Catalog

Peteris Plakidis is one of the Latvian composers who from his very first compositions successfully created lyrical vocal works based on the intellectual poetry of the day. His compositions for voice and piano or other instruments do not seem to warrant the description of solo songs in the traditional meaning of the word. They could more accurately be described as "musical poems" and certainly deserve this title. Now a professor at the Latvian State Conservatory, Plakidis' music is performed extensively in Latvia and to some extent in Europe and the U.S. Plakidis was a visiting professor at Southern Illinois University in the early 1990s, founding a chamber ensemble called The Transatlantic Trio that combined musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. The soloist on this recording, Maija Krigena, who is married to Plakidis, appears with the Latvian State Opera.

"27" An Opera in Five Acts, owes its origins to the friendship between soprano Stephanie Blythe and the artistic director of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, James Robinson. They decided to commission one of Blythe's favorite composers, Ricky Ian Gordon, to create a new work for her. Gordon presented his idea of a fantasy on Gertrude Stein as a potential subject and "27" was born. 27 refers to the address of Stein's salon in Paris, 27 rue de Fleurus. Virgil Thomas said of that address that, "Every story that ever came into the house eventually got told in Alice's way, and [that became] its definitive version." Ricky Ian Gordon, long interested and perhaps obsessed with Gertrude Stein, had always wanted to write an opera about Stein and Alice Toklas. He found the perfect librettist in Royce Vavrek, a Brooklyn-based writer of opera, musical theater, and concert works. This recording was made at the world premiere performances of the work in Saint Louis.

Thomas Sleeper's Einstein's Inconsistency is a series of eight operas, the longest being about 20 minutes with the shortest just under a minute. On the surface, the operas seem unrelated, but each acts as a sort of mosaic tile to create a treatise on the very nature of existence. What all the characters have in common (a king, a bureaucrat, a critic, a grieving man, a heretic, a priest, a paranoid woman, and finally God) is that they are all at the brink of discovering what it means to exist. When taken as a whole, Einstein's Inconsistency takes the listener into a sort of sonic funhouse. One cannot experience this work and remain unaltered by it. It is clearly a deeply personal piece for the composer and contains some of his most inventive and powerful music to date.

The distinguished American composer Thomas Pasatieri is well known for his operas, having composed 22, as well as for his hundreds of songs and other vocal works. In fact, his first symphony, written at age 63 came about because of his association with the University of Kentucky and their production of his opera, The Hotel Casablanca. His Symphony No. 2 was written for conductor John Nardolillo and the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra as well, while Symphony No. 3 was commissioned and premiered by the Northwest Sinfonietta. These are world premiere recordings of these works.

The music of Frank Stemper has been performed in the United States and abroad in more than 22 countries. Through his multiple artist and teaching residencies as well as guest composer appearances at international festivals, his music has maintained a presence on the world new music scene. An eclectic blending of serial and jazz influences from the middle 50 years of the 20th century, his music demands virtuosity as well as sensitive interpretation. Korean pianist Junghwa Lee is the winner of many competitions and appears regular in solo recitals, chamber concerts, and lecture recitals as well as in concerto performances. A graduate of Seoul National University and Eastman, she is currently on the faculty of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an active member of the Altgeld Chamber Players. She is the perfect interpreter for this recording of Stemper's complete music for piano.

This recording of new works for shakuhachi and classical guitar has brought composer and shakuhachi master Jeffrey Lependorf to new places both in terms of incorporating improvisation into composed scores and in terms of composing for himself to perform with other instruments. Challenged to incorporate guitarist Scott Field's deep roots in avant-jazz performance with his formal classical training in traditional Buddhist meditation music, Lependorf was presented with an opportunity to create composed works that invite varying levels of improvisation. A graduate in music composition of Columbia and Oberlin, Jeffrey Lependorf also is a certified master of the shakuhachi. His colleague, guitarist Scott Fields, studied at the University of Wisconsin. As a leader of his own groups and a sideman in other groups, Fields has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia and appears on more than 30 recordings.

