Catalog

Arnold Rosner is a prolific American composer whose works exceed 100 in number and steer clear, generally, of both the post-serial avant-garde movement of the late sixties and the minimalist movement that followed it. His treatment of harmony and counterpoint, along with the occasional recourse to an ethnic, Middle Eastern flavor, places his music in the esthetic milieu of Paul Hindemith, Ernest Bloch and Alan Hovhaness. He is currently on the faculty of Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, where he teaches both standard and ethnic music. Having composed since the age of nine, he received advanced degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo while studying with Leo Smit, Henri Pousseur and Lejaren Hiller, from all of whom, in his own words, "I learned practically nothing." Founded in 1990, the Ad Hoc String Quartet has established itself as one of the Chicago area's leading Chamber ensembles. In September 1993, they gave the world premiere of Rosner's String Quartet No. 3 and in February, 1996, they gave the premiere of his Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 103.

With this 2-CD recording, the complete oeuvre of Arnold Rosner's songs is now available on compact disc. The texts range widely and their sources range from the gospel according to St. Luke and the Jewish Aramaic liturgy to Rosner's friends poems. The predominant language is English, but there are songs in Aramaic, French, German and Finnish as well. Born in 1945, Arnold Rosner attended New York University where he majored in mathematics and music. He formally undertook music composition study at the State University of New York at Buffalo, receiving the first Ph.D. in music awarded by that institution. He exemplifies the composite career of a diversely talented musician. He has taught at several colleges, was music director at WNYU and assistant music director of WNYC and is a capable conductor and pianist. He is the recipient of seven awards from ASCAP and a five-time recipient of Meet the Composer grants.

First ever audio recording of this leading fantasy author's favorite series. Arrows of the Queen, read by Carole Edie Smith, is the first book in a series centered around Valdemar, a world full of fascinating creatures and compelling characters. This story features Talia, a young girl desperate to escape the strictures of her conservative society. Her life is changed in an instance when she encounters a Companion and is chosen to replace the recently murdered Queen's Own Herald. As she begins her training Talia has no idea that a spoiled Princess, some nobly-born bullies, and a conspiracy that will threaten her life will all stand between her and the destiny she must fulfill. (Eight compact discs)

Marilyn Taylor writes: "My voice sat down in this music. It kicked its shoes off and felt cold bare earth and said 'this is home.' The events leading to the creation of this disc took place over many years. A motivating factor in producing it was bringing the songs of Charles Vardell to light, as well as other unrecorded works of composers either born, or living in North Carolina. Synchronicity has proven that a link exists between myself and each group of songs, sometimes becoming obvious only after the fact. Moving to Winston-Salem in 1992 to teach at the North Carolina School of the Arts was made easier because the terrain and homes reminded me of Louisville, Kentucky, my birthplace. Here I discovered I share with Frazelle and Vardell a love of land and hills and an appreciation of rural life and music, instilled in me by childhood visits to relatives in 'the country' and long jaunts in the woods there. The songs of Robert Ward do not evoke these types of images; however, a connection between Millay (from whom the text is taken) and myself exists in the passion for a younger man, which in my case became a marriage and a musical collaboration lasting fifteen years."

Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax. Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, various chamber ensembles, band and orchestra. Dr. Hailstork was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music to write Festival Music for the Baltimore Symphony. Other performances of his music have been conducted by Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim and Kurt Masur. In 1999, the composer's Second Symphony (commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra), and his second opera, Joshua's Boots (commissioned by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Kansas City Lyric Opera), were premiered. In 2002, James Conlon conducted his oratorio Done Made My Vow at the renowned Cincinnati May Festival. Currently, Hailstork is Eminent Scholar and Professor of Music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Tenor Jos Milton comments that "This program is an artistic tribute to the human connection to the earth. I searched for planet-centered texts that bring focus to the grandeur of our world, transmitted through contemporary art song." Composers include Robert Owens (1925-2017); Ned Rorem (b. 1923); Zachary Wadsworth (b. 1983); Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002); and Libby Larsen (b. 1950). Jos Milton maintains a robust performance schedule, spanning a vast array of repertoire and musical styles. A graduate of Trinity University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Peabody Institute, Milton is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi. His collaborator, pianist Melinda Coffey Armstead has performed as recitalist and chamber musician in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Israel, and Japan.

