Catalog

This recording fulfills a long-time dream of Charles Tibbetts to make the music of Alec Wilder for French horn more widely available. Tibbetts first met Alec Wilder and became acquainted with his music through his French horn teacher, the great John Barrows. In fact, some of the works on this recording were written for Barrows and Charles Tibbetts gave the world premiere performance of Suite Nr. 2 while a student of Barrows at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Charles Tibbetts studied with John Barrows until his death in 1974 and then left school to pursue a 46-year career in Europe where he played with the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Badische Staatstheater Nationaltheater Mannheim and the SWR Radio Orchestras. He returned to the U.S. in 2010 and is now active as a chamber musician in the Eau Claire area of Wisconsin.

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.

Pianist Findlay Cockrell has had a long and distinguished career in upstate New York as a soloist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. He served on the faculty at the State University of New York at Albany, where he taught piano and classes in music as well as creating a radio course titled Keyboard Masters. A graduate of Juilliard, Mr. Cockrell has performed around the United States and in Russia, where he appeared in recital at the Moscow Conservatory and a guest soloist at Tchaikovsky Hall with the Ossipov Orchestra. This recording includes three American composers whose last names begin with G: Gershwin, Gould and Gottschalk with some seldom recorded arrangements by Earl Wild of Gershwin songs.

Enterprising collaborators Benjamin Sung and Jihye Chang offer a program of new American music for violin and piano. The earliest work on the recording, Derek Johnson's fragments was written in 2002 and revised between 2003 and 2005, while the most recent work, Christian A. Genry's Flux Flummoxed was written in 2009 as a commission for Sung and Chng. Sean Shepherd's Dust is dedicated to the performers who gave the world premiere performance. Benjamin Sung is on the faculty at Florida State University and the Brevard Music Center. A graduate of Eastman and Indiana University, he is the recipient of numerous awards and performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the U.S., in Korea and in Brazil. A graduate of Indiana University, Jihye Chang enjoys an active performing and teaching career, appearing in venues in the U.S., Canada, Central America, Korea and France. She was the first winner of the Mikhashoff International Competition for Pianist-Composer Collaboration in 2008.

This recording features the bird-like and zephyr quality of the flute in works of virtuosity and lyricism, but also highlights extended techniques, 21st century nuances, and contemporary lyrical styles, bringing to light the complete and modern capabilities of the instrument. Distinguished soloist, Dr. Tia Roper, was the grand prizewinner of the 2004-05 Artists International Debut Recital Award as well as a winner of the New York Flute Club Competition. She has served as principal flutist of the New York String Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She has given numerous concert performances in Russia, Switzerland, the Barbados, Japan, Venezuela and throughout the United States. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Boston University, and obtained her D.M.A. from Rutgers University. She serves on the faculty of the Bloomingdale School of Music and the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts. Her collaborator, pianist Mitchell Vines, enjoys an active performing career in Europe, South America, Asia and the United States. A graduate of Portland State University and Eastman, Vines is music and choir director of the Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey and Temple Israel in New York City.

Gary Schocker is best known as the most published composer for the flute, but also is a world-renowned flutist. He has turned his attention to composing for solo harp, an instrument he is now playing. For this disc he has arranged 21 favorite Christmas carols for harp, performed by the ever-popular harpist Emily Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell's 30-year career includes numerous recordings, as well as performing and teaching around the world. In the words of the Washington Post, "Mitchell commands a vivid palette of colors and uses them with imagination."

Faculty colleagues at Georgia State University, saxophonist Jan Berry Baker and clarinetist Kenneth Long perform a program of contemporary American compositions, the oldest of which by Lee Hyla was written in 1992. Works by Nickitas Demos, Lansing McLoskey and Perry Goldstein were all completed in 2011 and Gregory Wanamaker's Duo Sonata was written in 2002. Ms. Baker has won top prizes in numerous competitions including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the North American Saxophone Alliance Concerto Competition and the Johann Strauss Society competition. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with several orchestras in Canada and the United States and with the National Symphony of the Ukraine. An advocate of new music, Baker is Co-Artistic Director and saxophonist with the Atlanta-based new music ensemble Bent Frequency. Clarinetist Kenneth Long enjoys a multifaceted performing career including orchestral, chamber music and solo engagements. He is a member of the clarinet section of the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and has performed with many of the Southeast's preeminent ensembles including the Atlanta, Sarasota and Charleston symphonies. Principal clarinet of Bent Frequency, Long also is principal clarinetist of the Atlanta Chamber Winds.

