Catalog

The program for Close to Home began when clarinetist Michael Rowlett met two composers whose music intrigued him — Valerie Coleman and Eric Mandat. He gathered works by other American composers, finding similarities among the diverse pieces with inspiration for the compositions coming from a particular place, a moment or a memory. Michael Rowlett is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and was a semi-finalist in the ICA's 1998 Young Artist competition. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi and at the conventions of the International Clarinet Association. He studied at Florida State University where he received his D.M, the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His collaborator on this recording, pianist Stacy Rodgers is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi.

Nicholas Goluses appears as soloist, chamber music player and with orchestras across North America, South America, Europe, Australia and the Far East to critical acclaim. He has been a featured performer at major festivals and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world. Goluses has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings for Albany, BMG, and NAXOS. Committed to performing new music for the guitar, Goluses has given world première performances of more than 100 works, including solo pieces, concertos for guitar and orchestra, as well as chamber music by many of today's leading composers. Nicholas Goluses is Professor of Guitar, founder and director of the guitar programs at the Eastman School of Music, where he has been the recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, and also has served as chairman of the string department. Goluses has held the Andrés Segovia Faculty Chair at Manhattan School of Music where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and was the recipient of both the Pablo Casals Award "for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor" and the Faculty Award of Distinguished Merit. This recording offers a varied program of music for guitar including the first recording of the solo version of Joseph Schwantner's From Afar

As a result of a workshop on finding the voice in Beethoven and Schubert, violinist Francesca Anderegg was inspired to find her own voice in the music of the 20th century as well as finding her own personal interpretation of classical repertoire. She has designed the program on this recording to show the ways in which the music of modernist composers Schoenberg, Perle and Carter shares the lyricism and expressivity of Mozart and Schubert. Ms. Anderegg graduated from Harvard and holds a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School. She was awarded the Lenore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing Arts in 2010 and is on the violin faculty of Interlochen Arts Camp and St. Olaf College. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn, The Lucerne Festival Academy, The Perlman Music Program and Tanglewood Music Center. She made her New York debut in February 2007 in a performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto, which the New York Times lauded for its "dark, mournful tone" and "virtuosic panache."

The brilliant composer/organist Carson Cooman has selected compositions for this recording that are unified by their debt to early music (most especially its modality) as well as an economy of means in their construction. All are built from simple musical materials, elaborated and developed by their composers to create compositions that inhabit musical spaces of an often spiritual character. Five American composers (Patricia Van Ness, Jim Dalton, Tim Rozema, Al Benner and Harold Stover) are featured along with Swedish composer Thomas Aberg and Slovakian native Peter Machajdík. Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music and more than 130 new compositions have been written for him by composers from around the world. He performs on the Organ of Our Lady in Adergas in Velesovo, Slovenia, an organ built in the Thuringian Baroque style.

Called "one of the major American composers of his generation" (Texas Monthly), Robert Xavier Rodriguez's music has been described as "richly lyrical" by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as composer-in-residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies and is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. This recording offers his complete music for cello and piano, written between 1979 and 2006. Cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi, who is on the faculty at Texas Christian University School of Music, and Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Lin, also on the faculty at TCU, offer ravishing performances of this music.

To honor the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, pianist Robert Cassidy offers a brilliant reading of his Préludes, Livre I. In addition, this beautifully recorded program includes a world premiere recording of David Noon's Elegy Variations, a work written in memory of one of his colleagues and Mozart's longest fantasy for piano. Robert Cassidy has performed in solo and collaborative recitals, and with orchestra, throughout the United States and Canada. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University and Ball State University, Dr. Cassidy has appeared in venues such as Merkin and Weill Halls and the Banff Centre for the Arts. He is the pianist for the Almeda Trio and is on the faculty at Cleveland State University.

