Catalog

Lance Hulme's music reflects the ambience and musical approach of the North American musical tradition. There is compositional eclecticism, a playful and uninhibited attitude with tradition and a crossover between "serious" and vernacular music. All these elements are to be found in his music as well as more advanced structural and aural techniques. His music has received awards from the International Witold Lutoslawski Competition and ASCAP and has been performed by ensembles and orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. Hulme studied at Yale University and the Eastman School. He actually began his career as keyboardist for the jazz/fusion band Dreamscape, so popular and jazz elements can be heard in many of his works, particularly Flame Dance.

Saxophonist Allison Adams, along with collaborators Andrea Lodge and Liz Bouk, has recorded seven new works for saxophone. Adams is on the faculty at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where she shares her excitement for music with the next generation of music educators and performers. A versatile performer in addition to a pedagogue, Adams has been a featured soloist at venues across the world. A graduate of Ithaca College, the University of Minnesota, and Arizona State University, she also does research and writes about performance injuries.

This compact disc features premiere recordings of new music for organ by William Albright, Herbert Bielawa and Pamela Decker. William Albright is well known for his keyboard works, though he has produced works for every medium, several of which involve electronic, visual and theatrical elements. He has been the recipient of many commissions and awards and was professor of music and chair of the composition department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Herbert Bielawa earned his degree in piano and composition at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculties of Bethany College and San Francisco State University where he founded the Pro Music Nova and created the electronic music studio and courses for the computer music major. He has written music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band and orchestra. Pamela Decker holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University and the Fulbright Certificate for successful completion of study as a Fulbright Scholar in West Germany. She has won prizes in national and international competitions for organ playing and for composition. Her compositions for organ have been performed in many countries by American, Canadian, and European organists.

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 Little Rock, Arkansas, Florence B. Price (1887-1953) studied at the New England Conservatory, the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory. Price composed throughout her life, producing as many as 300 compositions. In the 1930s and early 1940s some of her longer works were performed by music groups sponsored by the WPA in Illinois and Michigan. Price was highly visible as a teacher, performer and organizer in Chicago’s concert and church music spheres. Her Concerto in One Movement for piano was premiered in Chicago in 1934 with Price herself as pianist. There is no evidence of the piece being performed after the 1930s and there are no copies of the composer’s manuscript of the orchestral score. Composer Trevor Weston was commissioned to reconstruct the concerto’s orchestration in order to revive this deserving work. Price’s groundbreaking Symphony in E Minor was the first prize winner of the 1932 Rodman Wanamaker Music Contest and was premiered in 1933 by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It is the first work by a black woman to be performed by a major symphony orchestra in the United States.

It is indeed a cause for excitement when two concertos by Florence Price, the first African American woman to write a symphony performed by a major U.S. Orchestra, are recorded. There are no known performances of Price’s first violin concerto, but the Violin Concerto No. 2, completed in 1952 was performed posthumously by its dedicatee, Minnie Cedargreen Jemberg at the opening of the Florence B. Price School in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood in 1964. The two concertos are joined on this recording by a work for violin and orchestra by Ryan Cockerham, which is a tribute to Florence Price’s home state of Arkansas. Violinist Er-Gene Kahng is on the faculty at the Universityof Arkansas in Fayetteville and is concertmaster of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra. She is on the violin faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival, the Beverly Hills International Music Festival, and performs with the Bay View Music Festival string quartet. Ryan Cockerham’s creative work has been exhibited and performed by leading arts and academic organizations around the world, including the English National Ballet, Art Expo Milano, and the Texas Ballet Theater, among many others.

