Catalog

Members of the renowned Boston Musica Viva perform three works by Bernard Hoffer, including a work commissioned by them, Concerto di Camera that features their spectacular cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws. Born in 1934 in Zurich, Switzerland, Bernard Hoffer attended Eastman where he studied with Bernard Rogers, Wayne Barlow, Paul White and Herman Genhart. After serving as arranger for the U.S. Army Field Band of Washington, D.C., he settled in New York, working as a freelance musician, composer, conductor and arranger. He is known not only for his chamber and orchestral music but also for works written for films, television and commercials, including the theme for the PBS New Hour, PBS's The American Experience and the hit children's cartoon series Thundercats.

Argentinian-American composer Florencio Asenjo couples two works inspired by books whose authors were attracted to the contrast between the finite and the infinite with a concerto for orchestra that gives each type of instrument a solo part. Asenjo, who writes in a style he has labeled maximalism, which involves the creation of entirely new themes connected aesthetically to the preceding one -- a development of substance rather than of form. This is fifth recording of his music to appear on Albany Records. His music has been championed by Kirk Trevor, who conducts these performances by the Bulgarian Philharmonic.

New works for percussion ensemble written between 1993 and 2009 are performed by the Columbus State University Percussion Ensemble on this recording. Offering a unique listening experience, two of the works are for saxophone solo with percussion ensemble and one is for organ and percussion ensemble. The recording and two of the works came as a result of a residency program that commissions a new work for the CSU Percussion Ensemble each year. Directed by Paul Vaillancourt, the CSU Percussion Ensemble performs and records music from the traditional percussion ensemble as well as commissioning and premiering works by internationally known and emerging composers. Saxophonist Amy Griffiths is on the faculty at Columbus State University and has made countless appearances as a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist.

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.

The intersection of Chinese cultural elements with Western art music provides a rich palette of Eastern colors in this first commercial recording of music for clarinet and piano by well-known Chinese composers. The composers on this recording were born in China, but have all studied and worked in the West. Chinese-American clarinetist, Jun Qian, has shared similar experiences with these composers and his performances show a deep understanding of Chinese culture and Western musical ideas. Dr. Qian, now on the faculty at Baylor University is principal clarinet for the Waco Symphony Orchestra. He was a professor of clarinet at St. Olaf College and served as principal clarinet of the Shanghai Philharmonic. Among his many honors, Qian was the featured soloist at the International Performing Arts Festival in Japan in 2004. Qian studied at Baylor University and the Eastman School, where he received his Masters and D.M.A. He is joined on this recording by a former colleague from St. Olaf College, pianist Kent McWilliams who previously taught at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Dr. Man-Ching Donald Yu is a Hong Kong born Chinese composer, pianist and conductor. As a prolific and versatile com¬poser, he has composed more than 150 original works that have been frequently performed internationally. The stylistic traits of his recent works are character¬ized by the intermingling of the expressive and lyrical language of atonality, stylistic diatonicism with new tonality, and Chinese color while sometimes blending with micro-polyphonic musical materials. Born in 1980, Yu received his formal training at the Royal School of Music and Baylor University, subsequently studying at the Internationale Sommerakademie Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg and at Hong Kong Baptist University, where he received his Ph.D. in composition and music theory. His music has been performed throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Yu's awards include the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship and awards from ASCAP. He is the founder and conductor of the Hong Kong Amadeus Chamber Orchestra and a faculty member of the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The works on this premiere recording dedicated to his compositions are diverse and range from large-scale orchestral works to chamber music, to electronic music and works for solo instruments.

Nicholas Goluses appears as soloist, chamber music player and with orchestras across North America, South America, Europe, Australia and the Far East to critical acclaim. He has been a featured performer at major festivals and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world. Goluses has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings for Albany, BMG, and NAXOS. Committed to performing new music for the guitar, Goluses has given world première performances of more than 100 works, including solo pieces, concertos for guitar and orchestra, as well as chamber music by many of today's leading composers. Nicholas Goluses is Professor of Guitar, founder and director of the guitar programs at the Eastman School of Music, where he has been the recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, and also has served as chairman of the string department. Goluses has held the Andrés Segovia Faculty Chair at Manhattan School of Music where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and was the recipient of both the Pablo Casals Award "for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor" and the Faculty Award of Distinguished Merit. This recording offers a varied program of music for guitar including the first recording of the solo version of Joseph Schwantner's From Afar

