Catalog

The Augusta Symphony, conducted by Dirk Meyer performs five works by Miguel del Aguila. Del Aguila's music exudes an exuberance that immediately grabs the ear upon first listening. Infectious Latin rhythms add a propulsive drive, while lush melodies are instantly memorable. Three-time Grammy nominated American composer Miguel del Aguila was born in Uruguay and has more than 130 compositions to his credit. There are more than 50 of his works that have been recorded. The Augusta Symphony is the premier professional orchestra for Augusta's River Region in Georgia and South Carolina. Led by German conductor Dirk Meyer, the orchestra presents classical, pops, and family concerts. Violinist Guillermo Figueroa is one of the most versatile and respected musical artists of his generation, renowned as a conductor, soloist, and concertmaster.

Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, Vol. II represents pianist Rochelle Sennet’s continued interest in performing suites and multi-movement works by Black composers in combination with works by Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to works by Ulysses Kay, Harry Thacker Burleigh, and George Walker, this 3-cd volume contains works by three Black women composers: Florence Price; Montague Ring; and Joyce Solomon Moorman. Dr. 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, where she currently serves on the faculty. A prize-winner of numerous competitions, she has appeared as a recitalist at concert halls across the U.S., as a soloist with ensembles and orchestras, and has presented frequent guest lectures, masterclasses, and clinics.

This recording of hybrid vocal selections highlights the works of seven prominent 21st century composers who blur the lines between opera, classical art song, and other musical genres. This is music that is as appropriate to major concert halls as it is to nontraditional spaces. Sequina DuBose is a stunning performer most noted for her engaging stage presence — whether performing operatic roles, or as soprano soloist in Wynton Marsalis' work, All Rise. She has toured internationally as a soloist with The American Spiritual Ensemble and with Damien Sneed and Chorale Le Chateau. Dr. DuBose is on the faculty at UNC Charlotte. She is joined by pianist Gregory Thompson, known for his work as a solo and collaborative artist in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Lucas Richman has always considered the piano an integral part of his life. He considers his music for solo piano a creative extension of himself as an individual. The works here are piano adaptations of orchestral or chamber works but they all share the common genesis point of having evolved from sketches made originally at the piano. In addition to composing, Richman is a noted conductor and currently serves as music director of the Bangor Symphony and was formerly music director of the Knoxville Symphony. His music has been performed by more than 200 orchestras across the U.S. and he has received numerous commissions from orchestras and chamber ensembles. Pianist Vijay Venkatesh has been recognized on three continents as a pianist with profound musicianship and has been a top prizewinner in numerous competitions He is a graduate of the Colburn School, USC Thornton, and Indiana University.

Composer Allen Shawn (b. 1948) has been on the faculty at Bennington College since 1985. His works include symphonies, concertos, works for large ensemble, choral, vocal and chamber music, as well as music for piano. He is also the author of four books. His works appear on numerous recordings on Albany Records. This recording is a collection of chamber music: a work for cello; a work for double bass and piano; a suite for trumpet and bassoon; and a work for chamber ensemble.

Composer/pianist Allen Shawn began the improvisations on this recording during the height of the pandemic, recording and sending them to his son in Los Angeles. None of the pieces were planned. Some were recorded on his phone; some on a zoom recorder — yet taken as an entire sequence, the nineteen pieces cohere like a notated piece. This recording therefore should be received in the spirit of those old recordings created from tape recordings of musicians done in someone's living room, and never intended to be made into a record. It is an artist's sketchbook, not a finished painting, but nonetheless possibly deserving consideration in its own right.

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.

Vignettes is a collection of works for solo trumpet, trumpet and piano, trumpet, trombone and piano, brass trio, brass quartet, brass quintet, and trumpet ensemble. Many of the pieces on this recording are world premieres and several were commissioned specifically for this cd. As trumpet player Eric Siereveld says, "The direct intention of this music is to draw the listener into short, but specific musical sketches that bring forth in the imagination, places or people previously lost to memory." A native of Cincinnati, Eric Siereveld attended Morehead State University Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked as a freelance musician in New York; directed the Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is now on the faculty of the University of Louisiana Monroe. He performs with several brass ensembles and the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra.