"My journey down the Amazon, the real and operatic one, began in the studio of my dear friend Alvaro Mutis. He knows the jungle intimately and has written about it all his life; at the same time he is a great lover of opera. The combination could not be better. We met many times in his studio. Prints of magnificent riverboats occupy the spaces normally reserved for family photographs. It was there that I learned about the dangers of river navigation, and also about the psychological states the Amazon induces in its travelers; the way it conjures up their most secret desires and deepest fears. In the opera, Florencia undertakes a journey that will bring her back to her origins. It is, I believe, the story of the return journey that we all undertake at a certain point in our lives: the moment when we look back at what we once dreamed of becoming, and then confront what we have now become. As Florencia sings her final aria, her voice, her song and she herself, become intertwined with the image of a butterfly. She breaks through her cocoon; her voice soars, her song acquires transparent wings. Love and beauty become indistinguishable from each other. The image of the butterfly, supremely beautiful from the moment of its birth, is overtly present at the end of Florencia. But it is an image that has been present in my mind as I composed several of my works. I have asked myself why. I think it is my way of understanding the moment when something is no more, my way of transforming it, like when I finish an opera, and say good-bye to characters that have lived with me for so long and have taught me so much, that grew out of me so I could be born out of them, that are, in the end, indistinguishable from myself." Daniel Catàn now lives in Los Angeles and is working on a new commissioned opera for Houston Grand Opera

Over the past few years the highly charged, exuberant music of Florencio Asenjo has been slowly appearing on CD, and this is his debut on Albany. Asenjo employs an approach to music called maximalism, a method of transition from one theme to another to achieve a highly dense content which is constantly changing. Perhaps the technique sounds experimental, but the music certainly is not avant-garde. The Buenos-Aires born composer is beholden to his country's colorful past, and anyone who enjoys the early works (such as Estancia or Panambi) of Alberto Ginastera will certainly be caught up in the excitement of Asenjo's music. All three works on this disc were composed in 2004, and represent colorful portraits of life (Tearings and Glimpses) as well as various psychological states of mind (Passion and Apotheosis). As Asenjo himself has written, "I like when large-scale forms are built on many ideas. There should be a lot of independent ideas. I think that now the general need is for more substance in music."

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.

For his fourth recording on Albany Records, "maximalist" composer Florencio Asenjo gives us three orchestral works based on literature. The Batrachomyomachia or The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice is an anonymous ancient Greek parody of the Iliad. Palm-of-the-Hand Tales is incidental music to ten of Yasunari Kawabata's narratives from his Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. Basile's Pentameron frames incidental musical episodes from Giambattista Baile's Penteramron, which was the source of famous stories by Perrault and the Grimm brothers.

Florencio Asenjo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is best known for his approach to composing called "maximalism," the objective of which was to achieve a high density of content in constant change: he decided to base his composing on the creation of sequences of themes that, taken in succession, were each a development of the preceding music. Again, this was not to be a formal development, or a variation on previous themes, but the creation of entirely new themes connected aesthetically to the preceding ones, a development of substance rather than of form, just as the various characters in a play do not repeat the same sentences over and over again except for special purposes; rather, each rejoins the preceding dialogue to take it further, while retaining the continuity of meaning and atmosphere. But please note: the result is not an avant-garde exercise. This is very colorful music, full of rich atmosphere and drama, upholding the traditions started by his fellow countrymen, such as Alberto Ginastera.

Argentinian-born Désirée Halac presents a beautifully performed recital of songs by Carlos Guastavino. The obituary written for The Guardian called Guastavino the most quietly distinctive voice in 20th century Argentinian music. His distillation of local folk elements into an avowedly romantic-nationalist idiom was unique and markedly different from his colleagues. Guastavino wrote some 300 works, more than half of them the delightful songs, often winsome or tinged with sadness, on which his reputation rests.

Jonathan Borja's second recording for Albany Records continues his interest in performing music for flute by Mexican composers. Included are works by Arturo Rodríguez,José Pablo Moncayo, Juanra Urrusti, Samuel Zyman, Diana Syrse, Eduardo Gamboa, and Arturo Márquez. Borja enjoys a varied career as a performer and educator. He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and is a member of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. He holds degrees from the UMKC Conservatory of Music, Principia College, and the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. His collaborator, pianist Hector Landa is a prizewinner of the Edvard Grieg and the Isaias Noriega de la Vega Piano Competitions. He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Merrie Siegel Parmley has been hailed by the U.S. and Mexican press as “magnificent, jovial and radiant, with purity of tone and great technical command of the instrument” and “superb… [with] a rich, well-controlled tone, and her technical facility is stunning.” She has recorded on the Albany, Beauport Classical, Capstone, and Sony labels.

