Catalog

What unites this fascinating disc of song cycles is the poetry of Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933), a beloved Greek poet. The four composers have offered their personal musical response to his art. Baritone John Muriello has maintained a varied performing career in opera, operetta, musical theatre and concert work. He has concertized in London, Moscow and throughout the U.S. and has performed at international contemporary music festivals. A voice teacher at the University of Iowa, he is joined by his colleague, composer/pianist David Gompper.

Saxophonist John Sampen is dedicated to the promotion and performance of contemporary art music. His sponsorship of new music has resulted in premieres of over sixty works, including commissions by Rands, Subotnick, Cage, Adler and Babbitt. He has also premiered first performances of saxophone arrangements by Lutoslawski, Stockhausen and Tower. Dr. Sampen is presently Distinguished Artist Professor at Bowling Green State University and past-president of the North American Saxophone Alliance. Composer/pianist Marilyn Shrude is an active proponent of contemporary music in America and she has won a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for Orchestral Music. Her compositions are recognized for their "shimmering sounds" and "sensuous beauty." She served as chair of the Theory and Composition Department at Interlochen Arts Camp and was a visiting faculty member at Indiana University. She is currently Distinguished Artist Professor and chair of the Musicology/Composition/Theory Department at Bowling Green State University. She has been performing with John Sampen since 1972.

A previous release on Albany TROY381 of vocal/orchestral works by Phoenix-born Robert Nelson revealed a composer with a rich, romantic style that could be compared to that of Howard Hanson or Samuel Barber. A pupil of Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens, Nelson here reveals another side to his personality. Up South, suggested by both Krager and Marmolejo of the Moores School, reveals Nelson's affinity for both classical and jazz. The work is a veritable history of jazz, with each movement reflecting, respectively, the roots of jazz in the spirituals of the Old South, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s, and the emergence of jazz-fusion in the 1960s. The jazz spirit also imbues the duo-piano piece Impressions/Expressions. A more overtly pop sound runs through the arrangements for voice and orchestra of Creole Songs, and the final work, Shadows and Music, applies the story of the famed acting sisters Dorothy and Lillian Gish to the changes music went through during their heydays. This is a highly revealing look at a composer who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s.

Rajiv Joseph's spare libretto, based on the book by Salman Rushdie, is full of gifts for an opera composer: love triangle with dancer, acrobat, and ambassador; vaudevillian rehearsal; over-the-top wedding; lonely hotel seduction; and Anarkali's dance -- a grand Khatak show-within-a-show. Rushdie's novel, not at all spare, is part Hindu/Muslim Romeo and Juliet, part Himalayan Paradise Lost -- a meditation on the personal as political, and an allegory of the danger of innocence. The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis commissioned composer Jack Perla to write Shalimar the Clown and this world premiere recording was made in 2016. Perla has steadily forged a reputation for his unique cross-fertilization of jazz, improvisation, and classical music. Librettist Rajiv Joseph is a New York-based playwright who has been called "daring, magnificent, and virtuosic." The recipient of numerous awards, Shalimar the Clown is Mr. Joseph's first opera libretto.

Begun in 2003 with concerts in Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Shakespeare Concerts has presented recitals of music inspired by the immortal Bard - from original English text settings by many British composers, to settings in translations by Schubert, Brahms, Berlioz, Gounod, Thomas and Verdi, to purely instrumental pieces by Britten, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Korngold. The mainstay of this series has been the music of Joseph Summer, with premieres of two dozen of his sixty-odd Oxford Songs for one or more voices and various ensembles, as well as non-vocal pieces such as the ballet Dance of the Mechanics for string quintet. This disc, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day, presents works premiered during the third and fourth seasons, including several in collaboration with Boston-based string quartet QX. The previous release in this series is What a Piece of Work is Man (TROY750).

