This is an album featuring favorite piano works by Ravel, performed beautifully by Taiwanese-American pianist Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng. She currently is Chair of the Keyboard department at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.

This is Volume 2 in the anticipated complete set of Cantatas of JS Bach, performed by Cantata Collective, a period instrument vocal and instrumental ensemble based in San Francisco.

This album features a selection of African Art Music songs for voice and piano. The genre typifies the creative convergence of Western Art Music with African Folk Music traditions.

With this set, Centaur completes its traversal of the complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle, performed by the superb St. Louis based Arianna String Quartet. This is one of the truly great Beethoven String Quartet cycles.

Italian pianist Cinzia Bartoli presents a wonderful album of the complete piano works of Maurice Ravel.

The Anonim Trio was formed in 2021, and features three faculty members at Washington State University: Martin D. King, horn; Chris Dickey, tuba, and Yoon-Wha Roh, piano. The group was formed because the members love the sound of these three instruments combined, and wanted to perform the existing repertoire and commission new works for this ensemble. The Anonim Trio’s first performance was a performance of Jim Stephenson’s Vast and Curious on a concert honoring the composer at Washington State University in 2021. The trio is currently working on a project funded by the WSU Center for Arts and Humanities. The Anonim Trio commissioned a new piece by Catherine Likhuta (premiered in April, 2022), is touring the Southeast, and is recording an album on Centaur records. The album will be released in the fall of 2022. We are excited to share this amazing music with you!

The Dalí Quartet is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. In addition to works of the masters from Haydn to Brahms and Amaya to Piazzolla, the group's adventurous and entertaining programming includes new works for quartet with percussionist Orlando Cotto, and quintets both Latin and Classical with the renowned clarinetist Ricardo Morales, principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and with acclaimed pianist Vanessa Perez. The Dalí Quartet has an ongoing collaboration with the Van Cliburn Competition’s gold-medal winning pianist Olga Kern, with whom they have toured from coast to coast and recorded the piano quintets of Brahms and Shostakovich released on the Delos label. The Dalí Quartet is the 2021 recipient of Chamber Music America's Guarneri String Quartet Residency, funded by the Sewell Family Foundation, and the 2021 Silver Medal at the inaugural Piazzolla Music Competition.

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 is often regarded as the most important of all World’s Expositions. It highlighted the amazing technological revolution of the 19th Century.
This is an album featuring some of the best classical music from this important era. Scott Joplin (arr. Vazquez): Pleasant Moments; Rose Leaf Rag; Jules Massenet: Meditation from Thaïs; Edgar Gabriel: Sakura, Sakura Variations; Antonin Dvorák: Terzetto, Op. 74; Johann Schrammel: Erinnerung An Wien; Bei Guter Laune: George Valasi: Chicago Day Waltz

The album, souls like birds..., was conceptualized over two years before its release. As we began putting together the concept of a second album, the MIENT DUO decided that it should consist of all original pieces composed specifically for the album. The project began when Brent and Michael reached out to friends and colleagues to solicit commissions. The MIENT DUO were adamant that each composer write their piece, or pieces, with very little restrictions or commentary. We were looking for original compositions, and that is what we received. We are greatly indebted to the kindness, generosity, talent, and mastery of the composers who wrote original pieces for this album. They wrote amazing pieces using creative language, timbres, and registers to create truly unique new works.

We have chosen to use the title from the track “souls like birds…” by Joel Scott Davis. This title is based on a passage from Ezekiel 13:20 from the English Standard Bible: “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds.” The composer has also stated the following: “Though there isn’t a program or narrative for the piece as such, the music is inspired by, and intended in dedication to and solidarity with, the people of Ukraine––past, present, and future.”

MIENT DUO is a group founded by trumpeter Michael Averett and guitarist Brent Ferguson in 2017. The MIENT DUO released their first album, Avalon, in the fall of 2019, and is thrilled to release their second album, souls like birds. . . on Centaur records in the fall of 2022. The MIENT DUO has been featured by multiple community concert organizations, including On-Stage Live and Kansas Public Radio. The MIENT DUO aims to create new music, compositions and arrangements adding to the breadth of the trumpet and guitar repertoire while also entertaining audiences.

Albert Stoessel: Violin Sonata in G (1921); Gustav Strube: Violin Sonata in E minor (1924); Walter Damrosch: Violin Sonata op. 6 “At Fox Meadow” (1899). The first two works receive world premiere recordings here, the third receives its first studio recording.

Prague-born, Hans Sitt (1850–1922) enjoyed a decades-long career as a conductor, pedagogue, violinist, composer, editor, and arranger in France and Germany. As with his arrangements, which include the complete Beethoven and Schumann symphonies for violin and piano, many of Sitt’s original compositions were written to benefit students and amateurs. These compositions, firmly rooted in the German Romantic tradition, were praised for their pleasing melodies and solid craftsmanship.