This collection of music for oboe offers six examples of the instrument's singular affinity to express grief and suffering. Each piece is concerned primarily with tragedy and loss in various forms, and in each case the composer has gravitated toward the voice of the oboe to portray the emotional dissonances and psychological complexities of the material at hand. Yet within these diverse works we find anger, defiance, resignation, nostalgia, hope and transcendence in addition to sadness and mourning. Oboist Mark Hill's versatile career has spanned a broad range of orchestral, chamber, and solo performing while maintaining a consistent commitment to teaching. He is currently principal oboe of the National Philharmonic and a member of the Left Bank Concert Society. A graduate of the State University of New York-Stony Brook, he is professor of oboe and chamber music at the University of Maryland School of Music in College Park. This is his second recording for Albany Records.

All of the works on this recording may be labeled character pieces, a catchall term that covers compositions that are not sonatas, variations, dances, toccatas, fantasies or fugal works. The term originated in the late 1820s and referred almost exclusively to solo piano pieces. Pianist Richard Zimdars performs 20th and 21st century compositions written by composers from Russia, the U.S., Australia, Korea, and Israel. Zimdars, recently retired from a 40-year teaching and performing career, performed and lectured in Europe, Brazil, Canada and the U.S. His extensive discography includes the complete piano music of Roy Harris (on Albany Records) as well as Charles Ives' four violin sonatas and numerous recordings of works by contemporary composers. He was artistic director of the 2011 American Liszt Society Festival and organizer of the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition.

For its second recording on Albany Records, the famed TCU Percussion Orchestra performs seven works written by composers from Texas, the Midwest and Oregon in world premiere recordings. Under the direction of Brian A. West, the ensemble has commissioned and premiered more than 20 works. The TCU Percussion Orchestra has been showcased at the Percussive Arts Society's International Conventions in 2005, 2008 and 2011. Dr. West, an active clinician, composer/arranger, and adjudicator for a variety of percussive events, is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Texas. He is the Percussion Artistic Director for the International Festival of Winds and Percussion.

Benjamin Sabey is a composer of chamber, live computer interactive and orchestral music, which has been performed by distinguished ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the New York New Music Ensemble and Red Fish Blue Fish, among many others. He is the recipient of two Barlow Endowment Commissions and the Royaumont Prize of Domaine Forget. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Sabey has taught composition, theory and electronic music at San Francisco State University, the University of San Diego and San Diego City College. Hearing Sabey's music, one senses that he is, to use Toru Takemitsu's lovely phrase, "confronting silence." Confrontations take many forms: encounter, challenge, transaction, even embrace. The mystery of Sabey's music is in not knowing which form the confrontation will take. This recording of his music, performed by some of America's best musicians, offers insight into Sabey's distinctive compositional voice.

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

The opera Judgment of Midas was commissioned by Crawford Greenewalt, Jr. to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sardis excavations in Turkey. Composer Kamran Ince took two stories, inspired by a tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses, as the basis for the opera. The stories interweave around the ancient city of Sardis and a mythic music contest said to have happened there. Turkish/American composer Kamran Ince's music bridges Anatolia and the Balkans to the West. The energy and rawness of Turkish and Balkan folk music, the spirituality of Byzantium and Ottoman court music, the tradition of European art music and the extrovert and popular qualities in the American psyche are the base of his sound world. Acknowledged as one of America's best composers, Ince is Professor of Composition at the University of Memphis and at MIAM Center for Advanced Research in Music in Istanbul. His numerous prizes include the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Boulanger Prize and the Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His extensive discography appears on Warner Classics, Naxos, Innova, Argo/Decca, and Albany Records.

The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra celebrates its history, growth, and development with this recording of four new works. A fitting tribute to longtime music director Kirk Trevor who retires in 2015 after a 27-year tenure, the four works by James Aikman (commissioned by the ICO), Christopher Theofanidis, Derek Bermal and Michael-Thomas Foumai (winner of the 2014 ICO Contemporary Music Competition) were all recorded live in concert. The ICO is to be commended for its efforts to add to the body of music literature in the 21st century. Founded in 1984, the ICO is comprised of 34 professional musicians who perform an annual concert series, and sponsor a composition competition, collaborating with the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival.

Composer Kamran Ince's father was Turkish and his mother is American. He grew up partly in each country and now splits time between Memphis, Tennessee where he is on the faculty at the University of Memphis and Istanbul, where he teaches at Istanbul Technical University. Ince is first and foremost a composer in the Western classical tradition, but he is not bound by that tradition. He is also well versed in Ottoman classical music and grounded in Turkish culture. In ways sometimes explicit and sometimes subtle, his music reflects that dual heritage. The many musicians Ince gathered to record the varied chamber pieces on this recording have in common not only the big technique his music requires, but also the wildness and intensity it demands. They are Ince's triumphant champions, and he is their inspiration.

