Catalog

The Scott/Garrison Duo consists of clarinetist Shannon Scott and flutist Leonard Garrison, has performed together since 1988, with a long commitment to American music. They have been featured at five conventions of the National Flute Association and were winners of the NFA’s Chamber Music Competition. This recording features nine delightful works for this wind duo, exploring works by American, French and Swiss composers.

The world knows Bela Bartok as one of the twentieth century's great composers. Fewer people know of the many miniature masterpieces he composed for young musicians, and even fewer realize that he was a brilliant and diligent scholar of Eastern European folk music. Working 50 years before the term was even coined, he is now considered one of the first great ethnomusicologists, in addition to his formidable compositional achievements. In 1905, shortly after his first contacts with the "pure" music of Hungarian peasants, Bartok met Zoltan Kodaly, a fellow Hungarian composer one year his junior, who was also deeply interested in authentic folk music. Together they founded the Hungarian Music Society and they collaborated in collecting and editing Hungarian folksongs for publication. Close friends throughout their lives, they often performed and championed each other's music. The performers on this recording have endeavored to be true to the original spirit of the music of Bartok and Kodaly in arranging for the group. Sometimes these arrangements have a comparatively logical quality, such as Bartok's Rumanian Dances played by a folk band with cimbalom, whistles and recorders, guitars, banjo and bass. In other cases the sounds are more unusual, such as the arrangement of Kodaly's Ave Maria for voice and low pennywhistles.

Irwin Bazelon's percussion writing is known and performed by percussionists the world over and is truly unique. With this recording, Albany Records continues its commitment to present Bazelon's works (the sixth since his death) and the first to be devoted solely to chamber works with percussion being the binding element.

In his notes for this release in an essay entitled Music, Medicine and Elaine Bearer, Steven Ledbetter writes: "Elaine Bearer is a remarkable contemporary example of a composer who has also actively followed the very different career of a medical researcher. Already, at a very early age, she was called upon to choose between two passions, and although one or the other seemed to win out temporarily, both have been continuing realms of activity in a busy life. Music first seemed to have the upper hand. She began composing at the age of six. Music continued to enthrall her during her secondary school years and she attended Carnegie Mellon University as a music major, studying composition with Carlos Surinach and Virgil Thomson. In 1967 she went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger and upon returning, completed her bachelor's degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where her teachers included Mario Davidovsky. During these years, she also freelanced on the French horn, playing in the American Symphony Orchestra under Stokowski, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Orchestre de Paris, under Charles Munch. She received her master's degree in musicology from New York University and began work on her doctorate there. Music would seem to have won out. In 1973, she moved to San Francisco and began teaching music and composing. The composing never stopped, but before long she discovered that teaching solfeggio and dictation to freshman was detrimental to her inner ear and turned to biology, the other subject that had always interested her. Following two years at Stanford to get the medical school prerequisites she had bypassed earlier, she proceeded to the University of California, San Francisco, where she earned an M.D. and a Ph.D., completing both degrees in record time. Then followed a year in Geneva, Switzerland where she joined Lelio Orci's Laboratory at the University of Geneva. Upon returning to San Francisco she did a residency in the Department of Pathology while at the same time, was Composer-in-Residence to the university's symphony Orchestra. In 1991, she moved to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she holds two appointments, as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music as Assistant Professor of Medical Science, continuing her active life combining music and medicine." These facts alone should make you want to experience this disc. The music is accessible and appealing.

Beethoven's ten Sonatas for Piano and Violin are performed on historic instruments by Jerilyn Jorgensen and Cullan Bryant. Instruments include an unsigned Viennese style piano from c. 1795, a Joseph Brodmann; and a Bösendorfer c. 1828-1832, among others. The violin is an Andrea Carolus Leeb from 1797 and a variety of bows from the period including one by Francois Xavier Tourte are used. Pianist Cullan Bryant is among the most active chamber and collaborative pianists in New York City, performing more than 50 concerts a year. His prizes and awards include the Leschetizky International Competition, Miami Arts Competition, and the Memphis Beethoven Competition, among many others. Violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen is a member of the faculty at Colorado College. She was first violinist of the Da Vinci Quartet, which performed throughout the United States to critical acclaim. She is a graduate of Eastman and Juilliard. Both Bryant and Jorgensen have recordings on the Naxos label.

