Catalog

Things Fall Apart, a work for voice/narration and small ensemble, is based on the landmark novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It tells the story of Okonkwo, a village leader, who through a series of unfortunate events and the coming of Europeans, ultimately takes his own life. Things Fall Apart was written in 2011 and was commissioned by Odekhiren Amaize, who gave the world premiere performance with the musicians on this recording. Composer Roger Vogel has more than 140 compositions to his credit. He is on the faculty at the University of Georgia. He has received awards and prizes from the Roger Wagner Choral Composition Competition and the Delius Composition Competition, among others. Nigerian-American Odekhiren Amaize has studied voice at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University and the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. His other professional teaching and research interests include promotion and marketing of the arts, arts management and creative advertising through literature. He is currently on the faculty at the Canadian University in Dubai. His recordings appear on the Musicians Showcase and MSR Classics labels.

Pianist Pola Baytelman performs works for piano by American composers Joseph Fennimore, George Crumb and Lowell Liebermann. She is joined by flutist Jan Vinci in Katherine Hoover's Medieval Suite. Born in Chile, Baytelman has studied at the University of Chile's National Conservatory, the New England Conservatory and the University of Texas, Austin. She is an active recitalist who has toured extensively in China, Europe, Hong Kong, South America and across the United States. Her recording on Centaur of Schumann's Humoreske was listed by American Record Guide as one of the top performances of the work. This is her second recording for Albany Records. The first, From Chile to Cuba (TROY1116) received high praise from the press. Jan Vinci, Baytelman's colleague at Skidmore, where both are artists-in-residence, has been hailed as an "exquisite performer" by High Performance Review. She appears on two other recording on Albany Records, including a solo recording titled Global Flutescapes (TROY947).

This unique recording features Mark Morton performing the double bass and piano parts of popular works by Bottesini and Paganini on the first disc, while the second disc contains all the piano accompaniments performed by Mark Morton and is intended as a play-along disc for bassists. Hailed by critics as "a most artistic representative of the new generation developed in the last half century," Mark Morton is on the faculty at Texas Tech University. He has performed in orchestras (principal bass of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra); been featured in recitals and as a concerto performer and was the first-prize winner of the 1990 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. He is the author of the popular "Dr. Morton" series of double bass technique books. Morton studied at Juilliard, earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees there. He performs on a double bass made by Gennaro Vinaccio of Naples in the last quarter of the 18th century.

Music by Greek and Greek-American composers is featured on this recording, offering an overview of compositions from several generations. Theodore Antoniou, born 1935 in Greece, maintains affiliations with universities and contemporary music ensembles in the United States and Greece. Nickitas Demos, born in 1962, is the youngest of the composers represented. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Indiana University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is founder and artistic director of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble at Georgia State University, where he is also a professor of composition. Christos Samaras, born in 1956, studied at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, the University of Music and Fine Arts in Vienna and the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. He now teaches composition at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. George Tsontakis, born in 1951, studied at Juilliard and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He has received two Grammy nominations and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto No. 2. Many of the performers are on the faculty at George State University and conservatories in Thessaloniki and Macedonia.

Pianist Findlay Cockrell has had a long and distinguished career in upstate New York as a soloist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. He served on the faculty at the State University of New York at Albany, where he taught piano and classes in music as well as creating a radio course titled Keyboard Masters. A graduate of Juilliard, Mr. Cockrell has performed around the United States and in Russia, where he appeared in recital at the Moscow Conservatory and a guest soloist at Tchaikovsky Hall with the Ossipov Orchestra. This recording includes three American composers whose last names begin with G: Gershwin, Gould and Gottschalk with some seldom recorded arrangements by Earl Wild of Gershwin songs.

The compositions of Amy Williams have been presented at renowned contemporary music venues in the United States, Australia and Europe. Her works have been performed by leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the International Contemporary, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and the California E.A.R. Unit. Ms. Williams is the recipient of a Howard Foundation Fellowship, a Fromm Music Foundation Commission and a Creative Development Grant from the Heinz and Pittsburgh Foundations. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. This recording, the first devoted exclusively to her music, features compositions for piano and strings, all given virtuosic performances by some of the finest performers of contemporary music including the JACK Quartet, Jeffrey Jacobs, Amy Williams and the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo.

