In the 1930s an international chain reaction of disparate elements led to a creative collision in the U.S.A growing sense of the AMERICAN in American music burst into full flower as Vienna met Hollywood and classical met jazz. This album celebrates this amazing development in American music. Growing up in the Boston area, Helen Chang Haertzen studied under Bo Youp Hwang and Roman Totenberg. She attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, the Salzburg Mozarteum and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her principal teachers also included Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir, Ruggiero Ricci and Camilla Wicks. Haertzen was a prizewinner of the Karol Lipinski-Wieniawski Competition in Poland. In 2017, the Minnesota State Arts Board awarded her the Artist Initiative Grant. She is joined on this release by Denis Evstuhin, Silver Ainomae, and Oleg Levin.

Here, pianist Joanne Chang performs a group of her favorite works. All are done from the perspective of Joanne as a New Yorker. Described for her captivating and poetic musical interpretations, Malaysian pianist, Joanne Chang has performed and taught internationally in Asia, North America, and Europe. Joanne has been featured on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase (New York), WFMT’s Fiesta Latin America (Chicago), International Menuhin Music Academy (Switzerland), BFM’s Front Row Podcast (Kuala Lumpur), Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center (Bloomington), Sphinx Connect (Detroit), and the National Youth Orchestra of China (Beijing), among others. As a pedagogue, Joanne is faculty member at the Indiana University Young Pianists Academy and Camp Encore/Coda (Maine). She also held teaching positions at Indiana University and Florida State University. At IU, Joanne served as Associate Instructor in Piano and program assistant to the Secondary Piano and Accompanying Departments. Joanne is president/founder of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Collegiate Chapter at IU, established Fall 2019.

The American composer and teacher, Arne Oldberg, was born in Ohio and moved with his parents to Chicago in 1886. At a very early age Oldberg exhibited musical talents and his father taught him to play the piano. He studied music with several piano instructors at the Gottschalk Lyric School in Chicago and in 1892 was graduated with honors. He continued his musical education for two years with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. On his return to his family’s home, now in Evanston, Illinois, he was occupied with composing, presenting piano recitals, and teaching piano in Chicago. He wrote an exceptional body of solo piano music, chamber music, and orchestral music. His music has now fallen into obscurity, which it certainly does not deserve. Pianist Jennifer Muniz aims to bring his work back into the public eye with this album.

This is the second volume in Centaur's ongoing series of the complete organ works of Charles-Marie Widor, performed by Joby Bell. This installment features the Symphony No. 2 in D, and the Symphony No. 3 in E minor. Since 2004, professor Joby Bell has served on the faculty of the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University, where he teaches organ and church music studies. His church music teaching emphasizes the practical knowledge needed for a solid undergraduate foundation toward successful work and further studies in sacred music. His organ teaching specializes in practice techniques, memorization, service playing, choral accompanying, and maintaining grace under pressure – lessons always best taught by example. Dr. Bell is known for "the breadth of his repertoire, technical virtuosity, and for the personal warmth which shines through in his performances." His acclaimed blog at deals with a comprehensive range of organ-related topics including teaching philosophies, recital preparation, church music, and professional concerns.

The two Brahms Sonatas for Viola and Piano are unquestionably two of the greatest chamber works for viola. Here we have the addition of a great arrangement for viola and piano of the Brahms Sonata for Cello & Piano in E minor, Op. 38. Violinist Manchin Zhang and pianist Albert Tiu are ideal performers for this literature. Zhang Manchin is Principal Violist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She was formerly the first Asian player and youngest member in the history of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) when she was appointed Assistant Principal Viola by music director Neeme Järvi in 1994. Zhang has worked closely with conductors and soloists such as Claudio Abbado, Lorin Mazel, Simon Rattle, Zubin Metha, Michael Tilson Thomas Isaac Stern Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman Gil Shaham, Midori, and Emanuel Ax. During her tenure at the DSO, she was a resident artist at the Interlochen Center for the Arts a member of the DSO Chamber Music Ensemble and DSO String Quartet, and a participant and performer of the Chamber Music Festival at Blue Lake in Great Michigan area. Albert Tiu is the Associate Professor of Piano at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, he studied with Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School, with Michael Lewin at Boston Conservatory, and with Nita Abrogar-Quinto and Nelly Castro in the Philippines. A recipient of Juilliard’s William Petschek Award and a prizewinner of competitions in Calgary (Honens), Helsinki (Maj Lind) and Santander (Paloma O’Shea), he won the First Prize and two concerto prizes in the 1996 UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa.

