Catalog

This recording features works by members of the composition faculty of the University of Iowa School of Music: Michael Eckert, Lawrence Fritts and David Gompper. The six new works presented here, all composed in the 21st century, showcase a diversity of harmonic languages and musical materials, from Gompper's post-tonal centricity to Eckert's neo-classic atonality to Fritt's use of mathematical algorithms and computer-generated timbres. Lawrence Fritts is Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University. His composition teachers were Shulamit Ran, John Eaton and Ralph Shapey. Another pupil of Ralph Shapey is Michael Eckert, also an Associate Professor of Theory and Composition. He has won the Bearns Prize for Composition from Columbia University and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. David Gompper is Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University. Gompper has lived and worked as a composer, teacher, conductor and pianist in England, Nigeria and, most recently, Russia. The project was sponsored by a grant from the University of Iowa Arts and Humanities Initiative.

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

How proud we are at Albany Records to be able to present to you these two wonderful artists in delightful material which has been newly recorded. Joan Morris and William Bolcom have been concertizing together since 1972. They perform American popular songs from the late 19th century through the 1920s and the 1930s, the latest songs by Leiber and Stoller, and cabaret songs by Bolcom and poet-lyricist Arnold Weinstein. To date they have recorded 19 albums together. Joan Morris was born in Portland, Oregon. She attended Gonzaga University in Spokane prior to scholarship studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She appeared in several off-Broadway and road productions as well as at many Manhattan nightspots including the Cafe Carlyle and the Waldorf-Astoria's Peacock Alley. Since 1981 she has taught in the musical theater program at the University of Michigan where she produced an original musical in April 1998 based on the life of poet Mina Loy. The Pulitzer Prize winning composer William Bolcom studied at Mills College with Darius Milhaud, the Paris Conservatoire and completed his doctorate at Stanford University. Recent compositions include his wonderful opera McTeague, the Lyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra for James Galway, his Sixth Symphony for Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra and he has just completed the film score for John Turturro's new movie Illuminata. He is now working on his new opera A View from the Bridge with a libretto by Arthur Miller and Arnold Weinstein which will be premiered in October, 1999 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1973, where he is the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Music.

2013 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jerome Moross, an American original. Best known for his outstanding motion picture scores, he considered himself primarily a composer of concert music and this recording, originally released by Koch, demonstrates his considerable contribution to American music. Writing for the theatre remained Moross' first love as a composer. Frankie and Johnny, written in 1938, was one of a number of works he wrote for this medium. The recording spans his compositional output from his earliest work, Biguine, written in 1934, to his last completed work, Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra, written in 1978.

Jerome Moross (1913-1983) was in the vanguard of composers who realized that there was a music of America, and for America written by Americans. This recording, originally released by Koch, offers three major scores by this major American composer. Moross grew up with and listened to jazz bands, played in theatre pits and found that his own composing style was totally, spontaneously conditioned by it. Having found his métier relatively early in life, he stuck to it through thick and thin to the end. And perhaps because he was so young when he found his voice, his music sounds young--always, early and late. His music is exciting and always sounds fresh, but uniquely his own.

Morris Rosenzweig was born October 1, 1952 in New Orleans, where he grew up among the tailors, merchants, and strong-willed women of an extended family that has lived in southern Louisiana since the mid 1890s. His works have been widely presented throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Japan, Argentina, Mexico and Israel. His recorded compositions are available on Albany Records Centaur, and New World/CRI. Mr. Rosenzweig has received honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Argosy Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, and support from the Alice M. Ditson Fund. Presently Professor of Music at the University of Utah, he has 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.

This recording offers a tantalizing sampling of Morton Gould's work from the vibrant decade of the mid 1930s and '40s, featuring two of his trademark Symphonettes, the gutsy Concerto for Orchestra and his earliest big orchestral work -- Chorale and Fugue in Jazz -- presented in full for the first time since its 20-year-old composer wrote it with Interplay, the diminutive concerto holding center stage.