It is a mistake to generalize about the music of a composer with an oeuvre as broad as Lowell Liebermann's--and not only because his music ranges from a body of widely performed piano works and chamber music, to a pair of acclaimed operas, to the body of works for large orchestra of which this recording presents just a selection. In a single piece, we can hear the centuries of music history absorbed into his omnivorous style, from the lyrical melodies and expansive, chromatic harmonies associated with the music of the so-called Romantic period, to non-tonal, atonal, and even twelve-tone elements. Brilliantly performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grant Llewellyn, this recording illuminates Liebermann's compositional voice. One of America's most frequently performed and recorded composers, Lowell Liebermann has served as composer-in-residence for many organizations, including the Dallas Symphony and was the first composer to win the Composers' Invitational Award of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

The Golden Ticket, a comic opera based on Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was commissioned by American Lyric Theater and Felicity Dahl from American composer Peter Ash and British librettist Donald Sturrock. Dahl's fantastic imagination is vividly brought to life in the witty libretto, and the completely original score ingeniously parodies many traditional operatic conventions to help portray the bigger than life characters that inhabit Wonka's world. The opera premiered in 2010 at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, in partnership with Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera and New York's American Lyric Theater, where it was embraced by audiences and critics alike: "Donald Sturrock's libretto captures the wit, wizardry and wonder of Dahl's story about five children who gain access to the legendary Willy Wonka's confectionery establishment in a contest by finding golden tickets in their chocolates. The largely expository first act introduces the lucky children, who instantly become media darlings, but the fun really begins – and the dramatic tempo accelerates – in Act 2 when they go through trials not unlike reality television or perhaps – as children in the audience may someday recognize – The Magic Flute, overseen by Wonka with Sarastro-like benevolence and fearsomeness . Though not widely known, the American composer Ash has produced a fun-filled score with a zippy, contemporary ambience that makes room for a tune or two you can remember and deft allusions to past operas " (London Financial Times) This recording is taken from a live performance of The Golden Ticket at The Atlanta Opera in March 2012, conducted by composer Peter Ash, with a stellar cast including Daniel Okulitch in the role of Willy Wonka and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg as Charlie. The Atlanta Journal Constitution declared, "There may come a day when music teachers everywhere will use characters from The Golden Ticket to teach lessons about voices in opera For parents and teachers who want to introduce young people to the opera, The Golden Ticket is a good start." But, The Golden Ticket is not just for children – it's an opera for everyone who is still young at heart!

Meisha Adderley and Stacey Holliday present a program of music for piano duo by black composers. Spanning a time frame of music written in 1935 by William Grant Still, to works by Dolores White and Hale Smith that date from the late 1960's to the most recent work by Cedric Adderley written in 2010, this recording offers a survey not only of unique compositional voices across 75+ years, but also intriguing repertoire for this ensemble. Meisha Adderley received her D.M.A. from the University of South Carolina and also studied at the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Indiana State University. She serves on the faculty of Capital University Conservatory of Music. Her colleague, Stacey Holliday, also studied at the University of South Carolina as well as Furman University. Formerly on the faculty at Furman University, Ms. Holliday now maintains a large piano studio and is active as a collaborative and solo artist.

Texas Christian University's Trio Con Brio performs two new works for clarinet, viola and piano. The first, by Russian-born composer Elena Sokolovski has an intriguing title--Venice Suite, Concerto Grosso for 3 Soloists & 9 Instruments. Indeed, each musician plays several instruments including glasses filled with wine. Eric Ewazen's Trio was commissioned by the Texas Christian University School of Music for Trio Con Brio and was premiered in March 2005. The three members of Trio Con Brio all serve on the faculty at Texas Christian University. Clarinetist Gary Whitman received the Chancellor's Distinguished Achievement Award as a Creative Teacher and Scholar and is a member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Violist Misha Galaganov has performed as a soloist and given master classes in Russia, china, Italy, Israel, Czech Republic, Mexico, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the United States. Pianist John Owings has appeared as soloist with orchestras and given solo recitals throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Far East. He was gold medalist of the first Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition.

