Catalog

To honor the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, pianist Robert Cassidy offers a brilliant reading of his Préludes, Livre I. In addition, this beautifully recorded program includes a world premiere recording of David Noon's Elegy Variations, a work written in memory of one of his colleagues and Mozart's longest fantasy for piano. Robert Cassidy has performed in solo and collaborative recitals, and with orchestra, throughout the United States and Canada. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University and Ball State University, Dr. Cassidy has appeared in venues such as Merkin and Weill Halls and the Banff Centre for the Arts. He is the pianist for the Almeda Trio and is on the faculty at Cleveland State University.

While composer Mark N. Grant studied at the Eastman School and took courses at Juilliard, Mannes, and Manhattan, he first embarked on a career as a journalist before turning to composition. His music has been performed in the United States, Europe and New Zealand and is the recipient of grants and commissions from the American Music Center, Meet the Composer and the New Renaissance Chamber players, among others. He received the Friedheim Award in 1996 for his music and won ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for two of his books on music. If music were food--which to the soul it is--Grant's gives you a choice of a dependably traditional menu as well as an à la carte rich in surprises. The first recording devoted to his music includes a monodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble (Auto da fé); a song cycle for two sopranos and piano (The Book of Illuminations); as well as a work for guitar (Alba: The Lover's Departure at Dawn) and for theremin (Bird of Pardise).

This string quartet by noted American composer Joseph Summer is a musical interpretation of the named stories of the preeminent 20th century fabulist, Jorge Luis Borges. Born in 1956, Joseph Summer studied at Oberlin and was on the faculty at Carnegie-Mellon. Summer has written four comic operas based on the stories of The Decameron. These operas are part of a planned seven opera cycle, which follows the exploits of a half dozen characters over the course of a week in an imagined 14th century Naples. Founder of The Shakespeare Concerts, Summer's music inspired by Shakespeare appears on three previously released recordings on Albany Records.

This new American opera by Evan Mack had its genesis in a lecture in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Mack heard the story of the murdered nun, Dorothy Stang. His research led him to the Ohio Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur where he was given access to Stang's letters from 1969 until the week before her death. In five years time, the opera went from page to stage and won the Boston Metro Opera Main Stage Award. This recording is of the original New York City production. Evan Mack, a noted composer and pianist, has composed five musicals as well as numerous popular songs and classical works. He received his DMA from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music.

In this recording of Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen's chamber music, he explains that "Throughout my life, I have had two basic sources of inspiration, the power of nature and the power of the mind." While most of his compositions have been for orchestra, he uses the same sources of inspiration for his chamber music, but the textures and colors are varied to suit the chamber medium. Prangcharoen has established an international reputation and is recognized as one of Thailand's leading composers. Among many other awards, he has received the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Commission and the Audience Choice Award. His music has been performed in Asia, America, Australia and Europe. He is the founder of the Thailand International Composition Festival and is on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri in Kansas City.