This recording of music for flute and piano contains three works by Canadian composers in addition to works by Liszt, Franck and Ibert, taking the program into new and interesting listening experiences. William David Smith is a Trappist monk, while Larysa Kuzmenko is a Juno-Awards nominated composer and composer-in-residence with the Toronto Symphony and Reeves Medaglia-Miller is on the faculty of George Brown College in Toronto. Pianist Yaroslav Senyshyn has an impressive career with his performances winning critical acclaim in the major concert halls of the U.S., Russia and Canada. His wife, flutist Susan O'Neill-Senyshyn, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in England and Canada. Dr. O'Neill has a PhD. In Psychology and has held faculty positions at Simon Fraser University and the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario.

In a seemingly unlikely marriage of ideas, this recording presents new works by four American composers for a fabled instrument of China, the pipa. Building on the instrument's long history, these composers present a new vision of how an ancient instrument from another culture can provide inspiration to an even broader audience. The composers on this recording, Donald Reid Womack, Jeff Myers, Thomas Osborne, and Takeo Kudo, blend idiomatic performing techniques with inventive textures and widely divergent harmonic contexts. They build on the instrument's traditional repertoire by extending the range of cultural influences and reinventing the music that can be played on pipa. The performances are by the renowned pipa virtuoso Yang Jing, whose distinct mix of virtuosity and lyricism, tradition and innovation brings these new works to life.

With this recording, double bassist Anthony Stoops embarks on an unlikely project — that of enlarging the repertoire for solo double bass music in order to legitimatize the double bass as an important solo instrument. Performing five new works by American composers, some of them commissioned by him, Stoops is a strong advocate for his project. An international acclaimed soloist, pedagogue, orchestral and chamber musician, Stoops is Associate Professor of Double Bass at the University of Oklahoma and Co-principal Bass of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. A graduate of Northwestern University, the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan, Stoops performs on a custom double bass made for him by American luthier Aaron Reiley.

Colleagues at the University of Arizona, flutist Brian Luce and harpist Carrol McLaughlin perform a program of original compositions and arrangements for their instruments. Known as an expert on Soviet-era Music, Dr. Luce has given lectures and recitals based on his award-winning dissertation on the subject of Edison Denisov's music for flute. A prize-winning performer, his recordings appear on the Albany and Citadel record labels. Ms. McLaughlin has performed in al the major concert halls of the world and as concerto soloist with orchestras from Russia to Japan. A prolific composer and writer, McLaughlin has published books, music and has 15 recordings in her discography.

Known as a champion of contemporary music, percussionist Tom Kolor has performed with all the major new music ensembles, including the New York New Music Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music and Speculum Musicae, to name but a few. Kolor is a member of Talujon Percussion, which has given countless world premieres and made a significant contribution to the percussion quartet repertoire. He is on the faculty at the University of Buffalo SUNY, where he directs the percussion ensemble. For this disc of masterpieces for solo percussion, he has chosen two of America's composers who led the way in 20th century music development -- John Cage and Milton Babbitt.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called “one of the major American composers of his generation” (Texas Monthly), and his 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 he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. Composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez comments that his teacher Nadia Boulanger told him “that I would be only half a composer until I also learned to express in my music the same love of laughter that she knew I enjoyed as a person I think Boulanger would be pleased to see that all of the pieces on this CD, dating from the 80s to the present, incorporate humor in some way.” Noted pianist Jeff Lankov, who has edited Rodriguez’s piano works for G. Schirmer, gives informed, sensitive performances of this delightful music.

Alex Freeman composes in a wide range of styles and media. He holds degrees from Eastman, Boston University's School of Fine Arts and Juilliard. His doctoral research led him to Finland, where he lived for six years, studying at The Sibelius Academy. Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College, Freeman has won awards from ASCAP, The American Academy of Arts and Letter, The American-Scandinavian Foundation and The Fulbright Foundation, among others. The music on this disc reflects Freeman's compositional activity over the last 13 years. Performed in reverse chronological order, each work displays his penchant for continuity and long-range development. Three superb Finnish pianists, Matilda Kärkkäinen, Risto-Matti Marin and Salla Karakorpi, are joined by American pianist Brian Lee in these performances.