The program for Close to Home began when clarinetist Michael Rowlett met two composers whose music intrigued him — Valerie Coleman and Eric Mandat. He gathered works by other American composers, finding similarities among the diverse pieces with inspiration for the compositions coming from a particular place, a moment or a memory. Michael Rowlett is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and was a semi-finalist in the ICA's 1998 Young Artist competition. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi and at the conventions of the International Clarinet Association. He studied at Florida State University where he received his D.M, the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His collaborator on this recording, pianist Stacy Rodgers is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi.

For its first commercial recording, the Almeda Trio takes the traditional classical music ensemble of piano, violin and cello on a journey through various styles of more modern inspiration — from Argentinian tango to American jazz -- and even country fiddling. Stops along the way include two works by American composers Paul Schoenfield and Paul Ferguson and a composition by the 20th-Century beloved Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. Since its debut in 2008, the Almeda Trio (Robert Cassidy, piano, Cara Tweed, violin, Ida Mercer, cello) has performed to enthusiastic audiences throughout the greater Cleveland area and beyond. They serve as the ensemble-in-residence at The Music Settlement in Cleveland and their mission is three-fold -- performance, education and outreach. The ensemble takes its name from the early 20th-century social activist and founder of The Music Settlement, Almeda Adams.

George Whitefield Chadwick was one of the most significant and influential composers in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although best known for his orchestral compositions, he also wrote more than 100 songs for voice and piano in a wide variety of styles. The songs included in this recording, many recorded for the first time, demonstrate Chadwick's range of styles and subjects. They are creative, playful at times and filled with a distinctive sensitivity and intelligence. Tenor Glenn Siebert has appeared with many of the world's most acclaimed orchestras and has recorded extensively. He is on the faculty of the University of North Caroline School of the Arts. Pianist Peter Kairoff is on the faculty of Wake Forest University. He has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and China and has recorded music by 19th century American composers for Albany Records.

Rosa Antonelli evokes the memories of Latin sounds for her second recording on Albany Records. Born in Argentina, Ms. Antonelli enjoys an active and varied performance career. She has been hailed as a leading exponent of Spanish and Latin American music, which she has performed to audiences around the world in extensive tours that have taken her to Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Trained at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires, she was also a participant in the International University Music Program in Santiago de Compostela where she received the Rosa Sabater Award for her interpretation of Spanish music. Her first recording on Albany Records, Esperanza-Sounds of Hope, received critical praise as did her New York debut at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, where Harris Goldsmith wrote that her " inward poetry forced me to rehear, and revalue Piazzolla's Tangos, which she infused with an eloquence and inner communication "

Music has been a strong political, unifying force for the Latvian people. It rose slowly, out of folk songs, during the 700 years of oppression by Russian tsars and German overlords. Poetry and song, with their indirect and symbolic undertones, became an inside language — a way of passing on messages, revisiting legendary heroes and building confidence. Latvian composers have fused their folklore with contemporary trends and this recording is an example of this fusion. Cantatas for the Christmas season by three of Latvia's most well-known composers are offered. Sung by the New York Latvian Concert Choir with the Latvian National Opera Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrejs Jansons, the recording was made in Latvia in February, 2012. The New York Latvian Concert Choir was founded in 1975. Since the break up of the Soviet Union and the re-establishment of Latvia's independence, the choir has regularly collaborated with choirs and soloists in Latvia. Its mission has been to keep alive and promote Latvian music within the Latvian communities of the U.S., Canada, Australia and elsewhere and to introduce these countries to Latvia's ongoing cultural heritage.

Three works for solo instruments and orchestra by Laura Schwendinger are presented in world premiere recordings. Esprimere for cello and orchestra was written in 2007 for Matt Haimovitz and premiered by him. Curtis Macomber is the soloist for Charoscuro Azzurro for violin and chamber orchestra and Waking Dream, a single movement work for flute and chamber orchestra was written for flutist Christina Jennings, who gave the premiere. The first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin Prize Fellowship, Laura Schwendinger is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin Madison and directs their contemporary chamber ensemble. The recipient of numerous prizes, awards and commissions, Ms.. Schwendinger's music has been performed by leading ensembles and artists of our time. The three soloists, all virtuosos of international acclaim, give stunning performances of this music of infinite beauty.