The Pan Pacific Ensemble continues its series of recording works by American and Asian composers on Albany Records. This disc includes works by Naarong Prangcharoen, Kenji Bunch, Ho Kwen Austin Yip, Kee Yong Chong, David Jarvis, and Chen Yi. Musicians in the Pan Pacific Ensemble are building a bridge between China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas by introducing audiences to wind quintets from these regions. The ensemble, (Sophia Tegart (flute), Keri McCarthy (oboe), Shannon Scott (clarinet), Martin King (horn), Michael R. Garza (bassoon)) was awarded the 2022 American Prize in Professional Chamber Music. They have appeared at numerous festivals abroad, including the China-ASEAN Contemporary Music Festival and the Thailand International Composition Festival, as well as commissioning works from both Asian and American composers.

In this collection of piano works, the composers have figuratively entered the world of a scenic painting. With the mixture of new and old, the textures, techniques, and sonic worlds of these pieces speak to one another in a unique continuum. Praised by the New York Times as a "fiery musician" whose playing is "vigorous and passionate," Qing Jiang is a versatile musician who is equally known as a performer, teacher, and as an advocate of contemporary music. She has appeared in major concert halls in the U.S. and the U.K. and collaborated with ensembles such as the Juilliard, Shanghai, and Left Bank string quartets. Born in China, she studied at Arizona State University, Juilliard, and the New England Conservatory. She is on the faculty at Bucknell University.

Tenor Jos Milton comments that "This program is an artistic tribute to the human connection to the earth. I searched for planet-centered texts that bring focus to the grandeur of our world, transmitted through contemporary art song." Composers include Robert Owens (1925-2017); Ned Rorem (b. 1923); Zachary Wadsworth (b. 1983); Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002); and Libby Larsen (b. 1950). Jos Milton maintains a robust performance schedule, spanning a vast array of repertoire and musical styles. A graduate of Trinity University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Peabody Institute, Milton is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi. His collaborator, pianist Melinda Coffey Armstead has performed as recitalist and chamber musician in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Israel, and Japan.

This recording is part of a larger project, TRIGGER: Artists Respond to Gun Violence. This concept is to bring composers and poets together to respond artistically to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. The other parts of the project include a book of poetry and other writings, and an electronic folio of scores for speaking percussion. Trigger reckons with the issue of gun violence from many angles: school shootings, a personal history with guns, the gun lobby, the connection of guns with fervent religiious zealotry, the psychology of violence in public spaces, and how the wake of violence leaves indelible imprints on people's minds and bodies. John Lane has appeared on stages throughout the Americas, Australia, and Japan. He is the director of percussion studies at Sam Houston State University. Allen Otte has toured for decades throughout the world performing new and experimental music created for him and his colleagues. He is a professor Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati.

Composer Eric Schorr says that the poems he chose for the compositions on this recording were ones that immediately resonated with him emotionally and musically. The range of the poems’ styles and subject matter necessitated a varied musical vocabulary. Always lyrical, the music veers from romantic to jazz to chanson to bossa nova. Schorr expanded the palette of sound by adding a chamber sized acoustic orchestra to his original scoring for voice and piano. Schorr composes music for theater, television, and film as well as art songs. He studied at the New England Conservatory, Yale and Harvard. He is a recipient of a Japan-United State Arts Program Fellowship and Opera-Musical Theatre Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Critically acclaimed singers Eve Gigliotti, Jesse Darden, and Michael Kelly are the featured performers on this recording.

The eleven pieces on this CD of piano music by Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León were composed across a span of almost fifty years, from student works (Rondó a la Criolla, Homenaje a Prokofiew, Preludes 1 and 2) written in the mid-1960s when León was doing post-graduate work at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in the municipio of Marianao, La Habana, to going gone, the brilliant reworking of Sondheim's "Good Things Going" she crafted in 2012. Born in La Habana, Cuba, León came to the U.S. as a young pianist in 1967 and became a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Her many honors and awards include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement award and honorary doctorates from Colgate, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase and The Curtis Institute. Pianist Adam Kent has performed in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music on four continents. A professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta, Kent studied at The Juilliard School. His recordings appear on the Bridge, Claves, and Albany record labels.

