Catalog

Recognized as a "major talent" by the Chicago Tribune, Larry Bell has been awarded the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and the Charles Ives Award. A student of Vincent Persichetti and Roger Sessions, his music has been widely performed in the United States and abroad, and as a pianist he has championed the works of American composers.

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Ileana Perez Velázquez earned her degrees from the Higher Institute of Arts, Havana, in 1987. When she moved to the United States in 1993, she was already receiving acclaim as one of the bright lights of Cuban composition, having won several awards. She would later continue her studies at Dartmouth College and Indiana University, where her teachers included John Appleton, Charles Dodge, Claude Baker and Eugene O'Brien. She writes music that, while challenging for both performer and listener alike, is deeply expressive and accessible; her music may be uncompromising in its demands, but it also remains intensely dramatic and poignantly evocative. What's more, her rich harmonic language and rhythmically intricate, multi-layered textures reveal a true debt to her Cuban heritage.

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, called the Shakers, came to the New World in 1774. Ann Lee Standerin, called Mother Ann by her followers, traveled to America with seven disciples to establish the Shaker religion in the New World. The group was so named because of fervent prayer rituals in which they entered into trance-like states Ñ twitching, shaking, whirling, singing and dancing, seeking transcendence from the burdens of sin. A gentle, highly ethical people there were, at the height of the movement in 1850, 6,000 Shakers, a number that began to decline after industrialization took over. Because the Shakers believed the human voice to be the perfect instrument for the expression to God, they were prolific composers. It is said that there are over 10,000 hymns in existence. This unique disc presents both original hymns and modern American works based on the materials. Fittingly, the first of these is one that is beloved by many: Aaron Copland's setting of Simple Gifts.

Robert Weirich leads an extremely active career as a pianist, teacher, author and composer, with many awards and articles to his credit, and with more than 30 concerto performances with such conductors as David Zinman and Jose Serebrier. Of Copland’s piano music, he writes, “Aaron Copland had a life-long love affair with the piano…he entrusted the piano with three of his most important, iconically personal works. These compositions hold their own with those of any composer from any period – a pianist can program them alongside Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, without fear that the American work suffers in comparison. For sheer originality, compositional craft and profundity of utterance, here is music with a complete mastery of voice – no one but Copland could have written these pieces.”

Even for those of a "certain age" (i.e., baby-boomers) who never followed classical music, there is the indelible memory of "Amahl and the Night Visitors," Menotti's warm, wonderful Christmas opera, one of the first commissioned for television's early days. Some dozen years earlier, the composer, only 27, had been commissioned by the same company for the very first opera for radio, "The Old Maid and the Thief." Menotti began writing songs at an early age and studied at the Curtis Institute where he began a lifelong friendship with Samuel Barber, won a Pulitzer Prize for his first full-length opera "The Consul," and oversaw the famed Spoleto Festival, beginning in 1958. Menotti's delicate, tuneful music was almost a modern counterpart to the music of Rossini, full of high spirits, color and equal amounts of drama. This first recording of "The Old Maid and The Thief" in nearly 40 years is a wonderful memorial for the composer who died earlier this year.

2008 will mark the 150th anniversary of the internationally renowned Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America. Originally founded by students to sing college songs and glees, it was in 1912, under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Archibald T. Davison, that the Club developed a repertoire of distinction and gained its reputation. Under the direction of Jameson Marvin since 1978, the Harvard Glee Club has only enhanced its reputation, continuing to draw upon six centuries of repertoire, including secular and sacred material. They have demonstrated a particular expertise for American choral music, and this retrospective, covering more than 20 years of performances, serves as a perfect example of why the Harvard Glee Club has been lauded throughout its history.

To bring together two pieces by Charles Wuorinen with seminal works of Arnold Schoenberg is, in part, to underline a continuity. Wuorinen, exceptionally among his generation, has developed implications of Schoenberg's 12-tone method to his own musical ends with a strong awareness of the works of others of his predecessors, including Stravinsky, Webern, and Milton Babbitt. Wuorinen's two pieces date from the mid 1970s, a period during which Wuorinen was reconciling serialism with tonally-centered music. Schoenberg's work is represented by his pupil Webern's 1912 two-piano arrangement of the Five Pieces for Orchestra and Wuorinen's arrangement of the Variations. In these arrangements, the important details of pitch, rhythm and motivic relationships stand out in relief.

Following the success of Orpheus in the Underworld, none other than Rossini dubbed Offenbach "the Mozart of the Champs-Elysees." After another international triumph, La Belle Helene, 1866 saw the premiere of Bluebeard. Despite being based on a grisly legend, Offenbach produced a ribald comedy tinged with the dark, gothic passions later found in The Tales of Hoffmann. Granted, the buffoonery is mixed with some real terror but all comes out well in the end! This recording marks the Ohio Light Opera's first performance of this work since 1987, in a very welcome revival featuring a witty English translation by Richard Traubner and all the high spirits and enthusiasm you expect from this marvelous company.