Most of the hymns on this recording were written in the 19th century or before, when Americans in general thought more about God than they do today. Our minds nowadays are occupied with other subjects. And yet, surprisingly, our greater familiarity with doubt may help us to hear these hymns more clearly than people in former times could have done. To us a hymn may stand out more vividly against the immensity of the surrounding doubt-filled silence. Faith is not something you have, it’s something you do; the same can be said of art. As an act of faith or a work of art, a hymn exists in that uncertain moment between giving up and going on. A hymn is an inspired decision to go on. The hymns and spirituals on this recording are among the great discoveries faith has made about itself, through words and music that now belong to us all. For a period of about 250 years, from the arrival of the Puritans to nearly the end of the 19th century, the most pervasive musical form in America was the hymn. While Protestant hymns and Negro spirituals were certainly the predominant hymnody in America throughout this time, other denominational hymns were written and sung as well. The first hymnal for the Jewish congregation in Charleston, South Carolina was compiled in 1843 and the Shakers have given us some of the most beautiful and interesting religious songs that have been written in America. This recording was made at a live concert at Christ &St. Stephen’s Church in New York City. Beautifully sung by the William Appling Singers, this recording will satisfy both the Americana scholar, the music lover and those of faith.

Robert De Cormier's Counterpoint, Vermont's premiere professional vocal ensemble, debuted in 2000 and can be heard on Albany TROY676 (When the Rabbi Danced), TROY746 (Misa Criola) and TROY801 (Noel). Here they present their latest album that brings together new arrangements, ranging from traditional to contemporary, of some of the best known and loved Israeli folk-songs. Unlike European folk-songs, whose origins tend to be vague and lost in the past, most of these songs originated in the 20th century and have known composers and poets. Yet they are folk music just the same, for they live now in the oral tradition. Several generations of Jews have grown up singing them, and some songs, such as Tsena Tsena, Shalom Chaverim and, of course, Hava Nagila, have achieved mainstream recognition. The purpose of Israeli folk-songs was to inspire a new national cultural identity through which, in the words of Hinei Ma Tov, Jewish brothers and sisters from many lands would dwell together in unity. Among many Jews and Israelis throughout the world the songs evoke sentiments of pride and belonging. And despite the inner conflicts between Israelis today and the violent conflicts with its neighbors, the message of this disc is the sincere hope that the entire region may someday achieve unity and peace.

Shamayim, a film by Elliot Caplan (filmmaker) and David Felder, (composer) began with Felder's work with Nicholas Isherwood on a piece for voice and electronic sounds and Caplan's interest in a series of images having to do with nature. Shamayim uses Hebrew letters as the base structure for the music, while Caplan uses the numeric values of these letters as inspiration for the images. In some cases, Caplan attempted to be as close to the sound as possible in creating the images and in others Felder would compose based on the images.

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.

You are saying to yourself: Self! Why a disc with two short orchestral pieces and two major new piano concertos? The answer is simple. Each concerto is preceded by a short overture - a curtain raiser, if you will, to prepare the listener for what is to come. Andrew Bishop is a young American composer who studied in Michigan with William Albright, William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty. He is also an active saxophonist who has worked with Ray Charles, The Manhattan Transfer, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. "Crooning is a love song without words. Its inspiration is the Golden Age of American popular songs brought to life by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra." Allen Shawn studied music with Leon Kirchner and Earl Kim at Harvard, in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and at Columbia with Jack Beeson. Since 1985 he has been on the faculty of Bennington College where he teaches composition. He wrote his Piano Concerto for Ursula Oppens who premiered it with the Albany Symphony on March 18, 2000 in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The great American composer Benjamin Lees wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra who premiered it in Boston on March 15, 1968. It is great to see more and more of Lees' music showing up on disc. About the delightful Paul Creston Dance Overture, suffice it to say that here this infectious piece finally receives a performance that is worthy of its title.

