Catalog

RESONANT EDGES was originally released in 2007 and features performances by pianists Dianne Frazer Cross, Peter Henderson, Mark E. Hussung, and Denise Fillion, clarinetist Karen Dannessa, flutists Deanna R. Little and Lisa A. Jelle, soprano Dorothy Maddison, and the Seattle New Music Ensemble.

A CONCERT OF MUSIC BY ALLEN BRINGS was originally released in 2008 and features stunning performances by pianists Allen Brings and Eric Huebner, soprano Jennifer Foster, the Atlantic String Quartet, Talujon, and Flexible Music.

REFLECTED LIGHT was originally released in 1995 and features stunning performances by pianists Jerome Reed, Jeananne Albee, and Sibylle Dotzauer; cellist Mary Lou Rylands; harpsichordist Ursula Trede-Boettcher; clarinetist Markus Lucke; The Constitution Brass; and the Chamber Choir of the Staatliche Jochschule fur Musik.

TRAVELER’S TALE was originally released in 2007 and features on-disc performances by flutist/composer Byron Petty, pianist Shuko Watanabe, clarinetist Roger Quigley, hornist Wallace Easter, guitarist Robert Trent, trumpeter Chris Magee, organist Daniel Brinson, and violinists Mark Taylor and Janice Vincent.

ESSAYS AND SKETCHES is an album unreleased works of American composer and longtime Sam Houston State University faculty member Newton D. Strandberg. Featuring performances by orchestras and ensembles from around the globe, the four pieces on this recording—Essay for String Orchestra, Amenhotep III, String Trio, and Acts for Orchestra—serve as an astute collection of Standberg's output as a composer. More than a musical release alone, ESSAYS AND SKETCHES serves as a retrospective of Strandberg's prolific career, housing a collection of writings, visual art, scores, and more, all compiled by Strandberg's peers, students, and admirers from SHSU.

Paul Kirby's FOUR SONATAS was originally released in 2008, and features stellar performances by Rodger Lee, Steve Graff, Erin Lesser, James Noyes, and Yegor Shevtsov.

With THE PALEST ROSE, a collection of works for solo piano, chamber ensemble, chorus, and orchestra, Oregon-based composer Mark Vigil strives to appeal to the listener's heart, urging them to hear the music based on its beauty alone. This release serves as a retrospective of Vigil's varied works for a variety of configurations, and serves as an astute sampling of his compositional output as a whole.

Mezzo-soprano Elaine Huckle has received acclaim from an early age, lauded for childhood performances of well-known liturgical works and solo recitals through adulthood. Her passion for singing developed at an early age, but was nearly derailed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Determined to maintain her career, Huckle found an inner strength to recover—TOWARD THE LIGHT is her celebration of her recovery, and a testament to her willpower to continue a vibrant singing career. With this album—featuring performances of works by masters including Handel, Brahms, and Schubert—Huckle hopes to inspire others to press on and follow their hearts. In her own words, “This is not my story. This is everybody’s story.”

Bruce Mahin’s TIME CHANTS was originally released in 1995, and was lauded as “a well-constructed essay” by Twentieth Century Music.

Bruce Mahin's SHADOWS was originally released in 1991, and features adept performances by Elizabeth Curtis, Al Wojtera, Caryl Conger, Adam Mahonske, Mark Lortz, Kujit Rehncy, and David Shunway.

Phillip Schroeder's SONGS OF MY AFFINITIES was originally released in 2003, and was lauded as "gems of the American repertoire" (New Music Connoisseur) and "striking and beautiful" (Sequenza21).

David Bennett Thomas' CHAMBER WORKS was originally released in 2005, and was lauded as "immediately engaging" (Philadelphia Music Makers) and "concise and comprehensible" (American Record Guide).

FANTASIES FOR ADULTS AND OTHER CHILDREN was originally released in 1999 was lauded as "awesome" and "at times Cageian and Crumbian" (ClassicalNet).

CASINO UMBRO is the debut Ravello release from Israeli composer Amos Elkana, bringing listeners into a sonic world comprised of thoughtful, expressive, and emotional works for chamber ensemble, voice, and orchestra. Ranging from the dreamy, jazz-like Casino Umbro to the linguistic and tumultuous Arabic Lessons to the imaginative and fanfaric Tru'a, CASINO UMBRO conveys the essence of humanity and international relations through communicative and sophisticated musical expression.

TRACER, a collection of recent chamber works by composer Richard Cornell, explores the nature of art and the collaboration that occurs naturally among artists and the interaction between creator and influence. Comprised of live recordings, this album highlights the performers' instincts to respond to one another, interpreting the music as individuals and as a group, and exploring the intricacies of the works as they are played. This release includes a visual version of Tracer, the centerpiece of the album, which serves as a computer-rendered survey of art and culture that guides and morphs the music to match the viewer's progress through time and space; as the viewer travels among an imagined world, the music responds to the imagery.

Composed in the wake of 9/11, Barry Seroff's Democracy is a multifaceted, genre-spanning examination of the spiritual and philosophical roots of American thought. Calling on texts from Quaker preachers, American poets, Japanese haiku, and Nietzsche, Seroff forms a flowing narrative charting our cultural development from the innocence and purity of infancy through the growing awareness of adolescence and adulthood, to our ultimate peacemaking with the joy of childhood. Seroff draws influences including classicism, jazz, hardcore punk and more and stitches the seemingly disparate elements of inspiration and source materials into an organic, evolving piece that seeks to explain the intricacies and history of American culture.

MUSIC FROM 3 CONTINENTS presents the choral works of Bruce Mahin and Graham Hair performed by Scottish Voices, harpists Jacqueline Pollauf and Helen Thompson, and clarinetist Alex South. Representing an international collaboration between artists from around the globe, the works on this album draw from various texts and inspirations, uniting to illustrate the connectedness of music and its influence. Included on MUSIC FROM 3 CONTINENTS are Bruce Mahin's Time², three settings of poems by Robert Penn Warren, unified by the nexus of "time passing," and Whitman Psalms, a piece considering the enormity of God and attempting a hypothetical conversation between man and God; and Graham Hair's O Venezia, a progressively accumulating song cycle drawing texts from Venetians and visitors, and Songs from the Turkish, a piece exploring the mysticism of Islam.

WINE DARK SEA is the debut Ravello release from "music's new rare pair", COULOIR (The Georgia Straight). With evocative, emotional music by today's living composers, WINE DARK SEA will take you to "...a full-hearted space, with a sense of deep compassion for and with the world..." Deftly interpreted and expressively performed by Canada's outstanding contemporary music duo, this music by Jocelyn Morlock, Baljinder Sekhon and Glenn Buhr allows a journey into deep listening. "A profoundly beautiful piece of art." (Glenn Sutherland, Composer)

NIGHT VOICED, the new release by San Francisco composer Mark Winges, is a collection of warm sounding and texturally rich works featuring the viola in a lush variety of solo, duo, and trio contexts. The title of the album is based on the individual composition of the same name, which is from a poem by Carolyn Forché, "a viola, night-voiced, calls into its past but nothing comes," and reflects the often nocturnal feeling of the program. Other titles such as wary-gliding, ghostly, "Melted Red, Frozen Black", and "Here (marginally buoyant)," offer a hint of the delightful vignettes and turns the music takes along the way.

CHIAROSCURO, Chamber Music by Richard Lavenda is a bright and engaging new album of some of composer Richard Lavenda's favorite chamber works–all written for personal friends. The title track refers to the visual art technique of a strong contrast between dark and light, and this motif aptly describes the listening experience.