It is the intention of this disc to change dramatically music lover’s opinions of the American composer Morton Gould. For those who know him as the composer of “light” music; American Salute, The American Symphonette, The Latin-American Symphonette, or as an arranger of other composer’s music, or just as a fine conductor – get ready. There is no doubt in this listener’s mind that StringMusic ranks with the greatest string music written in this century and yes I am including Elgar, Vaughan-Williams and Britten. In fact StringMusic is a masterpiece, richly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize for music it won in 1995. And the Piano Concerto composed when he was just in his early twenties. Sure, there are hints of Shostakovich, but the music is Gould, right from the start, all Gould. Showpiece was commissioned by Columbia Records. It was intended to show off the modern Orchestra and how well it could be captured in recording with the best of the Columbia engineers’ talent. And while Ormandy and the Philadelphia, for whom the work was written, recorded it, the work was never approved for release. David Alan Miller feels it was because the music is so fiendishly difficult. The Orchestra simply did not have enough rehearsal time. This disc should find a audience because none of the works has ever been available before in any format.

On October 29, 2004, Angela Brown made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida in the great Verdi opera. Hailed in Opera News as "one of America's most promising Verdi sopranos," she was a National Metropolitan Opera Council Audition winner in 1997. The 2003 - 2004 season marked a new high for Miss Brown's career as it encompassed four highly successful role debuts, a Carnegie Hall debut, two glowing reviews each from The New York Times and Opera Now and word to the wise to keep a watch on her career from Opera News. It all began in Spring 2003, as she stepped in for one performance of Ariadne in Philadelphia and received this review from Opera Now: "In one of those dramatic twists that are the stuff of opera, the soprano covering the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Metropolitan Opera got her chance to sing it - at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The young American soprano Angela Brown took over one performance...She (Ms. Brown) has a powerhouse of an instrument, shimmering with color and imaginatively used, and she knows how to take center-stage." Then, in the fall of 2004, Angela sang an unexpected performance and her debut as Leonora in Opera Company of Philadelphia's Il Travatore. In January, 2004, she made her debut as Elisabetta in Don Carlo with Opera Company of Philadelphia receiving this praise from The New York Times: "Angela Brown, a soprano, brought dignity and shimmering pianos, and hit a bull's-eye with her final aria." Opera News wrote: "Angela Brown revealed herself as a soprano to watch. Brown displayed good command of Verdi's style, imaginative phrasing and a warm, expressive voice." Opera Now said: "Angela Brown's beautiful lyric soprano voice was ideal for Elisabetta. She floated pianissimos that seemed to hang in space, shimmering, and she had plenty of power for her last big scene." It is an especial privilege for Albany Records to present a magnificent soprano on the brink of a major career.

With this recording, the Carolina Trombone Project — an ensemble of professional trombonists from North and South Carolina — adds to the growing repertoire for trombone ensemble with six new works commissioned through a nationwide consortium. Ranging from five to eight players, the programmatic works are as versatile as they are accessible. Composers include Andrew Markel, Christopher Even Hass, Gina Gillie, Christopher Sharpe, Gary Kulesha, and David F. Wilborn. Performers include Jeremy Marks, Scott P. Hartman, Zsolt Szabo, Tom Burge, Eric Henson, Mark Whitfield, Joseph Brown, and Justin Isenhour.

About Mountain Roads, the composer David Maslanka writes: "The music of Mountain Roads is a very personal statement. I feel very deeply about every bit of it. The musical plan of it follows the model of a Baroque cantata, and style and content reflect my years of study of the Bach chorales, and of Bach in general. Obviously there are no words in my "cantata" but the music revolves entirely around two chorale melodies. The title Mountain Roads comes from a dream I had while writing the piece". About his Sax Appeal David Stock writes: "The work was commissioned by the Amherst Saxophone Quartet by Summerfest, a music festival in Pittsburgh, for its 10th anniversary season. The premiere took place in July, 1990. The work is in four movements: Set Up, Blues, Sarabande, and jump. Jazz is clearly the primary influence, as befitting the genre that brought this wonderful instrument into its own". Russell Peck's Drastic Measures is the only piece on this disc that has been recorded before. About it, the composer writes: "During my brief university teaching career I came into contact with excellent saxophonists at Northern Illinois University who had a quartet and wanted a piece from me. That's how I came to write Drastic Measures in 1976. A year later I went to the School of the Arts in North Carolina where James Houlik had a great saxophone studio and a wonderful student quartet that became the New Century Saxophone Quartet. I touched up the piece for them and that became its final form."

