Catalog

The San Marco Chamber Music Society in collaboration with the Lawson Ensemble present three American works: one (Amy Beach), a glowing example of the American Romantic style; another (Szewczyk) a world premiere for oboe and viola; and the third (Douglas) a concerto for oboe and string quartet. The San Marco Chamber Music Society is based in Jacksonville, Florida and has been performing chamber concerts there since 2008. Founded by Eric and Ellen Olson, the performers are primarily members of the Jacksonville Symphony. Formed in 2015 the Lawson Ensemble is a string trio who is in residence at the University of North Florida.

Embracing the unlikely combination of saxophone and harp, the Admiral Launch Duo (Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, saxophone and Jennifer R. Ellis, harp) performs groundbreaking commissions, unexpected transcriptions, and improvisations on this their debut recording. Named for the Admiral butterfly and launched at the Fresh Inc Festival in 2013, the duo has since appeared at new music venues coast-to-coast. Hulting-Cohen is on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Ellis is credited with more than 80 world premieres. The Duo has spent several years researching and commissioning repertoire for saxophone and harp and this recording will certainly gain recognition for this unusual but beautiful ensemble.

Violinist Igor Kalnin and pianist Rochelle Sennet founded Duo MemDi to perform music that embraces the diversity of world cultures. All of their live performances are from memory, hence the name Mem (memory) Di (diversity). This, their debut recording, includes two commissioned works and highlights a few of the many approaches to incorporating folk music elements in modern classical music. Violinist Igor Kalnin has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and an orchestra leader. He is on the faculty at Luther College and concertmaster of the Sinfonia da Camera. He received degrees from the Balakirev Music College, the Glinka State Conservatory, Yale, and Michigan State University. Pianist Rochelle Sennet has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory, the University of Michigan, Texas Christian University, and the University of Illinois. She is the recipient of numerous awards including co-winner for the Krannert Center Debut Artist Competition. Dr. Sennet is on the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The spirit of exploring new, and newly rediscovered, music is fully captured in this recording of American music for viola. The music ranges from the late 19th Century to today, yet it shares a common theme: a flowing lyricism that expresses the viola's rich vocal character. Of special interest is the first known American composition for viola (Benjamin Cutter); and the first composition for viola by an American woman (Blanche Blood). Violist Andrea Houde has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and in orchestras in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. A graduate of the University of Memphis and the Peabody Conservatory, Ms. Houde is on the faculty at West Virginia University and the artist faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp. Her colleague, pianist Sun Jung Lee is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, and West Virginia University. In addition to her performing career, she serves as staff accompanist at West Virginia University.

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.

Clarinetist Elizabeth Crawford is professor of music at Ball State University. She holds degrees from Furman University, the University of Michigan School of Music and Florida State University College of Music. She was a long-time member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and has performed and recorded with major orchestras in the United Kingdom. An avid proponent of music for E-flat clarinet, Crawford has commissioned composers including three on this recording (Lori Ardovino, Jenni Brandon, and Scott McAllister) and transcribed compositions for the instrument. Crawford has performed and taught at festivals and universities throughout the world including Poland, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, and South Africa.

The history of the Five Seasons ensemble goes back to 2012 when Estonian composer and guitarist Robert Jürjendal heard a recording of the Corona Guitar Kvartet and contacted one of its members, Volkmar Zimmermann. Zimmermann initially asked Jürjendal to write a work for him and soprano Sara Fiil and their collaboration continued with the instrumentation expanding to the existing ensemble. The special membership of Five Seasons (acoustic guitar, soprano, trumpet, percussion, and electric guitar) encouraged Jürjendal to choose more academic writing, influenced by early guitar and lute music with the essence of romantic melancholy together with a complex contemporary harmony and sound conception. Five Seasons has appeared at Estonian Music Days to great critical acclaim.

