Catalog

Throughout their musical careers Ramon Ricker and Bill Dobbins have championed a less compartmentalized approach to music; an approach which is obvious on this new Eastman disc. They began their musical association in 1973 as faculty members at the Eastman School where Dr. Ricker is presently Professor of Saxophone. Mr. Dobbins left his professorship in Jazz Studies in September of 1994 to assume the position of music director of the West German Radio Big Band in Cologne, Germany. Both musicians have extensive professional experience in jazz and classical music. Dr. Ricker plays in the clarinet section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, has recorded and toured with such jazz artists as Buddy Rich and Chuck Mangione, and is active as a studio musician, composer-arranger, producer and contractor. Mr. Dobbins has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras under Pierre Boulez and Louis Lane, and has worked with jazz artists Phil Woods and Red Mitchell, The National Jazz Ensemble and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

Albany Records is proud to present the first disc ever devoted to the music of the great American composer, Edgar Stillman Kelley. Kelley grew up among the pioneers from New England and New York who founded Sparta, Wisconsin. He was a direct descendant of the Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford. Sparta was no ordinary frontier village. Its Yankee settlers were lovers of music and literature and as a boy Kelley took every opportunity to steep himself in both. His mother was a writer and musician and his father was a writer and newspaper editor. While drawn to both writing and painting, Kelley decided early on to become a composer. He studied at home first with a young tutor from Germany, who had just arrived from Leipzig, and then in Chicago, where he remained for two years. He then went to Germany, where he studied with the best teachers of the day and was exposed to the music of Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz and Chopin. In 1880, he returned to America and San Francisco, where he took a job as an Organist. He composed all the time. He married a singer, who helped him promote his music. He also taught at Western College in Oxford, Ohio. He went to New York where he became a friend of Victor Herbert and even taught a semester at Yale, where he conducted the New Haven Symphony. The history of music in America is filled with musicians like Edgar Stillman Kelley. Like so many of his American contemporaries, Kelley professed to be nothing more than entertaining. He succeeds so very well as this disc devoted to his music proves. An edition of the piano music of Edgar Stillman Kelley, edited by Brian Kovach has recently been published by Mel Bay Publications.

Madeleine Shapiro is a recognized figure in the field of contemporary music as a cellist, producer of chamber music concerts, and as a teacher. She has appeared as a solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. She has a strong commitment to performing works by living composers and has a repertoire of over 40 solo works by composers from the Americas, as well as Europe and Asia. The chamber ensemble ModernWorks, founded by Madeleine in 1997, presents an annual New York City concert series and has been heard yearly on the New York Consortium for New Music's prestigious Sonic Boom Festival and at other New York venues, including a series at the Museum of Arts and Design, as well as on NPR. She teaches at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she directs the Contemporary Music Ensemble and teaches classes in the performance practice of contemporary music. She writes: "My love for electro-acoustic works began as an undergraduate at The State University of New York at Stony Brook where it was suggested by the eminent violinist Paul Zukofsky that I learn Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms No. 3, my first experience with a work by a living composer. My subsequent performance of this piece led to a life-long commitment to both works by living composers, and the electro-acoustic medium. The pieces on this CD were chosen for their wide range of musical expression, and for the variety of electronic technology they employ. Since 1964, when the Davidovsky was written, the developments in technology have been astounding. As a performer, I have found this revolution exhilarating, and embrace the expressive and coloristic possibilities that such technology has afforded us."

Genevieve Feiwen Lee received her degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Boris Berman. As an open-minded, generous and expert proponent of new music, she presents two significant composers, the French-born Bodin and the American Tom Flaherty. As Kyle Gann writes, "The 21st Century composer for piano faces tremendous competition from the past, yet for many, the medium still offers irresistible temptations. This recording offers compositions commissioned from Bodin and Flaherty; apart from making extensive use of the piano's ability to display different tempi simultaneously, these composers approach piano composition in different way: Bodin shows interest in layering and complexity, while Flaherty's approach is more linear and sound-oriented."

In a seemingly unlikely marriage of ideas, this recording presents new works by four American composers for a fabled instrument of China, the pipa. Building on the instrument's long history, these composers present a new vision of how an ancient instrument from another culture can provide inspiration to an even broader audience. The composers on this recording, Donald Reid Womack, Jeff Myers, Thomas Osborne, and Takeo Kudo, blend idiomatic performing techniques with inventive textures and widely divergent harmonic contexts. They build on the instrument's traditional repertoire by extending the range of cultural influences and reinventing the music that can be played on pipa. The performances are by the renowned pipa virtuoso Yang Jing, whose distinct mix of virtuosity and lyricism, tradition and innovation brings these new works to life.

