Catalog

Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954) was a prolific composer of orchestral, instrumental, and vocal music. He composed more songs than any other type of music. In four volumes, four singers accompanied by their individual pianists, present more than 150 songs chronologically, the first recording of the complete songs of Charles Ives. Ives authorized transposition of them, so they can be sung by all voices. This amazing body of work from a musician who was also an inventive and successful insurance executive, span the 35 years of Ives’s compositional life, mirroring the many facets of his character: tenderness, humor, disapproval of hypocrisy and sham, nostalgia, Americanism, Yankeeism, religion, socialism, love of nature. Some of the songs are extremely difficult; others are simpler; few can be picked up and read right off. They resemble a workshop filled with Ives’s ideas, fragmentary or extended. Most were published in 114 Songs – the book compiled, published, and distributed at Ives’s own expense in 1922; others were composed “post-114,” among them Peaks, Yellow Leaves, The One Way, A Sea Dirge and In the Mornin’. The Ives oeuvre is substantial, and his output in songs alone is richer and more fulsome by far than might be expected from any career, let alone a curtailed one. This four volume set of the complete songs of Charles Ives is a major contribution toward the understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of one of the greatest song collections in the history of music.

Nicholas Anthony Ascioti was born in Syracuse, and attended the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York where he graduated in Composition and Conducting. Since then, the College has performed his music and sponsored an entire evening of his works. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Composition from Bennington College in Vermont. Among his teachers were Allen Shawn, Dr. Amy Williams and Stephen Siegel. Nicholas received his professional debut at 21 with a commission from David Alan Miller. Judge, Jury and Executioner was premiered by the Dogs of Desire, a chamber ensemble of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas is currently a composer-in-residence with the Society for New Music in Syracuse and as a conductor, focuses on 20th century repertoire. The pieces presented here offer a variety of perspectives in both textural and musical form. They reveal our human desire to connect, to relate - to ourselves, to other human beings, to the cosmic reality of being, and ultimately to the Source of our being.

In January of 1892 when Harry T. Burleigh, the 25 year old African-American baritone from Erie, Pennsylvania, arrived in New York City to audition for a place at the National Conservatory of Music, few could have guessed how significantly this young man would affect the course of American music. His influence on Antonin Dvorak, who served as Director of the conservatory during three of Burleigh's four years of study, is reflected in Dvorak's use of African-American musical elements in his New World Symphony and his other American compositions. Burleigh's vibrant singing of plantations songs and spirituals, alongside the traditional recital repertoire, gave Americans accustomed to minstrel performances new aural images of African-American culture. By the second decade of this century, his secular art songs were being sung by some of the most distinguished international artists. And when he began to publish choral and solo arrangements of spirituals (in 1913 and 1916, respectively), he pioneered in bringing a distinctive African-American voice into the American choral and art song repertoire, making these sorrow songs accessible to singers of all national and ethnic backgrounds. Although he did not formally study with Dvorak, he spent many hours in Dvorak's home singing the songs he learned from his grandfather. The composer often interrupted him to ask about specific music idioms such as the flatted seventh, and asked "hundreds of questions" about the lives of slaves. The hours Burleigh spent discussing music with Dvorak and working as his music copyist profoundly affected him. Dvorak's interest in African-American music, his personal encouragement of Burleigh's own composition, and his demonstration of a sophisticated approach to the use of folk music as a creative resource, inspired Burleigh to work throughout his career to preserve the slave songs. Ultimately, he committed himself to fulfilling Dvorak's challenge to "give those melodies to the world."