Taken together, the works on this portrait album of composer John Liberatore, are an eclectic mélange of instrumentations and affects, sometimes whimsical or wistful, dark or light. But each of them was composed in the same way, and in close proximity to each other. Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world's few glass harmonica players. Described by critics as "enchanting" and "truly magical," his music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures. The recipient of numerous awards and commissions, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world, including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Hall, and the Seoul Arts Center, among many others. A graduate of Eastman and Syracuse University, he is assistant professor of composition and theory at the University of Notre Dame.

Love Comes In At The Eye is a recording of songs and instrumental works by Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, and James Scott Balentine. All Americans, these composers vary in age from 46 (Puts), to 70 (Balentine), to 95 (Rorem), so there a wide spectrum of compositional styles that offers an outstanding listening experience. With works for voice and piano; voice and chamber ensemble; a work for voice and cello; and two works for flute and piano, the recording gives the feel of being part of an audience for a chamber music concert. The performers each have distinguished careers and all participate in the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concerts.

Violinist Donna Fairbanks and guitarist Jon Yerby have recorded a delightful album of music for violin and guitar with music spanning four centuries. Ms. Fairbanks is on the faculty at Utah Valley University. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona, Eastman, and Brigham Young University.Ms. Fairbanks has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras and has presented recitals and master classes in South America, China, Europe and the U.S. Born in Germany, Jon Yerby has performed across four continents as an acclaimed soloist and chamber musician. He studied at Florida State University, New England Conservatory, and the University of Texas at Austin. He has held faculty positions at the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, and Westminster College.

Composer Robert Xavier Rodríguez has been hailed as "one of the major American composers of his generation." His music has been performed by organizations such as the New York City Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Seattle, Houston Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Boston, and Chicago Symphonies, among many others. His numerous awards include a Gugggenheim Fellowship and the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as composer-in-residence with the San Antonio Symphony and the Dallas Symphony. He is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas and conducts its Musica Nova Ensemble. His sixth recording for Albany Records includes two works for string quartet and a work for violin and piano.

Amos Elkana is a multi-award-winning composer whose music has been characterized as original, guided by unique and delicate taste, and radiating a strong sense of honesty. Born in Boston but growing up in Jerusalem, he returned to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. He has also studied at Bard College. His music has been performed all over the world by leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. Apart from concert music, Elkana composes for dance and theater. Also and active performer, he participates in concerts and performances of improvised music where he plays the electric guitar and the computer. This recording of his music contrasts a work for large ensemble with works for single instruments, some of which include electronics.

Violinist Julie Rosenfeld has invited five composers with whom she had worked over the past 30 years, to each write a work for violin and piano. The composers include Kenneth Fuchs, Katherine Hoover, John Halle, Laura Kaminsky, Tamar Muskal, and Stefan Freund. There is a wonderful diversity in the styles of the pieces and this recording will surely provide important additions to the contemporary violin repertoire. Julie Rosenfeld was first violinist of the acclaimed Colorado Quartet for many years before joining the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Music in 2014. Pianist Peter Miyamoto enjoys a brilliant international career, and studied at Curtis, Yale, Michigan State, and the Royal Academy. He is also on the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Music.

Formed in 2009, the Anglo-American Duo Timothy Schwarz, violin; Jane Beament, piano) has evolved into a prominent ensemble that regularly tours in the United States and Europe. Praised for its energetic and sophisticated performances, the Anglo-American Duo specializes in music from the U.S. and Britain. For their first commercial recording, they perform music by British composer David Osbon. Osbon's music has been performed, broadcast and recorded around the world. The recipient of numerous awards, Osbon studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently he is on the faculty at the London College of Music.

Composer Anthony Paul De Ritis began studying with David Wessel at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies after returning from his studies at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. Wessel exerted a tremendous influence on De Ritis, both as a teacher and as a person. This recording of De Ritis' music is a tribute to David Wessel.The pieces on this recording span more than 25 years. Listening to the music is captivating. Written for Western instruments or Asian instruments, the music sounds like a successful syntheses of East and West, where real-time processing devices transform the sound of acoustic instruments into a rainbow of sound colors. Having received a thorough Western education and then traveled the world, Anthony Paul De Ritis has come up with a music that is far more than the sum of its parts -- music that is imaginative and a wonderful balance of tone colors.