In great demand as a recitalist and teacher, she has been a member of music faculties throughout the U.S. and Mexico, and has appeared as a recitalist, collaborative musician, orchestral flutist and guest artist throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Merrie divides her summers between Michoacán and Guerrero, México, and Bad Neustadt, Germany, as Artistic Director and Artist/Performer with the international musical consortium, Cruzando Fronteras. In 2023 she, along with the international collaboration of flutists from Germany, Poland, and Mexico, performed the world premiere of Dr. Sarah Bassingthwaighte’s flute quartet “Nightsong” at an ancient archeological site in Tingambato, Michoacán.

A resident of the Seattle area, Merrie has appeared as Principal Flute with the Northwest Symphony. With NSO, she performed the world premiere of the concerto “House of Doors,” dedicated to her by Bassingthwaighte. About to enter her 15th season as Flute Choir Conductor with Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra, Merrie is passionate about creating chamber music as well as working with the talented flutists in her private studio.

Enterprising collaborators Benjamin Sung and Jihye Chang offer a program of new American music for violin and piano. The earliest work on the recording, Derek Johnson's fragments was written in 2002 and revised between 2003 and 2005, while the most recent work, Christian A. Genry's Flux Flummoxed was written in 2009 as a commission for Sung and Chng. Sean Shepherd's Dust is dedicated to the performers who gave the world premiere performance. Benjamin Sung is on the faculty at Florida State University and the Brevard Music Center. A graduate of Eastman and Indiana University, he is the recipient of numerous awards and performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the U.S., in Korea and in Brazil. A graduate of Indiana University, Jihye Chang enjoys an active performing and teaching career, appearing in venues in the U.S., Canada, Central America, Korea and France. She was the first winner of the Mikhashoff International Competition for Pianist-Composer Collaboration in 2008.

Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang offers a recording of works for solo piano for her second disc on Albany Records. Folding time explores the connection between the past and the present. American composers Robert Muczynski, Timo Andres, and Phil Young have distinct compositional styles, yet their works contain elements that convey a sense of nostalgia for past musical eras — particularly the Romantic. The three modern pieces are interspersed with two major 19th century Romantic works by Chopin and Schumann. Anachronistic forays are often part of the compositional landscape today. We look back to the past, but the past is also alive in our present day. Praised for her "effortless and smooth" technique and her "devastatingly limpid and pliable" tone, Ms. Yang has performed in notable venues and series around the world. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Eastman Philharmonia, the Longview Symphony and the North Carolina Symphony; has presented solo recitals in numerous major conservatories, universities, and music festivals internationally and has appeared as a collaborative artist with many noted performers. She will give the world premiere performance of a new concerto by Chen Yi with the China Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2016-17 season. A graduate of Eastman, Yale, and the University of Southern California, Ms. Yang is on the faculty of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Arthur Foote was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard at the age of 17 and studied with John Knowles. Paine. In 1875, he received the first Master's degree in music ever given in this country. He was a professional organist active in the Boston area. He was very fortunate in that he could and did compose orchestral music that was performed by one of the best orchestras in the country at the time; the Boston Symphony. He taught music in the Boston area for more than 50 years. In 1944, taking advantage of two successive fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, Juan A. Orrego-Salas left his native Chile to study in the United States with Randall Thompson and Aaron Copland. He has taught extensively in both Chile and the United States. His Sextet was first performed at Tanglewood in the summer of 1954. Mr. Orrego-Salas has composed four symphonies, concerti, two ballets, an opera, a mass, two cantatas and a great deal of film music. This recording of David Diamond's Quintet is issued in honor of his eightieth birthday.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez is one of the most significant and often-performed American composers of his generation. His teachers have included Nadia Boulanger, Jacob Druckman, Bruno Maderna and Elliott Carter. His Forbidden Fire, Cantata for the Next Millennium is scored for bass-baritone, double chorus and orchestra. The work was commissioned by the University of Miami School of Music and received its world premiere on October 17, 1998. Conceived as a companion piece to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, it is a 22 minute exploration of dangerous or forbidden knowledge, as represented by the Promethean metaphor of stealing fire from the gods. Con Flor y Canto is a narrative cantata, the central portion of Rodriguez' Adoracion Ambulante (1994), a full-evening multi-media Mexican folk celebration. This work had its premiere in October, 1994. Scrooge, Concert Scenes from "A Christmas Carol" for bass-baritone, Chorus and Orchestra telescopes the actions and myriad characters of Dicken's story into an 18 minute tour de force of five short scenes featuring the single character of Scrooge accompanied by a chorus of ghosts and holiday revelers.