Throughout her career, flutist Sue Ann Kahn has been acclaimed for her virtuosic and sensitive performances of music of all periods. She was honored with one of the first Solo Recitalist Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in recognition of her outstanding gifts as a flutist and received the American New Music Consortium Award for distinguished performances of contemporary music. She is a member of the Jubal Trio, the League ISCM Chamber Players and other ensembles. Ms. Kahn has received consistent praise for her solo and chamber music recordings (her highly popular disc of music of Jacques Ibert, Jacques Around the Clock, is on Albany TROY145). Formerly Professor of Music at Bennington College, Ms. Kahn teaches flute and chamber music at Mannes College of Music, at New York University, and in the Music Performance Program at Columbia University, and gives master classes and recitals nationwide. She has served as President of the National Flute Association, and has been consistently active as an advocate for the flute and its music.

Ms Butterfly is a futuristic electro-acoustic music adaptation of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, conceived, produced and directed by Dennis K. Law with music supervision by Zhou Jiaojiao; electronic organ orchestration by Wu Danxia; and analog synthesizer programming by David Wohl. Set in 2036, this blu-ray video of the adaptation of Madame Butterly has lavish sets, costumes, and sound taken from performances at the Denver International Festival of the Arts and Technology.

Bennett Lerner was born in Boston in 1944 and currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is a well-known performer of contemporary music and has premiered many pieces by major composers. In 1985, he performed the Copland Piano Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic in honor of the composer's 85th birthday. The program was broadcast nationally on Live From Lincoln Center. Lerner was Copland's chosen soloist. His primary teachers were Claudio Arrau and Robert Helps, among others. Lerner received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from City University of New York in October, 2001, in piano performance and music history. Mr. Lerner writes: "Throughout my career I have had many close friends who were composers. Many of them wrote pieces for me, some of which I played in their world premiere performances, some of which I played many times, some of which I played only once, and some of which I played for the first time during the world tour of MUSIC BY MY FRIENDS in September-November, 2003. This recording is made up in large part of those pieces. In addition, it includes other works by my composer-friends." Comments from composers include Roger Zahab: "Your recordings are truly wonderful! I feel that you have done a magnificent thing for all of us. I wouldn't change a thing."; Tison Street: "The performances are absolutely stellar...Your performance of my Poem is just the best!..."; Donald Richie: "Your recording of your friends' music is your finest yet, and the relaxed beauty you bring to my little pieces is wonderful...."

Nicolas Flagello was one of the 20th century's leading exponents of traditional late-Romantic musical values. Without ever repudiating this aesthetic outlook, he forged a personal musical language and a distinctive body of work shaped by his own temperament and embodying his own perspective on life. As a composer, he held with unswerving conviction to a view of music as a personal medium for emotional and spiritual expression. This unfashionable view, together with his vehement rejection of the academic formalist that dominated musical composition for several decades after World War II, prevented him from winning acceptance from the reigning arbiters of taste for many years. However, gradually Flagello's works have begun to win enthusiastic advocacy, as his music is recorded and performed with increasing frequency. In 1959 Flagello attained his mature compositional voice, ushering in the most productive period of his life. During the 1960s alone, he composed more than 30 works, maintaining a remarkable consistency of both vision and craftsmanship. The luxuriant romanticism of his youth now gave way to a sort of Italianate expressionism. Now, a deeper, more personal quality emerged - dark, brooding, restless, and often agitated. It was during this decade that all the works on this recording were composed.

The Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40 by Johannes Brahms reigns as one of the supreme works of chamber music that includes the French horn, and it is often thought of as the model for all of the succeeding works composed for this trio. The instrumentation is certainly unique, as there were no precedents of note in the major chamber music oeuvre. Paired with the Brahms on this recording are two rarely performed and previously unrecorded horn trios from the beginning of the last century. All three performers are internationally acclaimed and give exceptional performances of this repertoire.

Alison Young, the flutist on this recording, writes: "Two years ago, conductor Charles Anthony Johnson approached me with the idea of producing a recording of flute concertos together. We decided to concentrate on American music, exploring new territory by locating works that had never been recorded or were currently unavailable on CD. Our decision to record the particular four works on this recording was based on the music's unique American characteristics, defined by their compelling individualism. They are products of this century, but their composers chose to use more traditional styles, utilizing familiar rhythmic patterns and tuneful melodies. It was a sad discovery for us that these exceptional pieces were not only unavailable on recordings, but had also seen little performance exposure. As I began studying and practicing, I realized that this was a great injustice to the composers themselves as well as a loss to musical audiences. The four works on this CD represent some of the finest flute music written in this country." Alison Young graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She also holds a degree from the University of Southern California. Currently Principal Flute of the Houston Ballet Orchestra, she has performed and recorded as Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Memphis and Toledo Symphonies.