Benjamin Sabey is a composer of chamber, live computer interactive and orchestral music, which has been performed by distinguished ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the New York New Music Ensemble and Red Fish Blue Fish, among many others. He is the recipient of two Barlow Endowment Commissions and the Royaumont Prize of Domaine Forget. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Sabey has taught composition, theory and electronic music at San Francisco State University, the University of San Diego and San Diego City College. Hearing Sabey's music, one senses that he is, to use Toru Takemitsu's lovely phrase, "confronting silence." Confrontations take many forms: encounter, challenge, transaction, even embrace. The mystery of Sabey's music is in not knowing which form the confrontation will take. This recording of his music, performed by some of America's best musicians, offers insight into Sabey's distinctive compositional voice.

Bernard Stevens was born in London and studied at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, where he gained the highest awards. After his army service he came briefly to national prominence in 1946 with a highly acclaimed performance in Albert Hall of his deeply considered and utterly un-jingoistic Symphony of Liberation, which won a competition sponsored by the Daily Express newspaper for a "Victory Symphony " to celebrate the end of World War II. Stevens spent much of the rest of his career lecturing at the RCM (also, latterly, at the University of London), and was a tireless champion of contemporary music, an indefatigable examiner, and that rare being, a born teacher - whose warmth, encouragement and intellectual stimulation is remembered with gratitude and respect by his many pupils. In the 1950s and 60s, as Britain strove to catch up with the Continental avant-garde, his robust independence of fashion hardly helped to gain his works prestige. Nor did his politics endear him to the establishment. Occasionally, wryly, he spoke of himself as one of an "almost lost generation" of British composers; yet as a craftsman and a musical mind he must be judged one of that generation's leading figures. Since his death in 1983, there has been a remarkable upsurge of interest in Stevens's output. His music impresses the hearer immediately by its warmth and imaginative logic, its firm architecture and commitment to the traditional crafts of counterpoint and variation. His works include an opera on J.M. Synge's The Shadow of the Glen (recorded on Albany TROY 418), two symphonies, three concertos, cantatas and other choral pieces, piano music, songs, and other compositions for instruments as diverse as natural trumpet and guitar. Stevens was especially drawn to the chamber medium, for its possibilities of vigorous dialectical argument and intimate expression; and in it he produced several of his most characteristic and important scores. His two string quartets and the Lyric Suite for string trio are available on Albany TROY455. This recording presents five more chamber works spanning almost his entire working life.

Bernard Stevens was born in London and studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. After his service in the Army, he came to national prominence in 1946 with his Symphony of Liberation , which won a competition sponsored by the Daily Express newspaper for a "Victory Symphony" to celebrate the end of World War II. Stevens spent much of the rest of his career lecturing at the Royal College of Music (also, later at the University of London), and became a tireless champion of contemporary music, and that rare being, a born teacher - whose warmth, encouragement and intellectual stimulation is remembered with affection and respect by his many students. He continued to compose, of course. His life's work includes an opera on J.M. Synge's The Shadow of the Glen, two symphonies, three concertos, much chamber music, cantatas and other choral pieces, piano music, songs, and other compositions for instruments as diverse as natural trumpet and guitar. His music impresses the hearer immediately by its downrightness and strength, its commitment to humane musical values, to firm architecture and the traditional crafts of counterpoint and variation. There is nothing flashy about his music; and in the 1950s and 1960s, as Britain strove to catch up with the Continental avant-garde, his robust independence of fashion hardly helped to gain his works prestige. Occasionally, wryly, he spoke of himself as one of an "almost lost generation" of British composer; yet as a craftsman and a musical mind he must be judged one of that generation's leading figures. Since his death in 1983 after several years of crippling illness, there has been a remarkable upsurge of interest in his output: this disc of chamber music for strings follows our issue of his opera and song cycle (TROY418).

Composer and conductor Victoria Bond is a major force in 21st century music. Known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair, her works have been performed by all the major chamber ensembles, the New York City Opera, Dallas and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras and many noted performers. She is the artistic director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival and has been honored with the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Walter Hinrichsen Award. This recording, her fifth for Albany Records, includes two works for baritone and piano, bookended by two works for string quartet. The illustrious Cassatt String Quartet, Michael Kelly, baritone, and Bradley Moore, piano are the performers.