Carl MaultsBy is a contemporary "renaissance artist" whose talents have been utilized both in the commercial realm of musical theatre, film, television, records and in the cultural media as well. A former artist and repertoire staff producer for RCA records, MaultsBy attended Columbia University where he studied with the late Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky. His credits include liturgical music, music for the Harry Belafonte film Beat Street and the dance music for the Broadway musical "It's So Nice to be Civilized." As he writes, "Eye of the Sparrow" was conceived as a joint installation project between visual artist Karen Fitzgerald and myself...which took place in January 2006, at the Celebration of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King at St. Bartholomew's Church, New York City. The title was inspired by the evangelical hymn, "His Eye is on the Sparrow," a personal favorite of Dr. King."

This latest release in this remarkable series by the Illinois State Winds presents two major Symphonies by popular veterans of the field, Jack Stamp and David Maslanka, and introduces the music of the young American composer Kevin Krumenauer. Blue on Red explores the transition from grief and loss to life and celebration. The two colors represent a strong sense of emotion during the opening and closing movements. The renowned David Diamond was both a friend and mentor to Jack Stamp, the Professor of Music and Director of Wind Studies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Diamond himself had written an Elegy in Memory of Ravel for winds in 1937, and it is fitting that Stamp created this tribute to Diamond within the context of the wind orchestra. Finally we hear one of the major works of the repertoire, David Maslanka's Symphony No. 2, as conductor Steele continues his series devoted to the music of this composer (previous releases are on TROY821, 774/75, 600 and 500)

One of our most distinguished composers, Pultizer-Prize recipient John Harbison currently is Institute Professor at MIT and has composed chamber works, concertos, four Symphonies (with a Fifth scheduled for a first performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and the Metropolitan Opera commission The Great Gatsby (1999). This release features song cycles based on the works of one of the most prominent Italian 20th century poets, Eugenio Montale (1896-1981). His best known works, Cuttle-Fish Bones (1925-28), The Occasions (1939) and The Storm and Other Things (1956) mark some of the finest achievements in the trend known as Hermeticism. The role of poetry is the absolute realm of the word as prophetic tool, which allows the poet (and by extension humankind) to interpret the world of visible things. Harbison admired the work of Montale for more than a decade before embarking on Motetti di Montale, which was dedicated to the poet on his 85th birthday.

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

The University of Calgary Wind Ensemble is widely recognized as Canada's leading wind orchestra. It is made up of the most advanced performers of wind and percussion instruments at the University and has earned a substantial international reputation. Under the direction of Dr. Glenn D. Price, the Ensemble has received great critical acclaim for its performances, recordings and broadcasts. Dr. Price is also a renowned percussionist and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. This recording, featuring music by European, Asian and American composers (including one of the most recent works by the popular Michael Torke), is the ninth in their series and the first to be released on Albany. The works represent a wonderful range of colors, styles and compositional techniques.

And now for the serious side of Don Gillis...Yeah, right! Actually, in both the "Encore" Concerto and the Harp Rhapsody (written for the NBC Symphony's Edward Vito), one can hear some very serious thoughts being bandied about, but nearly all of these pieces represent high spirits and good, clean fun. "Twinketoes" was originally meant for a ballet about a crippled girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina, and surgery allows her to fulfill her destiny. But Gillis lost interest in the soap-operish plot. Instead, he assembled a suite, and we have the opening number, as sprightly as any Broadway overture, and with enough humor to keep Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck going. And we also have one of his last works, the whirlwind Rhapsody for Trumpet, which shows some more modern touches (bongo drums!). The Short Overture is a concise ball of energy, not really for any proposed opera, but a great curtain-raiser just the same.

Genevieve Feiwen Lee received her degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Boris Berman. As an open-minded, generous and expert proponent of new music, she presents two significant composers, the French-born Bodin and the American Tom Flaherty. As Kyle Gann writes, "The 21st Century composer for piano faces tremendous competition from the past, yet for many, the medium still offers irresistible temptations. This recording offers compositions commissioned from Bodin and Flaherty; apart from making extensive use of the piano's ability to display different tempi simultaneously, these composers approach piano composition in different way: Bodin shows interest in layering and complexity, while Flaherty's approach is more linear and sound-oriented."