This recording presents works for flute and harp that seamlessly arc between the natural world and the human spirit, serving as reminders of the fragility of the environment and the ability to perceive and affect it. As the Aletheia Duo, flutist Jonathan Keeble and harpist Ann Yeung share a passion for bringing the creative possibilities of the music of this time to their audiences and have inspired critics to describe their evocative performances as having "lyricism, and above all, magic." This passion balances their commitment to reinterpreting contemporary and historic compositions for flute and harp with verve, sensitivity, and enthusiasm. Individually recognized as leading performers and exceptional pedagogues, they have been performing together since 2002. They are both on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Conductor Cynthia Turner Johnson and the Cornell University Wind Ensemble began a program in 2004 of commissioning DMA candidates in composition at Cornell to compose music that "pushes boundaries." Six of these works by these exceptional young composers are heard on this recording. These composers have produced significant contributions to the wind ensemble repertoire and no doubt, the musical world will be hearing more from them. Christopher Stark is a composer whose music is deeply rooted in the American West. He is a recipient of the coveted Underwood Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. Ryan Gallagher studied at Juilliard and Cornell and has received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and five ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Zachary Wadsworth's Out of the South Cometh the Whirlwind was winner of the King James Bible Composition Awards and was performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey. Born in the Ukraine, Catherine Likhuta's music has been performed in many venues in Ukraine, the U.S. and Canada. Takuma Itoh spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to northern California. He studied at the University of Michigan and Rice University prior to attending Cornell. He has been a fellow at the Pacific and Aspen Music Festivals. Composer, conductor and mandolinist Jesse Jones is an artist of wide-ranging tastes and influences whose music has been performed across North America, Europe, and Asia. His awards include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The intensity and focus of David Glaser's music reflect the concentration of his life. He has lived in New York City for the entirety of it -- raised in Queens, and for the past 25 years, living in Manhattan. What characterizes virtually all of his music heard on this recording is its intentional direction towards New York concert-music performers, their ensembles, and the culture and tradition that they embody and extend. His music calls visual metaphors to mind: the luminous radiance of its sparkling timbral textures is a reflection of the focus of an intense conception, asking that an audience shut its eyes in order to see. Glaser is a graduate of Columbia University and is the recipient of awards and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the American Music Center.

Horn soloist Bernhard Scully has been described as among the elite musicians of his generation, both as a performer and a pedagogue. Equally at home with solo, orchestral, and chamber music, his diverse performance experience includes positions as horn player with the Canadian Brass, principal horn with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and horn player with the Summit Brass. Among his many awards are top honors at numerous competitions, most notably becoming the first classical brass player to win a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. A horn professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Scully studied at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and colleague Joanne Minnetti perform French masterpieces for horn and piano.

"...Melodious and engaging..." "...a musically vivid theatrical debut..." "...the score is continually inventive..." These were some of the comments from the press on the world premiere production of Bruno Skulte's masterpiece, The Heiress of Vilkaci. This DVD is of the world premiere, June 23, 2011 and compliments the recording of the opera previously released by Albany Records (TROY944/45). Devoted to Latvian music, Bruno Skulte was one of the most prominent Latvian composers to flee Latvia and find refuge in exile. Born in 1905, Skulte studied at the Latvian Conservatory and worked as an organist, composer and artistic director of the Latvian Radio and the Liepaja Opera. He came to New York in 1949 and became organist for the Latvian congregation in New York. His 25 year tenure with the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in New York boasts many achievements with his activities promoting Latvian music. The Heiress of Vilkaci is possibly his crowning achievement and offers a delightful listening and visual treat with this DVD. Sung in Latvian with English surtitles.

Slowly, over the past few years, Albany's progressive releases of the piano music of Allen Shawn have made it clear that this is one of the most substantial and memorable bodies of work for the instrument of any living American composer. The series showcases a composer whose range of expression, technique and tone are enviable. A multi-faceted artist, Allen Shawn (b.1948) was raised in a literary millieu and has carved out an additional significant career as a writer, but he is a composer first, and one of the major American composer-pianists. His output includes many orchestral works, three chamber operas, songs, choral music, chamber music and works for piano. He is on the music faculty at Bennington College. This is the third volume on the Albany Records series devoted to his music for piano.

Molly Morkoski introduces her disc noting that "The selections on this disc encompass my musical journey as a college and graduate student through my time as a beginning professional in New York City. Three of the works represent my time in study with teaches whose musical input and genius still instructs my work today...There is the traditional repertoire of my youth and undergraduate studies, the period of discovery and love of new harmonic and rhythmic structures from my time as a master's student, and a final synthesis and balance of all styles from my time as both a doctoral student and professional musician in New York City." Morkoski has performed as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan, and has appeared at major concert halls and festivals around the world. She was a Fulbright scholar and the recipient of the Teresa Sterne Career Grant and the Thayer-Ross Awards. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Indiana University and SUNY-Stony Brook. Currently she is on the faculty at CUNY's Lehman College.

