Catalog

The distinguished composer Carson Cooman writes,"The works on this disc date from an eleven year period (1997-2008) and were chosen to create an interrelated program of songs and piano pieces. As a composer who has always believed strongly in the need and importance of music for all purposes and the value of new music in everyday life, these small pieces are something I take every bit as seriously as writing a large-scale concerto or symphony. The overall intent is a life-affirming celebration of the American experience: emotional, physical, and natural." Cooman (b.1982) has an extensive catalogue of works in many forms, ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. He is in continual demand for new commissions and his music has been performed on all six inhabited continents.

The extraordinary tuba player Timothy Buzbee has put together a unique program of music by American and Swedish composers that reflects his eclectic interests and passions. His phenomenal technique and command of the instrument have won him principal tuba positions with a number of orchestras and he has recorded more than 20 CDs. A native of Texas, he has been a featured soloist with the Singapore Symphony, Acapulco Philharmonic and other orchestras and has performed throughout North American and Asia with several different brass quintets and brass ensemble.

"I have had a life-long love affair with the borough of my birth -- Manhattan -- in the city of New York. Here many of my friends live, and here the compositions on this CD originate. Each piece tells its own story." Ms. Silverman holds a BA from Barnard College, an AM from Harvard and a DMA from Columbia. Currently on the faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music, she is a founding member of Music Under Construction and the International Women's Brass Conference. She is the recipient of many awards and commissions and her music has been performed by the Baltimore Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic among many other orchestras and chamber ensembles.

This program grew out of Stephen Swanson's frustration with the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom and with his son's decision to enlist. He and his wife began researching song dealing with war and formulated a program of songs about the individuals involved in America's historic military conflicts, their friends and their families. The primary consideration was the texts rather than the settings. The fervent nationalistic patriotism of World War I; the intimate personal glimpses in to World War II; the satirical songs from the Cold War; the Vietnam-era protest songs; the setting of Abraham Lincoln's letter to a mother who lost five sons Ñ all demonstrate the conflict between the need to fight and the horrific losses war imposes.

Two internationally renowned soloists, David Shifrin and Ransom Wilson, are featured in this eighth volume of Albany Records' series devoted to the music of Ezra Laderman. Laderman remarks: "I have been among those who move from writing for orchestra to chamber music, to vocal, and solo and operatic works -- feeling the need to explore and stretch my musical language as I go -- to reach for a new constellation. My most recent works for flute and clarinet attest to that and this cd clearly shows the path I have traveled."

This fascinating program of music for flute and piano juxtaposes composers from the US and Russia whose compositions were all written during the sixties at the height of the Cold War. Composers in the US were subject to very different influences and pressures than their colleagues in the Soviet Union and the music reflects these influences as well as the turbulent decade of the 1960s. Beautifully performed by flutist Brian Luce and his pianist Rex Woods, the recording is a super audio compact disc.

Stephen Parsons, professor of trombone and director of the School of Music at Illinois State University, has assembled a collection of works for trombone from the 20th century. With French, Dutch, American and Danish composers, the recording showcases some of the best music written for trombone and is a beautifully performed concert program featuring a number of world premiere recordings.

The orchestral works on this CD of world premiere recordings incorporate a wealth of compositional techniquesÑarchaic, arcane and contemporary. These works constitute a cross section of musical perspectives that can also be found in his chamber works. The focus on creating relationships that have direction and dimensionality distinguishes these scores from other trends embraced in the 20th century. Unique to all these works is an harmonic vocabulary imbedded into a formal organization that is precise, logical and certainly not academic in the current sense.

Rhythmic vitality, lyricism, a fascination with folksong and virtuosity, and a distinctive American voice are traits that unite the four works on this recording performed by Leonard Garrison on flute and piccolo. Garrison, assistant professor of flute at the University of Idaho is the flutist for the Northwest Wind Quintet and principal flute of the Walla Walla Symphony. He has been flutist in the Chicago Symphony and the Tulsa Philharmonic, soloist on NPR's Performance Today and winner of the 2003 Byron Hester Competition. A graduate of Oberlin and SUNY-Stony Brook, Garrison received his DMA from Northwestern University.

Highlighting this recording is Ward's First Symphony, written in 1942 when he was a graduate student in composition and conducting at Juilliard. This was his first work to bring him national attention with a critic noting that "...he has the gift for the lyric line...strong melodic expression is supported by an active and resourceful imagination for contrapuntal design, by a great talent for rhythmic variety....The sum of these excellencies is greatness." Ward comments: "In the years after the war I have written many works for diverse media and under other influences. Looking back I hope these efforts might still merit the high praise that critic Glenn Dillard Gunn gave my First Symphony."