In the nearly 30 years that Hi Kyung Kim has been living, studying and composing in the Western World, her music has established itself as Asian-American in voice and spirit. But for all the recognizably Korean musical ideas, rhythmic and sonic, in her music these seem to occur not as flags or labels but appear integrally in the music's fabric. And in the hearing of it, a personality emerges that is individual and not specifically or necessarily identifiable as Korean-American. As she has admitted, these Korean elements come into her music unbidden, unselfconsciously, and cites a conversation she had with the late Korean-born composer Isang Yun, in which he said "That he did not have to think about his musical elements intentionally utilizing Korean music, since (these were) already imbedded in him."

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

Jay Reise composes in all genres, and his teachers included musicians with a wide variety of stylistic approaches: George Crumb, jazz player Jimmy Guiffre, Carnatic (South Indian) violinist Adrian L'Armand, and Richard Wernick. As critic Peter Rabinowitz has written, "His work is firmly in the Western tradition. But because of the fresh perspectives offered by his study of Indian music, he has been able to rethink some specific problems facing contemporary Western art music..." Many disparate elements of classical musical technique are employed in the three works on this recording, including rhythms based on concepts freely derived from the study of Carnatic music and the juxtaposing of chromatically-treated modes (folk-derived and symmetrical) with quasi-functional tonal music.

America's premiere opera composer here presents his first full-length comic opera, based on the classic farce "A Flea in Her Ear" by Feydeau. But here, the composer, working from his own libretto, has set the work on a ranch in Texas in the 1940s. The original source's hilarious story of supposed infidelities and the characters' outlandish attempts at getting even without finding out the truth of the matter translates wonderfully to the new setting and, indeed, at the first Lexington performances both critics and audiences were delighted by the new work. This represents the latest in an ongoing project with Albany and Pasatieri to record his major stage works (the most recent being the acclaimed "Frau Margot") and we're certain you'll share in the high spirits and fun that the Kentucky audiences had!

Two British composers and one American -- and all three are of great distinction. Alwyn was equally at home writing some of the most memorable film scores for the British cinema (particularly "Odd Man Out," [1946]) and composing a series of beautiful Symphonies along with chamber music. Constant Lambert, in his short life, gained renown as one of the most gifted British conductors, but composed a wealth of colorful music, including the Suite featured here drawn from one of his last ballets. Gunther Schuller is not only famed for his musicology but his ability to cross over from jazz to classical and back. He helped create the jazz-classical hybrid known as "third stream" over 50 years ago. This collection is another outstanding example of the imagination and musicianship of the DePaul University Winds and their ongoing series for Albany.

Richard Pearson Thomas is equally at home writing works for the concert hall and the stage (including the Off-Off Broadway hit "Parallel Lives") and "Ossessione" is his modern counterpart to the "standard" repertoire of 24 Italian Art Songs, with a re-examining of the texts casting them through a modern perspective. The first performance with John Muriello led to a collaboraton, including Thomas' unique adaptation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," displaying Muriello's remarkable abilities as a singing actor. As a novel bonus, this CD also includes their sparkling interpretations of classic pop songs about love such as Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" and Richard Rodgers' "Bewitched."

Born in China, son of a Baltic businessman employed by the Tsar, Boris Blacher was a true iconoclast, who traveled to exotic locales and studied architecture and mathematics but who, during the 1920's, took up music, writing works redolent of American jazz, which would get him into trouble after the rise of the Nazis. Yes, Blacher was another composer of "degenerate" music who did eventually write a genuine "hit" Ð the Orchestral Variations on a Theme of Paganini, a much-recorded piece. In recent years, more of his output has been released on CD, revealing a fascinating, original musical voice. This unique adaptation of Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet modifies the work in striking ways, omitting some characters, telescoping the action, even resorting to having different characters perform their lines simultaneously, creating an "overlapping dialogue" effect. Musically, the ensemble writing often bears a striking resemblance to Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," perhaps a tribute from one master to another.

Practice in the Art of Elocution, An operina for soprano and piano was adapted by the composer-librettist from The Standard American Speaker and Entertainer published in 1901, while Sorry, Wrong Number was adapted from the play by that name by Lucille Fletcher. Both of these witty one-act operas are given delightful performances by the cast and orchestra of the Center for Contemporary Opera. Beeson, inspired to write operas while still a teenager, has 10 operas to his credit, as well as music for orchestra, concert band, vocal and choral groups. In addition to composing, Beeson has had a distinguished career at Columbia University where he is the MacDowell Professor Emeritus of Music.

Born in Massachusetts in 1943, a pupil of Joseph Wood and H. Owen Reed, David Maslanka has become especially well known for his works for winds in many combinations -- solo sonatas, chamber works and substantial works for wind ensemble -- including five Symphonies. Of these two recent works, he writes "The title Desert Roads suggests an interior journey, a time of inner searching, of not knowing, of creative incubation. I have chosen to call these four movements "songs" for clarinet and wind ensemble. This connects them directly to the romantic idea of Ôsongs without words'...because of my longtime and persistent use of chorale melodies, it has been suggested that I am somehow proselytizing for the Christian faith. This is not the case. My attraction to these melodies is that they are the product of countless generations of human seeking, and have about them an aura of depth and power. The word "book" gives the feeling of a larger collection of material, something extensive and varied, and something that may have a story to tell."

