Darrett Adkins has commissioend and been the dedicatee of many important new works for cello, among them pieces by Birtwhistle, Donatoni, Messiaen, and Berio. On...

Darrett Adkins has commissioend and been the dedicatee of many important new works for cello, among them pieces by Birtwhistle, Donatoni, Messiaen, and Berio. On Myth & Tradition, he teams up with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble - under the direction of Timothy Weiss - for the world-premiere recording of another Adkins commission, Su Lian Tan's Legends of Kintamani. Inspired by the composer's travels to Southeast Asia, the five-movement story depicts a return to a more innocent time and place, where mythology and reality combine in fairy tales. Also commissioned for Adkins is Philip Cashian's Concerto for Cello and Strings, a showcase for adkins' virtuosity made up of a series of interconnecting and juxtaposing sections underpinned and echoed by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. Completing the collection is Richard Wernick's Concerto for Cello and Ten Players, which was commissioned by the Twentieth Century Consort in 1979 and premiered two years later at teh Hirsshorn Museum in Washinton, D.C. An avid chamber musician, Adkins performs and records in the U.S. and Europe with the Lions Gate Trio. He serves on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory, where he earned his undergraduate degree.