The two programs on this double CD were presented at the Pacific Rim Music Festival in 2003. They were offered as part of the Festival's tribute to Chou Wen-chung in honor of his 80th birthday. What brought these works together is their relationship to Chou Wen-chung. Some were students; some associates and in the case of Varèse, Chou's teacher.

Cary Ratcliff, a native of California, studied composition and piano at the Eastman School of Music. He says in his notes that, "Accompanying in the voice studio of the late Jan DeGaetani exposed me to depth of interpretation and commitment to the artsong tradition that plays in my head whenever I write songs....Composed over the years for many singers and occasions, my solo songs vary widely, but Katie [Kathryn Lewek] has taken on the lion's share of them and unified them under her wide-ranging and vibrant artistry."

The works presented on this compact disc exhibit three manners in which Jeremy Gill has explored the musical past. 25, through its use of quotation and occasional imitation, represents the most common of the three. Suite for Brass deals with musical and poetic forms that were precursors to the music of Bach. Parabasis is an exploration of an imagined musical past, based solely on contextless titles and fragmentary descriptions. A graduate of Eastman and the University of Pennsylvania, Gill worked with George Crumb, George Rochberg, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Donald Erb and Samuel Adler. He is also active as a conductor and keyboardist.

This recording of brass and organ music by the noted American composer Larry Bell features Chris Gekker, trumpet, the Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble and Richard Bunbury, organ. Recognized by The Chicago Tribune as "a major talent," Bell has been awarded the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations and the Charles Ives award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among many others. His music has been commissioned and performed by a distinguished array of performers and has been the subject of documentaries on National Public Radio and Radio Amsterdam.

This recording contains the work of six contemporary composers either currently active in, or with some connection to the American Midwest. The works were composed during a six-year span, from 2001-2007 and are performed by Stacey Barelos, a DMA student in piano and composition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Noted for her presentation of music of the 20th and 21st centuries, her performances of the music of Henry Cowell have attracted special recognition and acclaim.

For a century and a quarter Gilbert and Sullivan's hilarious 1885 comic opera, The Mikado, has elicited joyous shouts and cheers from audiences the world over--and it has survived triumphant, even in the face of controversial productions and oddball casting. This recording, taken from the Ohio Light Opera's 2008 Festival performances, includes all the music as well as the complete dialogue.

Julius P. Williams is an award-winning conductor, composer, recording artist, educator, author and artistic director. A prolific composer, Williams has created dozens of works for virtually every genre of contemporary classical performance. His film score for Lifetime TV's Fighting for our Future won the Gracie Allen Documentary Award in 2003. Williams included the composition by Joe Westmoreland (Somewhere Far Away) as a tribute to him and to his mentor Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, who orchestrated Westmoreland's work.

Jake Heggie composed this musical play in three acts for Frederica von Stade, who has had a large influence on his composing career. Heggie was working in the press office of the San Francisco Opera when he first met von Stade. She listened to some of his songs and became so enthused that Heggie received a commission for his first opera. Three Decembers is taken from a play titled Some Christmas Letters and tells the story of the emotional lives of three people: mother, adult daughter and son through letters and phone calls during three Decembers in three different decades of their lives.

Efra'n Amaya was born in Venezuela. He studied composition and piano at the University of Indiana and conducting at Rice University. He is on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and founder and conductor of the Point Chamber Orchestra. His children's opera, featured on this recording, was first performed by the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. The other work, Clepsydra premiered as part of the First Night celebrations in Pittsburgh as a collaborative multimedia performance.

The Moores School (University of Houston) Percussion Ensemble was established in 1997 and is directed by Blake Wilkins. The Ensemble's selection as a Winner in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society Percussion Ensemble Competition and is appearance at the International Convention established its reputation as a leader in percussion performance. The Ensemble was again selected as a Winner for 2006. Under Wilkin's leadership, the Ensemble has emerged as a leader in the promotion and performance of new music. In 2002 a commissioning series was begun to encourage new works for the medium. Since the inception of this project, the Ensemble has commissioned six composers, some of whose works are heard on this recording -- the second made by the Ensemble for Albany Records.

