"• Though hailing from different eras, postwar Italian experimentalist Luciano Berio and contemporary composer Huang Ruo are united here in their exploration of identical
• pieces of violin music played solo and with ensemble accompaniment. Acclaimed violinist David Bowlin reveals how two seemingly identical paths can be marked by endless contrasts.
• Features the Oberlin Conservatory's award-winning Contemporary Music Ensemble under the direction of Timothy Weiss."
Literature is a frequent source of inspiration for Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, whose extended song cycle Songtree is based on poetry by William Shakespeare and Mexican author Raúl Aceves. Zohn-Muldoon's compositional voice is also shaped by a steady collaboration with the particular group of musicians for whom he writes, including soprano Tony Arnold, flutist Molly Barth, percussionists Stuart Gerber and Paul Vaillancourt, guitarist Dieter Hennings, violinist Hanna Hurwitz, pianist and composer Daniel Pesca, and conductor Timothy Weiss, among others. This artistic affinity brought many of these musicians together to co- found the Zohn Collective in 2017. On Songtree: Music of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, members and friends of that collective join forces with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), under the direction of Weiss.
Bernard Rands boasts a catalog of more than 100 published compositions, among them his vocal and instrumental work Canti del Sole, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1984. The centerpiece of Rands at Oberlin, a new recording on the Oberlin Music label, is a work commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory in honor of its 150th anniversary and intended for English horn player Robert Walters, a professor at Oberlin and longtime member of The Cleveland Orchestra. Rands’ Concerto for English Horn received its world-premiere performance by Walters and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall in November 2015. It makes its recorded premiere on this release, which features Walters performing alongside the Oberlin Orchestra, under the direction of Raphael Jiménez. Rands at Oberlin also features Canti del Sole, which describes a day’s progression from dawn to dusk. It is performed here by Norwegian tenor Magnus Staveland with Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, under the direction of Timothy Weiss.
