh, to mention only a few have created arrangements that are world classics. Likewise there is a long-standing tradition and history of world-class artists whose performances have earned their rightful place in the canon of recital repertory. Bass-baritone Oral Moses has chosen only a few of these magnificent arrangements for this recording. Long a champion of the spiritual, Moses is also known for his performances of art songs by African-American composers as well as for his oratorio and opera performances.

Long overdue, this recording of Virgil Thomson's 1947 opera with libretto by Gertrude Stein by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, makes a major American opera available. The opera, commissioned by the Alice A. Ditson Fund, tells the story of Susan B. Anthony, but Stein's approach mixes real and fictional characters from different historical periods. Premiered at Columbia University, the opera impressed the distinguished audience and press, but neither of New York's major opera companies took on the work. Thomson's music, a continuation of his style of making text come alive through natural inflections and sparing instrumental supports, is suggestive of its American theme with fanfares, political songs, Salvation Army-style marches and parlor songs.

Two young stellar musicians, cellist Xiao-Dan Zheng and pianist Clara Yang collaborate on a recording of music by Edvard Grieg and Sergei Prokofiev that includes sonatas for cello by both composers and two works for piano. Ms. Zheng is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and previously served as principal cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include a Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Young Artist Award and the ASCAP Ira Gershwin Award, among many others. Clara Yang, on the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a varied career as a soloist, chamber music musician and educator. She has performed concertos with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Longview Symphony, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

Members of the Divan Consort, a Los Angeles based ensemble present a program of music by composers from Turkey, China, Armenia, South America and the United States. Reflecting the ethnic and national backgrounds of the performers in the ensemble, the Divan Consort is committed to enhancing diversity in music, exposing music by composers from underdeveloped countries to audiences in the U.S. and Europe, as well as performing landmark compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pianist and founder of the Divan Consort, Füreya Ünal, hails from Turkey, while clarinetist Virginia Figueiredo is Portuguese; violinist Mira Khomik from the Ukraine; cellist Maksim Velichkin from Uzbekistan; percussionist Yuri Inoo from Japan; and flutist Pamela Martchev from the United States.

This recording is a result of the collaborative cross-relations that exist between the musicians and composers on the disc, and their enthusiasm for each other's work. Violist Jonathan Bagg, composers Scott Lindroth and Stephen Jaffee are colleagues at Duke University, while flutist Laura Gilbert and Bagg were co-directors of the Monadnock Music Festival. While Miriam Gideon's playful and probing Creature to Creature was not written for these players, it seemed to add a different, powerful voice that was aesthetically consonant with the other works on the CD. Gilbert and Bagg are joined by harpist Stacey Shames, pianist Donald Berman, guitarist Daniel Lippel and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Shammash for performances that evoke the character of these wonderful recent compositions.

The featured work on this recording, Ansel Adams: America, was originally an orchestral piece co-composed by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris. The piano version was derived both from Dave Brubeck's original piano score as well as the finished orchestral score. Pianist John Salmon, a long-time champion of Dave Brubeck's music as well as his friend, offers the world premiere recording of this work. In Chris Brubeck's words, his father had a friend in John Salmon "with the breadth of knowledge and skill in both classical literature and jazz to take on my father's piano music. John's exquisite and spirited playing brought my father so much pleasure over the length of a long and rich relationship that lasted decades." On the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents as a performer, lecturer and educator.

The Palisades Virtuosi (Margaret Swinchoski, flute, Donald Mokrynski, clarinet, Ron Levy, piano) have an admirable and well-earned reputation as "The Commissioners" because of their ongoing program of commissioning and premiering works for their ensemble from American composers. This recording, the fifth in their series of New American Masterpieces, features new works from seven distinguished composers whose music displays an array of styles, while exhibiting richness and depth. In all, the Palisades Virtuosi have commissioned and premiered almost 70 new works, giving performances throughout the northeastern United States. Palisades Virtuosi have been appointed "Visiting Artists" at Bergen Community College in New Jersey.