The association of composer/conductor Gregg Smith, the Gregg Smith Singers and Saint Peter's Church in New York City dates back to 1970. Smith wrote works for the church, some of them commissioned for special occasions, and conducted the Gregg Smith Singers along with the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association and the Saint Peter's Choir in performances of this music. This disc commemorates this association with a collection of six of these works, written and performed between 1972 and 2005. Music for an Urban Church celebrates this American composer's continuation of the tradition of "singing unto the Lord a new song." As a composer Gregg Smith has more than 400 compositions to his name and he is also celebrated as the founder and conductor of the world-famous Gregg Smith Singers.

Here we have an international collection of bassoon music, recorded in Edvard Grieg's house. The highly original wind music of Maslanka is surely known to you through his many releases on Albany, and this recent work is a significant contribution to the bassoon literature. James Lassen, born in Montana, has family roots in Scandinavia. Active in jazz and classical circles, he currently lives in Bergen, Norway and is co-principal bassoonist in that city's Symphony Orchestra, alongside principal Per Hannevold. Lassen's work shows the influence of special techniques he learned while playing the Japanese shakuhatchi and bamboo flutes. Oivind Westby, a trombonist and arranger, has composed a delightful work that shows influences from British light music. Per Hannevold has been with the Bergen Symphony from 1979 and is a member of the Bergen Wind Quintet. His performances have taken him all over the world and he is recognized as a preeminent authority on bassoon technique. This is a wonderful disc for wind specialists and those looking for something out of the ordinary.

The DePaul University Wind Ensemble has distinguished itself over the years not only with its marvelous virtuosity but with its highly original and exciting programming which can also be heard on Albany releases TROY334, 435, 501, 568 and 628. Here they are joined by John Hagstrom, who leads the trumpet studio at DePaul University. He has been a member of the Chicago Symphony's trumpet section since 1996. He studied at the Eastman School and spent six years in "The President's Own" United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C. All of these pieces have a wonderful way of showing off the terrific musical combination of trumpet and wind orchestra, with such highlights as the propulsive Concerto by Russian composer Andrei Petrov, the Scherzo by the famed Mexican artist Rafael Mendez, the lovely Rachmaninov arrangement, and the novelties found in the Ropartz and Arutiunian works. By now everyone has heard the latter composer's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, so it's a pleasure to hear this more recent work. This CD is for anyone who appreciates great trumpet playing and loves the sound of a virtuoso wind orchestra.

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.

Steven Stucky was born on November 7, 1949, in Hutchinson, Kansas and grew up in Kansas and Texas. He holds degrees from Baylor University and Cornell University. His principal teachers have been Robert Palmer, Karel Husa, and Burrill Philips. For two years, beginning in 1978, he taught composition at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Then he joined the faculty of Cornell University, where at present he is Professor of Music and Chairman of the Department of Music. It was at the suggestion of Esa-Pekka Salonen that Stucky transcribed the music of Purcell. He used as the basis of the work, three pieces that Purcell composed for the funeral of Queen Mary who had died of smallpox on December 28, 1694. Threnos was commissioned by the Cornell University Wind Ensemble in memory of the fine composer Brian Israel who died at the age of 35 of leukemia. Fanfares and Arias was commissioned by the Big Eight Band Directors Association and first performed by the University of Colorado Wind Ensemble, during the national Conference of the College Band Directors National Association on February 22, 1995. Voyages was composed for cello and wind Orchestra. It was first performed by the English cellist, Lynden Cranham, with the Yale University Band.