This recording of Gregg Smith's works for voice and instruments honors the life and work of this incomparable choral conductor and composer. Smith, who died in July, 2016, was one of the most influential leaders of the American choral movement and championed the music of American composers throughout his long career. His professional chorus, the Gregg Smith Singers, is world-renowned. Gregg Smith himself was also an important American composer, whose works deserve to be better known. The soprano Eileen Clark, who first met Smith more than 25 years ago, has spent several years going through manuscripts and deciding which of his works for voice and instrument to include on this recording. They are all major works that belong in the canon of American art song. Ms. Clark, a member of the Gregg Smith Singers, has an impressive list of performances with opera companies and festivals throughout the United States. Her singing has been described by the New York Times as "a knockout" for her interpretation of Gershwin and Porter, and "shining, confident" for her rendering of Krenek's Kantate. She is joined by colleagues Thomas Schmidt, piano; Ari Streisfeld, violin; and Evan Ziporyn, clarinet.

Robert Schumann was unwell in the years preceding the composition of Dichterliebe. The year 1840, however, proved to be one of unexpected delight. He was finally able to marry the woman he loved and coveted, Clara Wieck, the daughter of his former teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a musical icon in Leipzig. It seems odd, then, that after a five-year struggle to obtain the right to marry the woman he loved and the constant success of such works as Davidsbundertanze, Op. 6, Kinderszenen, Op. 15 and the song cycles Liederkreis, Op. 24 and Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42, he should turn to such a dark subject as the one presented in his sixteen-song cycle Dichterliebe, set to texts by the German poet Heinrich Heine. "A Poet's Love" is a murky tragedy with its early flourish of love, its eventual deterioration and the poet's despair of every loving again, even preferring death to a new attempt. American poet Elizabeth Kirschner, who teaches at Boston College and who has collaborated with many modern composers, has created a new set of texts for Dichterliebe, which breaks the cycle into four distinct sections of four songs each (Spring I-IV, Summer V-VIII, etc.). Kirschner has taken the "season of love" in the Heine poems and transformed them into a full year of desperation, elation, introspection and rejection. Soprano Jean Danton has performed widely on the opera, oratorio, musical theatre and concert stage, and has previously performed in the world premiere of Carson Cooman's Seducing Summer by the Sea, on a libretto by Elizabeth Kirschner.

Here are three comedies, featuring divas of a "certain age" and the devoted, exasperated, long-suffering people who adore them. Thomas Pasatieri, one of America's most revered opera and song composers, entered Juilliard at 16 and eventually became the school's first recipient of a doctoral degree. Among his 19 operas are Black Widow (1972), The Trial of Mary Lincoln (1972), Washington Square (1976) and The Seagull (1972, available on TROY579/80). Producer John Ostendorf writes, "Tom Pasatieri's work was all the rage in the 1970's when we were both young musicians newly-arrived in New York. I knew of the glamorous Ashley Putnam at the time, but best remember the incandescent singing of Sheri Greenawald...Both sopranos both still look and sound terrific and must be applauded at undertaking and recording new roles when each is more-or-less "retired" from the diva business...As for the notion on this CD, "Divas of a Certain Age," they are easily identifiable in the first two works. But they can also be spotted in Signor Deluso: the interesting character Rosine, a blowsy maid who states her claim early in the "I need a man" song, and the compelling Mae West type, Clara, who is more attracted to the young tenor than to the old Mr. Deluso, but still concludes that all men are 'cads.' Anyway, the results are wonderful. It was a joy- and a hoot -to be in on it all."

Born in 1941, composer Don Walker attended Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his PhD and was the recipient of the Ladd Prix de Paris in Musical Composition in 1966-1968. He also received degrees in library science and history. Walker taught at Sonoma State University as well as at the University of South Florida, and Oregon State; was a church organist; and worked as archivist at the University of the Pacific where he was project archivist for the beginnings of the Dave Brubeck Collection. Walker has written symphonies, operas, chamber music, solo instrumental music and vocal works. He has always loved and had an affinity for Emily Dickinson's poetry, valuing its fresh insights, unique imagery, and depth of feeling. Walker has created a number of cycles of songs using her poetry, most of them focused on nature, love, religion, and death and this recording features these songs. Soprano Ann Moss is a graduate of the Longy School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory. A champion of contemporary vocal music, she has commissioned and premiered more than 80 art songs, vocal chamber music, and operatic roles. She is joined on this recording by pianist Karen Rosenak, a long-time member of the Empyrean Ensemble and a founding member of Earplay, a San Francisco-based new music ensemble.