As the music on this recording so aptly demonstrates, Jessica Krash composes with the heart of a chamber musician. Her compositions look for conversations between musical lines, and for the shifts in feeling and outlook as these interactions deepen. Her works, which have wide-ranging emotions and textures, give space for performers to create nuanced shapes and tone colors while they respond to each other. The pieces on this recording are also a dialogue between old and new: old and new music and poetry; old and new musicians; old and new social, philosophical, and emotional issues. Krash's music has been presented in both traditional and experimental settings in Germany, Austria and around the U.S., including the major performance venues and museums in Washington, D.C. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards, and commissions, and has given a series of chamber music masterclasses at Strathmore, and a series of lectures at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and NIH. This is her second recording for Albany Records.

Flutist Julie Thornton and horn player Michael Thornton have recorded an intriguing disc of music for their instruments including three contemporary works with three by Franz Doppler. Their collaborators include Susan Grace, piano; Paul Basler, piano; and Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin. Julie Thornton is a member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and on the faculty at the Lamont School of Music. She has performed extensively with the New York Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony. She studied at Eastman and Northwestern University as well as Shepherd School of Music. The winnere of numerous competitions, she can be heard on the London, Teldec, Naxos, and Koch International labels. Michael Thornton enjoys a distinguished and varied careeer as an orchestral performer, chamber musician, soloist and pedagogue and has performed on six continents. He is principal horn with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony. He has been a featured performer at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Mainly Mozart, Spoleto, and Moab Music, among many others. He is on the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The first composer to win the Berlin Prize, Laura Schwendinger is professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her music has been performed by all the leading new music artists and ensembles around the world and she has received numerous awards and commissions including those from the Guggenheim, Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundations. Her second recording for Albany Records features four works for quartets: two for the traditional string quartet; one for mezzo soprano and three strings; and one for piano quartet. The music is performed by the acclaimed JACK Quartet, mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck, and pianist Christopher Taylor.

Zvonimir Nagy is a Croatian-born, American composer, performer, and music scholar based in Pittsburgh. He studied at Northwestern University, Texas Christian University, and the Academy of Music in Zagreb, Croatia. He is the recipient of composition awards and grants including the Seattle Symphony Composition Prize, the Iron Composer Award and the Croatian Music Institute Award. He is on the faculty at Duquesne University. This recording features chamber works for varying size ensembles ranging from a work for solo flute to a work for four cellos and one for piano, accordion, and electronics.

Cited by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a composer who "has that rarest of inventive gifts, a personal voice," Steven Burke is being recognized as one of the leading voices of his generation. His music has won praise for its emotional power and mastery. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence, the University of Wisconsin, Yale and Cornell, his teachers included Chester Bicardi, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, Roberto Sierra, and Steven Stucky. The recipient of numerous awards, Burke's music has been performed by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the New Millennium Ensemble. This recording of his chamber music is performed by the di.vi.sion piano trio, an ensemble formed in 2001. The ensemble is committed to programming current music and regularly commissions new works. Their previous recording on Albany Records featured the music of Merrill Clark.

The title of this recording explains what it is: West Meets East—clarinet music by Western composers influenced by Chinese culture. Clarinetist Jun Qian, himself Chinese-American, has long been fascinated with cross-culturalinfluences, as this CD of world premiere recordings so aptly demonstrates. He established the East Meets West Project in 2010 to commission and record new compositions for clarinet that are inspired by Asian cultures and that combine Chinese musical elements with Western art music. This is Qian's third recording for Albany Records, the first two concentrating on Chinese composers influenced by Western culture. A member of the faculty at Baylor University, Jun Qian enjoys an international career as a soloist, recitalist and educator. He studied at Baylor University and the Eastman School of Music.