By the time of the great emergence of the recording industry in the 1930's, John Alden Carpenter's exquisite songs, which had enjoyed such widespread acclaim in the 1910's and 1920's, had begun to lose favor. Even to this day, very few of these songs, most of which date from the early 1910's, have found their way into the recording studio. All the more reason, then, to welcome this recording by Robert Osborne and Dennis Helmrich of nearly all of Carpenter's mature songs. This includes some, mostly from Carpenter's later years, that the composer never even published. (Only someone as unsparingly scrupulous as Carpenter would think twice about bringing out the likes of "Spring Joys," "Midnight Nan," or "The Hermit Club.") Carpenter's choice of texts - from Wilde and Yeats to Tagore and Li Po, from Langston Hughes and James Agee to a few minor poets now forgotten, but still contemporaries of quality - reveals an astonishing sensitivity toward new poetic trends. (It helped that he lived in the Chicago of Harriet Moore's Poetry and Margaret Anderson's Little Review.) Complimenting this refined literary sensibility one finds a highly sophisticated command of harmony and counterpoint, though the music always serves, never overwhelms the poetic idea, somewhat in the tradition of Debussy, whose songs clearly made a deep impression. For all their delicacy, many of Carpenter's songs show a pronounced and rather melancholy preoccupation with loneliness and death, but faced with extraordinary calm and restraint. Even the love songs and humorous songs have a certain wistfulness, a bittersweet quality that is pure Carpenter. Complete texts.

David Ashley White's secular and sacred compositions are widely performed and published and he has received numerous commissions. Recordings of his music appear on the Gothic and Zephyr labels. In addition to the extensive publication of White's choral and instrumental music, his hymns are included in a number of hymnals, including those of the Episcopal, Methodist, and United Church of Christ. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, David White serves as director of the University of Houston Moores School of Music. The core of the music on this recording duplicates the repertoire from a concert honoring the composer at the University of Houston and focuses on his secular music, although some of the works employ sacred texts. The music represents a wide range of White's output offering amid the diversity unifying elements of lyricism and expressiveness.

Japanese-American composer Asako Hirabayashi writes: "After 150 years' absence, there has been a vigorous revival of interest in and compositions for the harpsichord. To address the lack of music for harpsichord as a solo instrument, I started to write my own pieces." The recording was made at St. Bridget's church in rural Johnson County, Iowa. The harpsichord is a French double manual after Peter Taskin, built by Eizo Hori in 1986.

Violinist Igor Kalnin references Emily Dickinson's poem, Hope is the thing with feathers, as capturing the spirit he wanted to express with this recording. He hopes that this collection of solo violin music will connect with other people in the same uplifting was as Dickinson's poem. There is a wide variety of musical, stylistic, and technical variety in the compositions as it features works by composers from various backgrounds and cultures. Kalnin has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra leader. A native of Russia he was on the faculty at the Glinka State Conservatory and performed with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. After coming to the US in 2004 he taught at Yale and Luther College. He is now Artist-Teacher of Violin at Illinois State University. He is a laureate of several international and national violin and chamber music competitions in the U.S., Europe, and Russia.

Argentinian-American composer Florencio Asenjo couples two works inspired by books whose authors were attracted to the contrast between the finite and the infinite with a concerto for orchestra that gives each type of instrument a solo part. Asenjo, who writes in a style he has labeled maximalism, which involves the creation of entirely new themes connected aesthetically to the preceding one -- a development of substance rather than of form. This is fifth recording of his music to appear on Albany Records. His music has been championed by Kirk Trevor, who conducts these performances by the Bulgarian Philharmonic.