This recording is, in many respects, a unique and creatively conceived kaleidoscope of American culture presented through the expressions and influences of African Americans. Moses and Floyd offer exceptionally convincing interpretations of each song, with clear understanding of the nature and unique message contained in each. The diverse genres, art songs by African American composers and artful settings of spirituals, also include works written by other Americans who use idiomatically African American musical resources, and whose creative energies have been powerfully influenced by African American folk life. This is a delightful tapestry of works that comprise a cross section of musical personalities and compelling lyrical content.

Carl Zeller, after service in the Vienna Court Chapel Choir, studied both composition and law and earned his doctorate in law from Graz University in 1869. He spent most of life in government service, writing music in his spare time. Although Zeller composed several works for the musical theatre, his reputation rests mainly on The Birdseller, which had its premiere in 1891. It has a familiar boy-meets-girl plot, set in that never-never land of operetta where mistaken identities are as common as pine trees and nightingales sing on cue. The Birdseller has one of the most captivating scores ever written. Its best-known melody is "Roses in Tyrol," the magnificent song and ensemble that climaxes Act I. One of the most popular productions of the Ohio Light Opera in the 1990s, this 2007 revival will certainly delight listeners long familiar with the score as well as those who are discovering it for the first time!

Pianist and composer James Adler made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 16, the start of a varied career in the United States and Europe. He has appeared throughout the world at leading concert venues, including New York City's Alice Tully and Carnegie Halls. He made his London debut at the famed Wigmore Hall. Known as a pianist who "can create whatever type of music he wants at the keyboard" (Chicago Sun-Times), he has had particular success with his account of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the final work on this disc. His succinct description of the whole program perfectly sums it up: "I wanted to prepare a CD program that is fun. Has rhythm. That is danceable. That is a little jazzy with depth and lyricism, and celebrates American traditions in music. Though not necessarily in chronological order."

An American original, John Jacob Niles was a composer, performer, and author. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1892, he came from a musical family. While working with a surveying team in eastern Kentucky as a teenager, he kept a notebook in which he recorded lyrics and music of old folk songs known in the area. Niles served as a U.S. Army pilot in World War I and made numerous reconnaissance flights until he suffered serious injuries in a plane crash. After the war he studied music at the University of Lyon, the Schola Cantorium in Paris and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He renewed his search for folk songs in Appalachia as he accompanied noted photographer Doris Ulmann on her travels. He composed and arranged more than 1,000 songs, many of them made famous by Jo Stafford. These songs of our American heritage are beautifully sung by Hope Koehler.

Created by conductor Frederick Harris, Jr., in the fall of 1999, the MIT Wind Ensemble is comprised of MIT undergraduate and graduate students studying a wide variety of fields including Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and related fields for which MIT is world-famous. The central mission of the MIT Wind Ensemble is the enhancement of the musical education and artistic sensitivity of its members through large and small wind ensemble performances of music of diverse styles from the 16th century to the present day. A secondary mission is the creation and nurturing of new music, such as the recent works on this disc that vary considerably in style and aesthetic ideas. Since 2001 the Ensemble has commissioned 18 original works by Boston-based and nationally recognized composers such as Gunther Schuller, John Harbison, Ran Blake (best-known as a third-stream artist) and Joe Lovano.

Lee Actor's career as a software engineer and a musician began in Albany, New York: for several years he was a violinist in the Albany Symphony Orchestra while completing an advanced engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nearby Troy. After moving to California in the late 1970s, he studied with Brent Heisinger, Charles Jones and the late Andrew Imbrie. Actor's music is filled with rhythmic drive and shows a superb ear for orchestral color. Often he builds up a work by emphasizing one or another of the instrumental families Ð woodwinds, brass and strings Ð then mixes them in a rich impasto of orchestral color. In the process he creates music that catches the ear and draws the listener into a world of emotion and drama. All of these recent works are a perfect showcase of his distinct range and style.

Formed in 2004 the trio Neoteric, made up of faculty members at Southern Illinois University, began their relationship with Bernard Hoffer through a request for works in the American Music Center newsletter. After writing two works for their ensemble, Hoffer suggested the idea of more substantial works, hence the Concerto di Camera and Divertimento included on this recording. Born in Switzerland, Hoffer is a graduate of Eastman where he studied composition with Bernard Rogers and Wayne Barlow. He has written extensively for films, television, and commercials for which he has won several Emmy nominations and Clio Awards. He scored the hit children's cartoon series Thundercats and Silverhawks.

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