British composer Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) was a Harkness Fellow at Princeton and Professor of Music at Stanford University in addition to his positions at Sussex Un9versity. An invitation from Pierre Boulez to work at IRCAM in the early 1980s set the composer on a path that has characterized his whole career, and which has resulted in eight realizations at the Institute and two for the Ensemble Intercontemporain. His music has been showcased at all the major new music centers and festivals. The works on this recording, all performed by the illustrious New York New Music Ensemble, include a work for solo clarinet; one for clarinet and piano; a trio for violin, cello, and piano; one for flute, clarinet, and piano; and one for flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and percussion.

All of the works on this recording evidence the hallmarks of Martin Amlin's style: a facile flow of elaborate rhythms; a harmonic language rich with the notes that comprise seventh chords; a non-strict usage of tone rows; an honoring of the past through recognizable formal structure and thematic evolution; and a French sensibility that might be described as neo-impressionistic. A student of Nadia Boulanger, Martin Amlin received masters and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards and has been a resident at Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. A member of the faculty at Boston University, he is also director of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Composition Program. A noted pianist as well, he performs the works on this CD with noted artists Leone Buyse and Michael Webster, who have long been advocates of his music.

This recording of transcriptions for tuba and euphonium, arranged and performed by Chris Dickey also includes a work for tuba and piano by American composer James Grant. Covering a variety of style periods and musical language, these works should be welcome additions to the tuba and euphonium literature. Chris Dickey is on the faculty of Washington State University, the University of Idaho and the Red Lodge Music Festival. Active in the tuba-euphonium community, he serves on the board of directors for the International Tuba-Euphonium Association. He has been a featured artist at brass festivals in Argentina and Uruguay and maintains an active performance schedule with orchestras, brass bands, and universities throughout the U.S. He is joined for this recording by pianist Karen Savage, associate professor of piano at Washington State University.

Composer Stephen Shewan (b. 1962) is a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College and Ithaca College, and received his DMA from the Eastman School of Music. Now the director of bands at Williamsville East High School, he is active as a guest conductor, pianist, and clinician. Winner of the 2011 Choral Composition Festival at Ithaca College and recipient of the 2011 Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts from the College Board, Shewan has had performances of his music from orchestras and ensembles across the United States and Europe. His music has been called imaginative and infectious by critics. This disc offers a collection of his compositions for orchestra, wind ensemble, brass quintet and wind instruments, featuring sonatas for horn, trumpet, and clarinet. This is the third recording on Albany Records devoted exclusively to his music.

Three string quartets by the distinguished American composer Steven R. Gerber as well as a Fantasy, Fugue, and Chaconne are performed by the Amernet String Quartet. Praised for their "intelligence" and "immensely satisfying" playing by the New York Times, the Amernet has garnered recognition as one of today's exceptional string quartets. They are Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami. Gerber's String Quartet #4 was written in 1972 for the Fine Arts Quartet; #5 in 1995 for the Carpe Diem Quartet; and #6 in 2011 for the Amernet String Quartet. The Fantasy, Fugue, and Chaconne was written in 2007. In addition to this recording, Albany Records has released a recording of Gerber's piano music. Other recordings of his music appear on the Naxos, Arabesque, Chandos, and Koch International record labels.

Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli is one of today's leading performers and a champion of Latin-American and Spanish music. She has toured extensively, with more than 1,000 concerts in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America and she is dedicated to performing and recording the works of these composers for audiences all over the world. This recording is a rich and varied sampling of this music, bringing together standard repertoire works with a few less familiar gems. While composers from Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Cuba are represented, Ms. Antonelli focuses in particular on the music from her homeland with a rich array of compositions by Astor Piazzolla, Luis Gianneo and Alberto Williams.

Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang offers a recording of works for solo piano for her second disc on Albany Records. Folding time explores the connection between the past and the present. American composers Robert Muczynski, Timo Andres, and Phil Young have distinct compositional styles, yet their works contain elements that convey a sense of nostalgia for past musical eras — particularly the Romantic. The three modern pieces are interspersed with two major 19th century Romantic works by Chopin and Schumann. Anachronistic forays are often part of the compositional landscape today. We look back to the past, but the past is also alive in our present day. Praised for her "effortless and smooth" technique and her "devastatingly limpid and pliable" tone, Ms. Yang has performed in notable venues and series around the world. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Eastman Philharmonia, the Longview Symphony and the North Carolina Symphony; has presented solo recitals in numerous major conservatories, universities, and music festivals internationally and has appeared as a collaborative artist with many noted performers. She will give the world premiere performance of a new concerto by Chen Yi with the China Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2016-17 season. A graduate of Eastman, Yale, and the University of Southern California, Ms. Yang is on the faculty of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Professor of Composition and Chair of the Composition Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, David Conte serves on the faculty of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, the board of the American Composers Forum and as Composer in Residence with Cappella SF as well. A graduate of Bowling Green State University and Cornell, Conte studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, where he was one of her last students. He has composed more than 80 works, including six operas and has received commissions and performances of his music from many noted performing ensembles in the United States. In recent years, he has turned his attention to instrumental music and this recording of three of these represent his longest and most ambitious essays in this form. The performances by distinguished new music performers in San Francisco reveal dramatic and lyrical melodies.

Horn player Laura Klock, after a 40 year career as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and principal horn of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, decided it was about time to record her own disc featuring some of the composers who have energized and inspired her over the years. Written by and recorded with her friends, this disc indeed spreads the word about these exciting new works for horn by Emanuel Rubin, Frederick Tillis, Jeff Myers, Robert Stern, Hsueh-Yung Shen, and Salvatore Macchia. Ms. Klock, a graduate of the University of Michigan, was a founding member of the Massachusetts Brass Quintet and a member of the Brass Ring Quintet. Throughout her career, Ms. Klock has enjoyed teaching and playing both the modern horn and its ancestor, the natural horn. This disc reflects those interests with the inclusion of an energetic contemporary work for natural horn and alto saxophone. She has commissioned and recorded numerous new works for horn and her recordings appear on the Open Loop, Crystal, Gasparo, and Albany Records label.

Matthew Quayle's varied and eclectic compositional output ranges from concert orchestral works to cabaret songs. His music has been performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Avalon String Quartet, Arditti String Quartet and eighth blackbird, among many other distinguished new music ensembles. Quayle is on the faculty at NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He is a graduate of Oberlin, the University of Cincinnati and the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science. The 21 short pieces in this collection were written in a span of just over a decade, from 2002 to 2013. Together they amount to an homage to the joys of the piano miniature: the type of unassuming little piece that one can play through countless times, until it feels like an old friend.

Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry has championed the music of contemporary composers throughout her distinguished career. She has premiered works by more than 30 composers and has made eight recordings showcasing music by women and contemporary composers. In addition to her extensive concert career, Mabry is professor of music at Austin Peay State University, where she received the Distinguished Professor Award. She was a featured writer for the NATS Journal of Singing from 1985 through 2009. For this recording, she and collaborative artist, pianist Patsy Wade, perform song cycles by George Mabry (b. 1945) whose Songs of Reflection use texts by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Edna St. Vincent Millay as well as Dorothy Parker's poetry in Three Cabaret Songs; Kenton Coe (b. 1930) is represented with his work, A Family Gathering, setting poetry by Georgianna Orsini; Brian H. Peterson (b. 1953) whose Moon Songs are set to poetry by E.E. Cummings; and Persis Vehar (b. 1937) who used texts by May Swenson, Anne Waldman, and Barbara Greenberg for her cycle titled Women, Women.

The Nature Project, begun in 2005, was inspired by cellist Madeleine Shapiro's love of outdoor activities and concern with the environment. Ms. Shapiro has commissioned and performed more than 20 works specifically for this project, and it continues her career-long interest in electronics and multi-media. This recording features five of these works by pioneering composers. Called a "cello innovator" by Time Out New York, Madeleine Shapiro has long been a recognized figure in the field of contemporary music. She performs extensively as a solo recitalist throughout the U.S., Europe and Latin America with a focus on recent works by living composers. In addition to her recordings for Albany Records, Ms. Shapiro appears on the Naxos, New World, Stradivarius, CRI, Mode and HarvestWorks labels.