The Golden Ticket, a comic opera based on Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was commissioned by American Lyric Theater and Felicity Dahl from American composer Peter Ash and British librettist Donald Sturrock. Dahl's fantastic imagination is vividly brought to life in the witty libretto, and the completely original score ingeniously parodies many traditional operatic conventions to help portray the bigger than life characters that inhabit Wonka's world. The opera premiered in 2010 at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, in partnership with Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera and New York's American Lyric Theater, where it was embraced by audiences and critics alike: "Donald Sturrock's libretto captures the wit, wizardry and wonder of Dahl's story about five children who gain access to the legendary Willy Wonka's confectionery establishment in a contest by finding golden tickets in their chocolates. The largely expository first act introduces the lucky children, who instantly become media darlings, but the fun really begins – and the dramatic tempo accelerates – in Act 2 when they go through trials not unlike reality television or perhaps – as children in the audience may someday recognize – The Magic Flute, overseen by Wonka with Sarastro-like benevolence and fearsomeness . Though not widely known, the American composer Ash has produced a fun-filled score with a zippy, contemporary ambience that makes room for a tune or two you can remember and deft allusions to past operas " (London Financial Times) This recording is taken from a live performance of The Golden Ticket at The Atlanta Opera in March 2012, conducted by composer Peter Ash, with a stellar cast including Daniel Okulitch in the role of Willy Wonka and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg as Charlie. The Atlanta Journal Constitution declared, "There may come a day when music teachers everywhere will use characters from The Golden Ticket to teach lessons about voices in opera For parents and teachers who want to introduce young people to the opera, The Golden Ticket is a good start." But, The Golden Ticket is not just for children – it's an opera for everyone who is still young at heart!

Network for New Music is an award-winning chamber music ensemble widely acclaimed for its outstanding performances and its dynamic and diverse concerts. Led by artistic director Linda Reichert and conducted by Jan Krzywicki, Network's virtuoso musicians bring the sound of imagination to audiences eager for fresh musical adventures. In its first 20 years, Network has commissioned, premiered and presented a rich variety of more than 500 innovative new works. The three composers on this disc all share a lineage going back to George Crumb and Richard Wernick, connections to Philadelphia, a happy relationship with Network, and a commitment to renew the articulate, expressive power of melody, harmony and rhythm. In each composer, we encounter three very different approaches to form. Whitman offers emphatic sonic guideposts that locate us firmly - beginning, middle, end - in the discourse. Wagner (winner of the 1999 Pulitzer for Music) proposes a stream of consciousness narrative in which each moment suggests a continuation, leaving much of its past behind. Levinson interjects ritual, both athletic and ceremonial, arriving at healing states of contemplation remote from the every day activities. The high quality and diversity of these works are emblematic of Network for New Music's commitment to creating an art music for the future, today.

Nancy Galbraith has emerged as one of the present era's most original and influential musical voices. Her distinctive American style employs an exotic array of postmodern and postminimalist elements including lyricism, polyrhythmic and diatonic harmony. Her work has been praised for its energetic combination of melody and rhythm, and its bright orchestral palette. She is currently recognized as a leader in the field of wind ensemble writing. Her compositions for this genre have become standard repertoire for ensembles throughout the United States and appear on many recordings. She is also an accomplished organist and pianist and has composed a number of works for these instruments. She was born in Pittsburgh and educated at Ohio University, West Virginia University, and Carnegie Mellon University, where she presently serves as Professor of Composition and Theory.

Conductor Cynthia Turner Johnson and the Cornell University Wind Ensemble began a program in 2004 of commissioning DMA candidates in composition at Cornell to compose music that "pushes boundaries." Six of these works by these exceptional young composers are heard on this recording. These composers have produced significant contributions to the wind ensemble repertoire and no doubt, the musical world will be hearing more from them. Christopher Stark is a composer whose music is deeply rooted in the American West. He is a recipient of the coveted Underwood Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. Ryan Gallagher studied at Juilliard and Cornell and has received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and five ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Zachary Wadsworth's Out of the South Cometh the Whirlwind was winner of the King James Bible Composition Awards and was performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey. Born in the Ukraine, Catherine Likhuta's music has been performed in many venues in Ukraine, the U.S. and Canada. Takuma Itoh spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to northern California. He studied at the University of Michigan and Rice University prior to attending Cornell. He has been a fellow at the Pacific and Aspen Music Festivals. Composer, conductor and mandolinist Jesse Jones is an artist of wide-ranging tastes and influences whose music has been performed across North America, Europe, and Asia. His awards include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

August Nölck was a respected and well-published cello teacher of his day, a director of the Vienna conservatory and a voice from the great German cello tradition of the 19th century. He authored a catalog of cello pieces numbering in the hundreds of opuses, yet no mention of his name appears in contemporary histories of famous cellists. This recording of Nölck's salon music for cello and piano should help bring his music and his accomplishments back to the attention of cellists and audiences. Cellist Beth Vanderborgh enjoys a rich and varied career as both soloist and chamber musician. She is principal cellist of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and on the faculty at the University of Wyoming. She is joined by colleague Theresa Bogard.