Like all of Wuorinen's music from the past three decades, the duos on this recording take the long view of musical history and align themselves not only with its expressive traditions, but much more importantly, with its secure and sustained future. The spare utterance of those works of the great European tradition that are composed for only two musicians, leave no margin for error: all is exposed when writing for two contrasting instruments. These duos, spanning slightly more than a quarter century of Wuorinen's oeuvre, never lapse in their intensity and invention. They display an impressive fecundity of sources and outward forms.

Roberto Sierra notes in his comments that "The unifying factor of all the works on this CD is that in one way or another they relate to variation form, as is the case of Antonio Soler's Fandango. This work from the Spanish Baroque has always fascinated me for its strange and whimsical twists and turns. My Fandangos is an orchestral fantasy that takes as a point of departure Soler's piece." Sierra's Reflections on a Souvenir and Variations on a Souvenir both take as their inspiration Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico. Ian Hobson serves as both pianist and conductor for these inspired performances.

World premiere recordings of Symphony No. 2 and the Quintet highlight this compact disc of the esteemed Robert Helps' compositions. Conductor William Wiedrich thinks of Helps as a "romantic renegade." Each work on the recording has a truly unique and emotional bent that speaks deeply and meaningfully to the heart and soul.

Richard Wilson writes: "The music on this compact disc spans my entire composing career...The three short pieces for piano from my senior year in college reflect an enthusiasm for Boulez, who was teaching at Harvard that year. Quite different in style are the herbal pieces that were intended as teaching material for young piano students but are, without doubt, a bit too complex for that purpose. My propensity for technical challenge is even more evident in the solo works for bass and oboe. Chamber music has always been my preferred milieu."

The Kobayashi/Gray Duo is in demand throughout the world for their skillful presentations of works by 19th to 21st century women composers. They have presented their discoveries of new and unknown works at national and international conferences. This recording reflects their interest and enthusiasm and contains four world premiere recordings of music by women from the U.S., Poland, Norway, France, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Continuing Albany Records' series of music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker, this recording focuses on his chamber music. The music ranges from his first string quartet composed in 1946 to the piano sonata composed in 1985. Walker is the recipient of six honorary doctoral degrees and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

These are first recordings of two dramatic works by American composer Thomas Pasatieri. Written for Beverly Sills, Before Breakfast dates from 1978 and has an unusual history (including having the original score accidentally thrown in the trash by the maid). After an unsuccessful performance the score was put away and it wasn't until 2002 that it was revived and revised for Lauren Flanagan. Flanagan was the inspiration for Lady Macbeth and premiered the work in 2008 with the forces on this recording.

Formed in 1995 the Corona Guitar Kvartet's repertoire spans music written in the Renaissance to music written in this century. The Kvartet has worked with composers from Denmark, the US, Latvia, Germany, Italy, Canada and Lithuania and actively promotes new compositions for their medium. This second recording for Albany Records is a recital of works that reflects their musical interests.

Robert Schulslaper, a writer for Fanfare Magazine stated: "Reflections is a large-scale work in seven movements and Walwyn has the concentration, intensity and technique to focus attention on its every phrase and transformation. A large dynamic range, excellent pacing, attention to detail, and fleet-fingered dexterity serve her vision with grace and nobility...Walwyn has written music that will surely resonate with listeners' own reflections on 9/11. In my case, at least, it's left a lasting impression."

This volume of Albany Records' series of the music of Edward Joseph Collins features first recordings of songs, piano solo works and the Piano Trio, Op. 1. The Illinois-born Collins died in 1951, leaving an oeuvre comprised of 12 major orchestral works, three piano concerti, a secular cantata, an opera, several chamber works, more than 20 songs and a dozen piano solo and duo scores.

Tanya Bannister's career began with her victories at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition, confirming her status among the leading pianists of her generation. Ms. Bannister has a special affinity for contemporary music. As she says, "I find the experience of working with composers to be an enlightening and energizing one..." Three works on this recording Del Tredici, Farrin, and Theofanidis were commissioned for her by Concert Artists Guild.

A disc of first recordings, the Bernstein is presented in the original narrative context, while the Moyse is a 2002 Counterpoint commission. These two works are complimented with Castelnuovo-Tedesco's spirit of flamenco and the jazzy swing idiom of the Levi. Founded by Robert De Cormier in 2000, Counterpoint is dedicated to performing choral chamber music of diverse cultures with an emphasis on rarely performed works, unique arrangements and the work of contemporary composers.