Lori Laitman is an art song composer whose works are performed widely in the United States and abroad. She has served as composer-in-residence at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and as guest artist at The Grandin Festival (associated with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music). Lori Laitman was graduated magna cum laude with honors in music from Yale College. She received her M.M. in flute performance from the Yale School of Music. Her principal composition teachers were Jonathan Kramer and Frank Lewin. Her initial focus was composing music for film and theater and in 1980, she wrote the score for The Taming of the Shrew for the Folger Theater in Washington. Since 1991, she has concentrated on composing for the voice.

Drifts and Shadows: American Song for the New Millennium beckons us to an exhilarating journey--via these stimulating songs of integrity, substance and passion. Baritone Elem Eley has worked with each of the six composers. Their compositional styles range from aggressive, hyper-kinetic, and jazzy to compellingly melodious and richly harmonized. Eley enjoys an amazingly varied career, from opera, oratorio and recital to premieres of contemporary vocal works. A native of Georgia, he hold degrees in voice from Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and completed doctoral coursework at Indiana University. He is Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

This unique disc features the artistry of soprano Judith Kellock in works by composers either American-born (Womack, Moss and Askim), or now an American citizen (Chen Yi) or born and active in Japan (Hosokawa). These works show each composer's fascination with Asian culture, primarily that of China and Japan as well as settings of Vietnamese poetry (Askim's Spring Essence). Judith Kellock has been described in the press as "a singer of rare intelligence and vocal splendor, with a voice of indescribable beauty." A primary influence in her musical life was the late Jan DeGaetani, with whom she studied for many years. Ms. Kellock has been featured with the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and many more. Highly acclaimed for her song recitals and chamber music performances, she is also sought after by composers for her interpretation of contemporary music. Ms. Kellock has also sung major operatic roles in Italy and Greece, toured with the Opera Company of Boston and performed with the Mark Morris Dance Company. She serves on the performing faculty of Cornell University, and is much in demand as a master class teacher.

This album features René Fleming in what has to be one of her earliest recordings, if not the earliest. Renée Fleming received her M.M. degree from the Eastman School of Music. The music she sings on this recording was recorded in 1983, while she was still a student at Eastman. As well, the presence of the great Jan DeGaetani (1933-1989) makes this a special disc. For many years she taught at Eastman, as well as Aspen. Bruce MacCombie studied with among others, Wolfgang Fortner. For several years he taught composition at Yale University, and in the last decade he moved from teaching to administration, serving as Dean of the Juilliard School from 1986-92 and now as Dean of the School for the Arts at Boston University. Leaden Echo, Golden Echo is the setting of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Sydney Hodkinson received his earliest training at Eastman under Louis Mennini and Bernard Rogers. He also studied with Carter, Sessions, Leslie Babbitt and Ross Lee Finney. He has been on the faculty of Eastman since 1973, teaching both composition and conducting. The Alte-Liebeslieder or "Old Fashioned Love Songs" are based on contemporary poems. Stanley Walden studied composition with Ben Weber and has been a faculty member at Juilliard, Sarah Lawrence College, and the State University of New York, College at Purchase. In addition to his Broadway Musical Oh! Calcutta, which has been produced throughout the world, he has written scores for film and dance.