Acclaimed saxophonist Christopher Creviston offers arrangements, piano reductions and a world premiere recording for his second recording on Albany Records. The arranger of the popular Poulenc Sonata for flute, Creviston has done a magnificent job of adapting this work for the saxophone. Composer Dorothy Chang wrote Two Preludes for Christopher Creviston in 1993 and they are receiving their world premiere recordings on this disc. As a soloist and with the Capitol Quartet, Christopher Creviston has been featured with bands and orchestras across the U.S., including the Baltimore, Indianapolis and National Symphony Orchestras and is in demand as a recitalist and clinician. Now on the faculty at the Crane School of Music, Dr. Creviston has held positions at the Greenwich House of Arts, the University of Windsor and the University of Michigan.

The Palisades Virtuosi continues their commendable series of commissioning new works from outstanding American composers for their trio's instrumentation of flute, clarinet and piano. This fourth volume brings the total to almost 50 new works the ensemble has added to the repertoire. Two of the works on this recording have the added attraction of the formidable Marni Nixon joining the group to narrate the poetry in the Unitarian Hymnal that forms the background for Gwyneth Walker's work and the information about crows that precedes each movement of Amanda Harberg's Birding in the Palisades. Palisades Virtuosi consists of the virtuoso musicians Margaret Swinchoski, flute, Donald Mokrynski, clarinet and Ron Levy, piano. The ensemble has received rave reviews for its previous three releases on Albany Records.

A program of transcriptions and original works for trombone of fantasies is performed by Rick Stout. Rick has a distinguished performing career both as a member of The Cleveland Orchestra and through his many solo and chamber music performances. He is on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music where he directs brass chamber music and is a graduate of The Curtis Institute. He is joined by pianist Christina Dahl who is director of chamber music for Stony Brook University. The two collaborators commissioned Caleb Burhans' Phantasie for this recording in honor of their first recorded collaboration.

Two world premiere recordings are offered on this most recent recording by the Illinois State University Wind Symphony -- David Maslanka's O Earth, O Stars, a double concerto for flute and cello -- and a work commissioned by the Wind Symphony from Latin Grammy Award Winner, Carlos Franzetti -- his Symphony No. 3. Born in Argentina, Carlos Franzetti studied there, in Mexico and at Juilliard. From symphonies to big band jazz, from chamber works to Latin American music and film scores Ñ he has no limits as a composer. Especially well known for his music for wind ensemble, composer David Maslanka has also written a wide variety of chamber, orchestral and choral works.

The University of Western Ontario Wind Ensemble makes its debut on Albany Records with a program of contemporary works by composers from the U.S., Canada, England and Japan. The youngest composer, Newfoundland-born Jason Noble (b.1980) offers the most recent composition with Doppelpolitik, written in 2009, followed by Yo Goto's Lachrymae, completed in 2005 and Jim Territo's Fanfare: 1, written in 2004. Richard Rodney Bennett's Elegy for Miles Davis was completed in 1993, with Apparitions by Anthony Iannaccone dating from 1986. The oldest work dates from 1951, the Suite of English Folk-Dances by Ernest Tomlinson.

The most recent volume in the series on Albany Records devoted to the orchestral music of George Walker includes two concertos -- one for piano and the other for cello -- interspersed with works for large chamber ensembles and Icarus, commissioned by the New Jersey Youth Symphony in 2004. George Walker's music has been performed by every major American orchestra and many international orchestras, including those of Great Britain, Europe and South America. Recordings of his music appear on Sony, BIS, Klavier Centaur, Naxos and Albany Records, among others. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1996, Walker has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is the recipient of six honorary doctoral degrees.