The featured work on this recording, Ansel Adams: America, was originally an orchestral piece co-composed by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris. The piano version was derived both from Dave Brubeck's original piano score as well as the finished orchestral score. Pianist John Salmon, a long-time champion of Dave Brubeck's music as well as his friend, offers the world premiere recording of this work. In Chris Brubeck's words, his father had a friend in John Salmon "with the breadth of knowledge and skill in both classical literature and jazz to take on my father's piano music. John's exquisite and spirited playing brought my father so much pleasure over the length of a long and rich relationship that lasted decades." On the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents as a performer, lecturer and educator.

Two young stellar musicians, cellist Xiao-Dan Zheng and pianist Clara Yang collaborate on a recording of music by Edvard Grieg and Sergei Prokofiev that includes sonatas for cello by both composers and two works for piano. Ms. Zheng is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and previously served as principal cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include a Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Young Artist Award and the ASCAP Ira Gershwin Award, among many others. Clara Yang, on the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a varied career as a soloist, chamber music musician and educator. She has performed concertos with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Longview Symphony, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

Composer John McDonald joins two of his former students, Ryan Vigil and David Claman, in a recording of their keyboard compositions. A professor at Tufts and chair of the music department there, McDonald is a composer/pianist whose output features vocal, chamber and solo instrumental works. Ryan Vigil studied with McDonald at Tufts University before completing his doctorate at Yale, and is now on the faculty at the University of New Hampshire. David Claman, a graduate of the University of Colorado and Princeton studied with McDonald at the Longy School in Cambridge. He is on the faculty at Lehman College-City University of New York. Three voices, four hands, and myriad expressive twists capture the intention of Keypunch.

Over the last four decades as a composer, Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernable in all of his work. The New York Times has described his style as "fashioned with the clean angular melodies, tart harmonies, lively sncopations and punchy accents of American Neo-Classicism." His music has garnered praise from audiences and critics alike throughout the United States and Abroad and he is the recipient of numerous commissions and awards. A graduate of Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard, Sirota studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He served as Director of The Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, Director of Boston University's School of Music and most recently as President of Manhattan School of Music. Married to the noted organist Victoria Sirota, Sirota has collaborated over the years with her in creating a body of work for organ, as well as liturgical and concert works for organ with choir, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. All the works on this recording were composed for, and are performed by Ms. Sirota.

This recording is about song — a cornucopia of exquisite jewels from a multitude of cultures: Spanish, Italian, German, Brazilian, Cuban, Jewish, Russian, Romanian-Gypsy, and the American heartland. Like the miniaturized trees of bonsai, it is a universe in a nutshell, reduction to the very essentials. Arranged by cellist Yehuda Hanani and guitarist Eliot Fisk, the songs have a sense of adventure and rediscovery that accompanies such work and offer listeners a way to experience this music in new and wonderful ways. Both Hanani and Fisk are internationally known artists, performing worldwide across the globe. This entire recording is suffused with their deep friendship and shared artistic legacy.

Duo XXI (Anna Cromwell, violin and Mira Frisch, cello) is committed to developing the musical culture of the 21st century through commissioning, performing, and recording new music. Both members are passionate string professors who reach a diverse audience through concerts, conference presentations, and outreach workshops. The duo's mission is to unite today's students, performers, and composers to enliven music and to cultivate the intimate and expressive string do as a genre for our time. In their second recording for Albany Records, they give committed performances of seven of these commissioned works by composers Jonathon Kirk, John Allemeier, Brian Arreola, Ferdinando De Sena, Stephen Anderson, Paul Johnston, and David Maki.

Created with the concert pianist's repertoire in mind. H. Leslie Adams Piano Etudes are studies of varying styles, moods, tonalities, and thematic natures — each providing different technical challenges, while expressing the composer's personal sense of beauty. A graduate of Oberlin, Long Beach State University and Ohio State University, H. Leslie Adams' music has been performed by orchestras in the U.S. and abroad and he is the recipient of commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, among others. Pianist Thomas Otten, a faculty member at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has been the recipient of numerous national and international prizes and has performed internationally as a concerto soloist and recitalist. His performances of these etudes are engaging and beautiful. Piano Etudes, Part I, was recorded by Maria Corley for Albany Records (TROY639).