Born in 1948, composer/pianist Steven R. Gerber studied at Haverford College and Princeton. His music has been performed by orchestras and ensembles across the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Louisville Orchestra. His music is especially popular in Russia and the Ukraine where there have been dozens of performances of his orchestral, solo and chamber works. His music appears on the Chandos, Naxos, Koch and Arabesque labels. This recording includes almost all of his solo piano music performed in reverse chronological order, interspersed with a riveting performance of his Duo for violin and piano by Gregory Fulkerson and Jennifer Rinehart.

Composer David Patterson is on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholars Award and the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award. Patterson received his Ph.D. from Harvard and studied with both Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His compositions have been described as "a clear and natural blending of many different kinds of music." Of special note on this recording of his chamber music are two works written for James Pellerite, former principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and now a virtuoso on the Native American flute. One work is for Native American flute and percussion, while the other is for Native American flute and chamber ensemble.

Spectacular sonics are presented on this unique offering of a Blu-Ray surround stereo disc and a regular cd for those people who do not have Blu-Ray players. The Blu-Ray format permits recordings of works in multi-channel at a higher resolution as well as layering of separate mixes so that surround recording and stereo can be presented simultaneously and conveniently as options to listeners. The pieces written to include electronics are all written for eight channels of electronic sound surrounding the audience. The regular compact disc presents content at a lower bit and sampling rate in comparison with the Blu-Ray, making the music available to everyone with a cd player. Composer David Felder has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composer. His music is known for its highly energetic profile, its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials and its lyrical qualities. Felder is on the faculty at SUNY-Buffalo and artistic director of the June in Buffalo Festival.

David Ashley White's secular and sacred compositions are widely performed and published and he has received numerous commissions. Recordings of his music appear on the Gothic and Zephyr labels. In addition to the extensive publication of White's choral and instrumental music, his hymns are included in a number of hymnals, including those of the Episcopal, Methodist, and United Church of Christ. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, David White serves as director of the University of Houston Moores School of Music. The core of the music on this recording duplicates the repertoire from a concert honoring the composer at the University of Houston and focuses on his secular music, although some of the works employ sacred texts. The music represents a wide range of White's output offering amid the diversity unifying elements of lyricism and expressiveness.

A native of Washington, DC, composer and pianist Jessica Krash was awarded a Wammie (Washington Area Music Association's Grammy) in 2010. Her work has been presented in both traditional and experimental settings in New York, Germany, Austria and all the major performance venues and museums in Washington, DC. She lectures on topics of music and the brain, music history and the insights we get from dangerous, banned and provocative music. She is on the faculty at George Washington University and has previously been a faculty member at George Mason University and the Levine School of Music. Se is a graduate of Harvard, Juilliard and the University of Maryland, where she earned her doctorate in composition. The major work on this recording, Be Seeing You, for string quartet and piano, was commissioned by the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts and is inspired by 14 depictions of women found in these two museums.

This recording of tangos began with the idea of writing music that could allow for freedom of improvisation while adhering to the composer's intent. Composer Pablo Ortiz began writing works for cello, multiple cellos and cellos with other string instruments while exploring the concept of original composition versus transcription, or music inspired by other music. His colleague Anssi Karttunen began transcribing music as well, using music of classic tangos, both from Argentina and Finland. Thus the listener will experience original compositions in the tango idiom along with transcriptions and arrangements of classic tangos. It is often hard to tell whether the composer is the interpreter or the interpreter the composer. This is a study in freedom and the shifting line between invention and re-invention. The two different kinds of tangos -- those from Argentina and those from Finland give different shades to the nostalgia and sadness they are both about.

Enterprising collaborators Benjamin Sung and Jihye Chang offer a program of new American music for violin and piano. The earliest work on the recording, Derek Johnson's fragments was written in 2002 and revised between 2003 and 2005, while the most recent work, Christian A. Genry's Flux Flummoxed was written in 2009 as a commission for Sung and Chng. Sean Shepherd's Dust is dedicated to the performers who gave the world premiere performance. Benjamin Sung is on the faculty at Florida State University and the Brevard Music Center. A graduate of Eastman and Indiana University, he is the recipient of numerous awards and performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the U.S., in Korea and in Brazil. A graduate of Indiana University, Jihye Chang enjoys an active performing and teaching career, appearing in venues in the U.S., Canada, Central America, Korea and France. She was the first winner of the Mikhashoff International Competition for Pianist-Composer Collaboration in 2008.

