Catalog

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called "one of the major American composers of his generation" (Texas Monthly), and his music has been described as "richly lyrical" by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies, and he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. This recording includes the world premiere of Rodríguez' De Rerum Natura from a live performance inaugurating the new Edith O'Donnell Arts & Technology Building at UT Dallas. Commissioned by the university for this occasion, De Rerum Natura is a 27-minute tone poem based on the Latin poem by Roman poet Lucretius. The young violinist Chloé Trevor is featured in the Mozart Violin Concerto. A rising star on today's international violin scene, Trevor has won prizes at numerous competitions and been a featured soloist at venues such as Avery Fisher Hall and the Young Prague Festival.

Alex Freeman composes in a wide range of styles and media. He holds degrees from Eastman, Boston University's School of Fine Arts and Juilliard. His doctoral research led him to Finland, where he lived for six years, studying at The Sibelius Academy. Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College, Freeman has won awards from ASCAP, The American Academy of Arts and Letter, The American-Scandinavian Foundation and The Fulbright Foundation, among others. The music on this disc reflects Freeman's compositional activity over the last 13 years. Performed in reverse chronological order, each work displays his penchant for continuity and long-range development. Three superb Finnish pianists, Matilda Kärkkäinen, Risto-Matti Marin and Salla Karakorpi, are joined by American pianist Brian Lee in these performances.

The Palisades Virtuosi (Margaret Swinchoski, flute, Donald Mokrynski, clarinet, Ron Levy, piano) have an admirable and well-earned reputation as "The Commissioners" because of their ongoing program of commissioning and premiering works for their ensemble from American composers. This recording, the fifth in their series of New American Masterpieces, features new works from seven distinguished composers whose music displays an array of styles, while exhibiting richness and depth. In all, the Palisades Virtuosi have commissioned and premiered almost 70 new works, giving performances throughout the northeastern United States. Palisades Virtuosi have been appointed "Visiting Artists" at Bergen Community College in New Jersey.

The featured work on this recording, Ansel Adams: America, was originally an orchestral piece co-composed by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris. The piano version was derived both from Dave Brubeck's original piano score as well as the finished orchestral score. Pianist John Salmon, a long-time champion of Dave Brubeck's music as well as his friend, offers the world premiere recording of this work. In Chris Brubeck's words, his father had a friend in John Salmon "with the breadth of knowledge and skill in both classical literature and jazz to take on my father's piano music. John's exquisite and spirited playing brought my father so much pleasure over the length of a long and rich relationship that lasted decades." On the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents as a performer, lecturer and educator.

This recording is a result of the collaborative cross-relations that exist between the musicians and composers on the disc, and their enthusiasm for each other's work. Violist Jonathan Bagg, composers Scott Lindroth and Stephen Jaffee are colleagues at Duke University, while flutist Laura Gilbert and Bagg were co-directors of the Monadnock Music Festival. While Miriam Gideon's playful and probing Creature to Creature was not written for these players, it seemed to add a different, powerful voice that was aesthetically consonant with the other works on the CD. Gilbert and Bagg are joined by harpist Stacey Shames, pianist Donald Berman, guitarist Daniel Lippel and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Shammash for performances that evoke the character of these wonderful recent compositions.

Members of the Divan Consort, a Los Angeles based ensemble present a program of music by composers from Turkey, China, Armenia, South America and the United States. Reflecting the ethnic and national backgrounds of the performers in the ensemble, the Divan Consort is committed to enhancing diversity in music, exposing music by composers from underdeveloped countries to audiences in the U.S. and Europe, as well as performing landmark compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pianist and founder of the Divan Consort, Füreya Ünal, hails from Turkey, while clarinetist Virginia Figueiredo is Portuguese; violinist Mira Khomik from the Ukraine; cellist Maksim Velichkin from Uzbekistan; percussionist Yuri Inoo from Japan; and flutist Pamela Martchev from the United States.