Inspired by the way the composers on this recording dealt with life's troubles by turning to music, flutist Catherine Ramirez decided to perform their music for solo flute in the hope it would be a source of strength for others facing adversity, fear, or frustration. Catherine Ramirez is a virtuoso flutist who has won three top prizes at the Città di Padova International Music Competition and first prize in the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition. She has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician in China, and Italy as well as at prestigious venues in the United States. Committed to bringing music to underserved populations, Ramirez has performed for young people recovering from additions, and for children with autism and developmental disabilities, among others. Her orchestral performances include appearances with the El Paso Opera and El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She is a graduate of Occidental College, the Boccherini Music Institute, Queens College, Yale University School of Music, and Rice University and is on the faculty at St. Olaf College and teaches masterclasses at conservatories, colleges and universities in Italy, China, Colombia, and throughout the United States.

Alice Shields writes: "I received a doctor of Musical Arts in composition from Columbia University, studying with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Jack Beeson. I have gratefully absorbed grants from, among others the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Opera Institute and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and have done my time as Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Associate Director for Development of the Columbia University Computer Music Center. I've performed South Indian rhythmic recitation in Bharata, Natyam dance-dramas with Indian dancer Swati Bhise and her troupe of dancers and Indian musicians, at venues including Wesleyan University, Juilliard School and the Asia Society. In a former life I also sang operatic roles with the New York City Opera, the Opera Society of Washington, D.C. and the Clarion Opera Society in Italy, among others. I composed Vegetable Karma in Fall, 1999, while artist in residence at the Computer Music Center of the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. Veggie Karma, as I tend to call it, was the piece I created using ProTools. In creating the piece I used sound sources from hip-hop sample albums, and molded them into pitches of Todi raga, which is from North Indian classical tradition. The work was premiered at the International Electroacoustic Music Festival at Brooklyn College, November 7, 1999. Dust was commissioned by choreographer Mark Taylor of Dance Alloy of Pittsburgh, in collaboration with choreographer Anita Ratnam of the Arangham Dance Theater of Madras, India. Shenandoah is the second of three computer pieces I wrote for choreographer Mark Taylor. It was commissioned by the School of Theater and Dance of James Madison University. I created Shenandoah in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Within days of 9/11, I had to take an eerily empty train from New York City to Washington, D.C. and then a bus to Virginia in order to participate in the first artist residency of this project. It seems almost inevitable then, that Shenandoah came to be about non-violence and peacefulness. The premiere performances took place March 21-23, 2002, at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia."

The artist Hans Hofmann once described a painting to a critic as stemming from unbreakable rules. Then he immediately turned to another of his paintings and said he never thought while painting: it interfered with his spontaneity. Sherman's music is that same contrapuntal fission of rule and rebellion, skeleton and soul: structure informed by passion, the premeditated speech tripped up by the spontaneous touch, the push and pull of mind against gland, the classical cape against the romantic thigh, the German scholar and Hungarian guerilla fused so that both exist simultaneously at any given time. As the New York Times has said, "It was the kind of fantastical piano program that Horowitz's playing might have splintered apart with fireworks...But when Russell Sherman played these compositions in Alice Tully Hall the music was glittering, but not fractured; it made sense along with its sound." Sherman is the pianist's pianist, his concerts filled with excited musicians. If you have not been lucky enough to attend his rare, tortured, and ecstatic concerts, we hope this lush Schubert album with its seething undercurrents will, along with his 20-odd other recordings, provide some consolation.

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

In the midst of the global strife caused by COVID, the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and the erosion of civil liberties around the world, we have felt an overwhelming need to shout. The music on this recording is centered around the need to shout; shout in frustration over the loss of individual freedoms or the overwhelming desire to shout for joy. The music reflects this very human need. While Olin Hannum's work is a piece written to reflect the dual characters of devastation and solemnity, built on turbulence and instability from the opening figures to the final note, the central driving force of Maslanka's work is the impulse to shout for the joy of life. The Oregon State University Wind Ensemble explores new literature as well as performing the masterworks of the wind ensemble genre. They have commissioned 11 composers and their reputation for excellence is acknowledged by the wind ensemble community. Conductor Erik Leung is a native of Canada. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Calgary.