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

Born in 1959, composer Mark Gustavson studied at Northern Illinois University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Columbia University, Conservatory of Amsterdam, Tanglewood and the Banff Centre. He is on the faculty at Adelphi University and Nassau Community College. He has received numerous honors, including a composer award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Fulbright Fellowship. His music has been commissioned and performed by notable chamber ensembles including Speculum Musicae, Parnassus, The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and the New Music Consort, among many others. The five pieces on this recording, covering a period of 13 years, are representative of Gustavson's primary interests, which is composing instrumental music from works for solo instruments or orchestral music. His unique voice, influenced by approaches to music from around the world, often sounds spontaneous or improvised, although it is strictly notated.

Four of the five works on this compact disc of new works for voice, viola and piano performed by the Chiaroscuro Trio are world premiere recordings. The only professional chamber ensemble dedicated to this instrumentation, the Chiaroscuro Trio has appeared as guest ensemble at various festivals and concert venues in the United States and will make their European debut in the summer of 2013. The Trio has selected contemporary American works that vary greatly, whether in personal styles of the composers, their background, the texts or the contradictory yet congruent aspects of life that they evoke. What makes these works American, is the sense that unity comes from diversity and plurality and that embracing and encouraging a melting pot of disparate voices and cultures, leads to a healthy and cohesive society and art. These five works are mindful of the past, reflective of our epoch, and relevant to the future.

The Esterhazy Quartet commissioned Samuel Adler's String Quartet No. 9 on the occasion of their 40th anniversary in 2010. Accompanying this string quartet are two other works – a piano quintet written in 2000-2001 and Adler's String Quartet No. 8, which was composed in 1988. Born in 1928, Samuel Adler's has had a long and distinguished career as a composer. He is the composer of more than 400 works; his music has been performed around the world; he is the author of three books; the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Aaron Copland Lifetime Achievement in Music Award; and a professor emeritus at Eastman and on the faculty at Juilliard. The Esterhazy Quartet has performed on three continents and garnered international accolades from critics. They are the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Missouri, and are widely recognized for their commitment to performing the music of our time. They are joined by virtuoso pianist Jerome Lowenthal, who, while born in 1932, continues to fascinate audiences.

The works featured on this recording are not united by a single topic or style. What they share is that they are extraordinary, yet seldom heard examples of American music for two pianists. Performed by the husband-and-wife piano duo team of Stacy Rodgers and Diane Wang, the ensemble is a perennial favorite of audiences, with their programs offering an intriguing bland of standard four-hand and two-piano repertoire and daring new works by contemporary composers. Stacy Rodgers is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and a graduate of Southern Methodist University and The University of Texas at Austin. Also on the faculty at the University of Mississippi, Diane Wang is a member of the faculty woodwind quintet and performs both as a pianist and flutist. She holds degrees from Indiana University and The University of Texas at Austin.

David Walther, the violist of The Debussy Trio, is an active commercial studio musician who has performed on more than 400 motion pictures, television shows, jingles and records. He is a self-taught composer whose influences range from the great past and present masters of classical music to the modern sounds of rock, pop and jazz. This recording offers a sample of this extremely talented musician's work, with the viola as one of the common threads of the compositions. The recording includes a trio for flute, viola and harp; a work viola and piano; one for solo viola; and ends with a trio for violin, cello and piano. Walther is the violist for the recording that features performances by The Debussy Trio and The Capital Trio.

