Classical Music

This album of modern Garth Baxter-composed art songs, features coloratura soprano Katherine Unha Keem, with accompanying musicians Andrew Stuart at the piano, guitarist Kathrin Murray and tenor Peter Scott Drackley. Mr. Baxter is noted for his modern traditionalist style of writing, a style that combines the traditions of form and clear melodic writing with the use of contemporary harmonic approaches and other elements. Well known for her skilled singing technique, clear and effortless high notes, and artistic interpretations, Ms. Keem has a vocal range of four octaves.

Containing works by Czech composers Ladislav Vycpalek, Leos Janacek, and Otakar Zich, this new release features some of the finest Czech viola music that has been composed. Ladislav Vycpalek (1882-1969) typically composed vocal and choral works. His Suite for Solo Viola, op. 21 has been chosen for this recording. The Leos Janacek works chosen for this release, his Sonata for Violin and Piano, Dumka for Violin and Piano, and Romance for Violin and Piano, have been arranged for Viola by Jacob Adams, who also performs these works accompanied by Pascal Salomon.

Classical Music

On this new release, the Prometheus Piano Quintet performs American chamber works for flute, featuring works by composers Charles T. Griffes, Roy Harris, Arthur Foote, and Amy Beach. Dr. Kerry Walker is Professor of Flute at Western Connecticut State University as well as Principal Flutist with the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. She performs with the Ives Orchestra, the All-New England Orchestra and with chamber groups: Ridge Winds, Prometheus, and Dual Excursions. She holds degrees from The University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University, and Texas Tech University. Prometheus is a group of five dedicated performers who believe that music carries the fire of human passion into our daily existence. It’s director, Eric Lewis, is a well known performer and retired professor at Western Connecticut State University.

Centaur Records presents a new release of contemporary chamber music by Laura Schwendinger.

This is the fourth volume in Centaur's edition of the complete Six Collections of Keyboard Works for Connoisseurs and Amateurs of C.P.E. Bach. Sri-Lankan born fortepianist, harpsichordist, composer as well as Founder and Director of Con Gioia, Preethi de Silva is a specialist in this literature. The journal Early Music (Oxford) recognized her for her “profound understanding of [C.P.E.] Bach’s idiosyncratic language.”

Alexander Krein was a Russian Jewish composer who lived and worked during the twentieth century. The piano works featured on this new release date from the early parts of his career. Also included are pieces by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who was a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. The sonata included here was composed in 1955. The Ukrainian-born pianist Anastasia Seifetdinova has performed extensively in the United States and Europe. She has appeared in the Weill Recital Hall in New York City, the Bolshoy Hall of Moscow Conservatory and many European festivals. She was first prize winner of the International Piano Competitions in Rome and in Puigcerda, and received her musical education in Kiev at the Lysenko School of Music with V. Vorobyov, in Wurzburg at the Hochschule fur Musik with Silke-Thora Matthies and at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford with Oxana Yablonskaya. She is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Hartford and is active as her teacher's assistant. She is a recipient of the Musical Club of Hartford's Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarship.

This new release is a program of jazz originals by George Small and Sarah Larson. Both composers are heard performing on the album, as well as Warren Vachet, Marc Daine, and Chip Fabrizi. George Small is a legendary musician, composer, and producer who is active on the New York music scene. He has a wide variety of credits that stretch through hit recordings, live performances with music’s elite (Broadway, concert and TV) and a wide variety of productions and original compositions. Sarah Larsen’s training is that of a classical musician, but recently she can be found playing bluegrass, jazz, and swing. Her past projects include VOX4, a traditional string quartet with alternative stylings. Currently you can find her with Tempo del Fuoco, a fiery classical duo featuring Nick Cutroneo; the Jersey Corn Pickers, a hard-driving bluegrass band with members from South Jersey and Philadelphia, and her newest project Harper and the Bell, which features bluegrass instrumentation and big ideas about harmony.

This album features symphonic works by contemporary composer John Rodby. The Rilkegesangen is a major work for mezzo-soprano and orchestra.

This program of romantic chamber works, featuring Franck’s F minor Piano Quintet and Glazunov’s String Quartet No. 5, also includes a chamber arrangement of the lovely Adagietto movement from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. The Delray String Quartet has clearly established itself as one of the cultural jewels of South Florida, performing across the region, and increasingly beyond. Pianist and prolific recording artist Tao Lin is currently an artist faculty member at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and is a visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University Music College.

Rey Burns' Crossroad takes the novel concept of string quartet with jazz-based rhythm section to new heights. This new release from Rey and his group includes jazz standards from big names like Nat King Cole and Sonny Rollins as well as original pieces. Reynard Burns is a practitioner of music education, composer, arranger and clinician. During the course of his thirty-five years as a public school orchestra director, he has written and arranged music for studio orchestra, jazz strings, and quartets as well as full orchestra. Currently, Rey is the Director of the Dowling College Orchestra. He also presents workshops for string students and teachers on playing jazz and improvising. Taking an active roll in promoting string jazz, Rey has presented workshops at the American String Teachers' Association's National Conferences as well as for public school teacher's and students.

Belgian clarinetist Marcel Luxen (“… a brilliant virtuoso and a profound musician” - The Straits Times Singapore) and Filipino pianist Albert Tiu (“…an artist of uncommon abilities” - American Record Guide) combine their talents in the service of three German Giants, Carl Maria von Weber, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Mr. Luxen is former Principal Clarinetist and founding member of the internationally acclaimed Malaysian Philharmonic. Mr. Tiu is Assoc. Prof. of Piano at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Univ. of Singapore, where these works were recorded in 2013.

Greek-born composer Dinos Constantinides has received numerous commissions, grants, and awards during his career, including first prizes in the Brooklyn College International Chamber Competition, the First Midwest Chamber Opera Conference, and the Delius composition Contest Grand Prize. This release features several of Constantinides’ works for solo or chamber group, including his popular Silence and Thunder for Percussion and Ensemble. Constantinides is currently Boyd Professor, the highest academic rank at Louisiana State University, and is the head of the Composition department.

Modern Fairy Tales, recorded in 2014 for Centaur Records, features oboist Courtney Miller accompanied by one of three pianists on six works of chamber music written in the 19th, 20th and 21st c. by, among others, B�la Bart�k and Peter Schickele. She travels throughout the US as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician, playing both prestigious as well as smaller, more intimate venues where she enjoys more audience interaction.