Perhaps Sitt’s most progressive compositional approach was in his treatment of the viola as a solo instrument. After decades of neglect by both performers and composers, the viola began to see stirrings of life toward the end of the nineteenth century, and Sitt made valuable contributions to the instrument’s revival.

Composed with an accompaniment for orchestra or piano, the Romance, Op. 72, differs from his earlier works with orchestral accompaniment—the Concertstück and Viola Concerto—both of which rely more heavily on virtuosic devices. Here, lyricism reigns supreme, with the inherently vocal nature of the viola fully on display.

The set of three Fantasiestücke, op. 58 (1894)  is serious in tone and harmonically complex with each movement displaying a high degree of chromaticism.

Given its origin as a piece for solo violin, it is not surprising that the Romanze, Op. 102/1, makes extended use of the viola’s upper register. The work also features fancy passagework of sixteenth notes, a favorite virtuosic device of Sitt’s.

The opening Elegie of the 3 Morceaux, Op. 75, in the somber key of F minor, turns to the major mode in the piece’s concluding moments. After a serene opening, Rêverie is disrupted by a stormier middle section, though the viola soon returns to its dreamlike musings. As a further study in contrasts, the concluding Barcarole starts off in rather turbulent manner (set in the key of G minor) before finally encountering calm waters.

The Gavotte and Mazurka, Op. 132, as the final works that Sitt composed for viola, these lighthearted dance movements demonstrate his skill at writing music in diverse styles and for different markets.

His admiration for his predecessors (notably Schumann) can be heard throughout the Albumblätter, op. 39, as he presents charming scenes of great beauty (No. 1), wistfulness (No. 2), and melancholy (No. 5). The contrasting sections of the third piece (No. 3) are suggestive of his Czech heritage, while the rhythmic complexities of the following piece (No. 4) provide variety and disorient the listener. In the final movement (No. 6), the viola’s opening whirlwind of eighth notes gives way to a 'dolce' middle section (with the eighth notes transferred to the piano) before returning to the dramatic opening material. Sitt forgoes a flashy ending by reining things in during the final eight measures, coyly returning to music from the middle section.

One of Sitt’s most enduring compositions is also among his most virtuosic concert works, the Concertstück, op. 46 (1892). Taken together with his Viola Concerto, Op. 68, these works feature beautiful cantilena lines, effective use of the viola’s various registers, and minimal use of double stops, and would have have been well suited to amateurs and students alike.

Ann Marie Brink has served as Associate Principal Viola of the Dallas Symphony for two decades. Pianist Marta Aznavoorian is known for her inspiringly spirited playing and vast emotional reach.

A superior post bop soloist, tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator David Detweiler is influenced by early John Coltrane and Michael Brecker but has a sound and style of his own within the mainstream of modern jazz.

Currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone, David joined the faculty at Florida State University in 2016 after serving as Director of Jazz Studies at Nazareth College (Rochester, NY). He has performed at many of New York City’s premier live-music venues such as The Blue Note, Birdland, The Knitting Factory, and The Iridium.

His first record as a leader, New York Stories, featured Leon Anderson, Clarence Seay, Chris Pattishall, and Rick Lollar. His second record as a leader, The Dave Detweiler Trio was released in August 2015. Celebrating Bird with bassist Fumi Tomita was released September 2020 and The Astoria Suite was released in 2021.

Bassist, composer, and educator Fumi Tomita was active in the New York jazz scene for over fifteen years. His 2019 recording, The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami, was released to critical acclaim by Origin Arts records and was listed in the top ten records of 2019 by Jazziz. He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

American composer Richard Burchard (b. 1960) has established himself as an internationally renowned composer with his innovative and unique choral compositions. His compositions merge the styles of Renaissance polyphony with modern dissonance and mixed meter. Burchard draws text sources such as the texts and rites of the Roman Catholic Church, and poets such as Rainer Maria Rilke.

Frederick Lesemann is a distinguished professor emeritus of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. He is an emeritus professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he at various times served as chair of the composition program and directed the electronic music studio. Lesemann has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer, Centrum Center for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, ASCAP, the USC Zumberg Faculty Research and Innovation Fund and the Thornton School itself. He has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, The Colonial Symphony, the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, Southwest Chamber Music, USC,Piano Spheres, and several individuals.

His works, which employ a wide range of media, have been performed by such groups as the Kronos Quartet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Buffalo Philharmonic and Southwest Chamber Music, and at such places as the Kennedy and Lincoln centers, Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Ojai Music Festival and the Arnold Schoenberg Institute. Recordings of his work are found on Doberman/Ypann, Town Hall, Cambria, and Crystal record labels.

This are wonderful performances of the two Brahms Cello Sonatas. Norbert Salter published transcriptions of six Brahms lieder for cello and piano in 1896, while Brahms still was alive. These make a great addition to the sonatas.