Brian Israel studied with Ulysses Kay, Robert Palmer, Burrill Phillips and Karel Husa. He graduated from Cornell in 1975. He taught at Syracuse University for 12 years until his untimely death at 35. His In Praise of Practically Nothing for tenor voice and eight-player Chamber ensemble was composed in Syracuse and is a setting of poems by Samuel Hoffenstein. Gerald Levinson is professor of music and former chair of the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. He studied composition with George Crumb, Richard Wernick and George Rochberg. His work in dark is a setting of poems by Nanine Valen and Robert Lax. David Noon is a graduate of Yale. His teachers have included Milhaud, Charles Jones, Yehudi Wyner and Mario Davidovsky. His Six Chansons were composed when he was a Fulbright Fellow in Warsaw, Poland. They are settings of six poems by the great Chinese master of the late Tang dynasty, Meng Chiao. Noon translated the poems into French. Robert Stern was educated at Eastman. He studied with Louis Mennini, Kent Kennan, Wayne Barlow, Lukas Foss and Howard Hanson. He writes: "Blood and Milk Songs takes its name from Blood and Milk Poems, a volume by Ruth Whitman. The lyric quality of the poetry is mirrored in the music, which is propelled by a strong melodic impulse."

The esteemed Mexican/American composer Daniel Catán (1949-2011) is best known for his opera Florencia en el Amazonas, which was premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1996. His first opera, Rappaccini's Daughter, was the first opera by a Mexican composer to be premiered in the United States. Catán enjoyed an international career and is probably best known for his operas and works for voice, for which he had a special affinity. This recording includes one of the arias from Florencia as well as a work for flute and harp; the Antonieta Songs, and Mariposa de Obsidiana, a work for voice, orchestra and chorus, based on a prose-poem by Octavio Paz. The performers include Cynthia Clayton, who has performed with the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ft. Worth Opera and many others. She is on the faculty at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Clayton is joined by Mexican mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte; flutist Salpy Kerkonian; harpist Andre Puente- Catán; baritone Hector Vásquez and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Franz Anton Krager.

With this recording, soprano Michelle Murray Fiertek presents a collection of songs lovingly grown in the American tradition, which audibly draw influence from domestic genres like folk and musical theatre. The diverse selection of poetry channels American landscapes, both great and small, and these images illustrate not only America's unique topography, but also a steadfast cultural appreciation of its singularity. Ms. Fiertek is an active performer and teacher of wide-ranging musical styles. An accomplished recitalist, Fiertek specializes in Spanish and American art song. A member of the faculty at The Hartt School and Manchester Community College, she also serves as executive director of the Hartford Opera Theater. Her collaborator, pianist Michael Korman, performs in opera productions and recitals as well as coaching classical singers and directng music at a church.

As America's premiere writer of classical vocal works states, "...I embarked on the madness of a composer's career by writing songs...My singular reputation, such as it is, has always centered around song..." The present work is based on texts by 24 composers that "seem endemic to this autumnal moment, as I look back to a youth 'which foresaw in the light of a summer day the end of all life.'"

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.

The music generally recognized as most authentically American - blues, ragtime, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and its descendants - has deep roots in African-American culture and musical traditions. Equally important in African-American life though less well known is the tradition of concert music. The concert genres of art song and spiritual arrangements have a history dating back to the Federal period when the United States was still struggling to separate its own unique cultural and artistic identity from European influences. As the minstrel show assumed a prominent place in American musical life, mainstream American composers and African-American composers such as Frank Johnson, A.J.R. Connor and Henry F. Williams wrote charming, light-hearted parlor songs reflecting the forms, harmony, and limpid melodies of their British antecedents; some Louisiana composers wrote equally attractive songs using French texts and occasionally showing the influence of opera. Enclaves of free black Americans formed many of the first benevolent societies and African-American churches where educational opportunities and economic independence were more available to them than in other parts of the young United States. It is from this background that William Brown has drawn the delightful collection of songs that appears on this disc.

Whether it is as a composer, concert pianist or actor, Robert Owens has earned a career and respect that many would envy. He has written extensively for solo voice, with a particular emphasis on texts by great writers. As an African-American, he is quick to emphasize that his songs are not written for any particular race. They are to be sung by all people who appreciate fine song writing. He was born in Denison, Texas, but grew up in Berkeley, California, raised by his mother who taught him piano. Following her death in 1937, he continued his piano and theory studies and, at 15, performed as soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto. During this same time he composed his first songs, Images. These offer the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Waring Cuney. From there Owens went on to compose songs to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Countee Cullen and, most notably, Langston Hughes. Over the following decades, after serving in the armed forces and studying in Europe, he continued to compose with an emphasis on vocal works, reflecting his own life, his exposure to racism, and his desire to express the core truth of the poetry he was setting. Founder of the African-American Art Song Alliance, tenor Darryl Taylor's international itinerary includes performing both in the United States and throughout Europe. He has premiered numerous works. He is much in demand as a lecturer on African-American Art Song, having given recitals and master classes at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and at Cambridge College, England.