The Ohio Light Opera production of Autumn Maneuvers in the summer of 2002, was the first time the work was produced in its entirety in the United States. In 1912, the Viennese music critic Richard Specht wrote of the premiere of Kalman's opera Der Zigeunerprimas: "Kalman's music is fresh and pleasant, full of strength in its natural melodic invention and of wholesome maturity. While others grope and experiment, he stands in the rich soil of folk music and hits the mark every time." Autumn Maneuvers was written three years before Der Zigeunerprimas, but was already rich in folk elements, specifically those of Kalman's native Hungary. These are not the same fundamental folk elements used collected by Bartok and Kodaly with whom he was a fellow student at the Budapest Academy of Music. Rather, the melodic materials used by Kalman are polished and elegant, similar to those of another fellow Hungarian Franz Liszt. Kalman also shows his great skills as an orchestrator in Autumn Maneuvers. Similarities to Tchaikovsky, who was a model for the composer, abound in the score. It is clear that the 26 year-old Kalman had found a formula for success in the excellence of Autumn Maneuvers Ð essentially his first major work for the stage. This is Autumn Maneuvers' first complete CD recording.

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "an ensemble that invites you--ears, mind, and spirit--into its music," the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of the country's leading ensembles. Formed in 1995 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Quartet came to the fore after participating in Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1997. As a result, Mr. Stern invited the Avalon Quartet to perform in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem and presented the ensemble's Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. The quartet captured the top prize at the ARD Competition in Munich (2000) as well as the First Prize at Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York (1999). The quartet is in residence at Northern Illinois University. Their recording on Channel Classics won the Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award in 2002.

Jacob Avshalomov was born in Tsingtao, China in 1919. He studied music first with his father, Aaron Avshalomov, and then Ernst Toch, Bernard Rogers, Aaron Copland and at Reed College and the Eastman School. He has taught at Columbia University and summers at Tanglewood and Aspen. From 1954 to 1994, he was conductor of the Portland Youth Symphony where he conducted among other works, the U.S. premieres of Tippett's The Child of Our Time and Roger Sessions' Divertimento. About the music on this disc, Mr. Avshalomov writes: "I'm with William Byrd, when he proclaimed, "Since synging is so good a thynge I wish all men would learne to synge.' The human voice is the ultimate musical instrument. I still believe this even after having reveled for 40 years as conductor of the Portland Youth Symphony. So it was no surprise to me, when I stepped down from my podium to concentrate on composing that as I surveyed my lifetime list of works, I realized over half of them were either vocal or choral. This, of course reflects an abiding interest in poetry and devotional literature of various persuasions. The songs presented in this recording were composed over a 40-year period, which began a decade before I became a conductor. Almost all the songs were composed for mezzo-soprano."

The music of Milos Raickovich is political, or, more precisely, it carries an antiwar message. He writes moving music, at times purposely naive, at times horrifying. The pieces range from the meditative and minimalist (Little Peaceful Music) to spiritual (Parastos--an Eastern Orthodox Requiem); from dramatic (B-A-G-D-A-D) to documentary (United States, Stop the War!); from ritualistic (Litany of Iraq) to symbolic (Alarm). The CD is titled after a piece, B-A-G-D-A-D, Music on a six-note theme. The composer explains, "This work is a musical dedication to the ancient city, Baghdad. The name of this capital (spelled the European way, without the letter H) is used as a musical theme made of six notes: B-flat, A, G, D, A, D." Milos Raickovich has lived and worked in Belgrade, Paris, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Hiroshima and New York. He studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and David Del Tredici, and has taught at several universities in the U.S. and Japan. The Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed describes Raickovich's music as "a unique postmodern response to both minimalism and multiculturalism."