Marthanne Verbit writes, "Long before moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2001, I began to think about what role a musician might play in the environmental struggle our planet faces. In choosing to make a recording of five piano works from 1997 to 2007, this may be fiddling while Rome burns. However, it can do no harm to share these very personal musical visions of what is endangered, what is now lost, what needs to be celebrated or preserved, and it may give some pleasure." The noted environmentalist William deBuys, who provides an eloquent essay for the booklet says, "...Each piece tells its own deeply felt, inspired story, each in the language of solo piano, which itself is an endangered form..."

Jeffrey Rathbun has served as assistant principal oboe of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1990 and was the principal oboe from 2001-2003. He was previously a member of the Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, and Honolulu symphony orchestras. He has served as guest principal oboe with major orchestras around the United States, including the Boston Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is on the faculty at the Kent/Blossom Chamber Music Festival, the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Rathbun is joined on this recording of works for oboe by Marc Shapiro, a distinguished pianist, who is an acting member of the San Francisco Symphony. He is principal keyboardist with the California Symphony and is active as a recitalist and chamber musician. Shapiro is on the faculty at Mills College. Frank Rosenwein, principal oboist of The Cleveland Orchestra performs with Mr. Rathbun on Rathbun's composition for two oboes.

The compositions on this album range from little-known miniatures to two of the most revered sonatas in the repertoire. From virtuosic flights of fancy to quiet reflection, they explore the gamut of expressive possibilities that the combination of cello and piano has to offer. Cellist Jameson Platte maintains an active career as a performer and teacher. He is principal cellist of The Orchestra of Northern New York, Chelsea Opera, and Bachanalia Virtuosi, among others. On the faculty at Skidmore, Platte works extensively as a clinician, guest conductor, and cello coach. Pianist/composer Matthew Quayle is on the faculty at NYU Abu Dhabi. He has performed widely as a solo pianist and chamber musician and he has received commissions from numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles. This is his second recording for Albany Records.

Argentine pianist Rosa Antonelli enjoys an active and varied performance career. Hailed by critics as a leading exponent of Spanish and Latin American music, Ms. Antonelli has premiered the works of important Latin American composers including Piazzolla, Ugarte, Gianneo, and Guastavino, among others. She has performed extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas with orchestras, in recital and as a chamber musician. She served as chairwoman of the piano department at the Provincial Conservatory of Music Alberto Ginestera and was professor of piano at the National University of La Plata in Buenos Aires. She currently teaches at Adelphi University.

The extraordinary pianist Donna Amato presents a disc of the piano music of Arnold Rosner that includes five world premiere recordings. Born in 1945 Arnold Rosner has pursued a conservative but highly individual style, and his works have been widely performed, recorded, and reviewed. His music is known for it's gorgeous, long-breathed tunes and its powerful emotional appeal.

In his notes for this disc, Mark Fisher, the euphonium player, writes: "My intent with regard to the literature selection for this recording was simply to present a recital. Included are two of the most important and original works in the repertoire, the Jan Bach and the Gordon Jacob. Combined with other borrowed favorites, this program was designed to, through great variety, take advantage of the euphonium's split personality: not only that of tenor tuba but also tenor horn, as is evident here in the range of J.S. Bach's E-Flat Major Sonata for Flute. Octave differential aside, the style and shape of the musical line make for a perfect fit on the euphonium. The Lieder (originally for two voices) of Brahms were originally and wonderfully transcribed for two horns by Verne Reynolds. His skilled arrangement and the wonder of overdubbing make for a rich sound indeed. The bassoon literature has never escaped low brass thievery and the great f-minor sonata by Telemann lies perfectly in the heart of the euphonium range. I believe the Concert Variations by Jan Bach to be the finest work ever composed for the euphonium and I was so proud that he was in the studio with me when we made this recording. The recording concludes with one of the great park band solos and most recognizable of all cornet tunes, the Carnival of Venice."

Robert Starer was born in Vienna and received his musical education at the State Academy in Vienna, the Jerusalem Conservatory and Juilliard. He has lived in New York since 1947 and became a United States citizen in 1957. Among his honors are two Guggenheim Fellowships. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994. In 1996 he was awarded the achievement award by the Music Teachers National Association "in recognition of his distinguished career in music and outstanding contributions to his profession as composer and educator." The pianist, Gerald Berthiaume, is currently as Associate Professor of Music at Washington State University where he serves as coordinator of keyboard studies. Prior to his appointment there in 1989, he served in a similar position at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. This recital of Robert Starer's piano music offers a broad sampling of the music of a wonderful American composer.

