Catalog

Double Entendre, an ensemble of double reeds, consists of oboists/English hornists Karisa Antonio, Sarah Davol, Kathryn K. Englehardt, Marsha Heller, Nancy Ranger, Christa Robinson, Elizabeth K. Scott, and Sherry Sylar and bassoonists Susanne Chen, Keith Kriendler, Atsuko Sato, and Dirk Wels. Based in New York City, Double Entendre Music Ensemble is a collective of like-minded musicians devoted to adventurous exploration of the double reed repertoire. This recording is the culmination of a multi-year project to commission, perform and record repertoire for these instruments.

Paul Neebe — soloist, orchestral musician and chamber player — performs widely in the United States and Europe. He is principal trumpet of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra. A graduate of Juilliard and the Catholic University of America, Neebe has taught at the University of Virginia, James Madison University, Elon University and the Summer University in Bayreuth, Germany. His commitment to the commissioning and recording of contemporary American works for trumpet was the impetus for this CD. All four trumpet concertos (by Richard Cioffari, Walter Ross, Roger Petrich, and Eddie Bass) were commissioned and premiered by Mr. Neebe and represent major additions to the trumpet repertoire.

This recording of five works for Japanese instruments by American composer Donald Reid Womack, places him in the vanguard of intercultural composition. Japanese instruments have been a major part of Womack's musical world since 2003 when he was asked to write a composition for the Asia Ensemble. His music for Japanese and other Asian instruments finds a balance in the connections that exist between his background as an American and the rich sounds that are available to the composer through these instruments. A faculty member at the University of Hawaii, his music has been performed and broadcast extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Oceania and South America.

Six pieces of chamber music by Anna Weesner (one solo, two duos, two trios, and one large-spirited piece scored for six musicians) make up this recording. The works were composed over a span of 10 years between 1999 and 2008. Anna Weesner is on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Described as animated and full of surprising turns, her music has been performed by the leading contemporary music ensembles.

Created with the concert pianist's repertoire in mind. H. Leslie Adams Piano Etudes are studies of varying styles, moods, tonalities, and thematic natures — each providing different technical challenges, while expressing the composer's personal sense of beauty. A graduate of Oberlin, Long Beach State University and Ohio State University, H. Leslie Adams' music has been performed by orchestras in the U.S. and abroad and he is the recipient of commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, among others. Pianist Thomas Otten, a faculty member at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has been the recipient of numerous national and international prizes and has performed internationally as a concerto soloist and recitalist. His performances of these etudes are engaging and beautiful. Piano Etudes, Part I, was recorded by Maria Corley for Albany Records (TROY639).

Alec Wilder was a major figure in the New York music world, equally at home writing for ballet and opera, or composing songs for Tommy Dorsey, authoring concertos or pop standards for Frank Sinatra. He was a composer who managed to bridge the worlds of serious and popular music, jazz and classical, the concert hall and the dance hall, maintaining credibility in all these areas. This second recording of Wilder's music for brass by Charles Tibbetts includes two suites for horn, tuba and piano; a world premiere recording of Wilder's Suite for Clarinet, Horn and Piano and a Jazz Suite for Four Horns, Harpsichord, Guitar, Bass and Drums.

Gary Schocker, best known as the most published composer of works for flute, has produced and published a dozen works for solo harp, including two books of arrangements of Christmas carols. This recording follows the release of volume 1 in 2013 — both performed by the internationally known harpist, Emily Mitchell. Mitchell's 30-year career includes her popular recordings for RCA Victor, teaching at New York University and Purchase College, master classes at major conservatories around the world, and as an established name in the television, motion picture and recording studios of New York City. A graduate of Eastman and the Royal College of Music, she is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including First Prize at the 7th International Harp Contest in Israel. She now teaches at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Soprano Tanya Kruse Ruck and her colleague, pianist Elena Abend present a program of songs by three women composers: Elsa Respighi, Modesta Bor, and Lori Laitman. Else Respighi, who died in 1996, was musically precocious, studied with Ottorino Respighi, her future husband, who submitted her songs to the publisher Ricordi. All but two of her songs were written before her marriage, after which she turned her attention to her career as a singer. Modesta Bor, who died in 1998 was a well-known Venezuelan composer, musicologist and choral conductor. Lori Laitman, born in 1955 is one of America's most prolific and widely performed composers of vocal music. Tanya Ruck maintains a career singing oratorio, art song, and opera and serves on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Soprano Mary Elizabeth Southworth, flutist Danielle Hundley, clarinetist Marianne Breneman, and pianist Philip Amalong, formed the ensemble Conundrum in 2005. The group's name suggests both their unusual ensemble and also their openness and need to experiment with adventurous programming. After more than a decade of delighting audiences with their discoveries of repertoire for this ensemble and an active commissioning program, they have gathered the best of this music together for this their first recording. The result is From the Diamond Grid: first recordings of seven new works written or re-scored for the ensemble, plus one old favorite of theirs, which was modified for their instrumentation.