About this album Anthony Newman writes: "This album is in homage to the great composer and angel of music. All the works on this recording are original music, written between 1996 and 1999. The seven instrumental Organ works are based in structure on a particular Organ work of J.S. Bach. The five vocal works are settings of Angel poetry dedicated to our musical angel, and written by notable English Baroque era poets, as well as a New Testament reading from the Gospel of St. John. Bach's music has been the musical inspiration of my life since I was five years old, and it is a real honor for me to pay this tribute to this great pillar of Western Music."

Here is an imaginative offering that should have wide appeal. John Bullard has attracted international attention for his work in developing and transcribing the classical repertoire for the five-string banjo. A highly regarded bluegrass artist as well, John began playing the banjo as a child and was strongly influenced by the legendary Earl Scruggs. He was on the 1992 faculty of the world-renowned Tennessee Banjo Institute, along with Pete Seeger and Bela Fleck. It has been said about him: "what Segovia did for the guitar, John Bullard may well do for the five-string banjo; elevate it to a respected classical instrument." Bullard himself writes: "I love the five-string banjo. Penetrating and soulful, its personality is bewitching. I encountered "Scruggs Style" picking as a youth and was hooked. I have the same visceral reaction when I hear lutes and harpsichords. They posses that raw, plucked sound so characteristic of the banjo. In fact, when I listen to Renaissance and Baroque music, I hear banjos. The same earthy texture found in Appalachian music attracts me to the Early Music of Europe and Britain. While it is fascinating to realize the ties between Appalachia and its musical ancestors, my transcribing of "Classical" works for banjo simply indulges my passions. While drawn to the music of Bach, his contemporaries, and their Renaissance forebearsI love the five-string banjo."

Pianist Rochelle Sennet says that “Bach to Black represents my strong interest in performing repertoire by Black composers in combination with works of J.S. Bach. The suites included on this recording represent beauty, excellence, contrast, celebration of dance style, and dialogue.” She has paired the English Suites of Bach with works by Black composers based on similarities in key, mode, rhythmic energy, and occasional disruption of tonal expectations. Dr. Rochelle Sennet has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory, the University of Michigan, and Texas Christian University, she received her DMA from the University of Illinois. She has been a prize winner in numerous competitions including the Kingsville International Piano competition, and the US Open Music Piano Concerto competition, among other. She is on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is her fourth recording for Albany Records.

Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, Vol. II represents pianist Rochelle Sennet’s continued interest in performing suites and multi-movement works by Black composers in combination with works by Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to works by Ulysses Kay, Harry Thacker Burleigh, and George Walker, this 3-cd volume contains works by three Black women composers: Florence Price; Montague Ring; and Joyce Solomon Moorman. Dr. Rochelle Sennet has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory, the University of Michigan, Texas Christian University and the University of Illinois, where she currently serves on the faculty. A prize-winner of numerous competitions, she has appeared as a recitalist at concert halls across the U.S., as a soloist with ensembles and orchestras, and has presented frequent guest lectures, masterclasses, and clinics.

Pianist Rochelle Sennet says in her introduction that this third volume of Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, represents her continuing interest in performing suites and multi-movement works by Black composers in combination with the suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. This volume contains world premiere recordings of suites by Adolphus Hailstork and James Lee III as well as Black women composers Margaret Bonds, Montague Ring, Nkeiru Okoye, and Betty Jackson King, as well as a suite by William Grant Still. Dr. Sennet has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar, with solo performances around the United States as well as in Russia. She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory, the University of Michigan, Texas Christian University, and the University of Illinois. She is on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As Joseph Fennimore writes in his notes for this very well documented CD, "Ms. Verbit is the first pianist to have undertaken the Olympian task of deciphering and recording these early pieces of Antheil. She uniquely has the requisite tenacity, skill and resources for the task. Dedication is the word. Her researches have been thorough, her relationship with Antheil becoming deeply personal even though they never met. Everything about him that could be known, she has learnt. When she refers to Antheil as "George," one has the feeling he asked her to call him that."

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.