Nancy Hill Elton has received critical acclaim for her performances as a solo piano recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician. Elton maintains an active performing and teaching schedule and has served on the piano faculties of Georgia State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of West Georgia. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in both piano and vocal performance, she also received degrees at the University of South Carolina. For this, her second recording for Albany Records, Ms. Elton has chosen a program of compositions by Chopin and Rachmaninoff, including the revised version of Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 with some brief interspersions of the original version in the second and third movements.

Don Walker's fifth release on Albany Records features songs he has written using the poetry of Anne Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley, Helen Hunt Jackson, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Harrie Alley, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Walker taught at Sonoma State University, the University of South Florida, and Oregon State University. The music is performed by soprano Ann Moss, who is a graduate of the Longy School and the San Francisco Conservatory. An ardent advocate for contemporary music, she has been responsible for the commissioning and premieres of more than 80 art songs, vocal chamber music, and operatic roles. She is joined by pianist Karen Rosenak, a longtime member of the Empyrean Ensemble, and a founding member of the new music ensemble Earplay.

The 11 Capricci by Joseph Marie dall'Abaco (1710-1805) are quickly becoming a staple in the canon of solo cello repertoire. Born in Brussels, the composer and cellist was present and active in many of the major musical centers of 18th century Europe. This recording represents the first American contribution with a modern instrument. Cellist Erin Ellis leads a versatile career as a performer and teacher. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States as well as in Canada, Chile, Italy, and Holland. A cello professor at West Virginia University, Ellis has conducted masterclasses and workshops at many nationally recognized institutions and regularly presents at state, regional, and national conferences. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music.

This recording marks the debut recording by Lakeshore Rush, a chamber music ensemble based in Chicago. The recording consists of beloved recordings from their concerts as well as some studio recordings. The composers represented include a vast array of styles within the contemporary chamber music genre. Eight of the composers are American; seven are living; and the works by Jonathan Hannau and Pierre Jalbert were commissioned by Lakeshore Rush. The works by Philip Glass and Bill Ryan are the ensemble's creative reinterpretations of pieces that have entered the contemporary cannon, and the Radiohead is an arrangement commissioned and performed exclusively by Lakeshore Rush.

Born in 1895, American composer Ernest Charles became known to the public through one of his early songs that was popularized by Metropolitan Opera superstar John Charles Thomas and other songs followed that were found on voice recitals of singers like Kirsten Flagstad and Eileen Farrell. Baritone Nicholas Provenzale, a present-day champion of this composer’s songs, says that they exhibit a perfect blend of accessibility and musical interest. Provenzale enjoys an active career as a recitalist, opera singer, and educator. The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions award, he is currently on the faculty at West Chester University. Mr. Provenzale’s collaborator on this recording is pianist Terry Klinefelter.

As pianist Jose Luis Hernandez says, "This album can bring pure musical enjoyment and also spiritual nourishment to people. The tunes and lyrical texts in these pieces have stood the test of time. Some appear as early as the 8th century, others are more modern. The selections call attention to the many seasons of life — joy, wonder, hope, and grief " A graduate of Texas Christian University, Jose Luis Hernandez pursued post-graduate studies at the Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona. He has appeared on chamber music festivals around the United States and Puerto Rico and appeared as a concerto soloist with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras in Venezuela and Mexico and is the founder of the music education and orchestral programs Sistema Tulsa and Juventud Sinfónica Tamaulipeca.

