Catalog

Baritone Robert Barefield's third recording for Albany Records includes four song cycles by American composers Scott Wheeler, David Conte, Larry Alan Smith, and Kendra D'Ercole. Two of the cycles, Wheeler's Light Enough and D'Ercole's Laughs & Sighs were written for Mr. Barefield. Conte's cycle of four songs was composed between 1998 and 2003; while Smith found inspiration for his cycle through a roadside marker about the poet John Burroughs. Robert Barefield has performed as soloist with organizations throughout the United States and in Europe and is noted for his championing of American composers. He is on the faculty at the Hartt School. Pianist Kelly Horsted enjoys an active career in New York City as an accompanist, music director and vocal coach and has enjoyed a long relationship with American Opera Projects.

This recording features largely unknown sacred art songs from the late 19th to the late 20th century, including works by American composers Leo Sowerby and Daniel Pinkham as well as their stylistic predecessors Gabriel Fauré, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Max Reger, Louis Vierne, and Gaston Litaize. These composers' common musical vocabulary of chromatic harmony, realized through the expansive timbral palettes of the organ and voice, creates vivid musical settings of sacred poetry. Baritone Stephen Lancaster was winner of the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition and of The American Prize for men in art song and oratorio. He has been featured in venues around the world as a recitalist, and soloist. He holds degrees from the University of Note Dame and the University of Michigan and is currently on the faculty at Notre Dame. Organist Kevin Vaughn is director of music and organist at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in South Bend, Indiana and on the faculty at Goshen College. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

Composer/singer Linda Lister began her compositional career at age 15 writing a new musical version of The Little Match Girl for the University of Utah's Young People's Theatre. Since that time she has found her own tonal, neo-Romantic voice. Her vocal writing reveals a fondness for coloratura, an element not often found in contemporary art song. Her goal is to imbue her compositions with the pathos or humor befitting the text. She enjoys the creative synergy of singing her own music and sharing it with the world. A graduate of Vassar, Eastman and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she has performed as a soloist with orchestras, with opera theatres across the country and her recordings appear on Albany and Centaur Records. She is on the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her collaborator, Canadian pianist Amanda Johnston is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi, Musiktheater Bavaria; and the Druid City Opera Workshop.

Baritone Bradley Robinson explains what moved him to pursue this recording: "Many know of Ives the musical experimenter, life insurance revolutionist and, at times, the short-tempered eccentric. But there was so much more to the man: Ives the Devoted Son, Loving Husband, Adoring Father, Charity Volunteer, Philosopher, Social Activist, Man of Great Spiritual Convictions, Musical Jokester, Publicity-shunning Philanthropist; and the list goes on. " Robinson invites us to get to know Ives better by seeing how deeply the manner in which he expressed himself musically was influenced by factors which included events he personally experienced, his attitudes towards everyday things, philosophic and/or religious beliefs, and wonderful sense of humor. Bradley Robinson has performed opera, oratorio, and musical theatre throughout the United States to critical acclaim and is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi. His collaborator, pianist Stacy Rodgers, also teaches at the University of Mississippi.

Tom Cipullo comments that the works on this recording -- all world premieres -- span a decade-and-a-half of his compositional life. The earliest (The Husbands) dates from 1993 and the most recent (Of a Certain Age and Insomnia) were written in 2009. Cipullo's "dream team" of interpreters includes soprano Laura Strickling, pianist Liza Stepanova, mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Beattie and Naomi Louisa O'Connell, baritones Steven Eddy and Michael Anthony McGee, tenor Ian McEuen and pianist Brent Funderburk. Known mostly for his vocal music, Cipullo has also composed orchestral, chamber, and solo instrumental works. His opera, Glory Denied, has been performed to critical acclaim in New York, Washington, and Texas.

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.