The Ohio Light Opera performs Emmerich Kálmán's delightful three-act operetta in a new English performance. Written by Kálmán in 1915 and called Miss Susie, producers from Broadway secured the first international rights. In 1916, with English lyrics by novelist P.G. Wodehouse, the show opened at the New Amsterdam Theater as Miss Springtime and ran for 227 performances. Spurred by this success, Kálmán sought a German language libretto to adapt Miss Susie for Vienna, where it opened in 1917 and was called The Carnival Fairy. Subsequently mounted in Berlin with significant rewrites by Kálmán, this version in a new English translation is the one used for the Ohio Light Opera production.

Laura Kaminsky is an astute and voracious listener. For decades, the journeys her ears have taken have benefited audiences in her native New York City through all the concert programs she has presented at venues like Town Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Roulette, The New School, and Symphony Space, where she currently serves as Artistic Director. But in addition to the staggering amount of music of others she has made available to the public, she has also crafted a formidable oeuvre of original musical compositions that are deeply individual responses to the world around her. Social and political themes have been common in Kaminsky's work, as has an abiding respect for and connection to the natural world. Her music has also been deeply informed by her extensive travels -- from Eastern Europe and West Africa, to throughout the Americas. All seven works featured in this recording -- the first devoted exclusively to her music -- share common elements. Prevalent is the persistent use of irregular rhythms, repeating patterns that shift constantly as well as the narrative aspect of the solo and chamber works.

Three world premiere recordings highlight this disc of chamber music by the distinguished American composer Jennifer Higdon. Ms. Higdon served as Eminent Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wyoming and this composer-supervised recording was the culmination of her activities there. Ms. Higdon comments that when composing "I often picture colors as if I were spreading them on a canvas, except I do so with melodies, harmonies, and through the instruments themselves." All of the performers serve on the music department faculty at the University of Wyoming.

This recording is a short tour of some of the most important works in the development of the clarinet as a stand-alone instrument along with two new works by composer/clarinetist Sean Osborn that build on the works that came before. Sean Osborn has traveled the world as soloist and chamber musician, and during his 11 years with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has also appeared as guest principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra. The New York Times dubbed him "...an excellent clarinetist," the Boston Globe called him "...a miracle," and Gramophone "...a master." With more than 40 concertos in his repertoire, Sean has also recorded dozens of CDs for London, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, CRI, and others, as well as premiering works by John Adams, John Corigliano, Chen Yi, and Phillip Glass to name a few. Sean has performed at many festivals including Marlboro, Seattle Chamber Music, Aspen, Zagreb Bienalle, Pacific Rims, and Colorado. He is also an award-winning composer whose works have been played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Marlboro Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic among others. His other recordings for Albany Records include Cyrille Rose's 32 Etudes; the Mozart Clarinet Quintet and Quartet; and a disc of music by American composers.

Steven Holochwost (b. 1978) studied at Yale and Rutgers University, where he was under the tutelage of Charles Wuorinen. He has received awards and citations from the National Association of Composers, the Fisher Foundation and ASCAP. His music has been performed throughout the United States and in England, France, Austria and Japan. In addition to his career in music, Holochwost is active at the intersection of developmental psychology and public policy, having earned a doctorate from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. This first recording devoted to his music includes pieces composed between 2002 and 2010. They feature modal sonorities and lyrical melodies on their "sounding surface," which are supported by a structural architecture developed through the application of Charles Wuorinen's "nesting" method of composition — an approach that reflects the self-similar nature of musical sound and references the broader tradition of Western art music.

This recording fulfills a long-time dream of Charles Tibbetts to make the music of Alec Wilder for French horn more widely available. Tibbetts first met Alec Wilder and became acquainted with his music through his French horn teacher, the great John Barrows. In fact, some of the works on this recording were written for Barrows and Charles Tibbetts gave the world premiere performance of Suite Nr. 2 while a student of Barrows at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Charles Tibbetts studied with John Barrows until his death in 1974 and then left school to pursue a 46-year career in Europe where he played with the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Badische Staatstheater Nationaltheater Mannheim and the SWR Radio Orchestras. He returned to the U.S. in 2010 and is now active as a chamber musician in the Eau Claire area of Wisconsin.