American Masterpieces for Solo Percussion Volume II continues the exploration by percussionist Tom Kolor of seminal works for percussion written in the 20th century by American composers. This disc contains works by some of the world's most noted composers including Charles Wuorinen, Morton Feldman, Ralph Shapey and Christian Wolf. A graduate of Juilliard, Tom Kolor is one of New York's most in demand chamber musicians. He regularly performs with the New York New Music Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Ensemble 21, and the Group for Contemporary Music, to name only a few. He has been a member of Talujon Percussion since 1995, presenting hundreds of concerts throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia with this ensemble. A faculty member at the University of Buffalo SUNY, Kolor oversees the percussion department and directs the UB Percussion Ensemble and UB Contemporary Ensemble. He appears on more than 50 commercial recordings.

Conductor Stephen K. Steele comments that David Maslanka's A Child's Garden of Dreams provided bookends for his tenure as conductor of the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble — it was both the first work he conducted by Maslanka performed there in 1989 and the last before his retirement in 2012. Steele's championing of Maslanka's music for wind ensemble is truly impressive. He and the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble commissioned four symphonies and have made more than a dozen recordings for Albany Records that feature his music. They have made an unequaled contribution to the body of music for wind ensemble through their commissioning, performing and recording of this extraordinary composer's work. Coupled with the much-loved work, A Child's Garden of Dreams is a concerto for two horns and wind ensemble -- Sea Dreams, a work inspired by Maslanka's interest with Moby Dick, his boyhood in New Bedford, Massachusetts and his on meditations on the sea.

Pianist Nanette Kaplan Solomon, Professor Emerita of Music at Slippery Rock University has long been involved with the work of women composers. With this recording, she performs the music of the legendary Mana-Zucca in the first recording devoted to her music. Born in 1885, Gussie Zuccamanov (Zuckermann) had nearly a century long career as a child prodigy pianist, musical comedy star, prolific composer, and patron of the arts. She reinvented herself via her multiple talents as the winds of change and tides of time dictated. Even her name is an invention -- switching the syllables of her last name to create the artful, but gender mysterious Mana-Zucca. The piano pieces on this disc, written at various periods in the composer's life (from youth to age 90), represent excellent craftsmanship in the handling of small and large forms, and contain lush, chromatic harmonies. Because of her prolific output, vivacious personality, ingratiating melodies, and her impact on her life and times, Mana-Zucca was often called the "Chaminade of America." Like Chaminade and other women musicians, however, her importance to the musical world during her lifetime has been somewhat eclipsed. Recordings such as this one offer the opportunity to reassess her remarkable achievements.

The Museaux Trio (Sydney Carlson, flute; Denise Fujikawa, harp; Brian Quincey, viola) is an outgrowth of Debussy's creation of a work for flute, viola, and harp, which has inspired composers ever since. Debussy was captivated by Japanese culture and incorporated Asian influences into his music. Toru Takemitsu credited the music of Debussy as his most important western influence. Embracing the juxtaposition of these two composers, the Museaux Trio takes it's name from a 12th century Zen Monk, Muso Soseki, who designed the legendary moss garden of Kyoto. The name Muso means Dream Window in Japanese. For their debut recording, the Museaux Trio performs Debussy's classic work for this ensemble; Toru Takemitsu's work, And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind, which pays homage to Debussy's Sonate; and finally, a commissioned work by Karim Al-Zand, inspired by the captivating illustrations of biologist and naturalist Ernst Haeckel.

The Balaton Chamber Brass (Amy Cherry, trumpet; Dan Cherry, trombone) is a duo created with the intent of furthering the art of brass chamber music, performing educational outreach concerts, and adding new works to the brass repertoire. They have presented recitals at the International Women's Brass Conference; at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory, Morehead State University, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Western Carolina University. They have served on the faculties of Western Carolina University, Morehead State University, East Tennessee State University, and Wright State University and are now teaching at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. For this recording they give expressive and informed performances of new works by Michael Kallstrom, Michael Sitton, Elizabeth Raum, Bruce Frazier and Wayne Lu.

Following the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's rousingly successful premiere of Lucas Richman's piano concerto in 2013, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where Richman was resident conductor and a frequent guest conductor, was approached about a recording of the piano concerto; a concerto for oboe and orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and his Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra. With world-class soloists, the famed Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Lucas Richman conducting, the recordings are brilliant and authoritative. Lucas Richman is music director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and was music director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. His music has been performed by more than 200 orchestras across the United States. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel, principal oboe of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida and Israeli-American cellist Inbal Segev are the soloists.