Horn soloist Bernhard Scully has been described as among the elite musicians of his generation, both as a performer and a pedagogue. Equally at home with solo, orchestral, and chamber music, his diverse performance experience includes positions as horn player with the Canadian Brass, principal horn with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and horn player with the Summit Brass. Among his many awards are top honors at numerous competitions, most notably becoming the first classical brass player to win a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. A horn professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Scully studied at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and colleague Joanne Minnetti perform French masterpieces for horn and piano.

Slowly, over the past few years, Albany's progressive releases of the piano music of Allen Shawn have made it clear that this is one of the most substantial and memorable bodies of work for the instrument of any living American composer. The series showcases a composer whose range of expression, technique and tone are enviable. A multi-faceted artist, Allen Shawn (b.1948) was raised in a literary millieu and has carved out an additional significant career as a writer, but he is a composer first, and one of the major American composer-pianists. His output includes many orchestral works, three chamber operas, songs, choral music, chamber music and works for piano. He is on the music faculty at Bennington College. This is the third volume on the Albany Records series devoted to his music for piano.

Molly Morkoski introduces her disc noting that "The selections on this disc encompass my musical journey as a college and graduate student through my time as a beginning professional in New York City. Three of the works represent my time in study with teaches whose musical input and genius still instructs my work today...There is the traditional repertoire of my youth and undergraduate studies, the period of discovery and love of new harmonic and rhythmic structures from my time as a master's student, and a final synthesis and balance of all styles from my time as both a doctoral student and professional musician in New York City." Morkoski has performed as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan, and has appeared at major concert halls and festivals around the world. She was a Fulbright scholar and the recipient of the Teresa Sterne Career Grant and the Thayer-Ross Awards. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Indiana University and SUNY-Stony Brook. Currently she is on the faculty at CUNY's Lehman College.

Acclaimed saxophonist Christopher Creviston offers arrangements, piano reductions and a world premiere recording for his second recording on Albany Records. The arranger of the popular Poulenc Sonata for flute, Creviston has done a magnificent job of adapting this work for the saxophone. Composer Dorothy Chang wrote Two Preludes for Christopher Creviston in 1993 and they are receiving their world premiere recordings on this disc. As a soloist and with the Capitol Quartet, Christopher Creviston has been featured with bands and orchestras across the U.S., including the Baltimore, Indianapolis and National Symphony Orchestras and is in demand as a recitalist and clinician. Now on the faculty at the Crane School of Music, Dr. Creviston has held positions at the Greenwich House of Arts, the University of Windsor and the University of Michigan.

A program of transcriptions and original works for trombone of fantasies is performed by Rick Stout. Rick has a distinguished performing career both as a member of The Cleveland Orchestra and through his many solo and chamber music performances. He is on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music where he directs brass chamber music and is a graduate of The Curtis Institute. He is joined by pianist Christina Dahl who is director of chamber music for Stony Brook University. The two collaborators commissioned Caleb Burhans' Phantasie for this recording in honor of their first recorded collaboration.

For his third recording on Albany Records, flutist Leonard Garrison has chosen a diverse program of music for flutes by American composers. Music for flute and piano, solo flute and solo alto flute represent some of the best repertoire written for this family of instruments. Garrison, a faculty member at the University of Idaho and flutist for the Northwest Wind Quintet is principal flute of the Walla Walla Symphony and artistic director of the Red Lodge Music Festival. A former member of the flute section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Garrison has served as chairman of the National Flute Association.