Volkmar Zimmermann and Kristian Gantriis are both members of the internationally acclaimed Corona Guitar Kvartet and now they have joined forces as an independent ensemble, the Gantriis-Zimmermann Guitar Duo and this recording is the result of their collaboration. The Duo has assembled an enticingly eclectic collection of brief pieces from around the world — Argentine tangos; Danish songs; Spanish dances; and two works of new music. The recording is packed with infectious new sounds from an ageless and age-old instrumental ensemble, and the results are contagious listening experiences that make us as ask for more.

A major new release of David Del Tredici's chamber works. One of the most admired and acclaimed composers of his generation, Del Tredici's music is impossible to describe without superlatives. His work is a brilliant splash of emotional color in a contemporary music landscape where monochromaticism is common. This 2-CD set includes five works composed between 2001 and 2013-- a piano trio, string quartet, variations for bass trombone, a duo for violin and bass trombone and Bullycide, a major work for chamber ensemble, inspired by the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. The performers are the elite of the new music world and include Del Tredici's nephew, the phenomenal bass trombonist Felix Del Tredici.

Cuban born composer Ileana Pérez Velázquez has had her music heard in concerts and international festivals all over the world. Awarded a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation, she has written works for numerous performers and ensembles that include a Who's Who of musicians in the field of new music. Ms. Velázquez studied in Havana as well as at Dartmouth and Indiana University. She is on the faculty at Williams College. Her music appears on the Albany, Innova, and Urlicht AV labels. There are four works on this recording, which show a creator's posture facing innovation, and the relationship between humans and the totality of creation. Velázquez's music invites us to meditate on the universal problem of existence. Her music is frequently imbued with natural phenomena, culture, and the relationship established by humans with their environment. Nunc, a new music ensemble founded in 2007, performs on two of these works -- joined on the first by Nunc's director violinist Miranda Cuckson. The renowned Momenta Quartet is heard on the string quartet Alma de Guije.

Distinguished composer Adolphus Hailstork studied at Michigan State University, the Manhattan School of Music, Howard University, and the American Institute at Fontainebleau. He has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. His music has been performed by orchestras around the country and he has received commissions from performing organizations such as the Cincinnati Opera, the Houston Choral Society, and the Atlanta Festival, among many others. He is on the faculty at Old Dominion University. This recording, his fifth for Albany Records, concentrates on music for strings and includes a trio as well as works for string quartet. The Ambrosia Quartet (Simlon Lapointe and Mayu Cipriano, violin; Beverly Kane Baker, viola; and Rebecca Gilmore, cello) are all members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and have been performing as a quartet for more than a decade both in Virginia and around the United States.

Reflections On The Firebird contains four commissioned works that celebrate the fifth anniversary of The Firebird sculpture, a 17 foot sculpture by Niki De Saint Phalle that is in front of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. The world premiere of these works took place at a concert at the Bechtler Museum in 2015, performed by the Bechtler Ensemble, a group of musicians who present multi-disciplinary programs to concert halls, museums and educational institutions. The ensemble's focus is the connection between the visual arts and music and typically they pair music and art from the same period. The contrasting styles of each of the four works emphasize each composer's reaction to The Firebird sculpture.

The Jano Duo (Naomi Seidman, flute and Jonathan Dexter, cello) was formed in 2012 to play works written or arranged for flute and cello. The duo has performed across the country and continues to commission and perform new works for their instruments. This recording reflects their commitment to music of our time with works by Efrain Amaya, Cherise Leiter, Lonnie Hevia, Matt Doran, Ángel Villoldo, and a commissioned work by Stephen Hopkins. Naomi Seidman is recognized as an accomplished solo performer, chamber musician, and educator. On the faculty at Pennsylvania State University School of Music, she has participated in numerous festivals and has presented master classes around the country, appeared as soloist with orchestras; and is actively involved with the National Flute Association. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Yale. Cellist, composer, and sound engineer Jonathan Dexter has been featured on SONY Masterworks & Columbia Records recorings with singer Megan Hilty; film sountracks; and tv series. He composed, performed, and recorded the original score to short film Recess, an official selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, Franz Liszt Academy and University of Texas at Austin, he conducts the Central Pennsylvania Youth Chamber Orchestra.