Jack Beeson writes: "This selection of 26 songs (and two arias from operas) comprises about a third of my works for solo voice and piano and most of those written for soprano. The poetry dates from the end of the 16th century to the late 20th century and encompasses a wide variety of styles and subject matter. In order to reflect this variety, the music ranges widely in style, from the simplicities of the Blake settings to the 12-tone serialism of Fire, Fire, Quench Desire. Hughes's black-magic Death by Owl-Eyes invokes a traversal of musical idioms from early Renaissance open fifths to some of the habits of the 1960s. The song is dedicated to Otto Luening, another 20th century time-traveler. It is often forgotten that a musical setting is an arrangement of a poem: it is the composer's interpretation of the words, made audible by means of his or her choice of pitch, tessitura, accentuation, and phrasing in the vocal line, and choice of style, mood, and implied action in the accompaniment."

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.

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."

Baritone Robert Peavler takes the opportunity with this recording to offer a program by American composers of the next generation from Charles Ives and John Duke (to name but two) carrying the torch forward as the new modern composers of art song. Kirke Mechem (b.1925) and Dominick Argento (b.1927) are a generation older than the other two composers includedÑThomas Pasatieri (b.1945) and Timothy Hoekman (b.1954). Robert Peavler is on the voice faculty at Eastern Michigan University. An active recitalist and soloist, Dr. Peavler consistently programs and champions new works by American art song composers. His collaborator, Arlene Shrut, is on the faculty of Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music and is an admired keyboard performer.

Howard Stokar writes: "Religion, specifically the Judeo-Christian continuum, is integral to Charles Wuorinen's view of the world and his own work as a composer. The Latin Mass for the Restoration of St. Luke in the Fields was written to celebrate the rededication of a church in lower Manhattan which had burned to the ground on the night of March 6, 1981, and was subsequently rebuilt. The work is divided into seven sections: the first and last are purely instrumental, the central five compose the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus, Angus Dei and a Communion motet. The motet is a setting of words from St. John which are inscribed on the rood screen of the original church. The Mass is a central work in Wuorinen's catalog. It is actually a Missa Brevis as it does not include the Credo. The reason for this is practical: St. Luke's requires congregational singing of the Credo. The mass was performed for the first time on November 20, 1983 at St. Ignatius of Antioch, New York City. A Solis Ortu and the reworking of the Josquin motet Ave Christe for piano were composed for Stephen Fisher, then President of C.F. Peters Corporation. Fisher, a fine amateur photographer, had given Wuorinen a photo of the sun rising over Yosemite National Park. In response, Wuorinen wrote the lovely short a cappella antiphon, A Solis Ortu, which is based on a related chant in the Liber usualis "From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised". The first performance took place as part of the Solemn Mass at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church conducted by Harold Chaney on December 30, 1990. Ave Christie is a re-casting of a portion of a motet by Renaissance master Josquin des Prez. Unlike Busoni, whose transformations of Bach chorales into late 19th century virtuoso showpieces are designed to display the talents of the performer, Wuorinen presents the Josquin simply, with elegant octave doubling, and registeral changes. He transforms the motet into a choral-like work for piano". About the main work on this disc, Genesis, Michael Steinberg writes: "Herbert Blomstedt, Music Director (1985-1995) of the San Francisco Symphony, was not just the first conductor of Genesis; he was in an important sense, the inspiration and godfather of this powerful work. In one of his conversations with Charles Wuorinen during the four years, 1985 to 1989, that he, Wuorinen, was the San Francisco Symphony's composer-in-residence, Blomstedt said 'Wouldn't it be nice if someone wrote a new Genesis' or words to that effect. Moreover, having conducted several of Wuorinen's instrumental works - Movers and Shakers, The Golden Dance, Another Happy Birthday, the Piano Concerto No. 3, and Machault Mon Chou - Blomstedt was curious to see what effect the challenge of writing a new work for chorus might have on the composer's musical language. From these exchanges came the impetus for Wuorinen to add his Genesis to the list - not large, but distinguished - of compositions on that subject by Haydn, Schoenberg and Milhaud."

