This is an album of works of the 20th Century for Flute, Clarinet, and Voice, also featuring piano, harpsichord, and viola. All of the musical compositions are based upon first-rate works of poetry. The compositions by composers such as Aaron Copland, Marilyn Biery, Cornelius Boots, Jay Batzner, and David Biedenbender feature text by poems such as “As It Fell Upon a Day,” by Richard Barnefield, “Provincetown, August,” by Terry Blackhawk, and even classics in the literature canon such as Canterbury Tales and works by William Shakespeare. This programme was recorded in 2015 at the Staples Family Concert Hall at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The artists are Central Michigan University Music School faculty, and the project was funded by a Creative and Scholarly Support Grant from the university.

Clarinet virtuoso David Howard performs some of the greatest works for clarinet and piano from the Mid-20th Century.

All of the works on this album were written for the violinists who play them here. 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. Receiving a commission to compose a piece for an early music ensemble resulted a continuing involvement with writing for historical instruments, especially viols. Later that same year he began studying traditional Japanese music with Shinichi Yuize.

Harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and continuo improviser at numerous festivals and concert series around the world. She has been a member of Duo Geminiani with violinist Stanley Ritchie since 1974, and has performed solo recitals and made guest appearances with Tafelmusik, Seattle, Vancouver and Portland Baroque. She frequently collaborates with artists of international renown, including performances with Les Sonatistes and as a guest artist with Ye Olde Friends and Musica Ficta. She has served as artistic director of projects devoted to musical settings of Italian baroque poetry. Her “Marino and Music: a Marriage of Expressive Rhetorical Gesture” was published in The Sense of Marino: Literature, Fine Arts and Music; she has also published reviews for Early Keyboard Journal. Ms. Wright is a founding member of the Seattle Early Music Guild and Bloomington Early Music Associates. She serves as a board member of the Early Music America and a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Here, she tackles an early keyboard staple: the harpsichord works of J. S. Bach.

Bartok's wonderful works for violin and piano. Great performances by Leslie Shank and Heather MacLaughlin.

Contemporary composer Robert Livingston Aldridge composed this set of 15 songs set to love poems in 2004. These are touching, moving works. Mezzo-soprano, Nicole Asel, serves as an Assistant Professor of Voice at Sam Houston State University. She holds a D.M.A. in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from The University of Colorado at Boulder, an M.M. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.M. from Ithaca College. A finalist in the 2010 Rocky Mountain Regional Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, she is a devoted operatic performer and recitalist. Robert Spillman, Professor Emeritus, was Chair of the piano faculty and Music Director of the Opera Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, receiving a BM degree and Performers Certificate in piano and a MA degree in music theory.

This release features a program of Cantatas by Clerambault and Rameau, two of the greatest of all French Baroque composers. American Tenor Zachary Wilder joins with Les Bostonades, a world-class period instrument ensemble based in Boston. American tenor Zachary Wilder is recognized for his work in repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries and is sought after on both the concert and operatic stages on both sides of the Atlantic. Having studied at the Eastman School of Music and at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, Zachary subsequently moved to Boston after the beginning of his ongoing collaboration with the Boston Early Music Festival and a summer of studies as a Tanglewood Music Fellow. Zachary's discography comprises several recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival, including their Grammy Award winning La Descente d'Orph�e aux Enfers as Tantalus. The period-instrument ensemble Les Bostonades has been sharing chamber music with Boston area audiences since it's founding in 2005. The ensemble features Baroque music specialists who have studied and performed all over the world, who collaborate in Boston's vibrant early music scene, bringing spirited and polished performances to their listeners. The ensemble's performances have been described as "the most engaging chamber music playing... [a] generous, voluptuous sound... well delineated, [and with] a poignancy of emotion."

Classical Music

A great album of straight-ahead jazz, this new release features a program of wonderful acoustic jazz composed by John Perrine. John Perrine is Associate Professor, Coordinator of Jazz Studies and Department Chair at Cleveland State University. He has premiered works by Kari Juusela, Aaron Johnson, William Price, Greg D'Allesio and others. Perrine holds a DMA from Louisiana State University, a Masters in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University, and a BME from Stetson University. He is a founding member of the Neo- Tessares Saxophone Quartet as well as the Red Stick Saxophone Quartet. Red Stick has won national prizes in the MTNA and Fischoff chamber music competitions. Perrine's composition "Vonnegut: Suite for Saxophone Quartet" was premiered at the North American Saxophone Alliance International Convention in Columbia, South Carolina by the Red Stick Saxophone Quartet. This is his sophomore album.

Michele McGovern is a musician, composer/arranger, and award winning flutist and film maker. This is her debut album. Falling Leaves is a collection of the latest original music by Michele McGovern. Composed in collaboration with Tiko Lasola, Chris Kukla, and Gary Guttman, Falling Leaves takes the listener through a cinematic journey with hypnotic sounds harvested from classical, jazz, rock, new age, and pop genres to create a truly mesmerizing experience. Michele’s music may remind you of the Piano Guys, Lindsey Sterling, or 2 Cellos, but with her and her flute taking center stage. Her latest adventure to bring flute to mainstream listeners includes a visual prologue performance of the new musical Lady Vadula. A provocative story that incorporates music, contortion, dance, aerial dance, and narration.

Polish-born New York City-based musician Kinga Augustyn is a versatile classical concert violinist and recording artist who is gaining worldwide recognition through her performances as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has been described as "an adventurous performer valuable to New York's scene" (NY Concert Review), "stylish and vibrant... playing with verve and superb control" (The Strad Magazine), and "beyond amazing, one hell of a violinist!" (The Fanfare Magazine). Her repertoire ranges from early baroque, which she sometimes performs on a baroque violin, to modern, oftentimes written especially for her. She has won several international awards, including First Prizes at the Alexander & Buono International String Competition. On this release, she presents Georg Philipp Telemann's 12 Fantasias for Solo Violin.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is Centaur's second volume in The Opera Fantasies for Violin and Piano by Jean Baptiste Singelee, featuring Thomas wood and Bryan Dykstra. These are wonderful, idiomatic arrangements from the great operas. A Belgian classical composer of the romantic period, Jean-Baptiste Singelee studied at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. He was violin soloist at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, and directed orchestras both there and in Ghent. He is most known for his contributions to saxophone literature, as well as his vast oeuvre of violin works. Violinist Thomas Wood serves as professor of music at The College of Wooster. He was the first violinist to be awarded the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In addition to these recordings featuring Singelee's works, he is currently writing a book on the opera fantasies of the composer as well.