Assem3ly is a dynamic trio championing chamber music of our time for flute, piano, and percussion. Comprised of flutist Lindsey Goodman, pianist Anne Waltner, and percussionist Scott Christian, Assem3ly commissions and performs new works from established and emerging composers and this recording is typical of their programming. Distinguished composer Joseph Schwantner's Taking Charge opens the recording, followed by Bolamkin, a work by John Allemeier. Ty Alan Emerson's Caliban Ascendent precedes the final work on the recording by Randall Woolf: Between Me, Myself, And The Lamp Post. The performances sparkle with intensity and commitment. A recording of music for an unusual, but very effective grouping of instruments.

Born out of a 2015 music festival at Rice University focusing on classical, contemporary, and cross-cultural music, this recording offers an interesting set of compositions, performed by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, that embody 21st century interculturality in distinctive ways. Crossings: Contemporary Music for Chinese Instruments features works by six composers who came into contact with Chinese cultural traditions and responded compositionally to that contact in different ways. Two composers (Shih-Hui Chen and Lei Liang) were born in Taiwan and China. The remaining four composers are American-born and non-Chinese, yet each has had varying degrees of engagement with traditional Chinese music. Thus, the recording offers a glimpse into what has become a global network of composers. The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra is a group from Taiwan whose members perform new music on Chinese instruments. However, in almost every work, the silk and bamboo instruments of the ensemble are joined by additional sonority offering a rich and varied new expression, which is the essence of this recording.

Born in Kharkov, USSR, Alexander Meshibovsky began violin lessons at the age of five. He studied at the Special School of Music for Gifted Children and graduated from the Kharkov Conservatory. After graduation, he was invited to be represented by te Russian Concert Agency, later becoming represented by the Moscow Concert Agency, under whose auspices he toured the USSR performing as a recitalist and soloist. He has studied with both renowned violinists Adolph Lestchinsky, Boris Goldstein and Jascha Heifitz. Since leaving Russia, he has continued his careeer performing with major European and American orchestras and has performed as a recitalist in Germany, Austria, France, and Norway. As a composer he has concentrated on works for violin and this debut recording of his music receives virtuoso performances from him and his colleague, pianist Raisa Kagramanova.

The focal work on this recording of chamber works by David Patterson is #Ferguson. Patterson lived in Ferguson, attending high school there. #Ferguson is a suite of seven scenes contrasting the innocence of his boyhood with a city that has been changed forever. Other compositions on the recording include a work for solo harp, two works for Native American flute; a work for solo piano; and a choral work. Petterson is a professor and former department chair at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholars Award and the Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award. A student of Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen in Paris, he received his PhD from Harvard. His music appears on the Vienna Modern Masters and Albany Records labels.

A listener new to Amy Williams' world should not expect to need help entering it. Long an active pianist, Williams has internalized the work of Boulez, Nancarrow, Cage, Ligeti, Kurtág and Feldman, but confidently occupies the present. In fact her work combines attributes often considered opposites: it is rigorous, yet playful; abstract yet personal; stylish but as bracingly frank as a cold shower. With her music, one encounters a radiant intelligence and clear sense of musical purpose that vaults past many of the issues customarily associated with discussion of new music. This recording consists of duos as well as her Cineshape series, which is a group of striking stand-alone chamber works that together form an impressive sequence on a symphonic scale. Amy Williams' compositions have been presented at important contemporary music venues worldwide and have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the JACK Quartet and many of the major new music ensembles. She has received numerous awards and commissions and is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. A graduate of the University at Buffalo, she is on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and artistic director of the New Music On The Point Festival.