Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Hubert Howe is an important contemporary composer of computer music. The works featured on this album are Inharmonic Fantasies Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 8, and Harmonic Fantasies Nos 3 and 4. Hubert Howe was educated at Princeton University, where he studied with J. K. Randall, Godfrey Winham and Milton Babbitt, and from which he received the A.B., M.F.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He was one of the first researchers in computer music, and became Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music studios at Queens College of the City University of New York. He also taught at the Juilliard School for 20 years. In 1988-89 he held the Endowed Chair in Music at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. From 1989 to 1998, 2001 to 2002, and Fall 2007, he was Director of Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York. He has been a member of the American Composers Alliance since 1974 and has served as President from 2002 to 2011. He is a member of the New York Composers Circle and has served as Executive Director since 2013. In 2009, he founded the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and he continues as Director. Recordings of his computer music (Overtone Music, CPS-8678, Filtered Music, CPS-8719, and Temperamental Music and Created Sounds, CPS- 8771) have been released by Capstone Records, and Clusters has been released by Ravello Records.

Isleford’s Congregational Church on Little Cranberry Island, one of the five islands located off the Maine coast collectively known as the Cranberry Isles, was where “Music From Cranberry Isles: 18th c. Instrumental and Vocal Masterworks” was recorded in 1990. Featuring the great flautist Julius Baker, five additional instrumentalists and soprano Susan Storey Frank, the musicians play works by Telemann, Gluck, Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, and more. “… a meeting of like minds and great musicians… A hands down winner on all counts”. (American Record Guide, 1991)

The late Brahms piano works are truly a remarkable body of compositions. Russian pianist Mikhail Volchok, now on the faculty at the University of Maryland, infuses these works with both the delicacy and grandeur that they encompass.

Italian flutist Rita D'Arcangelo presents, on her debut album for the Centaur label, a true virtuoso program of works for flute by a wide, diverse array of composers stretching across the Classical and Romantic eras and extending into the 20th c. with Il Carnevale di Venezia by the Italian composer Leonardo de Lorenzo (1875-1962). Currently Principal flautist of the United Chamber Orchestra of Berlin, Ms. D'Arcangelo's concert activities as a solo artist have taken her across Europe as well as to Japan, where she also served as a principal orchestra flautist for a time.

These works are all among the major solo piano works of Robert Schumann. Pianist Shang Cai has performed widely, beginning with his debut with the Toronto Symphony at the age of fifteen. He loves this music, and it clearly shows. Twenty-eight year old award-winning pianist, Sheng Cai has embraced the keyboard tradition which epitomizes the greatness of the romantic virtuoso. His performances have touched audiences and won the praise of critics on three continents. Of his Chopin 1st piano Concerto the Toronto Star headlined: "Young pianist impresses at debut" and continued "a young man with real talent... from a clear, singing tone to a subtle sense of rubato to a judicious choice of tempi... some of the same quantities embodied in Pollini's approach". Honored with a number of prizes and awards, Sheng Cai has been described as a pianist" with great confidence... gave more lucidity, color and power" by the Birmingham News.

Classical Music

The compositions on this album are all set to texts by female Jewish poets. All of the poets featured in these works were either in the Holocaust, or fled just before the Holocaust to avoid Nazi oppression. These vocal works feature Nanette McGuiness.

This album of works by Jan Radzynski featuring cello can be understood as a microcosm of the composer's oeuvre. As a teenager in Warsaw, Radzynski focused on his study of the cello, and this greatly shaped his writing for the instrument. This is wonderfully evocative music, heard here in beautiful performances. Cellist Zvi Plesser studied with Zvi Harel in Israel and David Soyer in the USA, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Zara Nelsova. He has won numerous awards including First Prize at the Washington International Competition and was an AICF scholarship recipient. He made his American debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 17 and has performed with many leading orchestras both in Israel and abroad, including the Israel Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Julia Gaines is the Director of the School of Music at the University of Missouri. In addition to this post, she is a composer and performer, and has performed as a soloist throughout the United States and in several other countries including Brazil, China, England, and Russia. As a pedagogue, she has written books on marimba study, which have become extremely popular among students in the United States and Abroad. This release is dedicated to the instrument that she loves the most- marimba. Compositions by Kevin Bobo, Ricardo A. Coelho de Souza, Tracy Thomas, Ivan Trevino, Blake Tyson, Jeffrey Dennis Smith, Dave Hall, W. Thomas McKenney, and Albert Hay are all featured.

Classical Music