Casterede's fanfare is a tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette. In it Casterede has chosen the style of an 18th century military band in his fanfare for brass and percussion. In 1924, while in Paris, Martinu wrote the first of several pieces for solo cello. This Concertino was written with a wind/percussion accompaniment. In 1965, Robert Boudreau, conductor of the American Wind Symphony, visited Europe to search for new music for his ensemble. During a discussion about significant composers of the 20th century, the name of Georges Auric came up. At the time, Auric was directing the Paris Opera and the Opera Comique, but was doing little composing. Boudreau knew that Auric had stopped actively composing, but visited the composer in any case and presented his case for expanding the repertoire for winds. After hearing what Boudreau had to say about his ensemble, Auric agreed to write a piece, and presented it within a few weeks. As the title suggests, Divertimento is an entertaining work, but as Boudreau says, "a virtuosic one, full of sprightly and sometimes exotic wind figuration and peppered with sparkling contributions from pitched and unpitched percussion." Once again, the Dutch composer Henk Badings (1907-1987) was also commissioned by Boudreau to write his piece for the American Wind Symphony. Between 1963 and 1985, Boudreau commissioned a large number of works from Mr. Badings. The Double Concerto for Bassoon and Contrabassoon is one of the earlier works, having been written in 1964. It is subtitled "In Memoriam Paul Hindemith". The Dutch composer/conductor Willem van Otterloo wrote his Little Symphony for Wind Instruments in 1943. It is written in a post-romantic style and is accessible, running the gamut from charming, to brilliant to reflective.

Beginning in the last decades of the 18th century, but accelerated early in the 19th century, New Romanticism seems to have given composers the impetus to write more works for the cello as a solo instrument. The cello's capacity to "sing" was exploited by Romantic composers for dramatic and melodic effects in ensembles. For this recording, cellist Anthony Arnone and pianist Timothy Lovelace have dipped into the cello literature for the "Forgotten Romances" that were written intentionally for the cello and piano rather than arrangements for the cello by well-known composers. Cellist Anthony Arnone is an active soloist, chamber musician, conductor and teacher throughout the country and the world. A native of Honolulu, Mr. Arnone received his bachelor of music degree from the New England Conservatory, and was a founding member of the Meridien Trio and the Sedgewick String Quartet. Also active as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, Timothy Lovelace studied with Harold Evans, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy and Frank Weinstock. An advocate for new music, Lovelace has given premieres of works by Osvaldo Golijov and others and has recorded for Albany and Boston Records.