Soprano Rebecca Wascoe Hays is an avid promoter of contemporary American composers and her enthusiasm is evident in this recording of music by the esteemed composer Libby Larsen. Wascoe Hays has chosen two major works (The Magdalene and De Toda La Eternidad) interspersed with two arias from Larsen's operas and two songs. The Magdalene is a setting of Chapter 33 verses 1-12, 14-18 and 30-35 from the Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic text that comes from the third century. De Toda La Eternidad is a song cycle sung by a lover caught in an agonizing suspension of time — a time in which the lover perceives everything from beginning to end, even before the affair begins. Ms. Wascoe Hays has twice been a winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Award and has been recognized as a finalist or semi-finalist in many international competitions. She is on the faculties of Texas Tech University and Music in the Marche. Her collaborator, pianist Jeffrey Peterson, has appeared in recitals and master classes on five continents. His concert and recital appearances have taken him around the world.

Supremely lyrical, the vocal compositions of Michael Rickelton flow organically in careful counterpoint with the texts upon which they are based. The three cycles featured on this disc generate the emotion, tone, and discourse that make each work unique, calling to mind the tradition of Lieder and art song. An experienced composer of solo, chamber, and orchestral works, Michael Rickelton has a particularaly strong and critically acclaimed affinity for the voice as this recording so beautifully demonstrates. Rickelton studied at Lipscomb University, the École Normale de Musique, and Peabody Conservatory. He is on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, the Johns Hopkins University, and Towson University.

Baritone Randall Scarlata and pianist Laura Ward pored over dozens of scores in planning this recording. Central to their project was a focus on American composers, and they wanted a personal connection with both the texts and their musical interpretations. Two cycles kept rising to the top: Benjamin Boyle's Le passage des rêves, and Robert Maggio's Forgiving Our Fathers. While the styles of these two compositions were markedly different, the performers were drawn to the gift for narrative the works share and their color palettes that evoke other times and places. The other works, by Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, and Elliott Carter, were chosen to complement these two cycles. Known for his versatility and consummate musicianship, Randall Scarlata's repertoire spans five centuries and 16 languages. A sought-after interpreter of new music, he has given world premieres of works by many well-known composers including George Crumb, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, and Samuel Adler, among many others. His extensive discography includes recordings on the Chandos, Naxos, CRI, Gasparo, Arabesque, Bridge, Albany, and Sono Luminus labels. Pianist Laura Ward is Artistic Director of Lyric Fest, a unique vocal recital series in Philadelphia. As a distinguished collaborative pianist she is known for both her technical ability and vast knowledge of repertoire and styles.

All of the composers on this recording are associated with the Second New England School of composition centered around Boston in the last few decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th. Each joined the emerging trend at that time to present classical-style music, steeped in European technique and training that nevertheless demonstrated an American spirit in terms of text and use of folk or local flavor. Edward MacDowell, the first of this wave of composers, inspired the rest and his contemporary George Chadwick co-led the Second New England movement and taught several of the other composers heard here. The performers include baritone Tod Fitzpatrick, who leads an active and distinguished career as a singer, teacher, and researcher; mezzo Kimberly James, who has performed with the Opera Theater of St. Louis and Santa Fe Opera, among many other credits; soprano Rebecca Sherburn, who is on the faculty at Chapman University and known for her championing of contemporary composers; and pianist Louise Thomas, who is an associate dean at Chapman University.

Heather Gilligan's music has been described as honest, direct, and compassionate while exploring emotions from humor to anguish. Her music has been performed to critical acclaim at the New York Choral Festival, the Washington D.C. International Music Festival, and by the American Modern Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, and Arneis String Quartet, among many others. She is on the faculty at Keene State College and a member of the Boston Composers Coalition. She received her DMA in Composition from Boston University and her MM from the Longy School of Music. She also holds a BS in Chemistry from Lehigh University. This recording contains six song cycles -- each set for soprano -- but the instrumentation is varied. Living in Light is scored for soprano and cello; Garden Songs for soprano, trumpet, and piano; Mixed Metaphors for soprano and piano; Winged Reflections for soprano, saxophone, and piano; Battlegrounds for soprano and string quartet; and Finer Points for soprano and percussion.

Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, and oratorio performances throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. She has appeared in recital on many concert series including Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. Her discography includes 16 recordings of American music. In addition to her concert career, she serves on the faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.She is joined by fortepianist John O'Brien. They began their collaboration as colleagues at East Carolina University and have performed throughout the country on concert series. This recording gives listeners the opportunity to hear songs—by lesser known and canonic composers alike—as they might have sounded with their original fortepiano accompaniment. La saison des fleurs lets us experience the many-shaded efflorescence of the art song genre anew, when poetry, voice, and piano joined together to create a higher artistic whole.

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.

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.

In 1941, the Nazis began deporting Jews to a concentration camp in Theresienstadt (former Czechoslovakia). An unusually high number of artists and musicians were deported there, and the camp was intended to demonstrate to the world, after a visit by the International Red Cross, how well the Jews were being treated by Hitler's regime. The musicians living in Theresienstadt composed hundreds of vocal and instrumental works, as music was their means of coping with the uncertainty and constant fear that marked life in the camp. This recording offers songs written by inmates of Theresienstadt: Adolf Strauss, Viktor Ullman, Carlo Taube, Ilse Weber, Gideon Klein, and James Simon, all of whom perished in the camps. Composer Norbert Glanzberg, a Polish Jew who survived World War II by hiding in unoccupied France until 1944, composed hits for Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, and Maurice Chevalier, before launching a successful film music career after the war. In his later life, inspired by a collection entitled, "Death is a Master of Germany," writings of both Jewish victims and non-Jewish resistance fighters in the camps. Glanzberg went on to compose his "Holocaust Lieder" in memory of those who perished.

This collection of American art song honors two intensely personal yet universal aspects of the human experience: love and loss. The composers featured here each treat a different facet of life -- from earthly joy, to contemplation of the divine, to heady courtship, to the agony of bereavement -- but each provides testament that poetry and music, the fruits of the creative impulse, are death's very antithesis. The centerpiece of this recording, Scott Wheeler's Songs to Fill the Void, is the result of a collaboration between poet-vocalist Robert Barefield and the composer. Barefield's intimate poetry commemorates his beloved partner, Stephen Mazujian, who died in 2014, while they were vacationing in Cambodia. Baritone Robert Barefield has performed as soloist with organizations throughout the U.S. and in Europe. He has appeared with numerous opera companies and with orchestras as an oratorio soloist. An accomplished recitalist, his wide-ranging repertoire includes premiere performances of works by contemporary composers. He is on the faculty at The Hartt School. Pianist Carolyn Hague has been an active member of the musical community in Vienna, Austria for more than 30 years. She currently heads the Master's program in Lied und Oratorio at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien.

Tenor Jos Milton relocated to Oxford, Mississippi to teach at the University of Mississippi in 2011. Since moving to his new home, he has become curious and fascinated by the sheer volume of culture that flows from the South. The creation of Southern poetry and literature thrives today and these vibrant writings prove ideal sources for transference to contemporary classical song. The songs on this recording all contain some pertinent connection or thread to this Southern theme. James Sclater's songs are set to texts by Ovid Vickers, a well-known Mississippi writer, teacher, and folklorist. Price Walden's song cycle reflects the experiences of his young life -- growing up in Mississippi and attending the Free Will Baptist Church. Dan Locklair's texts are words of three Southern African-American women transcribed by Emily Herring Wilson, while John Musto's Shadow of the Blues draws on the inspiring words of Langston Hughes, who serves as a voice of hope in African-American culture. A graduate of Trinity University, University of Massachusetts and Peabody, Jos Milton enjoys an active career as a recitalist, chamber musician, and opera singer, in addition to his work as an educator. His collaborator, Melinda Coffee Armstead has performed as recitalist and chamber musician in the U.S., Canada, England, France, and Israel.