Elizabeth Brown grew up on an agricultural research station near Camden, Alabama. She studied piano, sang in the church choir, and played mallet percussion in the school band until she started playing flute at 16, and fell in love with it. She attended the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, then moved to New York and received a Master's degree in flute performance from the Juilliard School in 1977. In her late twenties she began writing chamber pieces for her colleagues, never having formally studied composition. Since then, there have been hundreds of performances of her music worldwide. Kyle Gann in Chamber Music Magazine writes: "Elizabeth Brown writes the only music I know of in which the flute might be playing "London Bridge is Falling Down" while the cello is sliding through a long glissando underneath, yet nothing feels incongruous. There's a kind of imaginary quality to her music. It's as if not only each piece but each passage is based on some strange conceit: a bird sings while a pianist plays Mozart and a cellist shakes like a bowl full of Jell-O. Each conceit morphs into the next in a stream of non-sequiturs, and yet every juncture is smoothly blended, no seam visible. It's elegant, quiet, thoughtful, well-crafted music, and as bizarre as hell. Imagine walking into a Magritte painting: fish protrude from the vase instead of flowers, the chairs are bolted to the ceiling, but the wallpaper is lovely and the furnishings tasteful. That's a little what listening to Elizabeth Brown is like." The composer writes: "I think and dream in music, and to listen to my chamber music is to eavesdrop on an intimate, lyrical, melancholy interior world. The sound landscape is resonant, smooth, and extremely elastic - ideas can wobble or completely dissolve and slide away. Fragments of familiar tunes sometimes drift through, disappearing so quickly you're not sure if you actually heard them. While it can sound improvisatory, the music is honed over a long period of time and carefully notated. Pieces often include exotic or non-western instruments, and the playing techniques and musical styles of these other instruments influence all my writing. I use subtle microtonal gestures and inflections within a predominantly tonal language, and explore the sound world of each instrument in an unorthodox yet idiomatic way."

William Bolcom, one of America's most innovative and original composers had an interest in the violin from a young age. This complete collection spans his entire career. We hear his early experimental works through the chromaticism of the 1970's up to the neo-Classical leanings of the 1990s. This music is perhaps the most important contribution by an American composer to the violin and piano repertoire.

Born in Chicago in 1931, composer/conductor James Bolle studied at Harvard, Antioch College and Northwestern. He was instrumental in founding numerous musical organizations, the first being The Chicago Youth Orchestra at age 15. He founded the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted for 29 years and Monadnock Music, which he directed for 42 years. As a composer, his major works include the opera Oleum Canis, five sinfonias, four string quartets, concerti, orchestral works, songs and chamber music. This is the second disc on Albany Records devoted exclusively to him music.

Eric Ewazen has written: "Richard Stoelzel is one of the great trumpet players of our time. His majestic tone, beautiful lyricism and heartfelt musicality is a joy to hear." Richard is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. He began his career as solo cornet with the United States Coast Guard Band. As a soloist, he has toured China extensively. He has been principal trumpet of the New Orleans Symphony and is currently principal trumpet of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra as well as a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Association. He is professor of trumpet and head of the brass program at Grand Valley State University.

The distinguished violinist David C. Neely offers a program of two Boston composers who contributed significantly not only to the musical life of Boston, but also to American music. Harry Newton Redman (1869-1958) was hired by George W. Chadwick to teach at the New England Conservatory, which he did until his retirement in 1939. His musical output consists of five string quartets, two violin and piano sonatas, several piano sonatas and songs. He was also known as an avid painter. Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931) studied piano, violin, cello and voice in Germany but could not study composition as no women were allowed in the composition classes at the Leipzig Conservatory. She had a successful career as an opera singer until she retired upon her marriage. She then turned her efforts to composition. Her catalog includes more than 100 songs, two string quartets, piano works, a cello sonata and the sonata for violin and piano heard on this recording. How fortunate that we now have recordings of these works from two American composers of an earlier generation.

The Ibis Camerata consists of four internationally acclaimed musicians of the new generation. Their unique ensemble of violin, cello, clarinet and piano enables them to command a much more varied repertoire than the traditional piano trio. Avid supporters of new music, the Ibis Camerata concentrates on Boston composers for their third recording on Albany Records. All of the composers have a relationship to the New England Conservatory, either as former students or as faculty and administrators.

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."