Extreme Measures is the first project in clarinetist Jean Kopperud's Rated X series. It is seven clarinet and piano works written for Kopperud asking composers to dare to stretch the medium. The Winnipeg Free Press reviewed a past project that Kopperud toured, which might best describe Rated X. "You can expect to have your head bent a little. You will stay awake. You will be fascinated and infuriated . . . and exhilarated by what you have heard." Rated X ("Extreme Measures") premiered in the fall of 2008 on the West Coast and was recorded in the spring of 2009. A graduate of Juilliard and former student of Nadia Boulanger, Kopperud has toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, China, the Caribbean and Australia as a concert soloist and chamber musician. She performs with the New York New Music Ensemble and is a professor of music at the University of Buffalo.

Since the Renaissance, keyboard composers have used the titles Fantasia and Fantasy to designate a work that has a relatively free form, where they could allow their imaginations to take flight without the necessity of being restricted to previously existing models. Similar in providing a vehicle for a free approach to form and imaginative exploration, the term Rhapsody also traditionally suggests an epic quality. Pianist Geoffrey Duce has chosen a program of both these forms for this recording with works spanning the Baroque to the 20th Century. Known as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator, Duce has performed in major venues in the U.S. and Europe such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, and the Wigmore Hall. His awards include the Making Music Award from Britain's National Federation of Music Societies and the Prix de Piano at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. Duce studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester University, Universität der Künste Berlin, and the Manhattan School of Music. He is currently on the faculty at Illinois State University, has served as a resident international visiting faculty member at the University of Taipei, and has given masterclasses around the world.

Charles Wuorinen is one of the world's leading composers. His many honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize (as the youngest ever composer to receive the award). His compositions encompass every form and medium, and include works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, soloists, ballet and stage. He has been commissioned to compose his Fourth Piano Concerto for Peter Serkin and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for James Levine's first season as Music Director. Wuorinen has been described as a "maximalist," writing music luxuriant with events, lyrical and expressive, strikingly dramatic. His works are characterized by powerful harmonies and elegant craftsmanship, offering at once a link to the music of the past and a vision of a rich musical future. Both as composer and performer (conductor and pianist) Wuorinen has worked with some of the finest performers of the current time and his works reflect the great virtuosity of his collaborators. He is Professor of Music at Rutgers University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. About Fred Sherry Wuorinen writes: "I've known and collaborated with Fred Sherry for more than three decades. During that time we have often performed together, and I have written many pieces for him - in fact, all the works on this disc have been composed for Fred. Saying that he is a superb player, wonderful performer, and profound musician is true enough, but for me needs to be supplemented with an appreciation for a long and marvelous friendship, a true meeting of minds, and an endless source of stimulation and merriment. I owe him more than I can say."

Joseph Fennimore has written songs, chamber music, orchestral works, and two one-act operas. His works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Studio, the New York City Ballet, at the Almeida Festival in London, and the Ravinia, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Tanglewood festivals, among others. His music has been performed nationwide, in Europe and Japan and broadcast worldwide on Spectrum, Nonesuch, and Albany Records. Born in New York City, Fennimore has been composing since childhood. He attended the Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music, receiving degrees with honors from both. After a brief but distinguished career as a pianist, he founded and or its first five years directed the Hear America First Concert Series in New York City devoted to American music. The piano works on this disc include Armistice, a set of three pieces named for the intermission between the two world wars; Variations on a Theme of Beethoven; The Woolworth Man and The Hen's Snuffbox are stylized rags taking their titles from poems in Afro-American dialect by Herbert Woodward Martin. Foxtrot is a sonata in two movements. Blues conjures smoky bars, a haze of booze, hangovers and regrets for the sour love of one-night stands. An Old Soft Shoe is danced by a vaudeville tatterdemalion in top hat and tails, deftly bouncing his rubber cane, executing comic bits and pratfalls while proudly recalling better times long gone. Bernini's altarpiece of St. Teresa in ecstasy and St. Teresa's own writings about the experience give some notion of the central portion of the Second Romance: Calentura de Teresa. The first performance of Concerto Piccolo was at the Eastman School with Howard Hanson conducting.