Composer Pamela Decker writes that "Haven: Songs of Mystery and of Memory for mezzo-soprano and piano, is a cycle of 16 songs for which all music and texts are original compositions. The cycle draws inspiration and influences from a variety of styles: Impressionism, Argentine tango; flamenco modes, South American rhythms, classical art song, jazz, pop, cabaret, and blues." Pamela Decker is Professor of Organ/Music Theory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. As both organ recitalist and composer, Decker has been active in the United States, Europe, the Baltic Region, and Canada. She has been a featured recitalist at many conventions and festivals and her compositions have been performed in 19 countries. Her discography includes recordings on the Albany Records, Loft, Gothic, ReZound, Arkay, and Arktos labels. She holds a D.M.A. degree from Stanford and studied both organ and composition as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.

Composer John Harbison's history as a jazz player divides into two widely distant segments: the first, as founder-leader of Harbison's Heptet (1952-63); the second in the present century as founder-member of the Token Creek Jazz Ensemble and coach for VocalJazz MIT. As he comments in the introduction to this recording, "The songs were never aimed at a specialized audience they had mainstream intentions, to catch ears and hearts, and occasionally to follow some restless habit of curiosity. They are fully inhabited by the performers here in ways I scarcely imagined, which is as it should be Are we hearing jazz, or some strange prolongation of the American Songbook ideal, or perhaps even new song forms?" Described by the New York Times as "a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration," Mary Mackenzie has captured the attention of audiences throughout the United States. A passionate performer of contemporary vocal music, Ms. Mackenzie has collaborated with several leading composers, including Pierre Boulez, John Harbison, and Richard Danielpour, among others. When she was asked by the composer to perform some "new songs," she wasn't expecting to receive hand written sheet music with a cover page listing "Pop Songs." She discovered exquisite tunes that were not unlike the jazz standards of her grandparents' generation. This recording fulfills a long-time dream of sharing the ensemble's interpretations with the world.

Composer Richard Felciano's music has always embraced the challenge of new possibilities -- new technology, but also an embracing of the function of sound in architecture and in the physical world. His attempts in his music to express humane sentiments while coping overtly with the problems inherent in the physical nature of the materials are a singular characteristic of this work. This compilation of his vocal music includes a work for sopranos and flutes; one for baritone voice, percussion, organ and electronic sounds; a work for voice and interactive electronics; one that is an environment for four performers that combines performer choice with live digital spatial processing; a work for women's voices, five harps and bell percussion; and a set of four unaccompanied choral songs.

Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry has championed the music of contemporary composers throughout her distinguished career. She has premiered works by more than 30 composers and has made eight recordings showcasing music by women and contemporary composers. In addition to her extensive concert career, Mabry is professor of music at Austin Peay State University, where she received the Distinguished Professor Award. She was a featured writer for the NATS Journal of Singing from 1985 through 2009. For this recording, she and collaborative artist, pianist Patsy Wade, perform song cycles by George Mabry (b. 1945) whose Songs of Reflection use texts by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Edna St. Vincent Millay as well as Dorothy Parker's poetry in Three Cabaret Songs; Kenton Coe (b. 1930) is represented with his work, A Family Gathering, setting poetry by Georgianna Orsini; Brian H. Peterson (b. 1953) whose Moon Songs are set to poetry by E.E. Cummings; and Persis Vehar (b. 1937) who used texts by May Swenson, Anne Waldman, and Barbara Greenberg for her cycle titled Women, Women.

Peteris Plakidis is one of the Latvian composers who from his very first compositions successfully created lyrical vocal works based on the intellectual poetry of the day. His compositions for voice and piano or other instruments do not seem to warrant the description of solo songs in the traditional meaning of the word. They could more accurately be described as "musical poems" and certainly deserve this title. Now a professor at the Latvian State Conservatory, Plakidis' music is performed extensively in Latvia and to some extent in Europe and the U.S. Plakidis was a visiting professor at Southern Illinois University in the early 1990s, founding a chamber ensemble called The Transatlantic Trio that combined musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. The soloist on this recording, Maija Krigena, who is married to Plakidis, appears with the Latvian State Opera.