Born in Mexico in 1987, Juan Pablo Contreras has been called one of the most prominent young composers of Latin America. His music has been heard throughout the U.S., Europe and Latin America and performed by major orchestras in Mexico. The winner of numerous awards and grants, he has served as composer-in-residence at the Turtle Bay Music School and the Concerts on the Slope chamber music series. He is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and the California Institute of the Arts. Contreras' music has been largely focused on exploring what it means to be a Mexican classical music composer in the 21st century. His music shows a synthesis of classical contemporary music and Mexican popular and folk music, addressing issues that are sensitive in Mexico but also speak about themes of universal interest, aspiring to communicate deeply with listeners worldwide. You can watch a video of the recording on youtube at this link: http://youtu.be/66nNZYj3aDc

This debut recording of the Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron & Adda Kridler, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello) offers three works by Philip Glass, Arthur Kampela, and Claude Debussy. On the surface, they may appear to have nothing in common, but hearing them in succession reveals unexpected connections. All three pieces are daring, energetic, and uncompromising. They generate unique, magical worlds from minimal materials. All three composers are innovators, making bold statements for their times that continue to affect the course of music today. The Momenta Quartet is celebrated for its innovative programming, juxtaposing contemporary works from widely divergent aesthetics with great music from the past. Momenta has premiered more than 100 works and collaborated with more than 120 living composers while maintaining a deep commitment to the classical canon. They have appeared at prestigious venues throughout the United States and performed in international festivals around the world. Their recordings appear on the Centaur, Furious Artisans

World premiere recordings by the renowned composer Aaron Jay Kernis, performed by the stunning soprano Talise Trevigne with the Albany Symphony conducted by David Alan Miller, make this one of 2017's most distinctive releases. Winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award, the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, and the 2011 Nemmers Award, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of America's most performed and honored composers. His music appears on concert programs worldwide and he has been commissioned by America's preeminent performing organizations and artists. Vocal music and singing have been profoundly important to Kernis and breath, lyricism and line have held primacy for him as a composer. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the three song cycles on this recording that span 20 years of his writing. Talise Trevigne and the Albany Symphony are at the center of these premiere recordings.

Born to Polish-American parents in Niagara Falls, New York, Lawrence Gwozdz has achieved an international reputation for his success at revealing the inherent qualities of the saxophone intended originally by its inventor, Adolphe Sax. His debut in New York's Weill Recital Hall was described in Musical America as an "extraordinary performance of contemporary music" with "the kind of timbre Adolphe Sax most likely had in mind...always with subtlety and taste." He is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Southern Mississippi, and did indeed study with Sigurd Rascher, among others.

Although the six pieces that make up this program were not composed with this purpose in mind, each work explores different ways to combine the sounds of flute and percussion. Two of humanity's oldest instruments, they remain favorites of contemporary composers. Stylistically, the pieces on this recording vary greatly, but they also complement each other by showing manifold possibilities that flute and percussion duos offer.

This third recording of the Argentinian composer Florencio Asenjo's music to appear on Albany Records can be described as predominantly "night music," a meditative kind suitable to the dreamy tales selected from The Thousand and One Nights and Don Quijote, with the Sinfonia Concertante as an appropriate nocturnal interlude. Asenjo's music is written in the maximalist style Ñ meaning that his compositions are based on the creation of sequences of themes that, taken in succession, are each a development of the preceding music.

CONCORA - Connecticut Choral Artists, was founded in 1974 by Richard M. Coffey. CONCORA'S mission is to "perpetuate and perform with excellence choral music of the highest quality for the broadest possible audience." Since its founding, the all-professional chorus has built an extraordinary reputation for artistic excellence throughout New England. Mr. Coffey writes: "The challenge in preparing a recording of choral works of Ned Rorem is not in the selection of what to include but in the perverse necessity of selecting what to omit. For over a year I pored over Rorem scores, both published and unpublished, corresponded with the composer who had a few modestly proffered suggestions, and sat at the piano for many a happy hour playing and singing a treasury of anthems, canticles, motets, choral hymns, and choral songs. For every work presented here there is another, equally beautiful, awaiting its turn before the microphone. Ned Rorem's love for words is manifest well beyond his popular diaries and prose. He selects great texts and then wraps them in fine melodies, tunes which ennoble and illuminate. After only a few listenings to Love Divine or Come, Pure Hearts one may be tempted (don't resist) to whistle and hum them quite spontaneously. This disc is presented as a tribute to Ned Rorem on the occasion of his 75th birthday (October 23, 1998). The music in this collection is an eclectic grouping of works dating from 1955 through 1988 including pieces for a cappella choir, as well as others accompanied by Organ or piano, with texts (both prose and poetry) from religious, scriptural, and secular sources."