Modern brass chamber music is dominated by quintets and the relative scarcity of trio performances is belied by the number of outstanding compositions for that ensemble, some of which are presented on this recording. Worth noting is the daunting challenge inherent in the ensemble itself Ñ the transparency of the three voices demands that even secondary lines project with identity and color. When performed on a high level, as on this disc, there is a deeply gratifying intensity to the experience, shared by the listener and the performers.

Richard Wernick was born in Boston and studied with teachers such as Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Arthur Berger, Ernst Toch, Leon Kirchner, Boris Blacher and Aaron Copland. He taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Chicago and in 1996 retired from the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1977, he won the Pulitzer Prize in music for "Visions of Terror and Wonder." His work on this disc was composed for the Chestnut Brass. Leslie Bassett was taught by Ross Lee Finney, Roberto Gerhard, Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger. During World War II, he was a trombonist and arranger with Army bands in the United States, France and Germany. He is the Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Michigan. He also is a Pulitzer Prize winning composer for his Variations for Orchestra. His Brass Quintet on this disc was composed for the Chestnut Brass. Timothy Greatbatch studied music at the University of Pennsylvania with George Crumb, Richard Wernick and George Rochberg. He has also developed a career as a visual artist and is often commissioned to create murals or elaborate wall paintings for both residential and commercial settings. His music on this disc was also commissioned by the Chestnut Brass. Jan Krzywicki was born in Philadelphia and studied with Vincent Persichetti, Elliot Carter, Nadia Boulanger, and Darius Milhaud. Since 1987, he has been a member of the music theory department at Temple University. "Deploration" was composed for the Chestnut Brass. Eric Stokes studied with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler, among others. From 1961-1988, he served as a Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota, where he founded the University's electronic music program in 1970 and the new music ensemble. He has composed more than 80 compositions including the music on this disc.

The Brazilian String Quartet, affiliated with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, has a 48 year history as one of the world's most distinguished ensembles. This CD is devoted to four Brazilian composers of the 20th century. Villa-Lobos needs no introduction. Radames Gnattali settled in Rio di Janeiro permanently in 1931. He became conductor of the city's Radio National Orchestra and became well known because of his arrangements and orchestrations of popular songs. His own serious music was inspired by popular music and was very nationalistic. It contained elements of post romanticism. Jose Vieira Brandao studied piano with the great French pianist Marguerite Long and in 1932 became the assistant to Villa-Lobos as he attempted to reform the music education system of Brazil. For many years he was the President of the Brazil Music Conservatory. Cesar Guerra-Peixe graduated from the Conservatory in 1943 with degrees in piano and composition. His early works were written in the 12-tone idiom which he soon abandoned, adopting a more nationalistic approach which he felt better defined his own musical goals. He did a great deal of research on the subject of Brazilian folk music and taught composition privately for over 30 years.

The wild, exotic music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, the most famous 20th century Brazilian composer, conjures up the impetuous, frenzied spirit of his country. At an early age, he studied folk music and absorbed its heady sounds. Throughout his symphonic works, such as the famous series of Choros and the Bachianas Brasileiros, which fused the Brazilian style with the formal structure of J.S. Bach, he demonstrated a remarkably free nature, never enslaving himself to any trends or "isms." The liberal use of multiple rhythms and harmonies simultaneously in the same work gave his music a wonderfully tangy sound. Though best known for his orchestral music, he did commit himself to that most sophisticated of chamber music forms, the string quartet, producing 17 remarkable works from 1915 to 1957. All three of these works reveal the sheer genius of his technique and the way he was able to use his unique style to "open up" the usually introspective world of the string quartet. These authoritative performances, recorded in the 1960's, are by the Brazilian String Quartet, founded in 1952. Over the years they have performed hundreds of concerts in Brazil, North, Central and South America and in Europe, performing at many important festivals. Known for their championing of Brazilian composers, they have performed and recorded works by Claudio Santoro, Alberto Nepomuceno, Jose Siquera and many others. They have received numerous awards for promoting Brazil, and the Quartet has been hailed as "Ambassadors of Brazilian Music." The President of Brazil has bestowed his nation's highest decoration on the Quartet, the Order of Rio Branco.