Henry Hadley was one of the most popular composers of the early 20th Century. Unfortunately his works have since be largely forgotten, but it certainly is not because of any lack of quality of the work. These are wonderful pieces that hopefully will now again get at least of bit of the recognition that they deserve, with sensitive performances by Theodore Buchholz, cello, and Paula Fan, piano. Theodore Buchholz is the cello professor at the University of Arizona, where he also serves as String Area Coordinator, String Chamber Music Coordinator, and the Director of the UA String Project. As a performer Theodore Buchholz has been lauded by newspaper critics as a “virtuosic cellist” with a “warm beautiful sound.” He has performed in prominent venues from New York’s Lincoln Center to international halls in Italy and Tokyo, and in countless venues across the United States. He toured the recently commissioned concerto The High Songs by Carter Pann, and performed Brahms’s Double Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with orchestras across the U.S.

Nora Lee Garcia is one of the most highly regarded flutists in the concert world today. As a Powell Flutes Artist and Professor of Flute at the University of Central Florida, she is in demand throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America as a soloist, chamber artist, and teacher. Nora Lee has been featured as a guest artist in Carnegie Hall and in different Flute Conventions such as: the French Flute Convention, Mexico City Flute Festival, the Chile Flute Festival, the Flute Seminar at Casa Maria in Santa Barbara, California, the Festival Internacional de Flautistas de Lima Peru, the Flute Symposium in Lima, Peru in honor of Michel Debost, the Florida Flute Association Convention, and the National Flute Association Convention. Cuban-born René Izquierdo is a unique artist and passionate educator whose career has been dedicated to inspiring individuals and connecting communities. Whether passionately performing on stage, devotedly mentoring his students, fundraising, or leading community outreach, René’s multi-faceted approach endeavors to continue creating experiences that enrich people’s lives and add beauty to our world. Dimas Sanchez is a Puerto Rican drummer and percussionist who currently lives in the city of Orlando FL. Some of the musical styles he plays are Blues, Jazz, Country, Latin Jazz, Rock, Bomba, Plena, Funk, Samba Bossa Nova and others. He has had the privilege of studying with musicians such as Tony Sánchez, Keith Copeland, Ignacio Berroa, Ángel "Cachete" Maldonado among others. In addition to being able to study Afro-Puerto Rican folklore when he participated in the 80s with La Familia Cepeda, his tutors were Jesús Cepeda, Petra Cepeda and Don Rafael Cepeda.

Dr. Sarah Daughtrey, mezzo-soprano, serves as Voice Area Coordinator and Associate Professor of Music at New Mexico State University, teaching courses in Vocal Diction, Vocal Pedagogy and Literature, as well as applied voice lessons. Dr. Daughtrey received the DM in Vocal Performance and Literature from the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with world-renowned soprano Patricia Wise. She earned the BA in Vocal Performance from Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, and pursued graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she was a Knoxville Opera Company Apprentice performing in the Educational Outreach program. With the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre, she performed several roles, including Ottavia in Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea.” While at IU, she was privileged to perform as the Student/Singer in a staged version of Argento’s song cycle “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf” under the direction of acclaimed baritone Håkan Hagegård with the composer in attendance. An active performer and recitalist, she presents her new album entitled “A Touch of Blue,” featuring works for voice and saxophone and voice, including the premiere recording of Marius Flothuis’ cycle on poems from Langston Hughes, “Negro Lament.” She is joined by saxophonist David Box and pianist Justin Badgerow.

As a successor to the previous World Winds album, this collection again brings together wind instruments from Asia and the West, played by performers from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The pieces were composed and recorded over a span of forty years. Composer David Loeb has worked with traditional Asian music as a composer, scholar, and performer for over fifty years. David Loeb was born in 1939 in New York into a family which took music and painting very seriously. He studied composition with Peter Pindar Stearns at the Mannes College of Music in New York, and then completed a master's degree at Yale. 1964 became a critical year for his future. He began teaching at Mannes and has remained on the faculty there ever since, simultaneously teaching at the Curtis Institute from 1973 until 2000.

Inbar Solomon is a Recorder player, performing both early music and Israeli/ international contemporary music in several ensembles. She collaborates with composers from Israel, USA, Japan, England and Argentina, and in the past years she premiered over 20 new solo & chamber music Recorder pieces dedicated to her. New pieces performed and recorded by her were published in many albums, and had their creators win important prizes, such as the Prime Minister Prize for Composers and ACUM Award. For her newest release she is joined by Ophira Zakai, Amit Tiefenbrunn, and Yizhar Karshon for a unique program of early and contemporary Folias.