This recording explores societal attitudes and misconceptions about life in Eastern cultures through Western classical and popular music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fascinated by the East, Western composers of opera, operetta, musical theater, art song and popular dance-inspired tunes were influenced by a trend now known as Orientalism; the construction of a mythic Eastern stereotype through music, visual art, poetry, and other cultural texts. Soprano Carole FitzPatrick, baritone Robert Barefield and pianist Russell Ryan have collaborated in discovering, performing and now recording these songs that reflect Western society's fascination, ambivalence and misconceptions of the East.

Soprano Tanya Kruse Ruck and her colleague, pianist Elena Abend present a program of songs by three women composers: Elsa Respighi, Modesta Bor, and Lori Laitman. Else Respighi, who died in 1996, was musically precocious, studied with Ottorino Respighi, her future husband, who submitted her songs to the publisher Ricordi. All but two of her songs were written before her marriage, after which she turned her attention to her career as a singer. Modesta Bor, who died in 1998 was a well-known Venezuelan composer, musicologist and choral conductor. Lori Laitman, born in 1955 is one of America's most prolific and widely performed composers of vocal music. Tanya Ruck maintains a career singing oratorio, art song, and opera and serves on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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.

Paul Creston (1906-1985) was one of America's most important and influential composers of the mid-20th century. He earned ample attention for his orchestral compositions, but his songs — many of which are unpublished — remain little known. This recording offers a wide introduction to Creston's vocal music, bringing to light pieces for solo voice that have languished in obscurity. Soprano Rebecca Sherburn is an active chamber musician, having been featured by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and the New York New Music Group. Her scholarly work has been published by the NATS Journal of Singing and the ACDA Choral Journal. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Ms. Sherburn is on the faculty at Chapman University. Prior to this appointment she was at the University of Missouri Kansas City where she received an excellence in teaching award.

Mezzo-soprano Aidan Soder and baritone Paul Busselberg collaborate with pianist Calogero Di Liberto in presenting a recital of songs based on the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, one of India's most beloved literary figures. Composers from all over the world have been compelled to set his poetry to music, as this recording amply demonstrates. John Alden Carpenter, British composer Frank Bridge, Italian Franco Alfano and German composer Karol Szymanowski all wrote songs dating from the first two decades of the 20th century that used his poetry. The recording also includes recent settings (2004) of Tagore's love songs by the young American composer Karim Al-Zand.

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

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

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.

Love is what fascinates poets at all times and Broadway lyricists are often poets extra-ordinaire. Oscar Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and so many others help us with our enjoyment of life and compel us to sing. The songs on this disc include ones we all know and some we may have heard and a few that are recent and obscure enough to be a pleasure to discover. But mostly, each of these songs is a work of art and beautifully sung by Jean Danton. Danton's artistry has led to acclaimed performances through the United States and Europe in opera, oratorio, recitals, and as a soloist with symphony orchestras. She is a favorite soloist for musical theatre and pops concerts appearing with the Boston Pops Orchestra and New England Light Opera among others and her versatility extends to jazz as well. She has several recordings on Albany Records and Newport Classics. Her television credits include documentaries for PBS and Lifetime. Collaborating with Ms. Danton are pianist Doug Hammer and drummer Steve Chaggaris.

Award-winning soprano Marcía Porter offers a program of songs by contemporary American composers. An active recitalist, Ms. Porter made her Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) debut in 2005. She has performed in venues throughout the United States, Italy, Brazil and the Czech Republic. Porter has appeared at international festivals including the Prague Proms, the Ravinia Festival and Piccolo Spoleto Festival and sung with orchestras such as the Czech National Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Porter was a 2011-12 Fulbright Scholar based in Brazil where she was a visiting artist and professor at the Universidade de Sâo Paulo. On the faculty at The Florida State University College of Music, she is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Collaborating with Ms. Porter is acclaimed pianist and fellow faculty member Valerie M. Trujillo, whose experience in song literature and opera make her a much sought after accompanist, coach and teacher of masterclasses.