Piano and Vocal Music
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Lovely, thoughtful works by a young composer who was a victim of AIDS.

Tim Page tells Kevin Oldham's tragic story in the notes for this disc. "When I look back upon the mid-eighties and my apprentice years as music critic for The New York Times, it sometimes seems that I did only two things: cover debut concerts and write AIDS obituaries - alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, over and over again...Kevin Oldham was one of my debuts a handsome, vibrant, self-assured and splendidly virtuosic young pianist who played his first New York recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1985. Eight years later, he too would die from AIDS and I would write his obituary. But by then, he had become a composer, one who had fought a desperate battle to leave the world some fresh and lovely music...He died on March 11, 1993. In the case of Kevin Oldham, AIDS ended the life of a gifted composer who was just getting started. We'll never know what he might have created. We regret the music that will never be, and we mourn for Kevin a brave, funny, smart, articulate and compassionate man. But, through Kevin's own Herculean efforts, something has been saved. You hold the proof in your hands."f
Contents:
Kevin Oldham, composer
Ballade, Op. 17
Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Sleep and Dream
Camellia Johnson, soprano, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Across the Sea
Susan Rosenbaum, soprano, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Sarabande and Toccata, Op. 19
Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Row, I Love to Row
Maria Russo, soprano, Carl Halvorson, tenor, Andrew Schroeder, baritone, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Andante Tranquillo
Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Paint Me
Maria Russo, soprano, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Not Even if I Try
Carl Halvorson, tenor, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Two Nocturnes, Op. 15
Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Gaspard de la Nuit, Op. 3
Susan Rosenbaum, soprano, Karen Kushner, piano

Kevin Oldham, composer
Variations on a French Noel, Op. 7
Kevin Oldham, piano

Review:
"AIDS has robbed countless young musicians of the chance to achieve their full artistic potential. One such loss was Kevin Oldham, who died four years ago at age 33, a virtuoso pianist and a composer whose impassioned spirit was at odds with the impersonal machinations of modernism. As a performer, Oldham favored the grand Romantic tradition, and that same tendency is evident in his music. This disc intersperses piano works (lovingly played by his friend Karen Kushner) with vocal selections, and what emerges is a developing voice that while never stooping to maudlin self-pity is urgent and expressive." (Out)