William Popp, one of today’s greatest classical accordionists, plays his own musical compositions. These are wonderful, spirited pieces to which you will want to return over and over again. William Popp began his music training on the piano at the age of six. After only a year, the lessons were discontinued because of a family move leaving the piano behind. He began accordion lessons at the age of 11. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master of Arts degree in accordion performance from the University of Denver where he studied with Robert Davine. He has performed and toured extensively on accordion and harpsichord with the United States Air Force Strings and has appeared with this group at such prestigious venues as The White House, the State Department, the Smithsonian, and the Kennedy Center. William Popp has also performed in concert with members of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the 21st Century Consort, National Musical Arts, the Colorado Chamber Players, and Young Audiences, Inc. He has toured throughout the world with the USAF Strings and has appeared as a soloist in Beijing, China.

This is an album of great classical vocal works, transcribed for cello and piano by Sölen Dikener. Included are works by Stefano Donaudy, Mozart, R. Strauss; Carl Bohm, Arthur Sullivan, Eric Coates, Roger Quilter, Emile Paladilhe, Reynaldo Hahn, Debussy, Poulenc, Amy Beach, Ernest Charles, Vittorio Giannini, and Samuel Barber. Dr. Şőlen Dikener is a professor of music at the School of Music of Marshall University. He has been teaching cello, double bass, chamber music, music appreciation, and critical thinking classes since 2002. A winner of the Distinguished Artist and Scholar Award (2007) at Marshall, Dr. Dikener published an internationally renowned cello method book, “Cello Warm-Up!” that received critical acclaim from The Strad magazine. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he also directs the Woodlands Chamber Series in Huntington, WV, an annual concert organization he founded and currently serving as its music director. He directed the Music Alive Chamber Music Series for over a decade in collaboration with Frist Presbyterian and Fifth Avenue Baptist Churches. Every summer, he returns to his native Turkey and teaches at the summer music school; Datca Cello Academy.

The present release is a truly ravishing program for violin and orchestra! Ukrainian born Solomiya Ivakhiv is an accomplished concert violinist, chamber musician, collaborator, educator, and champion of new music. Concertizing internationally, her wide range of repertoire includes the premiere of numerous new works for violin. Dr. Ivakhiv has performed solo and chamber music at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Curtis Institute Field Concert Hall, Italian Academy in New York City, Pickman Hall in Cambridge (MA), San Jose Chamber Music Society, Old First Concerts in San Francisco, Astoria Music Festival (Portland), Tchaikovsky Hall in Kyiv, Concertgebouw Mirror Hall, and at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. A dedicated champion of new music, Dr. Ivakhiv has been privileged to premiere numerous new works for violin by composers Eli Marshall, David Ludwig, John B. Hedges, Bohdan Kryvopust, Yevhen Stankovych, Bruce Adolphe, David Dzubay, Leonid Hrabovsky, and Oleksandr Shchetynsky.

The present release is the first volume in Cantata Collective’s exploration of the Cantatas of JS Bach. Cantata Collective is San Francisco's only professional Ensemble dedicated solely to the performance of the Cantatas of J.S. Bach. "A group of local early-music luminaries devoted to the composer's 200-plus compositions in the genre" (San Francisco Chronicle), Cantata Collective is supported by an enthusiastic Board of Directors, and endorsed by an illustrious Advisory Board. Together with its "congregation" it has created a magical community of listeners who share in this traversal of musical treasures. Cantata Collective presents these iconic works as the equivalent of a World Heritage Site, a collection of masterworks belonging to all people.

This is a program of great contemporary works for harp. With over 20 years experience in both the harp and the violin, Tasha Smith Godinez is an accomplished musician and teacher. Ms. Smith Godinez debuted as a soloist at age 16 and has since graced stages worldwide. With the harp, Tasha has studied with Isabelle Perrin, Elena Mashkovtseva and Susan Allen. She holds performance degrees from both San Diego State University (Bachelor's 2005, Master's 2010) and l'Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Corot in Paris, France (2006). Ms. Smith Godinez has held the position of principal harpist for both the Orquesta de Baja California (Tijuana, Mexico) and the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra (San Diego, California) as well as a handful of appearances with the San Diego Symphony.