Steven Mackey has established himself as one of the most gifted and original American composers to emerge in recent years. Born in 1956, in Frankfurt, Germany to American parents, he was raised and educated in the United States. His early training in performance was as a classical and electric guitarist and Baroque lutenist. In 1977, he toured Europe as a lutenist under the auspices of the University of California; he graduated summa cum laude from that Institution. His studies culminated in a Ph.D. in composition from Brandeis University. Mackey is now Professor of Music at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. Mackey's idiom, a multi-layered world of rhythm and sonority, draws its expanded harmonic palette from western art music, its wit and vivacity from the imaginative transformation of popular music elements. His chamber music sometimes features re-tuned instruments and microtones. His orchestral works display consummate skill in their handling of instrumental color and texture. Tilt, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, received its premiere in 1992 under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. Of that performance, Tim Page of Newsday wrote: "One was reminded of a radio caught between frequencies: timbres bang and shimmer, there are arpeggios and teasing references to musical clichés, and despite some occasional violent fortissimos, the mood throughout is lithe, subtle and more than a little playful. Anything can happen - and most of it does." His concertos offer a fresh look at the medium. In his first concerto, Banana/Dump Truck from 1994, the ensemble plays a jazzy vamp as the cello soloist emerges from the wings, like a variety show guest.

The central work on this recording of orchestral music by American composers is Roy Harris' Sixth Symphony, called the "Gettysburg." Prior to composing the work, Harris read Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln, and this, in addition to enlarging upon his factual knowledge of the sixteenth president, helped the composer solidify his own feelings towards the man and the symbol. Though in the years since the Sixth Symphony appeared, there has been growing skepticism about politicians, increasingly leading to an at times almost cynical re-evaluation of even some of our most hallowed figures, one must acknowledge the sincerity and strength of the idealistic spirit motivating Harris during this period. One must also recognize that the rich and varied symphony that emerged as a result reflects a complex tapestry of influences. The Sixth Symphony, written in 1943-44 on commission from the Blue Network (a predecessor of the American Broadcasting Corporation), is very much a summary of what Roy Harris was as a man and a composer.

The Scott/Garrison Duo consists of clarinetist Shannon Scott and flutist Leonard Garrison, has performed together since 1988, with a long commitment to American music. They have been featured at five conventions of the National Flute Association and were winners of the NFA’s Chamber Music Competition. This recording features nine delightful works for this wind duo, exploring works by American, French and Swiss composers.

The world knows Bela Bartok as one of the twentieth century's great composers. Fewer people know of the many miniature masterpieces he composed for young musicians, and even fewer realize that he was a brilliant and diligent scholar of Eastern European folk music. Working 50 years before the term was even coined, he is now considered one of the first great ethnomusicologists, in addition to his formidable compositional achievements. In 1905, shortly after his first contacts with the "pure" music of Hungarian peasants, Bartok met Zoltan Kodaly, a fellow Hungarian composer one year his junior, who was also deeply interested in authentic folk music. Together they founded the Hungarian Music Society and they collaborated in collecting and editing Hungarian folksongs for publication. Close friends throughout their lives, they often performed and championed each other's music. The performers on this recording have endeavored to be true to the original spirit of the music of Bartok and Kodaly in arranging for the group. Sometimes these arrangements have a comparatively logical quality, such as Bartok's Rumanian Dances played by a folk band with cimbalom, whistles and recorders, guitars, banjo and bass. In other cases the sounds are more unusual, such as the arrangement of Kodaly's Ave Maria for voice and low pennywhistles.

Since 1998, Benjamin Coelho has been a member of the University of Iowa's School of Music faculty, where he directs the bassoon studio. As a founding member of the Manhattan Wind Quintet, Mr. Coelho performed numerous recitals and concert tours throughout the United States. He has commissioned, performed, and recorded many works by American and Latin American composers, some of which are included on this recording. Before coming to Iowa, Mr. Coelho was the Vice-Dean and Bassoon Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). He also worked extensively as a performer in his native Brazil, holding principal positions with symphony orchestras in Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, and Belo Horizonte. In the United States, Mr. Coelho has played with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony, and the Camerata Chamber Orchestra. Currently, he performs as the principal bassoon with the Cedar Rapids Symphony and the Iowa Woodwind Quintet. He is also a member of the Wizards, A Double Reed Consort. Mr. Coelho received degrees from Tatui Conservatory (Brazil), Purchase College and the Manhattan School of Music, and is working on his Doctorate of Music at Indiana University.