Extreme Measures II

The second volume of Jean Kopperud's Rated X series features works by five composers for clarinet and percussion, all of them commissioned by Ms. Kopperud for the series, who asked composers to dare to stretch the medium as they considered what to write. Jean Kopperud is well known for her superhuman performance abilities. She has toured the world as a concert soloist and chamber musician and performs with many new music ensembles such as The New York New Music Ensemble. She is also a performer on the cutting edge of the music-theater genre and received national acclaim for her presentations of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Harlekin. She is joined by the percussionist Tom Kolor, who specializes in 20th and 21st century music. He has given dozens of premieres of music by such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Zorn, Tania Leon and Wayne Peterson and has recorded for the Bridge, New World, Naxos and Albany record labels, among many others. Both performers are on the faculty of the University of Buffalo. Extreme Measures I is a 2-CD set (TROY1217/18) that includes commissioned works for clarinet and piano.