Catalog

The much beloved and acclaimed composer David Maslanka (1943-2017) featured the saxophone in many of his compositions, including concertos, solo, and chamber works. Nicholas May has chosen two for his debut recording -- the Sonata for Alto Saxophone (1989) and Piano and Tone Studies (2009). Maslanka's music requires not only tremendous technique but also a performer who is master of sound and color. The saxophone is an instrument of tremendous beauty and flexibility and Maslanka's works require a saxophonist capable of broad swaths of color, rich depths of contrast, and generous apportionment of the musical canvas. Nicholas May is such a saxophonist and this recording defines the works. May has been a finalist in numerous state, national, and international competitions. He received degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is now on the faculty at Mid Plains Community College and a member of the Heartland Duo and the Sanders-May Duo. His collaborator, pianist Ellen Sommer is on the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Music.

Pianist Nancy Elton has received critical acclaim for her performances as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician throughout the Southeast and other parts of the United States. A highly sought teacher in the Atlanta area, she has served on the piano faculties of Georgia State University, the University of West Georgia, and the University of Georgia. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, having previously studied at the University of South Carolina. Her numerous awards include the Georgia Teacher of the Year presented by the Georgia Music Teachers Association in 2005. For her debut recording she has chosen Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3; selected Debussy preludes and two other works by Debussy.

Composer Stephen Rush has written six operas, more than 50 works for dance, chamber, and electronic media, concertos, and four symphonies. His works have been performed by distinguished ensembles including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw National Symphony. The author of two books, his music appears on several record labels including Centaur, MMC, and Innova. A professor of music at the University of Michigan, he founded the Digital Music Ensemble at that institution, which he has directed for 25 years. He tours and records with his electronic psychedelic improvisation band, Crystal Mooncone. For this recording on Albany Records, he has chosen a variety of chamber works for varying ensembles including three versions of Taming the Ox, a work commissioned by flutist Rebecca Gilbert as a means of public sonic meditation.

American composer Richard Aldag is also known as an educator and arts administrator. He holds a Ph.D. in Music from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He has received numerous commissions and served as composer-in-residence for the Sitka Summer Music Festival and the El Paso Pro Music Chamber Music Festival. Aldag has served on the faculties of San Francisco State University, San José State University, Pacific Union College, the Aaron Copland School of Music, Fordham University, and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He was a special lecturer at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1991 and 1992. His arts administration career includes executive director positions with the Napa Valley Symphony, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and the Los Lupeños de San José, among others. With this first recording of his music, Aldag shares some of his most recent chamber music, offering a range of ensemble and instrumentation. The inspirations and expressive intentions are similarly diverse. This recording offers a rich and finely curated showcase for Aldag's latest music with a chance to get to know this original and compelling composer through the intimate expression and vivid textures that are the distinguishing hallmarks of chamber music.

Bernard Hoffer, born in Switzerland, came to the United States in 1941. He received degrees from Eastman, served as an arranger for the U.S. Army Field Band of Washington, D.C., and worked in New York as a freelance musician, composer, conductor and arranger. He is known not only for his chamber and orchestral music but also for works written for films, television, and commercials, notably the score to Thundercats, and themes for PBS News Hour and The American Experience. This fifth release devoted to his music on Albany Records features music for piano and the composer says that many of them are of a biographical nature, inspired by events or observations. Randall Hodgkinson, the distinguished American pianist is the featured performer, joined by Leslie Amper on Hoffer's work for two pianos, Events and Excursions.

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

This recording celebrates and commemorates 60 years of the deepest friendship between pianists Joseph Fennimore and Gordon Hibberd, with 16 four-hand waltzes performed by both as well as sonatas performed by composer/pianist Joseph Fennimore. The waltz recordings were made during the 1990s on three different occasions at three different locations and the Sonatas and Sonatinas during the 1960s. Both Fennimore and Hibberd received degrees from Eastman. They lived in New York City pursuing their careers until the 1980s when they relocated to New York's Capital District. This will be the 10th recording released by Albany Records of the music of Joseph Fennimore whose music has been called " a disarming mix of spare lyricism, poignancy and gently nose thumbing irreverence "