Percussionist and baritone vocalist Lee Hinkle, whose percussion playing has been called "rock-steady" by the Washington Post, is the principal percussionist with the 21st Century Consort and a faculty member at the University of Maryland in College Park. An active recitalist and soloist, Hinkle has performed at universities and festivals across the U.S., and with the National Symphony Orchestra and Taipei Philharmonic. His recordings can be heard on six labels. For this recording, Hinkle explores the boundaries between contemporary music and theatre, performing compositions by Greek composer Georges Aperghis and American composers Daniel Adams and Stuart Saunders Smith as well as one of Hinkle's own compositions. These works include The Authors, a marimba opera, is made up of 11 movements with spoken and sung texts excerpted from various authors' novels, poems and sonnets. The performer is tasked with speaking, singing, whistling, and acting while playing the marimba.

Composer Ingrid Arauco comments that "The word vistas conjures up a panorama of vivid images; however, it also signifies a broad perspective encompassing many experiences over time. The works on this album, written over a 13-year period, comprise a series of strong musical images embracing a variety of styles. Yet together they project a unified artistic vision." A faculty member at Haverford College, Ms. Arauco's music has been performed by many distinguished musical organizations including the Atlanta Symphony, the Colorado Quartet and the Network for New Music. She is the recipient of numerous honors including awards from the American Guild of Organists. This program, performed by some of the best-known instrumentalists in the U.S., shows Arauco's music to be engaging and compelling.

This recording of works for cello is special because all of the compositions were written for Eric Bartlett. Music by one of America's most distinguished composers, Hugo Weisgall; two young composers, David Sanford and Peter Susser; as well as the gifted composer Paul Suits, is offered in stunning performances. Each of these composers has, in his own way, found the essence of cello. Eric Bartlett, a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, has also served as principal cellist of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival for 14 years. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts and the Juilliard School, he is the recipient of a Solo Recitalist's Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

At first thought, the scope of a solo saxophone CD seems a bit narrow, but this recording includes the mainstream family of saxophones—soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones—in a wide variety of classical styles, ranging from tradition tonal music to 12-tone abstraction. As a soloist and founding performer of such ensembles as the Alloy Saxophone Quartet, Bill Perconti's exploration and expansion of the classical saxophone repertoire includes 12 CDs on five record labels. He has commissioned and premiered music by composers Lera Auerbach, Henry Cowell, Alan Hovhaness, Libby Larsen and Frederick Rzewski, among many others. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Baldwin Wallace conservatory and the University of Iowa, he served on the faculty at Lewis-Clark State College until his recent retirement.

Like volume one of East Meets West, this recording is a collection of new music for clarinet by Chinese composers who have lived, studied, and worked overseas. The compositions combine Chinese cultural elements with Western art music to create a unique intersection of cultures through the use of tone colors produced by the combination of clarinet with Chinese instruments, sound effects created with the use of both Chinese and Western musical forms and harmonic language, and a blend of classical and contemporary musical idioms. All the music on this recording was written or arranged for clarinetist Jun Qian. On the music faculty at Baylor University, Jun Qian is principal clarinetist of the Waco Symphony. Previously he was principal clarinetist of the Shanghai Philharmonic and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and Eastman. He has concertized throughout China, and has performed and taught in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Canada.

Composer/pianist James Adler has been hailed as a composer who “writes for both chorus and orchestra with uncommon imagination.” His extensive list of compositions is highlighted by Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem, which has been performed around the world and is available on Albany Records. As a pianist, he has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, making his performing debut at 16 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and serves on the faculty at Saint Peter’s University. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor reserved for Marquis Biographees who have achieved career longevity and demonstrated unwavering excellence in their chosen fields. For this, his third recording on Albany Records, Adler’s music and performing virtuosity are showcased. Titled Introspections, James Adler used the definition (self-examination, soul-searching, to look within) as a framework for his choice of works for the disc.