Two young stellar musicians, cellist Xiao-Dan Zheng and pianist Clara Yang collaborate on a recording of music by Edvard Grieg and Sergei Prokofiev that includes sonatas for cello by both composers and two works for piano. Ms. Zheng is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and previously served as principal cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include a Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Young Artist Award and the ASCAP Ira Gershwin Award, among many others. Clara Yang, on the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a varied career as a soloist, chamber music musician and educator. She has performed concertos with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Longview Symphony, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

Long overdue, this recording of Virgil Thomson's 1947 opera with libretto by Gertrude Stein by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, makes a major American opera available. The opera, commissioned by the Alice A. Ditson Fund, tells the story of Susan B. Anthony, but Stein's approach mixes real and fictional characters from different historical periods. Premiered at Columbia University, the opera impressed the distinguished audience and press, but neither of New York's major opera companies took on the work. Thomson's music, a continuation of his style of making text come alive through natural inflections and sparing instrumental supports, is suggestive of its American theme with fanfares, political songs, Salvation Army-style marches and parlor songs.

The three pieces on this compact disc are the results of a collaborative effort between composer John Allemeier and dancer/choreographer E.E. Balcos, who together created an evening-length, dance-theater work based on three murder ballads — folksongs that describe homicides and their aftermaths. As both artists live and work in North Carolina, they fittingly focused their collaboration on murder ballads from that state. Poor Ellen is based on a balled that recounts the 1892 shooting of Ellen Smith by her lover, while Pieces of Silver was inspired by a murder ballad about Frankie Silver who killed her husband with an ax. Deep Water (Omie Wise) tells the story of how Jon Lewis drowned Omie Wise in 1807. Described as "rapturous" by American Record Guide, John Allemeier's music has been programmed at festivals around the world, including Europe, Russia, South Korea, and Brazil as well as in the U.S. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Allemeier also studied at Northwestern University and Augustana College with additional work in Germany and the Czech Republic. He teaches music theory and composition at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

After more than 100 years, the Negro spiritual is still one of the most beloved genres in American music around the world. Designated a National Treasure by the U.S. Congress in 2007, spirituals offer a unique solace and courage to face personal trials. We also celebrate the iconic arrangers who have helped embed the Negro spiritual deep into the patchwork of American music. Composers including Hall Johnson, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price and Harry T. Burleigh, to mention only a few have created arrangements that are world classics. Likewise there is a long-standing tradition and history of world-class artists whose performances have earned their rightful place in the canon of recital repertory. Bass-baritone Oral Moses has chosen only a few of these magnificent arrangements for this recording. Long a champion of the spiritual, Moses is also known for his performances of art songs by African-American composers as well as for his oratorio and opera performances.

The five works on the first disc are by two of the sons of J.S. Bach, and all are examples of what were known at the time as trios. Yet they are a diverse group, reflecting not only the distinct styles of their two composers by also the various types of sonatas written by them. The works on the second disc illuminate the crucial role played by C.P.E. Bach in the shift from the Baroque to the Rococo style and the tremendous artistic value of his work. On the faculty at Duke University, flutist Rebecca Troxler specializes in the music of J.S. Bach's sons and other Rococo composers and this repertoire shows off her warm tone, stylish phrasing and brilliant technique. A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and Juilliard, she was a founding member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. Her colleagues are all noted specialists in Baroque music.

This six-CD set documents the unparalleled artistry of pianist Howard Karp with concert recordings from 1962 through 2007. Howard Karp studied at the Oberlin Conservatory with Jack Radunsky and at Juilliard with Rosina Lhevinne. He also studied in Vienna as a Fulbright scholar at the Akademie für Musik and with Wilhelm Kempff in Positano. His 45-year teaching career at the Universities of Kentucky, Illinois and Wiconsin culminated in his appointment as Emeritus Professor of Music in 2000. As a performer, Howard Karp won acclaim for solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States and Europe and his former students can be found on the faculties of numerous colleges and universities throughout North American and Asia.