As a result of a workshop on finding the voice in Beethoven and Schubert, violinist Francesca Anderegg was inspired to find her own voice in the music of the 20th century as well as finding her own personal interpretation of classical repertoire. She has designed the program on this recording to show the ways in which the music of modernist composers Schoenberg, Perle and Carter shares the lyricism and expressivity of Mozart and Schubert. Ms. Anderegg graduated from Harvard and holds a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School. She was awarded the Lenore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing Arts in 2010 and is on the violin faculty of Interlochen Arts Camp and St. Olaf College. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn, The Lucerne Festival Academy, The Perlman Music Program and Tanglewood Music Center. She made her New York debut in February 2007 in a performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto, which the New York Times lauded for its "dark, mournful tone" and "virtuosic panache."

The music of Frank Stemper has been performed in the United States and abroad in more than 22 countries. Through his multiple artist and teaching residencies as well as guest composer appearances at international festivals, his music has maintained a presence on the world new music scene. An eclectic blending of serial and jazz influences from the middle 50 years of the 20th century, his music demands virtuosity as well as sensitive interpretation. Korean pianist Junghwa Lee is the winner of many competitions and appears regular in solo recitals, chamber concerts, and lecture recitals as well as in concerto performances. A graduate of Seoul National University and Eastman, she is currently on the faculty of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an active member of the Altgeld Chamber Players. She is the perfect interpreter for this recording of Stemper's complete music for piano.

How irresistible: a brand-new opera about the death of a fictional composer and his incomplete opera, his mysterious widow and her encounter with a musician who wants to finish it. Is murder involved? And it's suggested by a real life encounter between Leonard Bernstein and Alban Berg's widow! All of this awaits you in Frau Margot by America's most renowned opera composer, Thomas Pasatieri.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Northwestern University and Arizona State University, trombonist Brett Shuster was a member of the Chestnut Brass Company, traveling with the ensemble internationally. He has appeared with the Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Phoenix Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Arizona Opera and the Boston Philharmonic. He has performed as a soloist and conductor at the Seminario de Musica de Montenegro in Brazil. Shuster served on the faculty at Temple University and Western Illinois University before joining the faculty at the University of Louisville where he teaches trombone to classical and jazz students. He offers a varied program of world premiere recordings of works by five gifted American composers.

More than anything, people probably remember Fisher Tull (he died in 1994) by saying: "He was my friend." Known universally by his nickname, Mickey, he had the warm, honest smile and open-hearted character that bespeak the treasured friendship for which true Texans are known. Born, raised and trained in Texas, his life was dedicated to the cause of music within the state. Tull was a native of Waco and earned his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in music from the University of North Texas. He was a faculty member at Sam Houston State University for 37 years until his death. He was chairman of the university's Music Department for nearly half that time (1965-1982) and was a great builder of musical institutions at the university. As a composer, Tull received awards, commissions, appearances, performances and recordings, all of which brought recognition to his name from major musical institutions in Texas, across the United States, in London and continental Europe. His compositional activities grew out of his background as trumpet performer and jazz arranger in the early fifties. During his years in college, he wrote over 100 arrangements for dance bands, radio and television productions and recordings. He was the first staff arranger for the renowned University of North Texas Lab Bands. His first serious compositions were for brass ensembles, followed by several works for symphonic band. As he matured, his works embraced a large segment of the instrumental, orchestral and vocal spectrum.

Nicholas Goluses appears as soloist, chamber music player and with orchestras across North America, South America, Europe, Australia and the Far East to critical acclaim. He has been a featured performer at major festivals and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world. Goluses has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings for Albany, BMG, and NAXOS. Committed to performing new music for the guitar, Goluses has given world première performances of more than 100 works, including solo pieces, concertos for guitar and orchestra, as well as chamber music by many of today's leading composers. Nicholas Goluses is Professor of Guitar, founder and director of the guitar programs at the Eastman School of Music, where he has been the recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, and also has served as chairman of the string department. Goluses has held the Andrés Segovia Faculty Chair at Manhattan School of Music where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and was the recipient of both the Pablo Casals Award "for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor" and the Faculty Award of Distinguished Merit. This recording offers a varied program of music for guitar including the first recording of the solo version of Joseph Schwantner's From Afar