For his third recording on Albany Records, tuba phenomenon Tim Buzbee has produced an excellent selection of recorded works for the tuba, this time featuring an eclectic group of composers (including Buzbee himself) and their unique styles. One could say that Buzbee's approach to music and playing the tuba is emotionally charged and perhaps even spiritually driven, and that underlying energy clearly reveals itself through the music in the pieces recorded here. Adding to that energy is a certain spiritual dichotomy that conjures up mental images of angels and demons or good versus evil. Many of the pieces presented here delve deep into the soul triggering a range of emotions from sadness and pain to exuberance and joy. The music is so emoÂtional and moving that it is easily forgotten you are listening to a tuba, and in doing so Buzbee has achieved what every musician strives to accomplish.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Northwestern University and Arizona State University, trombonist Brett Shuster was a member of the Chestnut Brass Company, traveling with the ensemble internationally. He has appeared with the Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Phoenix Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Arizona Opera and the Boston Philharmonic. He has performed as a soloist and conductor at the Seminario de Musica de Montenegro in Brazil. Shuster served on the faculty at Temple University and Western Illinois University before joining the faculty at the University of Louisville where he teaches trombone to classical and jazz students. He offers a varied program of world premiere recordings of works by five gifted American composers.

With the exception of the Ravel, trombonist Chris Buckholz has chosen a program that has rarely, if ever, been recorded on trombone. Buckholz is a virtuoso crossover artist in both classical music and jazz. He is on the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa where he received the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2010 and was the lead trombonist for the Army Jazz Ambassadors from 1997 to 2005. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Yale and the University of Michigan, Chris has played on hundreds of studio recording sessions and toured internationally. He has been a clinician at schools and universities throughout the U.S. and his recording credits include an album with The Four Tops on Motown Records.

Following up on his critically acclaimed 2009 recording of Ives, Copland, Cowell and Rudhyar for Albany Records, pianist Richard Zimdars offers works by three American composers-- Vincent Persichetti and two of his composition students at the Juilliard School of Music-- Marga Richter and Jacob Druckman. The pieces from 1952-1955 in large forms of sonata and variation offer a focused look at the early work of three important American composers and include four world premiere recordings. Richard Zimdars has performed and broadcast throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is professor of piano at the University of Georgia and has given master classes at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart and was artistic director of the 2011 American Liszt Society Festival.

Violinist Airi Yoshioka's curiosity in the electro-acoustic medium led her to commission works from five composers -- part of the seven breathtaking works that are all given their world-premiere performances on this recording. The program exhibits a wide range of contemporary styles and reveals a diverse culture of American women composers productive in the electro-acoustic music. Airi Yoshioka has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. Deeply committed to chamber music, she is the founding member of the Damocles Trio and Modigliani Quartet and has performed and recorded with the members of the Emerson, Brentano and Arditti Quartets. She has premiered dozens of works and continues to build repertoire for violin through her numerous commissions. A graduate of Yale and Juilliard, Ms. Yoshioka is associate professor of violin at the University of Maryland.

Four world premieres highlight this second recording by Movses Pogossian for Albany Records, including works by the esteemed Hungarian composer György Kurtág and Tigran Mansurian, who is acknowledged as the greatest living Armenian composer. Recorded in Armenia, this was a very personal project for violinist Movses Pogossian as he spent the first 20 years of his life there. Pogossian is a prizewinner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition and the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition. A committed proponent of new music, Movses Pogossian has premiered more than 40 works. He is the recipient of the 2011 Forte Award from Jacaranda, given for outstanding contributions to the promotion of new music and modern music. Active as a chamber musician, recitalist and soloist, Pogossian made his debut at the Darmstadt Festival in Germany in 2008 and has performed with the Boston Pops, the Tucson Symphony and the Halle Orchestra in Germany, among others.

A superlative program of piano music by American composers is offered by pianist Heidi Williams. The oldest work on the program dates from 1988 (William Bolcom) and the most recent was written in 2009 (Daniel Crozier), giving us a snapshot of what American composers have been writing for piano in the past 25 years. Praised by New York critic Harris Goldsmith for her ¨dazzling performances¨ and ¨impeccable solistic authority,¨ American pianist Heidi Louise Williams has appeared in performances across the United States and internationally. Her concert schedule has included solo and chamber music recitals at the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Brevard Summer Music Festival, the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a debut recital in St. Louis as winner of its 2000 Artist Presentation Society Auditions, as well as concerto appearances with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, and others. Williams is on the piano faculty at the Florida State University College of Music. She completed her BM, MM, and DMA degrees at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland.