Gary Schocker, best known as the most published composer of works for flute, has produced and published a dozen works for solo harp, including two books of arrangements of Christmas carols. This recording follows the release of volume 1 in 2013 — both performed by the internationally known harpist, Emily Mitchell. Mitchell's 30-year career includes her popular recordings for RCA Victor, teaching at New York University and Purchase College, master classes at major conservatories around the world, and as an established name in the television, motion picture and recording studios of New York City. A graduate of Eastman and the Royal College of Music, she is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including First Prize at the 7th International Harp Contest in Israel. She now teaches at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Percussionist and baritone vocalist Lee Hinkle, whose percussion playing has been called "rock-steady" by the Washington Post, is the principal percussionist with the 21st Century Consort and a faculty member at the University of Maryland in College Park. An active recitalist and soloist, Hinkle has performed at universities and festivals across the U.S., and with the National Symphony Orchestra and Taipei Philharmonic. His recordings can be heard on six labels. For this recording, Hinkle explores the boundaries between contemporary music and theatre, performing compositions by Greek composer Georges Aperghis and American composers Daniel Adams and Stuart Saunders Smith as well as one of Hinkle's own compositions. These works include The Authors, a marimba opera, is made up of 11 movements with spoken and sung texts excerpted from various authors' novels, poems and sonnets. The performer is tasked with speaking, singing, whistling, and acting while playing the marimba.

This recording of works for cello is special because all of the compositions were written for Eric Bartlett. Music by one of America's most distinguished composers, Hugo Weisgall; two young composers, David Sanford and Peter Susser; as well as the gifted composer Paul Suits, is offered in stunning performances. Each of these composers has, in his own way, found the essence of cello. Eric Bartlett, a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, has also served as principal cellist of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival for 14 years. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts and the Juilliard School, he is the recipient of a Solo Recitalist's Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

At first thought, the scope of a solo saxophone CD seems a bit narrow, but this recording includes the mainstream family of saxophones—soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones—in a wide variety of classical styles, ranging from tradition tonal music to 12-tone abstraction. As a soloist and founding performer of such ensembles as the Alloy Saxophone Quartet, Bill Perconti's exploration and expansion of the classical saxophone repertoire includes 12 CDs on five record labels. He has commissioned and premiered music by composers Lera Auerbach, Henry Cowell, Alan Hovhaness, Libby Larsen and Frederick Rzewski, among many others. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Baldwin Wallace conservatory and the University of Iowa, he served on the faculty at Lewis-Clark State College until his recent retirement.

Like volume one of East Meets West, this recording is a collection of new music for clarinet by Chinese composers who have lived, studied, and worked overseas. The compositions combine Chinese cultural elements with Western art music to create a unique intersection of cultures through the use of tone colors produced by the combination of clarinet with Chinese instruments, sound effects created with the use of both Chinese and Western musical forms and harmonic language, and a blend of classical and contemporary musical idioms. All the music on this recording was written or arranged for clarinetist Jun Qian. On the music faculty at Baylor University, Jun Qian is principal clarinetist of the Waco Symphony. Previously he was principal clarinetist of the Shanghai Philharmonic and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and Eastman. He has concertized throughout China, and has performed and taught in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Canada.

This recording presents four works composer Mathew Fuerst has written for violinist Jasper Wood and pianist David Riley, along with a solo piano piece. The compositions span a time period of 12 years and show Fuerst's development as a composer. Fuerst, a prize-winner at the 2nd Annual Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, is a graduate of Eastman and Juilliard, where he worked with Robert Beaser and John Corigliano. His music has been performed in numerous venues around the U.S. as well as in Paris, Budapest, Scotland and Hong Kong. He is on the faculty at Hillsdale College. Violinist Jasper Wood has performed with many of North America's finest orchestras as well as pursuing an active career as a recitalist and chamber musician. He is affiliated with the University of British Columbia where he teaches violin and chamber music. Pianist David Riley, on the faculty at the University of Oregon, has received rave reviews throughout the U.S. and Canada, performing as a recitalist at major venues.

A native of New Zealand, cellist Miranda Wilson has performed on five continents as a soloist and chamber musician. Educated in New Zealand, England and the U.S., she is on the faculty of the University of Idaho and is artistic co-director of the Idaho Bach Festival. Wilson has chosen to combine Ernest Bloch's three suites for solo cello with two new works by Daniel Bukvich. One of the connecting features between these two composers is their association with the Pacific Northwest. Bloch spent his last years in Oregon, while Bukvich has spent his career on the faculty at the University of Idaho. Bukvich studied Bloch's manuscripts as a student and names Bloch as one of his influences.

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 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.

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.

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.