This recording is about song — a cornucopia of exquisite jewels from a multitude of cultures: Spanish, Italian, German, Brazilian, Cuban, Jewish, Russian, Romanian-Gypsy, and the American heartland. Like the miniaturized trees of bonsai, it is a universe in a nutshell, reduction to the very essentials. Arranged by cellist Yehuda Hanani and guitarist Eliot Fisk, the songs have a sense of adventure and rediscovery that accompanies such work and offer listeners a way to experience this music in new and wonderful ways. Both Hanani and Fisk are internationally known artists, performing worldwide across the globe. This entire recording is suffused with their deep friendship and shared artistic legacy.

With sparkling articulation, pianist Pola Baytelman probes deeply to the heart of whatever music she plays. Born in Chile, Baytelman made her debut with the Chilean Symphony Orchestra at age 17, and has since played with numerous orchestras. She studied at the University of Chile's National Conservatory as well as at New England Conservatory and the University of Texas, Austin. Baytelman is an active recitalist and particularly enjoys playing music by women and by Spanish and Latin American composers, as this beautiful recording so clearly demonstrates.

Cellist Clancy Newman has enjoyed an extraordinarily wide-ranging career, not only as a cellist, but also as a composer, producer, writer, teacher, and guest lecturer. He has performed as soloist throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. Newman's interest in composition focuses on works for cello, one of which (From Method to Madness) is heard on this recording. His collaborator, pianist Natalie Zhu, is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, as is Newman. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. For this recording they have chosen works for cello by Samuel Barber, Lukas Foss, and Kenji Bunch, in addition to the work by Newman. The earliest work on this recording, the Barber, was written in 1942; the Foss in 1946, while the Bunch and Newman are recent works.

Composer Joseph Fennimore's ninth recording for Albany Records includes new works for piano, brilliantly performed by Jeffrey Middleton. Fennimore, who is known as a formidable pianist, has a special affinity for this instrument, and it shows in these works. He wrote the music on this collection when he was in his mid 60s to mid 70s. It is mature, the product of a restless and powerful mind. While these works don't form a program, they each benefit from a lifetime of accumulated experience and feeling. They are ruminative, unflinching in the contemplation of mortality, yet retain the composer's natural vivacity, his sense of whimsy and style. Pianist Jeffrey Middleton is a graduate of Juilliard and Yale. His career has included chamber music, vocal coaching and accompanying, solo performances, and teaching. He is on the faculty of the School of American Ballet, receiving the Mae Wien Award for distinguished faculty service in 2010.

During his lifetime Purcell was seen as a grand, almost super-human figure who was entrusted to compose the large, ceremonial pieces for major court and public events: coronation anthems, royal welcome and birthday songs, the lavish semi-operas for the London stage, St. Cecilia Day odes, and so forth. But there was another side of Purcell that is revealed by this recording: the provider of vocal and instrumental music for private, domestic consumption - music of the highest quality, originally performed by professionals, but collected and published for a mainly amateur market. Sally Sanford, Brent Wissick and Raymond Erickson, the artists on this recording, first met in the late 1970s at the Aston Magna Academy, a cross-disciplinary program in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century culture which brings together each summer scholars and baroque music specialists to consider music in relation to the other arts. They have collaborated on many projects since that time. This recording is an outgrowth of the 1987 Aston Magna Academy, "The Culture of Restoration England."

In the far corner of every concert stage, there is an area reserved for the back row of the orchestra. This zone — between the timpani and the double basses — is home to the low-brass section, comprised normally of two tenor trombones, a bass trombone and tuba. Although integral to the symphony orchestra, the low-brass section is seldom featured, and this recording is an opportunity for the listener to discover the special sounds and characteristics of this group. This album consists primarily of chamber music, some of which was composed specifically for this instrumental combination. Also featured are innovative arrangements of piano and non-brass chamber music, and short excerpts from the orchestral repertoire. This is the music the PSO members perform on a weekly basis, and which forms the foundation of their approach to sound and ensemble.