This recording contains a representative collection of composer Gary Smart's small chamber music works. Strings, winds, percussion, and piano are used in various groupings -- some traditional, some not. Smart's tendncy is to make use of American rhythms and stylistic genstures, but other influences can be heard as well. Quite a diverse set of compositions, but the majority of them center on the clarinet, inspired by the composer's friendship with Guy Yehuda. A unique musician -- composer-pianist Gary Smart writes music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, world musics and jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition. This is the fifth recording of his music to appear on the Albany Records label.

During one of his recital tours to Edinburgh during the 1860s and 1870s, Anton Rubinstein bluntly told Alexander Mackenzie Sie haben keine Komponisten (You [Britain] have no composers). From his account in his engaging memoir A Musician's Narrative (1927), Mackenzie apparently let the comment pass unanswered. After all, the Russian virtuoso was simply voicing a view widely heard in continental Europe - and even in Britain as well. Many years later, as he surveyed a career that had spanned six decades, Mackenzie noted with "many gleams of satisfaction" the number of important musicians and composers of high merit who had come along. In company with his slightly younger contemporaries, Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford and Edward Elgar, Mackenzie was himself part of the generation of musicians born in the mid-19th century who first demonstrated that Britain did have composers - and fine ones. Their successors - among them Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge, Herbert Howells and William Walton - completed the transformation of European opinion. Along with presenting a compilation of signal British contributions to the piano quartet repertoire, this set offers a sample of the music of some of the very composers who helped deliver British music from its lowly state as a source of jests to a place of international recognition and esteem.

Craig Walsh, born in New Jersey in 1971, is a composer on the rise, widely performed across North America and Europe. He is also a composer plugged into new media while simultaneously writing music for traditional acoustic instruments. He is associate professor at the University of Arizona and has received numerous awards and fellowships. The works on this recording represent more than a decade of Walsh's acoustic chamber music. This is bold, compelling music with a distinctive voice that draws the listener in. Walsh has a knack for instrumental combinations that pack a great deal of information into textures that are spare yet timbrally rich. His music is well conceived while pushing the boundaries of performance techniques.

David Gompper is Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. Butterfly Dance represents a response to and a re-imagining of a native-American Hopi Indian tune of the same name. Noel Zahler is director of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota. In his Trio, Zahler draws upon a conventional ensemble in order to create a composition with an intense drive, and possessing a full and varied sound palette. Marilyn Shrude is a faculty member at Bowling Green State University where she chairs the Department of Musicology/Composition/Theory. Secrets is a setting of nine Emily Dickinson poems, each of which are associated with one or more of the seasons of the year. Joseph Dangerfield is Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Waves Roll On...is drawn from the Russian lyric poet Fedor Tyutchev (1803-73), whose vivid imagery served as the impetus from which Dangerfield crafted his melodic, rhythmic and formal structures. Finally there is a major chamber work, Vox Balaenae, by one of America's most important composers, George Crumb. Founded in 1993, the Studio for New Music is one of the leading contemporary music groups in Russia. As a project initiated by Joseph Dangerfield, this CD showcases not only the varied styles of these American composers but highlights the universal nature of contemporary music.

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.

Pianist/composer John McDonald and clarinetist Ray Jackendoff have performed as a duo for more than 10 years. This recording represents some of their many collaborations including the world premiere of John McDonald's two compositions for clarinet and basset horn. Jackendoff was principal clarinet of the Boston Civic Symphony for 20 years and has performed as a soloist with the Boston Pops and other Boston-area orchestras. McDonald's compositional output includes works for voice, chamber ensembles and solo instrumental works. Both Ray Jackendoff and John McDonald are on the faculty at Tufts University.

The Iranian-born Reza Vali is just now gaining much attention in the musical world, with works steadily appearing on CD. This recording by the renowned Cuarteto Latinoamericano presents significant contributions to the string quartet literature. Vali studied first in Vienna but came to the United States, receiving his Ph.D. in composition in 1985. He has been a faculty member of Carnegie-Mellon University since 1988. His music has been performed by the Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Orchestra 2001 and many other new-music ensembles. The works on this disc are a departure from his earlier, experimental works of the 1980's. Here, the music reflects influences of Persian folk music. Of special interest are the three Calligraphies; the material is derived entirely from Persian traditional music. The tuning, rhythm, form, as well as polyphonic constructions relate to the Persian modal system, the Dastgah. This fascinating music, combined with the performances of the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, one of the major exponents of new music today, should have strong appeal to the modern music specialist as well as the world-music listener.