The subtitle of this recording, Singing Style - cantabile expressions from the Baroque to present - gives the listener a good idea of what to expect. As pianist Bruce Leto, Jr. says, "Every piece of music has a story - whether tonally, modally, or motivically. Singing Style is an album derived as much from compositional cantabile sensibilities as from the art of song Singing Style takes the listener through compositional passages, vocal/piano arrangements, and humanitarian calls to action." Bruce Leto, Jr. has been a prize-winner in scholastic, collegiate, national, and international piano competitions, including the Young Artist Division of the Canadian International Music Competition, the Seattle International Piano Festival - Virtuoso Artists 20, and the Grand Metropolitan International Music Competition, among many others. A graduate of Haverford College and New York University, he is now working on an MBA at Villanova.

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.

Eric Moe has been described by the New York Times as a composer of "music of winning exuberance," and has received numerous grants and awards. His works are edgy but with an almost pop-like appeal. This collection of recent vocal works on very diverse texts joins his previous two releases of original works on TROY506 and TROY597.

Lansing McLoskey (b.1964) came to the world of composition via a somewhat unorthodox route. The proverbial "Three B's" for him were The Beatles, Bauhaus and Black Flag. His first experiences in composition were as a guitarist and songwriter for punk rock bands in the Bay Area in the early 1980s. It was through these years in the visceral world of punk that he first developed a love for classical music. Hailed as "one of the best composers of (his) generation," McLoskey has had his music performed to critical acclaim across the U.S. and in 12 other countries on five continents. His music has an emotional intensity that appeals to academic and amateur alike, defying traditional stylistic pigeonholes.

"...Melodious and engaging..." "...a musically vivid theatrical debut..." "...the score is continually inventive..." These were some of the comments from the press on the world premiere production of Bruno Skulte's masterpiece, The Heiress of Vilkaci. This DVD is of the world premiere, June 23, 2011 and compliments the recording of the opera previously released by Albany Records (TROY944/45). Devoted to Latvian music, Bruno Skulte was one of the most prominent Latvian composers to flee Latvia and find refuge in exile. Born in 1905, Skulte studied at the Latvian Conservatory and worked as an organist, composer and artistic director of the Latvian Radio and the Liepaja Opera. He came to New York in 1949 and became organist for the Latvian congregation in New York. His 25 year tenure with the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in New York boasts many achievements with his activities promoting Latvian music. The Heiress of Vilkaci is possibly his crowning achievement and offers a delightful listening and visual treat with this DVD. Sung in Latvian with English surtitles.

Acclaimed composer Michael Torke has brought fresh life to an old, but popular form, as these four concertos demonstrate. For Sky, a concerto for violin, Torke imposed classical forms on Bluegrass, evoking the music of the people who settled Kentucky. The other three concertos (for bassoon, oboe, and clarinet) test the limits of the instruments with unstale musical expression. Torke's music has been commissioned and performed by organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, the English National Opera, the London Sinfonietta, and the New York City Ballet, among many others. He has created a substantial body of works in virtually every genre. Award winning violinist Tessa Lark is a budding superstar in the classical realm and a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky. Bassoonist Peter Kolkay is on the faculty at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he is an active soloist and chamber musician. Oboist Ryan Roberts is a member of the New York Philharmonic and has performed as guest principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. Weixiong Wang is principal clarinetist of the Albany Symphony and the winner of several international competitions.