These three sonatas for violin and piano, all of them from the last five years of Schumann's life, have always been curiously little known and underplayed. While the first sonata is the best known of the three, it is not uncommon to come across musicians who are not familiar with the second and third sonatas, with many assuming that there are only two sonatas. The structures of these sonatas may not be the most readily comprehensible, however the musical inspiration Schumann displays is hauntingly original, rewarding for the performer and listener alike and deserving to be as much a part of the canon as the more frequently performed Brahms sonatas. Acclaimed artists, violinist Jennifer Frautschi and pianist John Blacklow, give compelling performances of these sonatas. Performing together since 1995, they were selected by Carnegie Hall for its Distinctive Debuts series and have performed at world famous venues in Europe as part of the European Concert Hall Organization's Rising Stars series.

Composer James Lee III, an associate professor at Morgan State University, cites Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Bright Shen, Steven Mackey and Osvaldo Golijov as some of his major composition teachers. Maestro Leonard Slatkin began to champion Dr. Lee's work in 2006, performing his music with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony, among others. Lee has been commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony to compose a work on the life of Harriet Tubman and was the third winner of the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium. Dr. Rochelle Sennet, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, scholar and advocate of contemporary African-American composers. She performs these world-premiere recordings of James Lee's works for piano with sensitivity and grace, ending the program with a work composed for her, the Piano Sonata No. 2.

Born in 1950, composer Tom Flaherty is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His music is performed throughout Europe and North America by some of the best known contemporary music ensembles in the United States A graduate of Brandeis, SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Southern California, he currently is on the faculty at Pomona College. An accomplished cellist as well as composer, Flaherty's compositions reflect his love of this instrument. The music on this recording was written over a seven year span and was inspired by his friends, colleagues and family. His compositions juxtapose simple things in interesting ways. Colliding meters, tempos, modes and levels of dissonance permeate his recent music but the performer's experience remains at the forefront.

Composer Jonathan Pieslak is on the faculty at the City College of New York and Graduate Center, where he teaches composition, theory, and music and radicalism. He is a fellowship winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and his compositions have been widely performed and recorded. Pieslak comments that he is no exception to the stereotype of younger American composers citing the influence of pop/rock music on their own compositions. His musical roots lie in the hard rock and metal of the late 1980s and early 1990s as well as Latin and funk. He and pianist Robert Auler have been friends and musical collaborators since graduate school days at the University of Michigan and the performances on this recording reflect their close relationship. An associate professor at SUNY Oswego, Auler has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, China and Austria. A first-prize winner of the Society of American Musicians competition, Auler made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2004.

Albany Records continues its series devoted to the music of Pulitzer Prize winning composer Charles Wuorinen with this disc, which includes the world premiere recordings of two major chamber works from 2008, as well as new recordings of two Wuorinen classics. The music is performed by several of the finest Wuorinen specialsts: the New York New Music Ensemble; violinist Mark Steinberg; pianist Alan Feinberg; and percussionist George Nickson. In the notes, Frank J. Oteri writes that "At this point in his career, his [Wuorinen's] chamber music output must now be one of the most extensive ever created by an American composer." The four works are performed in descending order of the number of musicians involved: quartet, trio, duo and solo percussion, although the final work is every bit as multilayered as the earlier works, giving the impression of a work for chamber ensemble.

Composer John McDonald joins two of his former students, Ryan Vigil and David Claman, in a recording of their keyboard compositions. A professor at Tufts and chair of the music department there, McDonald is a composer/pianist whose output features vocal, chamber and solo instrumental works. Ryan Vigil studied with McDonald at Tufts University before completing his doctorate at Yale, and is now on the faculty at the University of New Hampshire. David Claman, a graduate of the University of Colorado and Princeton studied with McDonald at the Longy School in Cambridge. He is on the faculty at Lehman College-City University of New York. Three voices, four hands, and myriad expressive twists capture the intention of Keypunch.

Among the oldest of all musical instruments, the harp remains an under-utilized instrument in contemporary compositions. Composer David S. Lefkowitz thrives on pondering the nature of the harp and exploring the harp's unique limitations in new and imaginative ways. The music presented on this recording includes prize-winning compositions, commissions, as well as music written for the composer's friends and spans 20 years of Lefkowitz's compositional efforts. A graduate of Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and Eastman, Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Europe, Asia, Russia, and throughout North and South America. He is a two-time winner of the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition as well as having received awards from the National Association of Composers, the Society of New Music's Brian M. Israel Prize and the ALEA III International Competition, among many others. This is the second recording of his music to appear on Albany Records.