This recording is an outgrowth of the Pan Pacific Ensemble's mission to enable and promote new compositions with a global outreach through high-level performances. This disc of commissioned works includes compositions by Chinese-American Chin Yi; Chinese composers Yi Qiao and Xinyan Li; Thai composers Tanapon Chiwinpiti, Siraseth Pantura-Umporn, and Naarong Prangcharoen; Malaysian composer Yii Kay Hoe; and Vietnamese composer Do Kien Cuong. Instrumentation for the Pan Pacific Ensemble includes flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. The Pan Pacific Ensemble has appeared at the 2016 China-ASEAN Contemporary Music Festival and the 2017 Thailand Iternational Composition Festival in Bangkok in addition to their active concert schedule in the United States.

Composer David Gompper has lived and worked professionally as a pianist, conductor, and composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas, and Iowa. He studied at the Royal College of Music, and the University of Michigan. Since 1991 he has been Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. His many awards include an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, and a Fromm Commission. Recordings of his music appear on the Albany and Naxos record labels. He has chosen recent chamber music written for string instruments for this recording, which are given stellar performances by violinist Wolfgang David, cellist Hannah Holman, double bass player Volkan Orhon, and pianists Réne Lecuona and David Gompper.

Commissioned by acclaimed cellist Jonathan Miller, this digital only recording of Judith Weir's Three Chorales for cello and piano is a world premiere. Weir is a London-based composer of Scottish ancestry who occupies a central position in the UK's most august musical circles. Of the Three Chorales, Weir sasy that these three pieces for cello and piano are meditations—personal, secular and musical—on images from religious poetry. Jonathan Miller is a member of hte Boston Symphony Orchestra and has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Boston Pops and Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He is the founder and artistic director of the Boston Artists Ensemble. He is joined on this recording by pianist Randall Hodgkinson, who has an international career as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.

Composer Robert Muczynski (1929-2010) garnered national and international recognition for his compositions, which have been heard throughout the world. Muczynski studied composition at DePaul University with Alexander Tcherepnin, crediting Tcherepnin for inspiring his career. He performed his first Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony in 1958 and was a noted film composer. He became composer-in-residence at the University of Arizona in 1965, where he spent the remainder of his professional career. Some may call Muczynski's music traditionalist or conventional, but there is no arguing his music is truly authentic, expressive, invigorating, and meticulously crafted. Pianist Zachary Lopes offers the first recording of his piano sonatas since the composer's own recording done in 2000. Lopes is an active soloist and collaborative artist and has given performance and master-classes across the U.S., South America, and Europe. He has held teaching positions at Wittenberg University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and serves as President of the Kentucky Music Teachers Association. He studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is on the faculty at Western Kentucky University.

The Pan Pacific Ensemble, a woodwind quintet based in the State of Washington, has a history of commissioning and performing contemporary music. This second recording of the ensemble includes works by American Nick Omiccioli; Chinese-American Chen Yi; Indian-American composer Asha Srinivasan; Thai composers Chaipruck Mekara and Siraseth Pantura-Umporn; Chinese composer Zhong Jun Cheng; and Vietnamese-American composer P.Q. Phan. The Pan Pacific Ensemble has appeared at the 2016 China-ASEAN Contemporary Music Festival and the 2017 Thailand Iternational Composition Festival in Bangkok in addition to their active concert schedule in the United States.

Daron Hagen is an award-winning composer, librettist, stage director, conductor, collaborative pianist, and essayist. He is the recipient of the 2015 American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Academy Award for “the artist who has achieved his singular voice.” His music is performed worldwide by the most prestigious orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. This recording features three of his song cycles performed by mezzo-soprano Stephanie Weiss and pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova. Ms. Weiss, a regular guest at Deutsche Opera Berlin has performed roles ranging from Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos) to Suzuki (Madama Butterfly). Currently on the faculty at Arizona State University, Ms. Weiss studied at the New England Conservatory, Tufts University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Mannes College of Music, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ms. Wright-Ivanova is on the faculty at Keene State College and has performed throughout the US, Australia, the UK, Europe, Canada, China, and South America. She is a vocal coach at UMass Amherst and serves on the faculty at New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice.