Alex Freeman composes in a wide range of styles and media. He holds degrees from Eastman, Boston University's School of Fine Arts and Juilliard. His doctoral research led him to Finland, where he lived for six years, studying at The Sibelius Academy. Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College, Freeman has won awards from ASCAP, The American Academy of Arts and Letter, The American-Scandinavian Foundation and The Fulbright Foundation, among others. The music on this disc reflects Freeman's compositional activity over the last 13 years. Performed in reverse chronological order, each work displays his penchant for continuity and long-range development. Three superb Finnish pianists, Matilda Kärkkäinen, Risto-Matti Marin and Salla Karakorpi, are joined by American pianist Brian Lee in these performances.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called "one of the major American composers of his generation" (Texas Monthly), and his music has been described as "richly lyrical" by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies, and he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. This recording includes the world premiere of Rodríguez' De Rerum Natura from a live performance inaugurating the new Edith O'Donnell Arts & Technology Building at UT Dallas. Commissioned by the university for this occasion, De Rerum Natura is a 27-minute tone poem based on the Latin poem by Roman poet Lucretius. The young violinist Chloé Trevor is featured in the Mozart Violin Concerto. A rising star on today's international violin scene, Trevor has won prizes at numerous competitions and been a featured soloist at venues such as Avery Fisher Hall and the Young Prague Festival.

Albany Records continues its series of recordings devoted to the artistry of esteemed composer and pianist George Walker. This recording includes Walker performing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto in a thrilling live performance from 1967. Coupled with the Beethoven is Walker's Violin Sonata performed by the composer and his son, Gregory for this recording. Gregory Walker, a professor at the University of Colorado is artistic director of the Colorado NeXt Music Fest and a champion of contemporary music.

Arguably, America’s greatest cultural contribution to the world has been jazz. It may be argued with equal force that one of the most important shrines in the history of jazz was Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. Founded in 1938, Minton’s Playhouse became the setting for a revolution in jazz. Virtually everyone who was anyone in the world of jazz made his or her way to Minton’s during this period. While Minton’s is most famous for the seminal role it played in the Bebop revolution of the 1940s, the club had a vital existence through the early 1960s as a magnet for musicians and continued to operate until 1974, when a fire led to the abandonment of the Cecil Hotel where Minton’s was housed. Now, some 40 years later, Minton’s is back. Minton’s is an ultra-sophisticated jazz supper club that pays homage to its musical heritage with nightly concerts on the venue’s original stage presented by a group of veteran musicians. This recording offers the best of the new Minton’s with live recordings, celebrating its roots with an eye towards the future.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called “one of the major American composers of his generation” (Texas Monthly), and his music has been described as “richly lyrical” by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies, and he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. Composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez comments that his teacher Nadia Boulanger told him “that I would be only half a composer until I also learned to express in my music the same love of laughter that she knew I enjoyed as a person I think Boulanger would be pleased to see that all of the pieces on this CD, dating from the 80s to the present, incorporate humor in some way.” Noted pianist Jeff Lankov, who has edited Rodriguez’s piano works for G. Schirmer, gives informed, sensitive performances of this delightful music.

Composer Bevan Manson has received commissions for both classical and jazz music from numerous ensembles including the Sierra Chamber Society and the San Francisco Symphony. He is a founding member of the Los Angeles composers' group Improvisatory Minds, an organization that provides a platform for concert music written by composers who have jazz as an extensive part of their musical backgrounds. A noted jazz pianist, Manson was director of UC Jazz at Cal Berkeleyand has served on the faculties of New England Conservatory, Berklee College and the Thelonious Monk Institute. This recording, the first devoted entirely to his music, combines his classical and jazz roots in a unique style that is complex but very tuneful.

Florencio Asenjo's music is inspired by literature and the visual arts as these three works so aptly show. El Gran Teatro del Mundo (The Great Stage of the World) is the title of a sacramental play by Calderon de la Barca, while Gleanings from the World of Lafacadio Hearn comes musicially from parts of Hearn's stories. The Birth of Venus reflects Asenjo's reaction to Sandro Botticelli's Nascita della Venere. This is the sixth release of Asenjo's orchestral music to be released on Albany Records.

Known as a champion of contemporary music, percussionist Tom Kolor has performed with all the major new music ensembles, including the New York New Music Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music and Speculum Musicae, to name but a few. Kolor is a member of Talujon Percussion, which has given countless world premieres and made a significant contribution to the percussion quartet repertoire. He is on the faculty at the University of Buffalo SUNY, where he directs the percussion ensemble. For this disc of masterpieces for solo percussion, he has chosen two of America's composers who led the way in 20th century music development -- John Cage and Milton Babbitt.