As the performers note, everyone who loves Chopin understands that his Polish roots fired his artistic inspiration. In this recording of three of Chopin's works involving cello and piano, the cellists he met, the music he heard, the pianos he played, and above all, that mythic love for his homeland are acknowledged. All of these works benefit from the special qualities of the Pleyel piano used for this recording, as well as the gut strings and 19th-century techniques of cello playing used by cellist Brent Wissick. Wissick, noted for his work on period instruments has given concerts on baroque cello and viola da gamba around the world. He is on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His colleague, pianist Andrew Willis, has spent several decades exploring the historical development of keyboard instruments and their performance practice. Willis serves on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Born in 1922, George Walker is an acknowledged American master whose orchestral works have been played by every major American orchestra. He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorate degrees and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for Lilacs, which is one of the works on this compact disc. Two works, Sinfonia No. 4 and Movements for Cello and Orchestra are world premiere recordings. Ian Hobson, a champion of Walker's music is the conductor for this recording.

Award-winning soprano Marcía Porter offers a program of songs by contemporary American composers. An active recitalist, Ms. Porter made her Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) debut in 2005. She has performed in venues throughout the United States, Italy, Brazil and the Czech Republic. Porter has appeared at international festivals including the Prague Proms, the Ravinia Festival and Piccolo Spoleto Festival and sung with orchestras such as the Czech National Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Porter was a 2011-12 Fulbright Scholar based in Brazil where she was a visiting artist and professor at the Universidade de Sâo Paulo. On the faculty at The Florida State University College of Music, she is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Collaborating with Ms. Porter is acclaimed pianist and fellow faculty member Valerie M. Trujillo, whose experience in song literature and opera make her a much sought after accompanist, coach and teacher of masterclasses.

This compact disc shares art songs of four living American women composers never previously recorded by mezzo-soprano. With these particular songs, Juliana Hall, Lori Laitman, Judith Cloud, and Libby Larsen have chosen poetic settings that reflect women's personalities, tastes, and life experiences from the 1920s to the present time. Sung by mezzo-soprano Katherine Eberle, the experience of hearing this music created by women composers offers understanding, meaning, enjoyment and enrichment for the listener. Eberle, a member of the faculty at the University of Iowa has presented more than 100 solo recitals in her 25-year career. Performing around the United States, Canada, the U.K. and Russia, Eberle specializes in oratorio, chamber music, art song and opera. Her colleague, pianist Ksenia Nosikova, also on the faculty at the University of Iowa is a graduate of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the University of Colorado. A Steinway Artist, Nosikova has performed and taught in China, Italy and Hong Kong as well as on guest artist series at more than 80 American universities.

Glory Denied, the new opera by Tom Cipullo, is the saga of Col. Jim Thompson, the longest-held American POW in U.S. history. Cipullo’s dramatic chamber opera based on the 2001 oral history by Tom Philpott, was recorded live with cast and ensemble of the 2013 Fort Worth Opera Festival. Glory Denied is a distinctly American story encapsulating something of the moral essence of the Vietnam War and the bitterness of the war’s legacy. Tom Cipullo’s score is beautiful and chilling and returns us to a transformative era in our nation’s history.

The music by David Felder and Andrew Rindfleisch on this disc couldn't be more different in concept or atmosphere. What these artful composers share is an abiding curiosity for aural imagery—how color both of instrumental and electronic persuasion melds with programmatic ideas to produce compelling, challenging and forceful narratives. Felder and Rindfleisch have spent their careers delving into the unknown while retaining connections with the near and distant pasts. The influences in the scores performed here are numerous, with nods to jazz and myriad 20th-century techniques. But most important is the way each piece inhabits a distinctive sonic world through novel performing forces that open up the expressive potential of the topics at hand. In revealing the salient qualities in each score, the music making of the Slee Sinfonietta tells us much about the complementary creativity of Felder and Rindfleisch even as it renders the pairing of these composers something on the order of ideal.

The selected solo instrumental works on this recording by Boston composer Graham Gordon Ramsay span a 30 year time frame and are autobiographical, reflecting the influences and personal events that shaped the works. Ramsay is in demand as a creator of choral and instrumental works for a range of venues, including numerous church congregations in the United States and Europe. He studied at the Tanglewood Institute, Boston University and the Fontainebleau School in France with such masters as Theodore Antoniou, David Del Tredici, and Joyce McKeel. Known for his modern yet tuneful style, Ramsay writes predominantly for solo voice, chorus, solo instruments, and chamber ensemble. This recording, performed by some of the best-known Boston musicians, complements his first recording on Albany Records—a disc of his sacred music for chorus.