The University of Baltimore County Wind Ensemble (UMBC) has a history of pioneering new works for wind ensemble. They regularly commission and perform works by living composers and this recording reflects their commitment. With works by Brad Ellis, Samuel Winnie, Anna Rubin, Janice Macaulay, and Daniel Bernard Roumain, the ensemble gives life to a diverse group of composers' compositions. Conductor Brian Kaufman also is a tubist, educator, social entrepreneur, and publicly engaged scholar. He is a co-founder, artistic director, and conductor of The Sounding Board, an organization that creates productions that integrate music, multimedia, spoken word, and commentary from noted public figures to inspire new perspectives and cultivate dialogue on today's most pressing social issues.

This recording of music for piano, flute, and flute and piano offers a panorama of classically trained Peruvian composers and a Peruvian-American composer whose music was inspired by Andean Indigenous melodies, rhythms, and traditions. The compositions range in date from 1927 through 2002. The performers include pianist Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta and flutist Orlando Cela. Rodríguez-Peralta has appeared as piano soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Peru, and Mexico. A winner of the Artists International Young Musicians Auditions, Ms. Rodríguez-Peralta has performed in noted concert halls throughout the United States. A graduate of Temple University, Catholic University and The Juilliard School, she is chair of the music department of Middlesex Community College. Orlando Cela has premiered more than 200 works, both as a conductor and flutist. He is music director of the Lowell Chamber Orchestra and the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music and Middlesex Community College.

Daniel Palkowski is a composer, pianist/synthesist, educator, audio engineer and creative designer. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia. He has taught at both of those schools as well as at the Tisch School of the Arts and Music at New York University. He works for Ernst & Young as a creative designer, specializing in audio and video production. His music has been commissioned by organizations such as the Westchester Philharmonic, Music from China, and MacMillan Digital. The compositions on this recording were created in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pianist ShiLing Shih has performed throughout the U.S. and in Taiwan and has collaborated with husband Daniel Palkowski on many works and performances. Recognized as the world's premier pipa virtuoso, Wu Man is a soloist, educator, and composer who has given her instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Macedonian pianist Elena Atanasovska has performed in numerous concerts in Macedonia as well as festivals in Bosnia, Portugal, Spain, Serbia, and Kosova among others.

Libby Meyer is a composer whose work reflects the natural rhythms and patterns of the world around her. Her music has been commissioned and performed throughout the United States. She has served as composer-in-residence at the Islae Royale National Park and the Visby International Center for Composers. The recipient of numerous awards including the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Composers Forum, she is on the faculty at Michigan Technological University. This recording of her music includes works for vocal ensemble as well as chamber ensembles. Performers on this recording include the Capella Clausura conducted by Amelia LeClair and the Juventas New Music Ensemble.

Johannes Brahms began his musical training as a violinist and cellist, although at his core, he was a pianist. He collaborated closely with violinist Joseph Joachim, and the violin sonatas reflect their association. Violinist Limor Toren-Immerman has won numerous competitions and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S., Israel, and Russia. She enjoys an international career as a recitalist and chamber musician and has received numerous awards, including the Baroness Leni Fe Bland Award, the H.I.A.S. Award, and the Jascha Heifetz Endowed Violin Scholarship, among many others. Ms. Toren-Immerman began her musical education in Russia at the Gnessin State Music College. She also has degrees from the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance and the University of Southern Calfornia Thornton School of Music. She is on the faculty of the California State University Fresno and was a founding member of Trio Accento. Pianist Hatem Nadim has performed extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, Korea, and the U.S. He is recognized as one of the leading chamber music pianists of our time. Born in Egypt, he studied at the Cairo Conservatoire and the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Flutist Don Bailey and harpist Laura Logan Brandenburg offer a charming program of music for flute and harp that includes works from the standard repertoire as well as newer works by British and American composers. Don Bailey has enjoyed a diverse career as a performer, professor, festival planner, and board member of several arts organizations. He was solo flutist for Cunard Cruise Lines and has performed at festivals in Aspen, Nice, and Spoleto, among many others. His discography includes recordings on the Summit, Genuin, Parnassus, International, and Albany Records labels. Laura Brandenburg served as harp instructor at Texas Christian University School of Music. A highly regarded freelance harpist, she enjoys a wide variety of collaborative performance opportunities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Active as a camp clinician specializing in harp ensemble repertoire, Laura presents workshops locally and nationally. The duo has been performing together since 2017 and are committed to exploring and transcribing new music for flute and harp that expands the boundaries of the repertoire while feeding the artistic soul.