Led by conductor Giselle Wyers, the Solaris Vocal Ensemble performs a program of contemporary American music that includes works by Meredith Monk, the 2012 Musical America Composer of the Year; Ingram Marshall, whose music concentrates on combining tape and electronic processing with ensembles and soloists; Anne LaBaron, whose compositions embrace an exotic array of subjects; and Frances White, whose study of the shakuhachi informs and influences her works as a composer. All world premiere recordings, these works reflect a renaissance of innovation in the field of choral music.

Born in California, composer Alva Henderson studied at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory, where he concentrated on voice and composition. Henderson is known for his operas and vocal music, reflecting his interest in the potential of the human voice. His collected songs presented on this 2-CD set are gems of the American song genre. Sung by soprano Melanie Emelio, a versatile performer and noted pedagogue on the faculty at Pepperdine University and baritone John Kramar, who has performed in opera and concert productions around the country, these songs possess great color, style and sheer beauty.

Thomas Sleeper enjoys an active dual career as composer and conductor. His compositions include three symphonies, six operas, 14 concerti and numerous chamber works. His music is regularly performed through the U.S., in Europe, Asia and South America. He is director of orchestral activities at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music and music director of the Florida Youth Orchestra. With this world premiere recording of four of his concerti, we discover a composer in full control of his considerable faculties. His musical voice is oblique, as language in a dream, which tends to evaporate the more you attempt to sharpen your focus. These works display a composer with something interesting and important to say in a voice that is uniquely, authentically and unmistakably his.

Compositional clarity of purpose amid a counterpoint of ideas and materials brings together this generous collection of Jeffrey Mumford's music, all of which are heard in thoughtful and sensitive performances. A native of Washington, D.C., composer Jeffrey Mumford has received numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions including the Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Formerly on the faculty at Oberlin College, he is now Distinguished Professor of Music at Lorain County Community College. Mumford was in residence at the National Gallery of Art in 2013 and some of the works on this 2-CD recording come out of this residency.

The Buckley Chamber Players, named in honor of its home venue, Amherst College's Buckley Recital Hall, was founded in 2008. Its members are on the faculty at Amherst and Smith College and the University of Massachusetts. Playing a varied repertoire, it is dedicated to a close collaboration with composers who write works for the ensemble. This recording is representative of their concerts, and includes three works written for them, two of them by composers on the faculty at Amherst (Eric Sawyer and Lewis Spratlan).

Lynn Klock has been an enthusiastic participant in new music for the saxophone for more than 40 years, with dozens of composers having written new works for him. This recording features Klock with conductor Dennis Zeisler and the Virginia Wind Symphony in new concertos for soprano and alto saxophone and wind ensemble. It follow a previous recording on Albany Records of new music written for Lynn Klock for baritone saxophone and piano. Lynn Klock has appeared as a soloist throughout North America as well as in Russia, Europe, South America, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada. Klock has presented master classes at national and international conferences as well as at educational institutions across the United States and overseas. He is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Captivated by the sound of the native American flute, virtuoso flutist James Pellerite has virtually single-handedly reinvented the playing of the instrument by commissioning dozens of composers to write for it. The resulting new works have challenged Pellerite to develop new techniques for the instrument. His legacy is therefore both an entire body of literature for the instrument and the development of techniques necessary to perform the music. Former principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pellerite has also had a long and distinguished career as Professor of Flute at Indiana University. This recording showcases the native American flute in a range of contemporary styles by eight composers, performed by the man who re-imagined the instrument.

The association of composer/conductor Gregg Smith, the Gregg Smith Singers and Saint Peter's Church in New York City dates back to 1970. Smith wrote works for the church, some of them commissioned for special occasions, and conducted the Gregg Smith Singers along with the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association and the Saint Peter's Choir in performances of this music. This disc commemorates this association with a collection of six of these works, written and performed between 1972 and 2005. Music for an Urban Church celebrates this American composer's continuation of the tradition of "singing unto the Lord a new song." As a composer Gregg Smith has more than 400 compositions to his name and he is also celebrated as the founder and conductor of the world-famous Gregg Smith Singers.

With this recording, double bassist Anthony Stoops embarks on an unlikely project — that of enlarging the repertoire for solo double bass music in order to legitimatize the double bass as an important solo instrument. Performing five new works by American composers, some of them commissioned by him, Stoops is a strong advocate for his project. An international acclaimed soloist, pedagogue, orchestral and chamber musician, Stoops is Associate Professor of Double Bass at the University of Oklahoma and Co-principal Bass of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. A graduate of Northwestern University, the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan, Stoops performs on a custom double bass made for him by American luthier Aaron Reiley.