Continuing its tradition of commissioning new operas, the Houston Grand Opera gives the world premiere recording of A Coffin in Egypt by Ricky Ian Gordon. Based on Texan playwright Horton Foote's single-character play, A Coffin in Egypt possesses all of the depth and lyricism of grand opera. The libretto by Leonard Foglia and music by Ricky Ian Gordon offer the essence of opera's disarming intimacy. Set in Egypt, Texas, the triple-entendre title is of symbolic significance to believers and Bible scholars, with the final reference to a literal journey taken by Myrtle, the 90-year-old character in the opera. The emotional journey of this opera takes us through our common experiences of joy, pain and the accepting peace of forgiveness. The incomparable Frederica von Stade was lured out of retirement to take on the leading tour-de-force role.

Alvin Singleton studied at New York University, Yale and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He served as Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and is the recipient of many fellowships and awards. Singleton was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014 and recordings of his music appear on the Albany Records, ACA Digital, Elektra/Nonesuch, Telarc and Innova labels. His music is soulful, with an understated simplicity that glows with warmth and is honest and self-assured. This recording of his chamber music includes four works for solo instruments in a series titled Argoru (an African word meaning play), as well as a work for clarinet, violin and piano; a work for winds; and a work for solo piano titled In My Own Skin.

Over the last four decades as a composer, Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernable in all of his work. The New York Times has described his style as "fashioned with the clean angular melodies, tart harmonies, lively sncopations and punchy accents of American Neo-Classicism." His music has garnered praise from audiences and critics alike throughout the United States and Abroad and he is the recipient of numerous commissions and awards. A graduate of Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard, Sirota studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He served as Director of The Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, Director of Boston University's School of Music and most recently as President of Manhattan School of Music. Married to the noted organist Victoria Sirota, Sirota has collaborated over the years with her in creating a body of work for organ, as well as liturgical and concert works for organ with choir, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. All the works on this recording were composed for, and are performed by Ms. Sirota.

Mezzo-soprano Aidan Soder and baritone Paul Busselberg collaborate with pianist Calogero Di Liberto in presenting a recital of songs based on the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, one of India's most beloved literary figures. Composers from all over the world have been compelled to set his poetry to music, as this recording amply demonstrates. John Alden Carpenter, British composer Frank Bridge, Italian Franco Alfano and German composer Karol Szymanowski all wrote songs dating from the first two decades of the 20th century that used his poetry. The recording also includes recent settings (2004) of Tagore's love songs by the young American composer Karim Al-Zand.

Paul Creston (1906-1985) was one of America's most important and influential composers of the mid-20th century. He earned ample attention for his orchestral compositions, but his songs — many of which are unpublished — remain little known. This recording offers a wide introduction to Creston's vocal music, bringing to light pieces for solo voice that have languished in obscurity. Soprano Rebecca Sherburn is an active chamber musician, having been featured by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and the New York New Music Group. Her scholarly work has been published by the NATS Journal of Singing and the ACDA Choral Journal. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Ms. Sherburn is on the faculty at Chapman University. Prior to this appointment she was at the University of Missouri Kansas City where she received an excellence in teaching award.

SOLI Chamber Ensemble, which includes Stephanie Kay, clarinet; David Mollenauer, cello; Ertan Torgul, violin; and Carolyn True, piano, was founded in 1994 and has been shattering stereotypes for classical music since then. This award-winning ensemble (recipient of the 2013 CMA/ASCAP award for Adverturous Programming, presents concerts featuring underappreciated giants of the modern and contemporary classical repertoire, plus they annually commission new works by emerging and established composers. Their dynamic performances are heard on this disc of four world premiere recordings — all commissioned by SOLI. The music on this recording includes Timothy Kramer's Cycles & Myths, written in 1996; Robert Xavier Rodríguez's Música, por un tiempo (2008); David Heuser's Catching Updrafts; and Alexandra Gardner's Crows.