The Moores School Percussion Ensemble serves as the cornerstone of the Department of Percussion Studies at the University of Houston. Directed by Dr. Blake M. Wilkins and established in 1997, the ensemble's selection as a winner in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition and its appearance at the 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Convention distinguished the ensemble as a premier collegiate percussion ensemble. Winning the competition again in 2006 marked the ensemble's second such success in consecutive opportunities, and its selection once again in 2010 solidified its reputation internationally as a leader in percussion performance. The ensemble has also emerged as a leader in the advancement of new music for the medium. In the fall of 2002, the Moores School Percussion Ensemble initiated a commissioning project to encourage new works for large percussion ensemble. Since the inception of this project, the ensemble has commissioned twelve major works from such composers as Donald Grantham, Pierre Jalbert, Rob Smith, Marcus Karl Maroney, and David Heuser. Their third recording on Albany Records includes a selection of superlative new works for percussion ensemble that surround the classic Ionisation by Edgard Varèse.

Clarinetist Dennis Nygren has recorded a wonderful program of music written especially for him, music that he has arranged and works that have not been previously recorded on clarinet. Dr. Nygren was on the faculty at Kent State University from 1983 to 2012, receiving the Distinguished Honors Faculty Award in 2008. He has been in demand as a guest soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, clinician and lecturer. A graduate of Michigan State University and Northwestern University where he earned a Doctor of Music degree, he is an acknowledged expert on the clarinet music of Debussy and Berg, Nygren is also known for his arrangement of Victor Babin's Hillandale Waltzes for clarinet and wind ensemble. His arrangements on this disc include the Mozart Church Sonatas, originally scored for violins with organ continuo, the Montbrun Six Pièces and the Debussy Four Songs.

Albany Records completes its series of recording of the music of Edward Joseph Collins (1886-1951) by offering an anthology of the 10 discs in a slipcase. Collins left an oeuvre comprised of ten major orchestral works (including a symphony, two overtures and three suites), three piano concerti, Hymn to the Earth (for orchestra, choir, and four solo voices), several chamber works, 15 songs for voice and piano (four arranged by Verne Reynolds for chamber/string orchestra), and more than a dozen piano solo and duo scores and an opera, all of which are included in the anthology. Called “…an exemplar of romantic, tonal tradition, keenly lyrical in manner…” the influence and importance of this Illinois native’s music can now be assessed.

For his third recording on Albany Records, flutist Leonard Garrison has chosen a diverse program of music for flutes by American composers. Music for flute and piano, solo flute and solo alto flute represent some of the best repertoire written for this family of instruments. Garrison, a faculty member at the University of Idaho and flutist for the Northwest Wind Quintet is principal flute of the Walla Walla Symphony and artistic director of the Red Lodge Music Festival. A former member of the flute section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Garrison has served as chairman of the National Flute Association.

For his third recording on Albany Records, tuba phenomenon Tim Buzbee has produced an excellent selection of recorded works for the tuba, this time featuring an eclectic group of composers (including Buzbee himself) and their unique styles. One could say that Buzbee's approach to music and playing the tuba is emotionally charged and perhaps even spiritually driven, and that underlying energy clearly reveals itself through the music in the pieces recorded here. Adding to that energy is a certain spiritual dichotomy that conjures up mental images of angels and demons or good versus evil. Many of the pieces presented here delve deep into the soul triggering a range of emotions from sadness and pain to exuberance and joy. The music is so emoÂtional and moving that it is easily forgotten you are listening to a tuba, and in doing so Buzbee has achieved what every musician strives to accomplish.

The chamber music repertoire for horn may not be vast, but it can boast of exceptional works that employ the instrument in myriad intriguing ways as so elegantly demonstrated by Richard King on this recording. King, principal horn of the Cleveland Orchestra since 1997, has been featured numerous times as soloist with Cleveland as well as with the Tokyo Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. A graduate of Curtis, King was a member of the Center City Brass Quintet. He is on the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music. King is joined on this disc by his colleagues from the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Institute.