August Nölck was a respected and well-published cello teacher of his day, a director of the Vienna conservatory and a voice from the great German cello tradition of the 19th century. He authored a catalog of cello pieces numbering in the hundreds of opuses, yet no mention of his name appears in contemporary histories of famous cellists. This recording of Nölck's salon music for cello and piano should help bring his music and his accomplishments back to the attention of cellists and audiences. Cellist Beth Vanderborgh enjoys a rich and varied career as both soloist and chamber musician. She is principal cellist of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and on the faculty at the University of Wyoming. She is joined by colleague Theresa Bogard.

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.

Blossom Time, Sigmund Romberg's delightful 1921 operetta, is based on the music of Franz Schubert and on that composer's touching love life. Blossom Time opened September 29, 1921 at Broadway's Ambassador Theater. The show played for more than 500 performances and became one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history.

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.

This disc of music for flute and clarinet by Daniel Dorff includes his own compositions as well as his arrangements of Bach inventions for the two instruments. Born in 1956, Daniel Dorff studied at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. His music has been performed by the Atlanta Opera, Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, to name but a few. The Scott/Garrison Duo, featuring clarinetist Shannon Scott and flutist Leonard Garrison, has performed together since 1988 and has been featured at many national conferences of the National Flute Association and the College Music Society. Ms. Scott is on the faculty at Washington State University and Mr. Garrison teaches at the University of Idaho. This is their second recording for Albany Records.

The second volume of Jean Kopperud's Rated X series features works by five composers for clarinet and percussion, all of them commissioned by Ms. Kopperud for the series, who asked composers to dare to stretch the medium as they considered what to write. Jean Kopperud is well known for her superhuman performance abilities. She has toured the world as a concert soloist and chamber musician and performs with many new music ensembles such as The New York New Music Ensemble. She is also a performer on the cutting edge of the music-theater genre and received national acclaim for her presentations of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Harlekin. She is joined by the percussionist Tom Kolor, who specializes in 20th and 21st century music. He has given dozens of premieres of music by such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Zorn, Tania Leon and Wayne Peterson and has recorded for the Bridge, New World, Naxos and Albany record labels, among many others. Both performers are on the faculty of the University of Buffalo. Extreme Measures I is a 2-CD set (TROY1217/18) that includes commissioned works for clarinet and piano.

The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand (b. 1970) is wide-ranging — from settings of classical Arabic poetry to scores for dance and pieces for young audiences. His works explore connections between music and other arts, and draw inspiration from diverse sources such as 19th century graphic art, fables of the world, folksong and jazz. This second recording on Albany Records devoted to his music amply demonstrates these influences. Two of the works are inspired by literary sources (Imaginary Scenes and Four Fables); while Capriccios takes its inspiration from the Paganini 24 Capriccios and the Variations on a Theme of Bartok draws from Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Movements from the Art of Conversation are introduced to the audience through short, spoken dialogues performed by the string quartet, which alternate with the seven movements of the piece.

Composer David Wolfson enjoys a particularly eclectic and varied compositional career, which has included chamber music, musical theatre and opera. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Hunter College and his chamber and solo works have been performed through the United States and Europe. His work Story Salad, a series of stage revues for children, toured the U.S. for 13 consecutive years and was seen by more than a million children, teachers and parents. He has received awards and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, the Puffin Foundation and the Manhattan Cultural Arts Fund. This first recording devoted to his music includes a work for solo piano and a cello sonata.

Born in 1934 in London, American composer Godfrey Winham died at the age of 40. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and later attended Princeton where he studied with Roger Sessions. He worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center writing for the RCA Sound Synthesizer, which fostered his interest in this medium. From 1964 until his death in 1975, he was a pioneer and authority in the field of computer music. He also wrote music criticism and contributed to journals like Music Review and Tempo. The bulk of his writings on music, theory, logic and philosophy are at the Firestone Library of Princeton. His short life limited his actual number of music compositions, but the works on this recording are representative of his output. This is the first recording devoted exclusively to his music. Every musical work by Winham was an essay on music, showing by example the content and implications of his complex evolving philosophy of music. The music is performed by some of the best-known exponents of contemporary music, including soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Alan Feinberg.