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) created some of the most popular and enduring pianistic portraits of his native Spain. His masterpiece was Iberia, a collection of 12 substantial pieces divided into four books. Technically challenging and structurally complex, Iberia is a monument in the piano repertoire. Pianist and Albéniz scholar Pola Baytelman teams up with musicologist and Albéniz biographer Walter Aaron Clark to present the only documentary on this magisterial work. Combining brilliant performances with lucid explanations of the music itself, it takes the viewer on a voyage through time and space to the Spain of Albéniz's Romantic imagination. In addition to this Blu-Ray video, an audio CD is included of Baytelman performing works for piano by Albéniz, including excerpts from Iberia. Acclaimed pianist Pola Baytelman is also highly respected as an educator, having taught master classes in China, England, Hong Kong, India and throughout the United States, including being featured at the 9th International Symposium on Spanish Keyboard Music. Dr. Walter Aaron Clark is Distinguished Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Riverdale, where he is the found/director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music.

Composer Kile Smith’s music is hailed by critics, performers, and audiences for its strong voice, sheer beauty, and “profoundly direct emotional appeal.” The recipient of numerous commissions, his music has performed throughout the U.S., in Europe, and the UK. Smith's very first works were art songs, and he has composed them throughout his career, having now written about 65 songs. For this recording, the performers are members of Lyric Fest, a Philadelphia based organization, whose mission is to bring people together through song and include mezzo-soprano Suzanne DuPlantis, tenor Jonas Hacker, soprano Jessica Lennick, baritone Daniel Teadt, clarinetist Doris Hall-Gulati and pianst Laura Ward, who is artistic director of Lyric Fest.

War & Peace is a video production released in Blu-Ray format and conceived as a total entertainment concept. The production combines artistic resources from other cultures with advancing techinologies in order to create music that impacts our senses in a manner seldom achieved before. Art, dancing, music, western and eastern cultures all combine to push the boundaries of musical entertainment by using new combinations of musical instruments, new multicultural art direction and new dance styles. War & Peace provides an entirely different visual and auditory impact to the audience. Entertaining sounds and rhythms, beautiful and meaningful visual imagery, and culturally diverse creative expressions are the hallmarks of War & Peace.

Steinway Artist Yaroslav Senyshyn is a Canadian born pianist of Ukrainian ancestry. He was a prize pupil of Antonina Yaroshevich, who was a contemporary of Vladimir Horowitz at the Kiev Conservatory. Thus Senyshyn was trained in the grand tradition of piano playing. He was featured in a documentary program about great Canadian pianists and is an active recitalist and concerto soloist, having performed with orchestras around the globe. Lauded by critics as a pianist of "enormous power" (The Washington Post) and for his technical fluency, master of the composer's style, and an understanding of the music" (Fanfare), Dr. Senyshyn is Professor of Music and Moral Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. For his third recording on Albany Records, Senyshyn has chosen two of the most loved concertos for piano: Chopin's Concerto No. 2 and Liszt's Concerto No. 2.

French composer and pianist Cécil Chaminade (1857-1944) wrote approximately 400 compositions, including 125 songs. Dismissed by her male colleagues, she did make a mark through her French romantic style at the turn of the century. Though she is primarily known today for her solo piano compositions and her recordings for the gramophone, this recording illuminates a facet of her much overlooked mélodie oeuvre. The songs on this disc display not only Chaminade's adroit word pianting but also her ability to spin orchestral effects through her piano writing. Soprano Sooah Park has been praised by critics for her role as Oscan in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, saying, "Sooah Park shines as Oscar, and her singing is utterly delightful." (Houston Arts Week) She has performed as a recitalist and in opera around the world including performances in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Finland, South Korea, and the United States. On the faculty at the University of Texas at Tyler, she studied at Eastman and the University of Texas at Austin. Her collaborator, pianist Sang Woo Kang is an active performer who has presented masterclasses and recitals inmore than 25 countries. He pursues his career as a solo, orchestral, and chamber music performer while teaching at Providence College and Brown University.