Unlike much of his other chamber music, Alec Wilder's solo piano works are miniatures, delicately balanced, and succinct. More than half the pieces and movements are under a minute in length as Wilder chose brevity in his expression, making his musical points in concise and contrasting musical statements. Given the rich, grand repertory for solo piano, Wilder never presumed that he could add to the huge output of the grand masters. Instead, he created little gems that challenge the artistry of the performer. The music on this CD, beautifully and elegantly performed and interpreted by pianist John Noel Roberts, marks the debut recording of many of Wilder's solo piano works. They are a treat to hear. John Noel Roberts is a consummate pianist and teacher who has demonstrated his interpretive skills, technical ability and his wide-ranging repertoire in solo and concerto performances in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Italy, Great Britain, Canada and the United States. Formerly Artist in Residence and Head of Music at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, Roberts has also served on the faculties at Furman University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Mercer University. Currently he is Professor of Piano and Director of the School of Music at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The pieces collected on this compact disc all hold personal significance for trumpeter Terry Everson, which form the unifying theme of the program. This virtual recital demonstrates, among other things, that new music can be accessible and serious at the same time. Terry Everson is an internationally renowned soloist, educator, composer/arranger, conductor and church musician. He first gained international acclaim in 1988, winning both the Baroque/Classical and Twentieth Century categories of the inaugural Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo Competition. He has served on the faculties of Boston University and is principal trumpet of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. His collaborator, pianist Shiela Kibbe is on the faculty of Boston University. She holds two Master of Music degrees from Temple University and has been a fellow in vocal accompanying at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Pianist Ryan Fogg is on the faculty at Carson-Newman College. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston and East Texas Baptist University. Fogg has chosen works by composers from around the country for this program of contemporary American piano music. What is particularly interesting is the range of expression and unique compositional style displayed by these composers who are contemporaries.

Violinist Tami Lee Hughes offers a survey of violin music by African-American composers that begins with a work written in 1820 by Francis Johnson and continues with music written in 1947, 1979, 2000 and ends with a work by Chad Hughes written in 2009. Ms. Hughes has appeared with symphony orchestras across the United States and is active as a recitalist and chamber musician as well. She is on the faculty of the University of Kansas. Collaborating with Ms. Hughes is fellow faculty member Ellen Bottorff, who has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. This recording is the second of the series devoted to music of the African Diaspora, a collaboration between Albany Records and the Center for Black Music Research.

While the first piano made its appearance in China in the late 19th century, Chinese piano composition did not begin until the 1930s. The common thread with the music on this compact disc is the use of traditional Chinese elements and their manifestation of a Chinese spirit. The music selected, spanning the period from the 1930s to 2007, traces the formation and development of a true Chinese style of piano writing. Pianist Tianshu Wang has been acclaimed by the press as a "superbly talented pianist" who plays with "prodigious technique and eloquent phrasing." A Steinway artist, Ms. Wang has performed across the U.S., China, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan. She is on the faculty of Capital University's Conservatory of Music as well as the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in China.

A unique musician, composer-pianist Gary Smart composes and improvises a music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, world musics and jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition. He is a professor of music at the University of North Florida. This recording is unedited abstract improvisations. Though the collection is unified stylistically, it features considerable conceptual variety. Some of the improvisations stress gestural and textural material, while others emphasize motor rhythms and still others are harmonically inspired. Two pieces are for piano and radio Ñ improvisations with "found sound materials" on the radio.

Since their first performance in Carnegie Hall in 2007, saxophonist Christopher Creviston and pianist Hannah Gruber have been guests on series and festivals across the United States. Active proponents of new music, they have commissioned works by Katherine Hoover, John Fitz Rogers and Gregory Wanamaker, among others. A former New York freelancer, Christopher Creviston is on the faculty of the Crane School of Music. He has appeared in venues ranging from Carnegie and Merkin to Paisley Park and the Apollo Theatre. In addition to his work with Hannah Gruber, Creviston performs regularly with the Capitol Quartet.