To celebrate their 100th anniversary, the Pro Arte Quartet commissioned works from four distinguished American composers (Walter Mays, Paul Schoenfield, William Bolcom and John Harbison), which were given their world premiere performances in 2011-2012. The Pro Arte Quartet was founded in 1911-12 by teenage prodigies who were students at the Brussels Conservatory. Stranded in the USA in 1940 by the outbreak of World War II, the Quartet became established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they became the first professional string quartet in residence at an American university. In all, the Quartet has commissioned more than 100 new works so it was fitting that the centerpiece of their centennial celebration include commissions, performances and recordings of these new works.

Colleagues at the University of Arizona, flutist Brian Luce and harpist Carrol McLaughlin perform a program of original compositions and arrangements for their instruments. Known as an expert on Soviet-era Music, Dr. Luce has given lectures and recitals based on his award-winning dissertation on the subject of Edison Denisov's music for flute. A prize-winning performer, his recordings appear on the Albany and Citadel record labels. Ms. McLaughlin has performed in al the major concert halls of the world and as concerto soloist with orchestras from Russia to Japan. A prolific composer and writer, McLaughlin has published books, music and has 15 recordings in her discography.

This recording of the hilarious Gilbert & Sullivan 1878 comic opera was made at the 2013 Ohio Light Opera Festival and includes complete music and dialog. H.M.S. Pinafore has been the most frequently performed work at the Ohio Light Opera and an audience favorite on both sides of the Atlantic since its initial run.

Ross Bauer's music is intensely lyrical, powerfully dramatic, harmonically rich and variegated, beautifully proportioned, rhythmically agile and dynamic, vibrantly hued, and emotionally and expressively generous. The stellar performances on this disc will bear this out for the listener. Bauer is a consummate composer, deeply committed to writing music exhibiting not only the utmost skill and integrity, but also the desire to connect with his listeners. On the faculty at the University of California, Davis, Bauer's music appears on the Albany, GM, Centaur and New World record labels. He received a 2005 Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Walter Hinrichsen Award.

In a seemingly unlikely marriage of ideas, this recording presents new works by four American composers for a fabled instrument of China, the pipa. Building on the instrument's long history, these composers present a new vision of how an ancient instrument from another culture can provide inspiration to an even broader audience. The composers on this recording, Donald Reid Womack, Jeff Myers, Thomas Osborne, and Takeo Kudo, blend idiomatic performing techniques with inventive textures and widely divergent harmonic contexts. They build on the instrument's traditional repertoire by extending the range of cultural influences and reinventing the music that can be played on pipa. The performances are by the renowned pipa virtuoso Yang Jing, whose distinct mix of virtuosity and lyricism, tradition and innovation brings these new works to life.

The second half of the 20th-century saw a great blossoming of choral singing in America, from the emergence of the great choral singing schools to increased professionalism in church music programs and the founding of major professional choral groups and associations. One result of this overall rise in choral excellence was an expansion to the body of sophisticated, secular art-music for choruses as American composers responded to the increasingly skilled, nonreligious choral ensembles practicing the craft. This recording, expertly performed by the Washington Master Chorale, offers some of the best of this art-music. Founded in 2010, the Washington Master Chorale is a semi-professional chorus in Washington, D.C., conducted by Thomas Colohan. Their purpose is to advance American choral excellence by combining skilled vocal artistry with superb poetic choral literature; to contribute to the choral canon through commissioning leading American composers and to present choral works in the context of their culture and time.

Two world premieres — one by Lori Laitman who is known as one of America's most prolific and widely performed composers of vocal music — and the other by Richard Pearson Thomas, who is who is on the faculty at Teachers College/Columbia University and whose operas have been produced nationally — are enhanced by additional song cycles by these two esteemed composers. Soprano Natalie Mann is an active recitalist and champion of contemporary music, whose Carnegie Hall debut received critical acclaim. A recipient of a Metropolitan Opera Encouragement Award, Ms. Mann studied at Indiana University, Butler University and the University of Wollongong in Australia. Her colleague, Jeffrey Panko, has received performed as a solo artist and collaborative pianist throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of the contemporary music group MAVerick Ensemble and on the faculty of the New Music School in Chicago. You can watch a video of Ms. Mann performing Old Tunes by Lori Laitman on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URnMQebyQuQ.