Brian Fennelly was a pupil of Mel Powell, Donald Martino, Gunther Schuller and George Perle. The music on this disc grows out of strong European and American traditions: it echoes the highly charged chamber music of early 20th century Austria; it recalls the visceral excitement and structural integrity of Sessions and Carter as well as the rhythms and harmonic richness of sophisticated jazz and swing. It is music for listeners with open minds and receptive ears.

This is a re-release of the great disc that was for a very short time available on EMI. From its Colonial period to the present, music has played an important role in America's cultural and social well-being. With the introduction of the recording as a consumer product (coupled later with radio), America's music was brought to the masses. Since American music was now able to travel to places on a global scale, between the two World Wars, its influence - particularly in its popular and jazz forms - was strongly felt in Europe. As a counterpoint to jazz and bold avant-garde trends, composers like Howard Hanson, Randall Thompson, Roy Harris, William Grant Still, and younger composers like Morton Gould and Norman Dello Joio, for example, were developing a distinctively American symphonic school. This golden era witnessed an unprecedented flourishing that is beginning to be recognized and re-established in our current time. However, composers from that period were certainly not the first to receive national - if not international - recognition. Apart from John Alden Carpenter, whose music is clearly a product of the twentieth century, John Knowles Paine, Dudley Buck, Edward MacDowell, Arthur Foote, as well as a host of others, like Amy Beach, Gottschalk and Chadwick, were truly Romantic American composers. This disc makes a fine introduction to the music of the wonderful American composers from this period. The American conductor, Kenneth Klein, has an especial affinity for this music and the Orchestra plays gloriously for him.

This is an interesting recital. It is good to see the piano music of Shchedrin and the Bulgarian composer Vladigerov beginning to appear on CD. Krassimira Jordan was born in Varna, Bulgaria of Russian and Bulgarian parents. She studied in Sofia, Vienna and Moscow and was a pupil of Stanislav Neuhaus and Emil Gilels. She became a naturalized citizen of Austria and became Professor of Piano at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts from 1979-1989. After her American debut at Carnegie Hall in 1989, she joined the faculty of the Baylor University School of Music as Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Piano. Highly regarded as a teacher, her students come from all parts of the world and have won top prizes at numerous international piano competitions. She is a fine performer and this music suits her temperament perfectly. As a result, this is a most satisfying disc.

Thomas Sleeper enjoys as active career as both a composer and conductor. He began his professional career as a member of Fermata, a group of composer/performers who presented annual series of interdisciplinary concerts throughout the state of Texas. At age 22, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Dallas Civic Symphony and the SMU Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theater. "Hauntingly Mysterious," "Richly Lyrical," "Soaring Melodies" - all phrases used to describe the music of Thomas Sleeper. His output includes three operas, four concerti, an orchestral suite, three orchestral song cycles, works for chorus with orchestra, two string quartets and numerous other vocal and instrumental chamber works. Sleeper has developed a unique compositional voice whose vocabulary is clearly from, but not limited to, this century. Currently he is Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater and Music Director of the Florida Youth Orchestra. About Specters John Van Der Slice writes: "The title, Specters, reflects two aspects of the work. First, it uses a "spectrum" of thirteen pitches, descending from small intervals to large, which provides the genetic material for harmonic and melodic organization. (This serves as a surrogate overtone series and betrays my admiration for the natural sonic beauty of French "Spectral" music). Secondly, the work is a kind of abstract ballet of sound involving a mysterious play of "ghostly" timbres and textures, occasionally disturbed by sudden, more violent apparitions." Frank Ticheli joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in 1991, where he is Professor of Composition. From 1991 to 1998 he was the Composer-in-Residence of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. He received his doctoral and masters degrees in composition from the University of Michigan where he studied with William Albright, Leslie Bassett, and William Bolcom. He began his Symphony No. 1 in the fall of 2000 in Pasadena, California, and completed it the following year at the MacDowell Colony. Its four movements represent a kind of journey of the soul - from innocence, to introspection, to darkness and finally to enlightenment.