Carver Blanchard is the former lutenist for the Smithsonian Institution and now teaches guitar and lute at Wesleyan University. He has divided this recording into three sections. The first, Audubon, is a tone poem for solo lute by Blanchard inspired by a poem of Robert Penn Warren by the same name. The second section, Heartsongs, is a recreation of a late 19th-early 20th century home musicale and the third is a group of hymns from the 1940 Episcopal hymnal arranged by Blanchard for solo lute.

Lines, the title of this imaginative program, beguilingly performed, links pupils to teachers in three principal strands: Bloch-Sessions-Harbison; Lutoslawski-Stucky-Waggoner and Weesner; and Boulanger-Carter. While it is difficult to overestimate the influence of a powerful mentor, not all mentor relationships develop in formal arrangements. Carter was deeply influenced by Sessions, and was close with him, without having enrolled as his student. Both Waggoner and Weesner forged close relationships with Harbison, and in different works reveal Harbison's influence as much as Stucky's. While in his early works Harbison often exhibited Sessions' influence, his baroque sensibilities have more in common with the neoclassical predispositions of Bloch, his "grand-teacher." The criss-crossing of the lines hints at the wealth and variety of music influence and tradition. Acclaimed cellist Caroline Stinson offers magnificent performances of this repertoire, two of which are world premiere recordings (Andrew Waggoner's Le Nom and Anna Weesner's Possible Stories). Noted for her vibrant lyricism and fresh interpretations, Ms. Stinson is on the faculty of The Juilliard School.

These five works for cello by noted Cuban-American composer Jorge Martín were written between 1997 and 2010 -- most of them having some association with his vocal music. Martín studied at Yale and Columbia University and has received awards and grants from a number of prestigious institutions including the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Cintas Foundation, among others. Cellist Yehuda Hanani has performed with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra and is a guest at many international festivals. His pioneering recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination. A soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and teacher, Mr. Hanani also has a weekly broadcast called Classical Music According to Yehuda.

Saxophone virtuoso Noah Getz explains: "Still Life represents a snapshot of the music that I have been performing and enjoying over the last several years. This recording is an eclectic mix of works, most of which were written for me, from a number of trusted composer friends and colleagues." Based in Washington, DC, Noah Getz has performed at major venues throughout the United States. He has commissioned and premiered numerous works for the saxophone, including collaborations with Aaron Jay Kernis and Lewis Spratlan. He maintains an active schedule performing jazz as well as presenting masterclasses, recitals and lectures at universities across the country. He is the Saxophone Musician-in-Residence at American University.

Born in the German spa town of Honnef am Rhein, Boris Papandopulo (1906-91) has emerged as one of the most significant Croatian musicians of the 20th century. Son of the Greek nobleman Konstantin Papandopulo and the famous Croatian opera singer Maja Strozzi-Pecic, he arrived in Zagreb in 1910. He studied conducting in Vienna and composition at the Zagreb Music Academy. He was an extremely prolific composer, with several hundred works in his catalog. His distinctive stylistic pluralism is evident in his solo piano music. His style is marked by its eclecticism and the artful manner in which various music idioms are brought together. This recording, performed by the distinguished pianist Nicholas Phillips, is the first devoted to Papandopulo's music.

The internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin, assisted by musicians from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, offer a program of Eric Ewazen's music for flute. The Flute Sonata and the Bridgehampton Suite were both written specifically for Ms. Martin, a long-time friend of the composer's; the SeaSkye Songs were inspired by the poetry of Karen Wagner, written as a tribute to a friend who had committed suicide; and Mosaics was composed for another flutist friend. Composer Ewazen says that he was completely influenced by Martin's lovely golden tone and her spectacular technical agility. This compact disc of world premiere recordings offers beautiful performances of Eric Ewazen's music for flute, and adds immensely to the chamber music repertoire.