David Owens, pianist and composer, has long experience as an organist, conductor and accompanist as well. He has appeared as soloist, in addition to working as a collaborative artist with hundreds of singers and instrumentalists. A graduate of Eastman, where he studied composition, his compositions have been played and sung by chamber ensembles, orchestras, choruses, and soloists throughout the United States. Owens is also a widely read music journalist, having received the Deems Taylor Award for Distinguished Music Criticism. This recording, devoted to his chamber music, includes an older work written in 1985 (Fantasy on a Celtic Carol), as well as two recent works (Sonata for Two Pianos, written in 2010 and Raking the Snow, written in 2008).

An opera without an orchestra? Composer Michael Ching's A Midsummer Night's Dream - opera a cappella deploys a "voicestra" of a cappella singers rather than instruments in the pit. Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal wrote in her review that this "remarkably inventive opera is a celebration of what voices can do and still, with the exception of a few startling vocal percussion effects, sound like voices. The voicestra supports the singers on stage, its overlapping lines and syllables weaving around them, amplifying their characters and conflicts, sometimes echoing their words (or even their thoughts) or supplying atmosphere." MSND features the original Opera Memphis cast production of January 2011, produced by DeltaCappella, mastered by Tony Huerta, and recorded in legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, The result is a spellbinding blend of voices that uniquely captures the romance and otherworldliness of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream for today's audiences. The passion and finesse of opera, the vernacular phrasing of musical theatre, and the organic voicing of contemporary a cappella all combine to create a unique and powerful fusion of traditions that provide a novel and beautiful listening experience that illuminates the libretto with what Waleson calls "a human dimension."

Composer Allen Anderson, a member of the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has been the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and commissions, including the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2005. The five works of his music on this recording were written between 1996 and 2008 and display Anderson's preoccupation with discursive line, counterpoint and their dramatic entanglement in the enactment of abstract narrative. Works for string trio, for solo piano, and for solo cello are joined by a work for saxophone quartet and one for a large chamber ensemble. The music is performed by noted performers of contemporary music including Curtis Macomber, Charles Curtis, Aleck Karis, David Russell, Thomas Warburton, the Rasa Saxophone Quartet, and the Empyrean Ensemble.

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.

Duo XXI (Anna Cromwell, violin and Mira Frisch, cello) is committed to developing the musical culture of the 21st century through commissioning, performing, and recording new music. Both members are passionate string professors who reach a diverse audience through concerts, conference presentations, and outreach workshops. The duo's mission is to unite today's students, performers, and composers to enliven music and to cultivate the intimate and expressive string do as a genre for our time. In their second recording for Albany Records, they give committed performances of seven of these commissioned works by composers Jonathon Kirk, John Allemeier, Brian Arreola, Ferdinando De Sena, Stephen Anderson, Paul Johnston, and David Maki.

It won't take long for the listener to realize that all 27 songs on this recording feature distinguished American women poets. Within this recording, you will hear the poetry of Dorothy Parker, Emily Dickinson, Didi Balle, Tess Gallagher, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Bishop. Their words, masterfully set by composers John Musto, Larry Alan Smith and Juliana Hall, will console, inspire and even amuse. An added bonus is that the composers all accompany soprano Cherie Caluda on their works. Ms. Caluda, a faculty artist at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, has established herself as a champion interpreter of contemporary works with her beautiful voice and stunning technique. A graduate of Eastman and Loyola College and the Academy of Vocal Arts, she is a captivating artist who brings the words of the poets to life on this recording.

This world premiere recording of With Blood, With Ink, a dramatic opera with music by Daniel Crozier and libretto by Peter Krask, was made in 2014 at the acclaimed Fort Worth Opera Festival. The opera is based on the extraordinary life of the 17th century Mexican nun, Juana Inés de la Cruz, beloved poet, intellectual, and heroic champion of women's freedom. Her choice of life in a convent over marriage protected her brilliant creative life until she was betrayed by ecclesiastical authorities. Celebrated as the "Phoenix of America," Sor Juana is the first great literary figure in the Americas. Influenced by the operas of Verdi and Britten, With Blood, With Ink, explores how an individual destiny tragically collides with the implacable forces of history and community.