of death and the planets is a large song cycle by composer Jim Lahti, setting a poetry collection of the same name by John McEveety Woodruff. The work is, essentially, a 15-movement journey and over the course of approximately an hour and a half the listener will be transported through the solar system with occasional stops along the way for five departed souls with personal connections to Mr. Woodruff. Both the poems and the music are at times dramatic, poignant, sad, loving — and periodically whimsical. Passionate about music, di.vi.sion is an exciting group that seeks to move audiences. Formed in 1997 by violinist Kurt Briggs, the name is inspired by the group's flexibility to divide forces as needed and by their predisposition to commission new works using the musical form of division. Composer Jim Lahti's music has been heard in concerts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London, and France as well as on radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. He is the 2018 recipient of the BRIO Award for excellence in music composition from the Bronx Council on the Arts. English-German tenor Rufus Müller has an active career performing for oratorio and opera and has worked with many of the world's leading conductor. Soprano Timothy Maureen Cole is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and Ithaca College. She has extensive performance experience in classical as well as musical theater repertoire.

Pianist James Adler has recorded a recital that pays homage to people who have been great influences and offers musical remembrances of important people in his life. The longest work on the program, Pictures at an Exhibition is dedicated to his mother and his aunt, both of whom encouraged him in his pursuit of music. James Adler is a pianist who "can create whatever type of music he wants at the keyboard" (Chicago Sun-Times) and a composer who writes "with uncommon imagination" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Mr. Adler made his orchestral performing debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has appeared in recital at famous venues around the world. His discography includes recordings on the Albany, Capstone, Navona, and Ravello record labels.

Oboist Dan Willett can't resist transcribing works written for other instruments for the oboe and this recording is a testament to not only his transcription abilities but also to his fine performances of repertoire not originally intended for oboe. Three works by Mozart, Grieg, and Prokofiev make up this recording — the Mozart and Grieg originally written for violin and the Prokofiev for flute. Willett is a professor at the University of Missouri School of Music. In addition to frequent solo and chamber recitals, Willett has performed with numerous orchestras and at festivals. His collaborator is Natalia Bolshakova, who enjoys and active performing career.

The title of this recording -- Bridges -- implies connections. The bridges invoked on this disc are a series of personal and musical connections between five composers that lead from the 19th century piano virtuoso Chopin to 20th century tango master Piazzolla -- links from mentor to student through five generations: Chopin; Mathias; Williams; Ginastera; Piazzolla. All five composers were immigrants, literally and/or musically, so underlying the repertoire on this disc is the free exchange of ideas that come from travel and immigration. This program has been selected by Rosa Antonelli, a pianist who has championed repertoire from Latin America, particularly from her homeland of Argentina -- often resurrecting little-known jewels. Antonelli, a Steinway Artist since 1998, is one of today's leading performers, who has toured extensively, with more than 1,000 concerts in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America to her credit. Her three previous recordings on Albany Records have received rave reviews from critics.

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.

American composer Byron O'Keefe's second recording for Albany Records is a disc of his music for piano. The composer says that "These pieces, with one exception, were composed over a ten year period between 2009 and 2019. While they obviously show the influence of Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and other composers of that era, I would hope that a certain quality peers through them so that the listener, whether hearing them with 19th century ears, or through more modern sensibilities, would tend to want to say something along the lines of ‘that sounds American'." The pianist is Kateryna Ulezko, a 2007 graduate of the Tchaikovsky National Academy in Kiev.

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

This recording of songs by Asian and Asian-American composers who include Ke-Chia Chen, who is on the faculty at the Curtis Institute; Taiwanese-American Chihchun Chi-sun Lee, the receipient of numerous honors and awards; Asako Hirabayashi, winner of the Alienor International Harpischord Composition Contest; Yangzhi Ma, faculty member at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing; and Chen Yi, Distinguished Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Tenor Brian Arreola is on the faculty at UNC Charlotte and has been a featured performer with opera companies around the United States. Baritone Kelvin Chan divides his time between the U.S. and the Netherlands, where he has an active career as a performer, director, theatre-maker, and singer-actor. Pianist Wei-En Hsu, a graduate of Juilliard, is now on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Critically acclaimed clarinetist Christopher Nichols has recorded a cd of some of his favorite individual and consortium commissioning project, which are core pieces of his repertoire. In addition to works for clarinet and piano, there is a composition for woodwind quartet and one for countertenor, clarinet, and piano. Nichols is on the faculty at the University of Delaware. He performs regularly with orchestras such as the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist at national and international conferences and in 2015, was recognized with an Established Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts. His collaborators include pianist Julie Nishimura, who is also on the faculty at the University of Delaware; countertenor Augustine Mercante, who performs to great critical acclaim; composer/pianist Jennifer Margaret Barker; and the Christiana Winds.