Every label that specializes in American music, at one time or other, does an album devoted to the music of George Gershwin; trying to come up with a disc that is unusual and interesting is the challenge. As the title suggests, all the musicians on this album are friends; the instrumentalists are all members of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. Just as George Gershwin was himself a product of diverse cultural influences, so his songs represent a variety of musical forms, styles and mediums. The collection on this disc spans the entire creative period of Gershwin's life, from The Real American Folk Song (written in 1918, and his first collaboration with his brother Ira) to the songs for the 1938 movie "The Goldwyn Follies," Love Walked In, I Love To Rhyme, and Our Love is Here to Stay, which were released after the composer's sudden death. Gershwin's friendships and alliances are evident in the songs as well. There are eight songs written for Fred Astaire and-or Ginger Rogers, two songs from the Broadway musical "Girl Crazy," (notable for the fact that the show was the Broadway debut of Ethel Merman and featured a pit Orchestra that included the likes of Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman), and further selections which feature Linn Maxwell Keller with the musicians as well as the musicians alone.

Two works for voice by the internationally recognized composer C. Curtis-Smith are offered on this recording. The first -- Gold Are My Flowers -- is a cantata/melodrama for soprano, baritone and chamber group. The work tells the story of the coming of European civilization to the wildernesses of the world using poetry by the Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, portions of the Navajo Night Chant, excerpts from Columbus' Log and Book of Prophecies and Biblical passages quoted by Columbus in his Log. A Civil War Song Cycle, the second vocal work, follows the emotional and chronological sequence of the Civil War. C. Curtis-Smith is the recipient of more than 100 grants, awards and commissions. He was the youngest faculty member ever awarded the Western Michigan University's Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award. His Twelve Etudes for Piano were selected for the repertoire list for the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Germany and Japan.

Terry Rhodes and Ellen Williams write: "Long having been fans of the music of Libby Larsen, we were thrilled to learn that this renowned and prolific composer would be among us in residency at Meredith College for a week in March 2002. And what a tremendous week it was - with Libby coaching young women composers who had gathered from all over the country! Libby epitomizes generosity of spirit. She not only shared her thorough understanding of composition and the realities of the music business, but also her unbounded passion for vocal music. After this wonderfully inspiring time together, we all decided to collaborate on a CD together. Longtime friend and valued colleague, Benton Hess, also had agreed to participate in this project. The summer of 2002 followed, with continuing dialogue among us all, as we researched and finally selected the appropriate repertoire. Autumn 2002, found us readying for a series of recitals of this program to perform in the spring of 2003. The process culminated in several illuminating days in New York City when we had the great fortune to work with Libby herself on her music. As we sang through the program, Libby shared her intentions for each piece, affirming what we had accomplished thus far, but also encouraging and inspiring us to discover that "next level," to really find the essence of each song. What a gift! We finally recorded on May 12, 13, 15 and 16, in Baldwin Auditorium on the Duke University campus in Durham, North Carolina. We'll continue to perform these wonderful songs with great joy and commitment, and we offer our very special thanks to Libby Larsen for creating such distinctive, humorous, heartwarming and honest music."