For seven years, the New York-based contemporary music ensemble Sequitur has been re-defining the concert by finding new contexts for new music. Through staging events incorporating theater and dance, or producing tantalizing cabarets on themes like lust and greed, Sequitur turns the traditional sanctimonious contemporary music experience upside down. On this disc, they re-examine the contemporary American concerto. Although it dates back to Baroque composers in the late 17th century, the concerto reached its artistic pinnacle with Romantic composers of the 19th and early 20th century. But what does the concerto mean in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century, when personal freedoms are threatened both by indiscriminate acts of terrorism and by responses that many find necessary in order to preserve safety and stability? For starters, the paradigm of “us versus them” – the message behind the concertino and ripieno of the Baroque concerto grosso as well as the heroic romantic solo concerto – seems outmoded. We shun the model of a group controlling an individual, just as we shun this model turned inside out. And our view of an individual now is rarely one of hero, or anti-hero, or even of complete self-determination. All of these ideas affect the concerto of today, where the role of the soloist is not always clearly defined, where other players may rise as soloists at times and then disappear again into the fabric, where sub-groups may compete with the soloist and with each other for prominence, where the soloist may not be poised to interact and hopefully to triumph. Even the word “concerto” may be suspect: Only Elliott Carter’s work among the four on this disc employs the word “concerto” in its title.

Composer Jan Krzywicki is on the faculty at Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance, and conductor of the new music ensemble, Network for New Music. This new collection of his music radiates a virtuosic craft and flowing lyricism that emphasizes the blending of color shading in instrumental and vocal timbres, and the illusion of light in music. The recipient of numerous awards and commissions from prestigious performers and ensembles, his music has been heard throughout the United States. This is the third recording on Albany Records to feature his compositions.

This recording celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Pro Arte Quartet -- the oldest string quartet continuously in existence and the first university-ensemble residency in the United States -- plus the dramatic story of how a prominent European quartet became an American one. Founded in Belgium in 1912, the Pro Arte Quartet became stranded while on tour in Madison, Wisconsin in 1940 when the Nazis invaded their country. The University of Wisconsin offered this quartet in exile a permanent home at the university, where it has remained ever since. Six new chamber works were commissioned to celebrate this occasion -- now all available on compact disc. This disc contains String Quartet No. 3 by Benoît Mernier (b. 1964), the leading Belgian composer of his generation and Pierre Jalbert's (b. 1967) work for clarinet and string quartet. Jalbert is the recipient of many awards, including the BBC Masterprize and teaches composition at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Mernier, also the recipient of commissions and awards, is also a virtuoso organist. He was inducted into the Royal Academy of Belgium in 2007.

Robert Baksa is one of America's most prolific composers with more than 500 works to his credit. He was born in New York City in 1938 but grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Baksa attended the University of Arizona, then returned to New York to live after spending a summer at Tanglewood. Currently he serves as Resident Composer and Coordinator of New Music for the Pleshakov Music Center in Hudson, New York. The Octet for Woodwinds was completed in 1972 and takes its inspiration from the wind serenades of the early classical period. The Quintet for Flute and Strings, written in 1973, was premiered at the National Flute Association Convention. The 1974 Nonet for Winds and Strings was commissioned by the Chamber Music Conference of the East at Bennington, Vermont. It was written to be presented during the period of the composer's tenure as Composer-in-Residence that summer and was later taken up by other chamber ensembles across the country including the Bronx Arts Ensemble, which has premiered and recorded more than a dozen of Baksa's chamber works.

Morris Rosenzweig was born in New Orleans, where he grew up among tailors, merchants and strong-willed women of an extended family which has lived in southern Louisiana since the mid 1890s. His catalog of over 50 entries features works for orchestra, various chamber ensembles, compositions for live instruments and electronics, two song cycles, two piano cycles, solo pieces and one opera. This current Albany compilation represents his latest approach to an array of chamber music genres. The University of Utah named him University Professor in 1999, and additionally honored him with a Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award in 2003. He is an active conductor and coach, and has worked for many years with the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM in New York and the Canyonlands Ensemble in Utah. Presently Professor of Music at the University of Utah - where he teaches composition, theory, contemporary performance practice, and directs the Maurice Abravanel Visiting Composers Series - he formerly held positions at Queens College and New York University. He was educated at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.