A world premiere recording of Liberation is paired with Maslanka's almost 45-minute saxophone concerto on this recording by the Illinois State University Wind Symphony. Commissioned by the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, Maslanka used the ancient Roman Catholic ritual chant as the basis for Liberation. He realized that the Japanese are the only people on earth to have suffered the devastation of nuclear bombs and from this place of greatest devastation, now rises a musical voice of love and peace. Born in 1943, David Maslanka studied at Oberlin, Michigan State University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His works for wind ensemble have become especially well known. They include seven symphonies, 12 concertos and numerous concert pieces.

As Susan Hawkshaw points out in her notes, Jack Beeson is primarily known for his large scale opera, Lizzy Borden, premiered and revived by the New York City Opera. But actually five of Beeson's ten operas are chamber operas because of the scale of the story. The two operas on this recording fall into this category. They are gems of vocal beauty, formal construction and evocative musical writing that deserve wider recognition and a fresh performance. They stand as major contributions to the corpus of 20th century American opera. More than 30 years separate these two operas: Hello Out There, written when Beeson was 32, was premiered in 1954 and Dr. Heidegger's Fountain of Youth, written with librettist Sheldon Harnick, was premiered in 1978.

A world premiere recording of Anthony Plog's Concerto 2010 is the featured work on this recording by the Texas Christian University Wind Symphony. The concerto, written for brass quintet and wind ensemble, has the esteemed American Brass Quintet as soloists. Celebrating its 50th year, the American Brass Quintet has been internationally recognized as one of the premiere chamber music ensembles of our time. The ensemble has created a legacy unparalleled in the brass field. A must-have for brass lovers, this disc is the first commercial recording by one of the outstanding collegiate wind ensembles in the U.S.

Before departing for New York to conduct the premier of Pirates on New Year's Eve, 1879, Sullivan had completed sketches for the first act, intending to finish the opera after his voyage. Upon arrival, he discovered he'd left the first act at home. Following an all-night reconstruction, the New York rehearsals began while the composer hastily created the second act, finishing everything only hours before the premiere. The show as a success and ran for more than three months. The Pirates of Penzance remains popular today, taking its place along with The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

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.

Jan Krzywicki (b. 1948) is active as a composer, conductor and educator. He has been comÂmissioned by prestigious performers, and organizations such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Chestnut Brass Company, and performed across the United States by ensembles such as the Colorado Quartet, the Network for New Music, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Alea III, and others. He is the recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Rockefeller Foundation residency (Bellagio, Italy), a Bogliasco Foundation residency (Bogliasco, Italy), ASCAP and Meet the Composer awards, and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts artist colonies. As a conductor he has led chamber and orchestral groups in literature from the middle ages to the present, including a large number of premieres. Since 1990 he has been conductor of the contemporary ensemble Network for New Music. Krzywicki is a professor of music theory at Temple University. All the compositions on this recording were composed in 2000 or later and complement his first disc of chamber works on Albany Records (TROY337).

The Stentorian Consort (David Begnoche, Barney McCollum, Brent Phillips and Jonathan Whitaker) offers a program of works for trombone that includes five world premiere recordings. Praised for inspired performances and innovative programming, the Consort has established itself as one of the nation's premiere trombone quartets. They maintain an active performance schedule of recitals and master classes and have performed by invitation at several trombone conferences. This, their second recording celebrates and reflects their continued interest in new repertoire. The Stentorian Consort is joined by guest soloist Joseph Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic, for two works on the recording.

With the exception of the Ravel, trombonist Chris Buckholz has chosen a program that has rarely, if ever, been recorded on trombone. Buckholz is a virtuoso crossover artist in both classical music and jazz. He is on the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa where he received the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2010 and was the lead trombonist for the Army Jazz Ambassadors from 1997 to 2005. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Yale and the University of Michigan, Chris has played on hundreds of studio recording sessions and toured internationally. He has been a clinician at schools and universities throughout the U.S. and his recording credits include an album with The Four Tops on Motown Records.