This recording presents four works composer Mathew Fuerst has written for violinist Jasper Wood and pianist David Riley, along with a solo piano piece. The compositions span a time period of 12 years and show Fuerst's development as a composer. Fuerst, a prize-winner at the 2nd Annual Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, is a graduate of Eastman and Juilliard, where he worked with Robert Beaser and John Corigliano. His music has been performed in numerous venues around the U.S. as well as in Paris, Budapest, Scotland and Hong Kong. He is on the faculty at Hillsdale College. Violinist Jasper Wood has performed with many of North America's finest orchestras as well as pursuing an active career as a recitalist and chamber musician. He is affiliated with the University of British Columbia where he teaches violin and chamber music. Pianist David Riley, on the faculty at the University of Oregon, has received rave reviews throughout the U.S. and Canada, performing as a recitalist at major venues.

Over four decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work — whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. His music has been performed by leading ensembles in the United States and abroad and featured at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown festivals. A graduate of Oberlin and Harvard, Sirota served as director of the Peabody Institute, and as president of Manhattan School of Music. This, the second recording of his music on Albany Records, features his compositions for violin and piano. The two sonatas are recent works, having been written in 2012 and 2013, while Summermusic dates from 2000.

This recording explores societal attitudes and misconceptions about life in Eastern cultures through Western classical and popular music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fascinated by the East, Western composers of opera, operetta, musical theater, art song and popular dance-inspired tunes were influenced by a trend now known as Orientalism; the construction of a mythic Eastern stereotype through music, visual art, poetry, and other cultural texts. Soprano Carole FitzPatrick, baritone Robert Barefield and pianist Russell Ryan have collaborated in discovering, performing and now recording these songs that reflect Western society's fascination, ambivalence and misconceptions of the East.

Russian-born pianist Rose Shlyam Grace has collaborated with flutist Katherine Fink, euphonium player Ed Morse, and pianist Kristie Born to record six works by contemporary American composers — all of which have been written since 2000. The works include two solo piano pieces by Gregory Fritze and M. Shawn Hundley; two works for euphonium and piano by Gregory Fritze; a sonata for flute and piano by Philip Wharton; and a piece for two pianos by Zack Browning. Ms. Grace has concertized throughout the U.S. as a soloist and chamber music recitalist. She is a graduate of Oberlin, the University of Chicago and Eastman and is on the faculty at Bethune-Cookman University as well as teaching at Daytona State College.

A native of New Zealand, cellist Miranda Wilson has performed on five continents as a soloist and chamber musician. Educated in New Zealand, England and the U.S., she is on the faculty of the University of Idaho and is artistic co-director of the Idaho Bach Festival. Wilson has chosen to combine Ernest Bloch's three suites for solo cello with two new works by Daniel Bukvich. One of the connecting features between these two composers is their association with the Pacific Northwest. Bloch spent his last years in Oregon, while Bukvich has spent his career on the faculty at the University of Idaho. Bukvich studied Bloch's manuscripts as a student and names Bloch as one of his influences.

Victor Herbert and Fred de Gresac’s wonderful 1922 score, Orange Blossoms, is the story of an hilarious culture clash between Americans and Parisians in the Roaring Twenties in the French capital and on the Riviera. Orange Blossoms, written late in Herbert’s career, reflected the public’s new interest in the jazz age and musical comedy. Director Michael Phillips liberally adapted the original three-act musical into a streamlined two-act version accentuating the most unique and innovative aspects of the script and lyrics. The Light Opera of New York was founded in 2006 as a professional company devoted to the performance of staged operettas and operetta concerts.

Entering its 30th season, the American Horn Quartet continues to be unique in the field of brass chamber music. Their exuberant performances have brought audiences all over the world to their feet. The individual members of the AHQ are all very successful soloists in their own right — four Americans who work and reside in Europe. The AHQ has more than 500 concerts and masterclasses to its credit and has produced 10 compact discs. This disc, a collection of gems that the AHQ has performed over the years, is appropriately titled En-Cor!

Composer Paul Salerni is on the faculty at Lehigh University where he teaches composition and directs the new music ensemble. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and is a leading expert on the music of Earl Kim as well as being a dedicated educator. His music, described by the New York Times as "impressive" and "playful," has been performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and China. He is the recipient of numerous awards and commissions: his opera Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast won the National Opera Association's Chamber Opera competition and was premiered in 2008. This recording, which contains his chamber music written over the past ten years, reflects his belief that "music should make you want to dance, sing, cry, laugh. It should move you physically and emotionally." Through chamber ensembles, Salerni has taken advantage of the possibilities for music to touch and be touched.

This recording was conceived by pianist Matthew McCright by pairing music from two periods of Olivier Messiaen's compositional life that are linked by the pianist Yvonne Loriod. Messiaen heard Loriod perform the Préludes, and she became his muse for countless compositions, including Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus, which was dedicated to her, and later, his second wife. McCright has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and the South Pacific as a piano soloist and chamber musician. A member of the piano faculty of Carleton College, McCright has premiered numerous new pieces, many written for him, and has collaborated with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Augusta Read Thomas, and Paul Dresher, among many others. He studied at Westminster College, the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Minnesota.