Inspired by Virgil's Aeneid, the three works comprising Gates of Silence are connected but independent. Each is a passage that echoes with relevance today — our fallen cities, our physical passages and in our personal interactions with each other and our destinies. The third piece, Dido Refuses to Speak, sets poetry by National Book Award finalist, Linda Gregerson. As a composer and performer, Susan Botti's eclectic background and experiences are reflected in her music. Theatre and the visual arts play a formative role in the aesthetic of her work, which have encompassed traditional, improvisational and non-classical composition and singing styles. A recipient of numerous grants and awards, Botti specializes in the performance of contemporary music by composers of diverse styles, in addition to her own works. She studied at the Berklee School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, where she currently is on the composition faculty.

This recording features the bird-like and zephyr quality of the flute in works of virtuosity and lyricism, but also highlights extended techniques, 21st century nuances, and contemporary lyrical styles, bringing to light the complete and modern capabilities of the instrument. Distinguished soloist, Dr. Tia Roper, was the grand prizewinner of the 2004-05 Artists International Debut Recital Award as well as a winner of the New York Flute Club Competition. She has served as principal flutist of the New York String Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She has given numerous concert performances in Russia, Switzerland, the Barbados, Japan, Venezuela and throughout the United States. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Boston University, and obtained her D.M.A. from Rutgers University. She serves on the faculty of the Bloomingdale School of Music and the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts. Her collaborator, pianist Mitchell Vines, enjoys an active performing career in Europe, South America, Asia and the United States. A graduate of Portland State University and Eastman, Vines is music and choir director of the Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey and Temple Israel in New York City.

Gary Schocker is best known as the most published composer for the flute, but also is a world-renowned flutist. He has turned his attention to composing for solo harp, an instrument he is now playing. For this disc he has arranged 21 favorite Christmas carols for harp, performed by the ever-popular harpist Emily Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell's 30-year career includes numerous recordings, as well as performing and teaching around the world. In the words of the Washington Post, "Mitchell commands a vivid palette of colors and uses them with imagination."

Faculty colleagues at Georgia State University, saxophonist Jan Berry Baker and clarinetist Kenneth Long perform a program of contemporary American compositions, the oldest of which by Lee Hyla was written in 1992. Works by Nickitas Demos, Lansing McLoskey and Perry Goldstein were all completed in 2011 and Gregory Wanamaker's Duo Sonata was written in 2002. Ms. Baker has won top prizes in numerous competitions including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the North American Saxophone Alliance Concerto Competition and the Johann Strauss Society competition. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with several orchestras in Canada and the United States and with the National Symphony of the Ukraine. An advocate of new music, Baker is Co-Artistic Director and saxophonist with the Atlanta-based new music ensemble Bent Frequency. Clarinetist Kenneth Long enjoys a multifaceted performing career including orchestral, chamber music and solo engagements. He is a member of the clarinet section of the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and has performed with many of the Southeast's preeminent ensembles including the Atlanta, Sarasota and Charleston symphonies. Principal clarinet of Bent Frequency, Long also is principal clarinetist of the Atlanta Chamber Winds.

The compositions on this recording of music for saxophone ensemble represent traditional Western classical music combined with such diverse styles as jazz, popular and folk music, Asian and African music and even show the influence of television. It also represents contemporary music of flexible instrumentation. The Alloy Saxophone Quartet was formed to explore contemporary music and includes Bill Perconti, Sean Fredenburg, Duke Sullivan and Erik Steighner -- all noted performers. Perconti, who performs the works for solo saxophone is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and the University of Iowa. He has made 26 world premiere recordings of 15 composers on five record labels. He is on the faculty at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho.

Weakness, an opera by Barbara White, is based on an old Celtic story known as "The Curse of Macha." White was inspired to use this story for an opera after spending time in a Chicago monastery, where she participated in a seminar taught by Tom Cowan on Druid Wisdom Tales. Cowan, an internationally respected teacher of shamanism and Celtic spirituality was in turn, inspired by White's opera, where the story of Macha came alive for him, to write his own tale, which is presented on this disc. Barbara White has become increasingly active in theatrical performance and as a videomaker and she remains an idiosyncratic and searching clarinetist. She is a professor of music at Princeton University and has received awards and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, among others.