William Ferris studied composition with Leo Sowerby, orchestration and conducting with Alexander Tcherepnin, choral conducting and organ in Chicago. Like Sowerby before him, he wrote for the church and the concert hall. Ferris was fond of saying that his first aesthetic experience came as a boy soprano in the Cardinal's Cathedral Choristers of Holy Name Cathedral. The inherent drama of the Catholic liturgies moved him greatly and when his voice broke, he was appointed Cathedral organist, a position he held for seven years. During the turbulent sixties, he moved to Rochester, New York, to become organist and choirmaster for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. He returned to Chicago in 1971, served as organist at The Church of Our Savior and after 10 years teaching composition and theory at the American Conservatory of Music, became Music Director and Composer in Residence at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, where he established one of the nation's finest Catholic liturgical music programs, composing psalms, anthems and Masses for the weekly liturgies. In 1972, he founded the William Ferris Chorale, an ensemble specializing in 20th century choral music. Ferris was a distinguished conductor who championed 20th century music. He received numerous awards and honors and was the first American composer to teach at the Vatican. Stylistically, his music is informed by the Gregorian chant and polyphony he sang as a child, by the formal structures he absorbed as an organist and in his studies with Sowerby and by his love for the emotional directness of Italian opera, especially the works of Verdi and Puccini. The basis for his musical language is a lyrical gift for long-lined melody - even his instrumental works "sing" with a vocal character. He died suddenly on May 16, 2000 while conducting a rehearsal of one of his favorite works, the Verdi "Requiem.

This is a disc that contains music that should be pleasing to everyone. Berends composes in a style that is romantic and accessible. He was born in Baltimore where he graduated from the Peabody Conservatory with honors in 1973. In 1978, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in a curriculum emphasizing electronic and computer-generated music. The music contained on this disc is about as far removed from what one normally associates with a composer with these credentials as one could imagine. In this 30 years as a keyboard artist, he has performed with everyone from jazz guitar innovator Stanley Jordan to Rock and Roll pioneer Chuck Berry. Fifteen Exceptions for Piano is a collection of his original piano music written between 1978 and 1991.

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.

Mathias Wexler comments in the notes that "Perhaps a musician's greatest responsibility is finding and championing important new works, forging an ongoing relationship with the music of his time and expanding the repertoire for future generations. If he is very lucky, the work is a great pleasure both artistically and personally. In certain extraordinary circumstances, the music also speaks profoundly to him and allows him to shine as a performer..." This is certainly true in the case of these five new works for solo cello.

Jonathan Borja's second recording for Albany Records continues his interest in performing music for flute by Mexican composers. Included are works by Arturo Rodríguez,José Pablo Moncayo, Juanra Urrusti, Samuel Zyman, Diana Syrse, Eduardo Gamboa, and Arturo Márquez. Borja enjoys a varied career as a performer and educator. He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and is a member of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. He holds degrees from the UMKC Conservatory of Music, Principia College, and the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. His collaborator, pianist Hector Landa is a prizewinner of the Edvard Grieg and the Isaias Noriega de la Vega Piano Competitions. He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Merrie Siegel Parmley has been hailed by the U.S. and Mexican press as “magnificent, jovial and radiant, with purity of tone and great technical command of the instrument” and “superb… [with] a rich, well-controlled tone, and her technical facility is stunning.” She has recorded on the Albany, Beauport Classical, Capstone, and Sony labels.

In great demand as a recitalist and teacher, she has been a member of music faculties throughout the U.S. and Mexico, and has appeared as a recitalist, collaborative musician, orchestral flutist and guest artist throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Merrie divides her summers between Michoacán and Guerrero, México, and Bad Neustadt, Germany, as Artistic Director and Artist/Performer with the international musical consortium, Cruzando Fronteras. In 2023 she, along with the international collaboration of flutists from Germany, Poland, and Mexico, performed the world premiere of Dr. Sarah Bassingthwaighte’s flute quartet “Nightsong” at an ancient archeological site in Tingambato, Michoacán.

A resident of the Seattle area, Merrie has appeared as Principal Flute with the Northwest Symphony. With NSO, she performed the world premiere of the concerto “House of Doors,” dedicated to her by Bassingthwaighte. About to enter her 15th season as Flute Choir Conductor with Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra, Merrie is passionate about creating chamber music as well as working with the talented flutists in her private studio.

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.

Beginning in the last decades of the 18th century, but accelerated early in the 19th century, New Romanticism seems to have given composers the impetus to write more works for the cello as a solo instrument. The cello's capacity to "sing" was exploited by Romantic composers for dramatic and melodic effects in ensembles. For this recording, cellist Anthony Arnone and pianist Timothy Lovelace have dipped into the cello literature for the "Forgotten Romances" that were written intentionally for the cello and piano rather than arrangements for the cello by well-known composers. Cellist Anthony Arnone is an active soloist, chamber musician, conductor and teacher throughout the country and the world. A native of Honolulu, Mr. Arnone received his bachelor of music degree from the New England Conservatory, and was a founding member of the Meridien Trio and the Sedgewick String Quartet. Also active as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, Timothy Lovelace studied with Harold Evans, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy and Frank Weinstock. An advocate for new music, Lovelace has given premieres of works by Osvaldo Golijov and others and has recorded for Albany and Boston Records.