A stellar lineup of new music ensembles and performers, including the Brentano and Manhattan String Quartets and the percussion ensemble Talujon, are featured on this new disc of chamber works by noted composer Eric Moe. Called "music of winning exuberance," by the New York Times, this disc includes works for string quartet; for percussion ensemble; solo percussion; soprano and string quartet; and a work for viola and cello. Moe, a graduate of Princeton and the University of California at Berkeley, is the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, including the Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recordings of his music appear on the Naxos, Koch, New World and Albany Records labels. He is currently on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.

During the past several years, the Corona Guitar Kvartet (Per Dybro Sorensen, Volkmar Zimmermann, Kristian Gantriis and Mikkel Andersen) has specialized in forging personal relationships with composers of varying styles, and of performing their works. The selections on this, their sixth CD, reflect the diversity of contemporary music styles performed by the Kvartet and most of it was written especially for them by composers taken with the the Kvartet's openness to differing musical visions, its willingness to play composers whose music its members admire, and its dedication to understanding each work on its own terms. The composers include Charles Norman Mason and Dorothy Hindman, faculty members at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music; Edward Green, a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music; Franco Sbacco, a faculty member at the State Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia of Rome; and Fred Frith, a faculty member at Mills College.

Rarely, if ever, has a successful Broadway show received such unanimously rave reviews, yet disappeared so quickly as Victor Herbert's 1906 Dream City & The Magic Knight. The show traces its genesis to attempts by the celebrated vaudeville team of Lew Fields and Joe Weber to interest Victor Herbert in writing music for one of their shows. Herbert had no interest in writing for vaudeville, but when Weber went out on his own as a producer, he contracted with Herbert for a comic opera. Billed as a "Dramatic Pipe in Two Puffs," the show's zany first act was in the musical comedy style; in the middle of the second act as an operatic burlesque, spoofing the conventions of grand opera, particularly Wagner's Lohengrin. The Ohio Light Opera offers a new performance edition, with complete music and dialogue recorded live at the 2014 Summer Festival.

The young piano virtuoso Christopher Janwong McKiggan commissioned seven composers from many different cultural backgrounds (American, Canadian, Thai, Chinese, Korean and Middle Eastern) to write a work for piano based on Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin. The variety of the compositions that resulted is fascinating and links multiple national traditions around a central theme, while maintaining uniqueness. Born in England, McKiggan grew up in Thailand. He has studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Rice University, where he is now pursuing a DMA in piano performance. A recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Gold Medal in the Seattle International Piano Competition, McKiggan is committed to contemporary music and has performed numerous world premieres, including the Asian premiere of Robert Beaser's Piano Concerto at the 2012 Beijing Modern Music Festival.

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

The Albany Symphony conducted by David Alan Miller offers a recording of major works by the illustrious American composer John Harbison. The Great Gatsby Suite comes from Harbison's opera and concentrates on the instrumental music. Darkbloom: Overture for an imagined opera comes from material for an opera project that Harbison decided not to continue. The newest work on the recording, Closer to My Own Life, uses texts extracted from stories written by Alice Munroe, Harbison's favorite prose writer. Acclaimed soprano Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie joins Maestro Miller and the Albany Symphony for this work.

The theme that ties this album together, Pieces and Passages, is a self-circling paradox. A piece of music as a complete, worked-out thought or fragments -- perhaps something broken or incomplete. Passages are the kind sought by travelers and in the case of the music on this recording, wends through America, Peru, Ireland, and China. These dual metaphors guided violinist Scott Conklin's approach to this repertoire as he combined seemingly disparate styles and sentiments into an eclectic but cohesive artistic statement. Conklin regularly appears as a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and teaching clinician throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is on the faculty of the University of Iowa and a violin teacher at the Preucil School of Music. Pianists Alan Huckleberry and Jason Sifford are his collaborators.

Composer by character and performer by temperament, James Scott Balentine brings a complex mix of multicultural and eclectic experiences to his music. Professor of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Balentine has received awards, grants and commissions from the Barlow Endowment, the Opera Guild of San Antonio, and many chamber ensembles and soloists. For this recording, clarinetist Robert Walzel has assembled works for clarinet and piano; clarinet and bassoon; and clarinet ensemble. Most of these works have received performances at the annual ClarinetFest conferences that take place around the world. Performer Robert Walzel has been featured at music festivals and other venues around the world for more than 25 years and was principal clarinet of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra before becoming Dean of the School of Music at the University of Kansas.