It is the supreme love of memorable seminal melodic ideas placed in contrapuntal settings and immersed in warm harmonies inspired from popular, blues, and jazz genres that characterize the piano pieces of Alec Wilder. His short piano works, of which this recording consists, are most often conceived in ternary, binary or rondo forms, and sets of these smaller pieces are combined in suites to create a larger musical form. Pianist John Noel Roberts has collected many of Wilder's short works for piano in this second volume of his works for solo piano. Roberts studied at Eastman and Yale and has an impressive career as an orchestral soloist and recitalist, having appeared at major venues around the world. Currently on the faculty at Our Lady of the Lake University, Roberts has served on music faculties at Furman, UNC-Charlotte, Mercer, Concordia College, Stephen F. Austin State University, and the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music.

Cellist Gregory Sauer and pianist Heidi Louise Williams perform a program of works for cello and piano by North and South American composers, including world premiere recordings of works by André Mehmari and Daniel Crozier. Both performers are on the faculty at Florida State University and enjoy careers as recitalists, soloists with orchestras, and chamber ensembles. Ms. Williams appears on three previous Albany Records releases, all of which have received critical acclaim. She has also recorded for Naxos, Neos, and Centaur. Sauer’s discography includes recordings with MSR and Mark Records.

The eighth volume of New Music from Bowling Green includes orchestral compositions by Aaron Jay Kernis, Marilyn Shrude, Richard Cornell, Dalit Warshaw, Martin Kennedy, and David Liptak. Conductor Emily Freeman Brown has been the driving force behind this series, which now has recorded more than 40 works by American composers. Brown has appeared as conductor with orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. In addition to her work for Albany Records, she has recorded for Naxos, Linn, and Opus One Records. Soloists include violinist Ioana Galu, a native of Romania and now on the faculty at the University of South Dakota, and trombonist Brittany Lasch, who is on the faculty at Bowling Green State University.

George Rochberg's Caprice Variations were composed in 1970, and incorporated musical elements that ignited his passions. The work began to germinate in 1969, during an accidental encounter with Brahms' Opus 35 variations on Paganini's famous caprice and this led directly to his Third String Quartet. Eight variations of the Caprice are expanded and revisited elements of this string quartet. Requiring considerable musical, artistic, and technical prowess, the Caprice Variations are very rarely performed. Born in 1995, French violinist Léo Marillier studied at the New England Conservatory and the Paris Conservatory, as well as the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. The winner of numerous competitions, Marillier has performed with noted chamber musicians and ensembles in the U.S., Europe, and the U.A.E. and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Europe. He is the artistic director of the Inventio Festival in Paris. He is a member of the Diotima Quartet.

Clarinetists Jessica Lindsey and Christy Banks formed the Spatial Forces Duo in 2008 and since that time have toured the U.S., Canada, China, Italy, New Zealand, and Belgium. Their goal is to stretch the sonic possibilities of the traditional clarinet duo and have commissioned composers of diverse backgrounds to write works for them. Christy Banks is on the faculty at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and has studied at the University of Nebraska and Florida State University. She is bass clarinetist for the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. Jessica Lindsey, on the faculty at UNC Charlotte, and has studied at the University of Nebraska and the University of Colorado. She performs with the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra.

Composer Barbara White discovered the shakuhachi while in college and her fascination with this instrument has continued form more than 30 years. The works on this recording are the result of a ten year collaboration with shakuhachi grand master Riley Lee. White studied the shakuhachi with Lee and has composed numerous works for him. White's music has been described as "provocative even when it speaks in undertones, creating a personal space that is as unique as it is inviting." The recipient of numerous honors and awards, she is on the music faculty at Princeton. Riley Lee began studying the shakuhachi in 1970 while living in Japan. He is the first non-Japanese to attain the rank of "grand master."