Alec Wilder was a man of many parts, in every way unique and unforgettable. Always in coat and tie, possessing an almost Edwardian sense of courtesy, he lived a nomadic existence, traveling with most of what he owned in two suitcases. Enigmatically sophisticated to a degree impossible to describe, he could sit and talk to young children with a kind of innocent gravity, leaving them wide-eyed and attentive, then later he might blow bubbles down a staircase at a formal dinner party. Unspeakably well read, he would breeze through the London Times crossword puzzle (in ink), yet he never held himself above anyone, a genuinely humble man - albeit with no tolerance for pretension in anyone. As a musician, his discerning ears reacted immediately to a performer's style: a moment of his approval would remain a treasured memory for life. After all, he was revered by the likes of Eileen Farrell, Charles Mingus, and Frank Sinatra, and he really did know what was "right" and what was not. A composer of hundreds of songs and huge catalog of chamber music, Wilder created an oeuvre that is unusually diverse yet characteristically American. Categorizing his work has not been an easy task for musicians and critics, as it does not clearly "fit" into any one slot. That, along with his frequent use of popular and jazz elements and a penchant for writing lighthearted divertimento-like movements or entertainments, has often led to his being dismissed as not being a "serious" composer, while his craftsmanship and lyrical sentiment went largely ignored. In a society quick to put labels on things, he has been an enigma. While his music was championed by many of this country's leading performers during his lifetime, Wilder did little to further his own cause and shunned every opportunity to gain further recognition. Most of his chamber music was unpublished until the last years of his life. Now, nearly 25 years since his death, it is heartening to see new recordings by a whole younger generation discovering his music for the first time. This new Albany disc is just such an example.

Two colleagues from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, oboist John Dee and bassoonist Timothy McGovern, join pianist Cara Chowning in a program of music for winds and piano. The composers hail from the U.K., Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.S. The program includes two trios for oboe, bassoon and piano; two works for oboe and piano and two works for bassoon and piano. All three performers have enjoyed active performing and academic careers. Dee served as principal oboe of the Florida Philharmonic and Florida Opera and McGovern is principal bassoon of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra as well as the bassoonist for the Prairie Winds Woodwind Quintet. In addition to her performance schedule, Chowning was music director of Opera Cleveland's Great Works Outreach Department.

The Luzerne Chamber Music Festival presents eight weekly concerts on Monday evenings during July and August in Lake Luzerne, New York. The concerts are held under the auspices of the Luzerne Music Center, a music camp for talented young musicians founded in 1980 by Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Bert Phillips, and his wife, Toby Blumenthal, concert pianist. All the music on this CD was performed as part of this imaginative concert series. Theresa Treadway Lloyd is the head of vocal studies at the Luzerne Music Center and does perform regularly at the Festival.

The Atlanta Chamber Winds led by Robert J. Ambrose, offer a sparkling concert of music for wind ensemble by composers who lived and worked in Paris. All but one (the Pierné) are world premiere recordings and offer a substantial addition to the wind ensemble discography. Perhaps most interesting is Francis Chagrin who was born in Bucharest as Alexander Paucker but moved to Paris in 1928 and changed his name. He was most famous for his film music but he also wrote chamber music, two symphonies and songs.

An American born B.C. - which in the present context means "before Copland" - had a hard time of it if he wanted to become a composer. The job, rather like that of an actress in the 18th century, was not considered quite proper for a gentleman. By virtue alike of his talent and international recognition, of his character, and of his dedication to the support and encouragement of his colleagues, Aaron Copland changed all that in the public mind, and already by the time Elie Siegmeister, Norman Dello Joio, and Jacob Avshalomov came on the scene, composing was beginning to be seen as a perfectly feasible and respectable, if not necessarily lucrative, profession. Thus it was that even a musician who came to be as widely admired as Converse, after graduating in 1893 from Harvard College with high honors in music, tried for some months to be a businessman, in accordance with his father's wishes, before an irresistible inner need compelled him to turn to music; and Tuthill pursued a similar course for much longer, despite having a father, William B. Tuthill, who was the architect of Carnegie Hall, and a mother, Henrietta Corwin Tuthill, who was a professional organist. It is a real treat to have the fine American conductor, JoAnn Falletta conducting the equally fine American clarinetist Robert Alemany and the Czech National Symphony in these wonderful performances.

Karl Boelter's music ranges from contemplative to visceral, from serious to playful. He was born in Milwaukee and studied composition at Ball State and the University of Michigan. He has studied with William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett and William Albright. For several years, he resided in Atlanta where he served as music curator at the High Museum of Art. This experience provided direct involvement with performances by some of the 20th century's greatest artists as well as a personal exploration into the diversity of artistic expression: classic blues and jazz, Cajun two-steps, the music of Africa, and Cowboy poetry. Dr. Boelter is professor of music composition at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, where he currently serves as Chair of the Department of Music, Theater and Dance.