As a result of a workshop on finding the voice in Beethoven and Schubert, violinist Francesca Anderegg was inspired to find her own voice in the music of the 20th century as well as finding her own personal interpretation of classical repertoire. She has designed the program on this recording to show the ways in which the music of modernist composers Schoenberg, Perle and Carter shares the lyricism and expressivity of Mozart and Schubert. Ms. Anderegg graduated from Harvard and holds a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School. She was awarded the Lenore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing Arts in 2010 and is on the violin faculty of Interlochen Arts Camp and St. Olaf College. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn, The Lucerne Festival Academy, The Perlman Music Program and Tanglewood Music Center. She made her New York debut in February 2007 in a performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto, which the New York Times lauded for its "dark, mournful tone" and "virtuosic panache."

A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Northwestern University and Arizona State University, trombonist Brett Shuster was a member of the Chestnut Brass Company, traveling with the ensemble internationally. He has appeared with the Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Phoenix Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Arizona Opera and the Boston Philharmonic. He has performed as a soloist and conductor at the Seminario de Musica de Montenegro in Brazil. Shuster served on the faculty at Temple University and Western Illinois University before joining the faculty at the University of Louisville where he teaches trombone to classical and jazz students. He offers a varied program of world premiere recordings of works by five gifted American composers.

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

This recording is about song — a cornucopia of exquisite jewels from a multitude of cultures: Spanish, Italian, German, Brazilian, Cuban, Jewish, Russian, Romanian-Gypsy, and the American heartland. Like the miniaturized trees of bonsai, it is a universe in a nutshell, reduction to the very essentials. Arranged by cellist Yehuda Hanani and guitarist Eliot Fisk, the songs have a sense of adventure and rediscovery that accompanies such work and offer listeners a way to experience this music in new and wonderful ways. Both Hanani and Fisk are internationally known artists, performing worldwide across the globe. This entire recording is suffused with their deep friendship and shared artistic legacy.

With sparkling articulation, pianist Pola Baytelman probes deeply to the heart of whatever music she plays. Born in Chile, Baytelman made her debut with the Chilean Symphony Orchestra at age 17, and has since played with numerous orchestras. She studied at the University of Chile's National Conservatory as well as at New England Conservatory and the University of Texas, Austin. Baytelman is an active recitalist and particularly enjoys playing music by women and by Spanish and Latin American composers, as this beautiful recording so clearly demonstrates.

Composer Joseph Fennimore's ninth recording for Albany Records includes new works for piano, brilliantly performed by Jeffrey Middleton. Fennimore, who is known as a formidable pianist, has a special affinity for this instrument, and it shows in these works. He wrote the music on this collection when he was in his mid 60s to mid 70s. It is mature, the product of a restless and powerful mind. While these works don't form a program, they each benefit from a lifetime of accumulated experience and feeling. They are ruminative, unflinching in the contemplation of mortality, yet retain the composer's natural vivacity, his sense of whimsy and style. Pianist Jeffrey Middleton is a graduate of Juilliard and Yale. His career has included chamber music, vocal coaching and accompanying, solo performances, and teaching. He is on the faculty of the School of American Ballet, receiving the Mae Wien Award for distinguished faculty service in 2010.

Composer, flutist and now harpist Gary Schocker has written more than 125 works for the harp -- surely a record for a contemporary composer. The esteemed harpist Emily Mitchell has been an advocate, performer, and champion of Schocker's music from the beginning. As she says, "He writes for the harp as a singing instrument, not unlike the flute. Instead of busily accompanying, or traditional right hand melody, left hand harmony, both hands shape the line." The works on this recording were composed between 1993 and 2010 and represent more than 25 years of collaboration between composer and harpist -- a fruitful collaboration that has so far produced four discs. This recording, re-released on Albany Records, now brings all recordings of Gary Schocker's harp music on one label: two discs of his Christmas music for harp; Changes, released in 2016, and now Garden in Path.

A unique musician, composer-pianist Gary Smart composes and improvises a music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, world musics and jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition. He is a professor of music at the University of North Florida. This recording is unedited abstract improvisations. Though the collection is unified stylistically, it features considerable conceptual variety. Some of the improvisations stress gestural and textural material, while others emphasize motor rhythms and still others are harmonically inspired. Two pieces are for piano and radio Ñ improvisations with "found sound materials" on the radio.