Italian opera was all the rage in German courts at the turn of the 18th century and the young Handel's trip to Italy from 1706 to 1710 allowed him to immerse himself in Italian music. This spurred a remarkable output of cantatas, many written for the meetings of the Arcadian Academy, a group of noblemen and artists who gathered in Rome to further their literary agenda and raise the level of Italian poetry. Though their main interests were in pastoral subjects, these three cantatas dealt with portrayals of tragic heroines, the scorned and betrayed: Agrippina, Lucrezia and Armida, whose stories were drawn from Roman history and myth. No doubt the Academy was impressed with subject matter, which would have been at home in full operatic treatment! Hailed as "outstanding" by the New York Times, soprano Melissa Fogarty's wide range of experience has taken her from the stages of the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera to the world of early music. She has appeared in concert with the Seattle Baroque, New York Collegium and Concert Royal. Her unusual experience (in rock bands during her college days) has given her the kind of versatility to branch out into other fields, including the works of Harry Partch and even klezmer music.

Joseph Marx (1882-1964) was a bit of a musical late-bloomer. He earned a doctorate in 1909, having studied philosophy, art history, and German studies, and only later adding musicology. Castigated for his seeming cooperation with the Nazis, he also spoke out against the avant-garde, which he believed had ushered in the decay of Austrian musical culture. Among his works, there is a trove of more than 150 songs. In their time, his songs were loved and championed by famous Austrian singers but he and his music came to be largely ignored. Soprano Kendra Colton is a versatile singer who performs repertoire from Baroque opera and oratorio to contemporary music and enjoys an active performing career. Pianist Laura Ward is co-artistic director of Lyric Fest and is a distinguished collaborative pianist.

Hall Johnson was a noted violinist, conductor and arranger of spirituals. The slave songs and spirituals that he heard his grandmother sing were a catalyst for him founding the Hall Johnson Choir in 1925. The ensemble appeared on Broadway and in movies such as Green Pastures. To quote Eugene Simpson, curator of the Hall Johnson Collection at Rowan University, "Johnson's entire compositional output was governed by three beliefs: that his role in life was the preservation and propagation of the Negro Spiritual in its authentic form; that the melodies and rhythms of the spiritual and Negro folk song were worthy material for compositional development into art and extended forms and that the spiritual itself is essentially a choral form." Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral and oratorio performances both here and abroad. Along with pianist Joseph Joubert, they have undertaken this unique project to present a CD that focuses entirely on Hall Johnson's solo vocal works. In presenting arrangements both familiar and lesser-known, this collection celebrates the historical importance, innovation and contribution of Johnson as a preserver of the spiritual while acknowledging his influence on subsequent generations of arrangers.

The art song cycles and collections crafted by the American composers on this recording musically document African-American culture through poetry, historical subjects, the diaspora and vernacular elements. This is a contemporary view of the art song tradition in world premiere recordings. Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, and oratorio performances around the world. In addition to opera performances, including Lee Hoiby's one-woman opera The Italian Lesson, Ms. Toppin tours in Gershwin on Broadway.

Countertenor Darryl Taylor and pianist Brent McMunn have assembled a superb selection of classics from the still growing corpus of spirituals, including a number of arrangements by key figures in the history of black musical composition. With this project, Taylor and McMunn contribute powerfully to the continuous translation of this aged music from oral tradition to written composition Ñ from folksong to art song. Darryl Taylor has sung in concert halls across the United States and Europe. A native of Detroit, Taylor holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Irvine.

It won't take long for the listener to realize that all 27 songs on this recording feature distinguished American women poets. Within this recording, you will hear the poetry of Dorothy Parker, Emily Dickinson, Didi Balle, Tess Gallagher, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Bishop. Their words, masterfully set by composers John Musto, Larry Alan Smith and Juliana Hall, will console, inspire and even amuse. An added bonus is that the composers all accompany soprano Cherie Caluda on their works. Ms. Caluda, a faculty artist at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, has established herself as a champion interpreter of contemporary works with her beautiful voice and stunning technique. A graduate of Eastman and Loyola College and the Academy of Vocal Arts, she is a captivating artist who brings the words of the poets to life on this recording.