John Biggs was born in Los Angeles, the eighth of 11 children. His father was organist-composer Richard Keys Biggs and his mother was singer-conductor Lucienne Gourdon. During his youth he received training in acting, singing, piano, bassoon, and violin, and was a member of his father's church choir. He received his Masters Degree in composition from the University of California at Los Angeles, with further study at the University of Southern California and the Royal Flemish Academy in Antwerp, Belgium. His teachers were Roy Harris, Lukas Foss, Ingolf Dahl, Flor Peeters, and Halsey Stevens. "I received a Fulbright Grant in 1964 to study composition with Flor Peeters at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, Belgium. I was 32, and eager to write a large work. I used October, November, and the first part of December to write the symphony. The premiere of the work took place on May 15, 1965, with me conducting the Antwerp Philharmonic. My Symphony No. 2 was commissioned by the York Symphony of York, Pennsylvania and premiered on April 26, 1992, with Robert Hart Baker conducting. While attending a concert at the University of Southern California in 1958, I heard a composition by Halsey Stevens based on the epic poem The Ballad of William Sycamore by Stephen Vincent Benet. I was so moved by the music, and especially by the text, that I decided I would someday set the very same poem. The opportunity came 36 years later, when I was commissioned by the New West Symphony of Ventura County, California, to compose a piece for the opening of their inaugural season. The premiere took place on October 6th and 7th , 1995. The conductor was Boris Brott, and the narrator was Michael Gallup."

This recording of music for violin by women composers comes from the first two volumes of a four-volume anthology compiled by Dr. Cora Cooper. Her intention is to offer an easily obtainable collection of short pieces by women that could be integrated with standard literature. This recording, then, will be a great resource for students, teachers, and performers. Canadian violinist Maureen Yuen has performed, taught, and adjudicated globally. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, and Columbia University, she is on the faculty at Drake University and enjoys an active career as a solo and chamber music performer. Her colleague, pianist Eric Ruple is on the faculty at James Madison University. An active member of the American Liszt Society, he has also been a regular adjudicator in Hong Kong.

National Public Radio has said of Pavlova's music: "In Pavlova's music you find a special quality of the Russian way of thinking. Let's say, it comes from the way of thinking found in Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff." Alla Pavlova is a composer, pianist, and musicologist. Born in Russia, she received her Masters Degree at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow in 1983. After graduation she lived in Sofia, Bulgaria for several years where she worked for the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the Bulgarian National Opera. She then moved to Moscow where she lived from 1986 to 1990, working for the Moscow (later, Russian) Musical Society Board as a senior consultant. In 1990 she immigrated to New York and became a member of New York Women Composers in 1991. She has a special interest in creating music for theater, dance, film and children.

Andrew Imbrie has enriched the American contemporary music scene for over five decades. This recording pays tribute to his legacy with performances of three compositions from the late 1990s. His fluency at the keyboard springs from his early training in piano with such teachers as Leo Ornstein, Olga Samaroff, Rosalyn Tureck and Robert Casadesus. These teachers (and a summer studying with Nadia Boulanger) nurtured his interest in theory and composition, but it was during his undergraduate years at Princeton that he found his most significant musical mentor, Roger Sessions. Imbrie's senior thesis, String Quartet # 1 (1942), won a New York Music Critics' Award in 1944 and was recorded by the famed Juilliard String Quartet. After military service during World War II, Imbrie followed Sessions to the University of California,. Berkeley and received his master's degree there. Upon graduation, Imbrie was offered a faculty position at Berkeley that he held until his retirement in 1991. For over four decades, Imbrie has served as a teacher and mentor for composers ranging across the stylistic spectrum from experimentalist Larry Austin to the mischievously "traditionalist" David Del Tredici. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, New York University, and Harvard. About Spring Fever the composer writes: "This work was begun in Berkeley but completed in Chicago on November 26, 1996. Its title reflects, perhaps, my sense of the onset of winter in that city, and my yearning for spring, with its varying excitements and instabilities." Chicago Bells was commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress. It was premiered there in May 2001, by the soloists heard on this disc. "This work was composed in 1997, while I was serving as guest professor at the University of Chicago. I would walk through the campus on my way to meeting with my students; and as I proceeded through the myriad quadrangles I would occasionally hear the sound of bells in the towers, echoing and clanging. This sound was the inspiration for the opening of the work and influenced it in various ways." Songs of Then and Now, settings of poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, and e. e. cummings, explore the ebullience, disillusionment, love, and magic of growing up. "The title of this group of songs can have two meanings: one that draws attention to the variety of texts used; the other referring to the ages of the singers, who have just crossed the threshold and are now young adults. Then refers to vivid memories of recent childhood; now suggests a wide-open world of discovery."