This recording features six chamber works by Donald Reid Womack combining East Asian and Western string instruments. Intertwined, the title of this album, offers just the right combination of simple imagery and layered meaning, not only with the intertwining of Eastern and Western string instruments, but also with Womack's compositions interlock and meld rhythmically, motivically, and stylistically. Womack, the composer of almost 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, chorus and voice,has concentrated on compositions for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese instruments. His music has been performed and broadcast around the world and his composition appear on more than a dozen recordings. A faculty member at the University of Hawaii since 1994, Dr. Womack has chaired the music department and presently serves as professor of composition and theory, as well as a faculty member of both the Center for Japanese Studies and Center for Korean Studies.

Heidi Louise Williams performs piano sonatas by American composers with the oldest work written in 1919 and the most recent in 1991. Charles Tomlinson Griffes, George Walker, Carlisle Floyd, and Samuel Barber all used their art to explore imponderable realities that could be more fully accessed within the realm of music. These artists absorbed a variety of musical languages into their own, foreshadowing, in many cases, the postmodernist aesthetic of stylistic coexistence. From Walker's inclusion of folk tunes to Barber's gripping sincerity, from Floyd's devotion to human narratives to Griffes' persuasive fusion of styles, these works rely in some way or another on the power of human empathy, nobly representing the United States as an essentially diverse nation. Praised by critics, pianist Heidi Louise Williams has appeared in solo and collaborative performances across North America and internationally, having won numerous awards. A graduate of Peabody, she is on the faculty at Florida State University. This is her second solo album for Albany Records.

Violinist Martha Walvoord and double bass player Jack Unzicker are both on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington with notable performing and teaching careers. This recording of new works for violin and double bass has as its centerpiece Michael Daugherty's The Diaries of Adam and Eve. The work was inspired by a novella of the same name by Mark Twain, which was published in 1906. Divided into seven movements, the music animates Twain's witty reimagining of the biblical tale of the first woman and man to inhabit the earth and the Garden of Eden. Other works written by George B, Chave, Andrea Clearfield, Tom Knific, and Daniel M. Cavanagh round out this program of new music for this unusual ensemble.

Trio Accento (Limor Toren-Immerman (violin); Garik Terzian (cello); Nora Chiang Wrobel (piano) is known for its advocacy of contemporary compositions. This recording features five varied works, one of which was commissioned by the ensemble. All three members of Trio Accento have distinguished performing and teaching careers and as a trio have performed to critical acclaim. Jeff Beal's Almost Morning is a dance work composed for choreographer Claudia Schreier. Russell Steinberg's Paleface was inspired by the acclaimed paintings of "psychological pop" artist Jerry Kearns, while Gernot Wolfgang's Jazz and Cocktails was inspired by the goings-on of an imaginary cocktail party. Juhi Bansal's Wings evokes a day in the montains and the image of a solitary bird flying through a rain-filled sky. Kenneth Froehlich's Polarized is a study of contrasts, conceived as a response to our ever-increasing polzarized society.

Ori Barel is an inquisitive composer who works in a variety of mediums and styles. Barel works extensively with electronics, specializing in both electro-acoustic and electronic music. His electronic works combine algorithmic technique with an intuitie musical approach. He is a graduate of UCLA, the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California. Centrifugal Force is inspired primarily by robotic art. Barel has created a piece that explores aspects of our culture using elements of traditional and free jazz as well as silent film music, culminating in a musical fusion of today's technological world with pieces of the past. The use of a player piano means that rhythms and tempos can be used that would be impossible to be played accurately by a performer.