The Prospero Trio – Jana Vander Schaaf Ross (violin), Nick Ross (piano), Wesley Baldwin (cello) – are heard to play on this Centaur disc four works of chamber music, three duos and a trio, by one the very best of 20th c. French composers, Arthur Honegger (1982-1955), from recordings made in 2009, 2012 & 2013. The duos each feature a different combination of performers: violin and piano, cello and piano, and violin and cello. All three performers maintain private or university teaching positions, placements in ensembles or orchestras and active performance agendas in the Tennessee-Ohio region of the US.

Includes work(s) by Jean-Baptiste Arban. Soloists: Charles Gates, Stacy Rogers.

Classical Music

This album is the third installment in Centaur’s cycle of the complete piano concertos of Anton Rubinstein (1829-94). +One of the great piano virtuosos of his day and a prolific composer, much of Rubinstein's musical output has long fallen out of public consciousness, only in recent decades receiving renewed performer and audience interest. +The Greece-born pianist Grigorios Zamparas is currently Associate Professor of Music, Piano, University of Tampa, FL., and an active international recitalist.

Classical Music

COPLAND NORTHINGTON COMP. SOLO PIANO WORKS, VOL. 2

Originally from Brazil, André Rodrigues distinguishes himself as a specialist in Brazilian traditional and classical repertoires. The beginning of his career took place in his homeland as an accompanist of instrumental and vocal music genres. Being a versatile musician, Rodrigues has performed on the stages of jazz, dance and theater, and has been awarded numerous prizes in national and international classical guitar competitions. André Rodrigues holds a bachelor’s degree in Brazilian popular music from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), a master’s degree in classical guitar performance from the Université de Montréal and a doctorate degree from this same institution, for which he was funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture. He has been awarded several grants by the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The present release features works for soprano and piano by Daron Aric Hagen, Johannes Brahms, Jules Massenet, John Duke, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Seymour Barab, Erik Satie, Charles Gounod, Dmitri Shostakovich, Roger Quilter, Robert Franz, Cecile Chaminade, Aaron Copland, Josephine Lang, Florence Price, Ann Rivers Witherspoon, Amy Beach, Camille Saint-Saëns, Leonard Bernstein, and Margaret Bonds.

American soprano Melissa Givens moves and excites audiences and critics alike with a rich, powerful tone, crystalline clarity, and intelligent musical interpretations. Especially noted for her expressiveness and elegance on the stage, she’s been hailed as a singer whose music making is “consistently rewarding” and “a pleasure to hear.” Givens is also an extremely versatile artist, regularly performing repertoire from the Baroque era through music of the 21st century.

Frederick Lesemann is a composer living in La Crescenta, California, the small town near Los Angeles where he grew up. He is Emeritus Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he at various times served as Chair of the Composition Department and directed the electronic music studio. His degrees are from USC (DMA) where he was a student of Ingolf Dahl and the Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Richard Hoffmann. Overall the layout of this album is a ritornello, in that the odd-numbered tracks are versions of a single theme. The four even-numbered tracks treat their own individual themes with versions of a basic procedure: highly ornamented transpositions.

“Chopin’s four ballades occupy a special place in the collective mind of classical pianists. To many, each is a jewel of the Romantic era, models of poetic lyricism.” (Sam Reich) Israeli pianist Dror Biran performs these works with great mastery and sensitivity. Dror Biran is one of Israel’s most admired and gifted pianists. His playing has been described in Die Beeld as “powerful, but also beautifully sensitive”. The Plain Dealer added “his fortissimos crashed and roared, but next to them came pianissimos that whispered seductively…he has technique to burn and uses it effectively…” His superb tonal control combined with interesting phrasing and voicing has won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences.

Praised by critics for her "deep, soulful sound" and "powerful, enchanting renditions," Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler has toured three continents as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Her awards include the Special Prize at the Rodolfo Lipizer International Competition, and First Prizes at the Northwestern Concerto Competition and the Thaviu-Isaak Competition. Kaler’s orchestral engagements include the World Orchestra For Peace, the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as leadership positions with the Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, Lake Forest Symphony, and Ars Viva! Orchestra. Kaler is currently a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra of New York under the direction of Rossen Milanov. She is also a long-time member of The Chicago Ensemble, with whom she performs frequently. She is joined on this recording by esteemed pianist Kathryn Brown.

A French singer of Spanish origin, Pauline Viardot García (1821-1910) was a proponent of the cosmopolitan impulse that characterized European culture in the mid-19th century. She was a piano student of Liszt, a close friend of Clara Schumann, and was highly celebrated by the likes of Berlioz, Chopin, and Gounod. On this release Laure de Marcellus performs works both by and inspired by Pauline Viardot. She is joined by pianist Alberto Urroz. Her collaboration with Urroz is becoming a regular feature at Navarra’s Mendigorría Music Festival. After their last recital of a very well-received program of songs by Schubert, Liszt, and Fauré, they performed a Schumann program to rave reviews before Covid hit. They recorded this album in Spring of 2021.

“Reflecting on the past, living fully in the present while moving into a future not yet known—this has been my life's work. Time’s Memory is an attempt to make the connections and share what I have learned so far.” (George Tingley) George Peter Tingley is a composer, teacher, and pianist currently living in Point Richmond, California (in the San Francisco Bay Area). He is a highly active member of the Music Teacher’s Association of California, participating in Marin County events and serving of the Board of Director’s of the Alameda County Branch. He administrates the Composers Today of the Alameda County Branch, evaluates student compositions at the regional level and adjudicates the state contest. George received a BA in piano performance from California State University, Hayward, and completed both BM and MM degrees in Music Theory at the University of Southern California. During the 1970’s he was a private composition student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

If you are looking for something different–something that will pique the ear and stir the heart in new ways–look no further. Song of the Shulamite is a 27-minute work that tells the love story of the Song of Solomon–the passionate courtship between the beautiful, young field worker, the Shulamite, and her true love. The work’s use of modes and Middle Eastern idioms point geographically to the story’s setting, creating a sense of antiquity, while its use of repetitive patterns and exotic instrumentation in the form of marimba, vibraphone and harp produce fresh, modern interest. Even though its source text is sacred, this work can be considered either sacred or secular since, when taken at face value, these poems stand on their own as exquisitely written, highly erotic expressions of love absent any religious theology.

This album features contemporary works by Mercedes Zavala, Jeffrey Hoover, Mario Carro, and David Garner, commemorating Guernica, the masterpiece by Pablo Picasso, and the tragic event in the Spanish Civil war that inspired this great painting. Winner of The American Prize for Chamber Music Performance in 2021 contemporary chamber music group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) consists of award-winning soprano, Artistic Executive Director and co-founder Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, pianist Margaret Halbig, and composer, co-founder, and Senior Artistic Advisor David Garner, plus regular guest artists that include Ilana Blumberg, violin, Laura Reynolds, English horn, and Chelsea Hollow, coloratura soprano and other fine guest artists each season.