• Catalog #: TROY1027

    Release Date: May 1, 2008
    Orchestral

    This recording of music by Peter Boyer centers around a commission by conductor Lawrence Golan to write a work to be performed in concert immediately following Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. The idea was that the new work, while not intended to be in the style of Tchaikovsky, would share some musical material so as to be intrinsically connected to it and find a natural place in concert programming. Peter Boyer, born in 1970, received his D.M.A. from the Hartt School. He studied with John Corigliano, then relocated to Los Angeles where he studied film music with Elmer Bernstein. His music has received more than 200 performances by 70 orchestras. His major work Ellis Island: The Dream of America received a Grammy Award nomination.

  • Catalog #: TROY1540

    Release Date: February 1, 2015
    Chamber

    During the past several years, the Corona Guitar Kvartet (Per Dybro Sorensen, Volkmar Zimmermann, Kristian Gantriis and Mikkel Andersen) has specialized in forging personal relationships with composers of varying styles, and of performing their works. The selections on this, their sixth CD, reflect the diversity of contemporary music styles performed by the Kvartet and most of it was written especially for them by composers taken with the the Kvartet's openness to differing musical visions, its willingness to play composers whose music its members admire, and its dedication to understanding each work on its own terms. The composers include Charles Norman Mason and Dorothy Hindman, faculty members at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music; Edward Green, a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music; Franco Sbacco, a faculty member at the State Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia of Rome; and Fred Frith, a faculty member at Mills College.

  • Catalog #: TROY1893

    Release Date: July 1, 2022
    Instrumental

    The eleven pieces on this CD of piano music by Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León were composed across a span of almost fifty years, from student works (Rondó a la Criolla, Homenaje a Prokofiew, Preludes 1 and 2) written in the mid-1960s when León was doing post-graduate work at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in the municipio of Marianao, La Habana, to going gone, the brilliant reworking of Sondheim's "Good Things Going" she crafted in 2012. Born in La Habana, Cuba, León came to the U.S. as a young pianist in 1967 and became a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Her many honors and awards include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement award and honorary doctorates from Colgate, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase and The Curtis Institute. Pianist Adam Kent has performed in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music on four continents. A professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta, Kent studied at The Juilliard School. His recordings appear on the Bridge, Claves, and Albany record labels.

  • Catalog #: TROY1284

    Release Date: October 1, 2011
    Ballet

    Tania León was born and raised in Cuba but her ancestry spans Europe, Africa, and Asia as well as the Americas. In the music she has been composing for the past four decades, she has absorbed all of these influences and transformed them into a vibrant synergistic totality that foreshadows the omnivorous polystylism of the early 21st century. More than 35 years separate Haiku (1973) and Inura (2009), and they conjure up wildly different sonic universes. Haiku, created during León's tenure as composer-in-residence and music director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is an aphoristic and almost otherworldly re-imagining of seventeen classical Japanese haiku poems, which somehow form a cohesive and unified whole. The holistic approach León took with Haiku would however be anathema for Inura, a celebration of contradictions created for DanceBrazil that is inspired by Candomblé. Candomblé, like Santer'a in the Caribbean, is a syncretism of traditional African animism and European Catholicism that has been practiced for centuries.

  • Catalog #: TROY1676

    Release Date: July 1, 2017
    Chamber

    Assem3ly is a dynamic trio championing chamber music of our time for flute, piano, and percussion. Comprised of flutist Lindsey Goodman, pianist Anne Waltner, and percussionist Scott Christian, Assem3ly commissions and performs new works from established and emerging composers and this recording is typical of their programming. Distinguished composer Joseph Schwantner's Taking Charge opens the recording, followed by Bolamkin, a work by John Allemeier. Ty Alan Emerson's Caliban Ascendent precedes the final work on the recording by Randall Woolf: Between Me, Myself, And The Lamp Post. The performances sparkle with intensity and commitment. A recording of music for an unusual, but very effective grouping of instruments.

  • Catalog #: TROY1689

    Release Date: November 1, 2017
    Jazz

    Composer Bernard Hoffer first heard jazz pianist Takaaki Otomo at a restaurant in New York and was impressed by his musicality, dynamic sensitivity, and beautiful harmonic sense. With bass player Noriko Ueda and drummer Jared Schonig, Takaaki selected five originals, four jazz standards plus one Broadway show tune and two novelties from Gustav Holst's The Planets for this recording. Beginning his training as a classical pianist Takaaki switched to jazz when he was a teenager and won first prize in a jazz competition in Japan in 2007. He moved to New York City in 2014. Originally from Japan Noriko Ueda began playing the electric bass, then switching to upright bass at age 18. She is a graduation of the Berklee College of Music where she majored in jazz composition. She has her own trio and quartet and has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club. She won the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize in 2002. Hailing from Los Angeles, drummer Jared Schonig studied at Eastman where he won seven Downbeat Student Music Awards. A favorite among vocalists, Schonig tours with Grammy Award-winners Kurt Ellling and The New York Voices. He is in demand as a drummer for studio recordings and session work.

  • Catalog #: TROY1503

    Release Date: July 1, 2014
    Vocal

    Mezzo-soprano Aidan Soder and baritone Paul Busselberg collaborate with pianist Calogero Di Liberto in presenting a recital of songs based on the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, one of India's most beloved literary figures. Composers from all over the world have been compelled to set his poetry to music, as this recording amply demonstrates. John Alden Carpenter, British composer Frank Bridge, Italian Franco Alfano and German composer Karol Szymanowski all wrote songs dating from the first two decades of the 20th century that used his poetry. The recording also includes recent settings (2004) of Tagore's love songs by the young American composer Karim Al-Zand.

  • Catalog #: TROY0507

    Release Date: May 1, 2002
    Orchestral

    The composer, conductor and pianist Jeff Manookian is the music director and conductor of the Intermountain Classical Orchestra and the University of Utah SummerArts Orchestra. His Concerto for Flute and Orchestra was a commission from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. It is luxuriantly post-romantic in its tonal casting. The concerto received its premiere on September 26, 2001, in Yerevan, Armenia with the same forces as appear on this recording. The United States premiere took place a week later in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 5, 2001, with James Michael Caswell conducting the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra. On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Turks rounded up and killed the Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul). From 1915-1923, the Ottoman Turk empire carried out an epic genocidal campaign where more than half of the Armenian population, throughout Anatolia, was brutally murdered. Symphony of Tears carries the listener through the tragic events and deeply felt emotions of the Armenian genocide. This work endeavors to honor the dead of this horrific event, comfort its survivors, educate the public about this tragedy, promote hope for the future of all peoples and console those who have suffered or are the progeny of the crimes of hate. The Symphony of Tears was premiered on April 30, 2000 at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah by the Oratorio Society of Utah and the Madeleine Festival Orchestra, Joel Rosenberg conducting.

  • Catalog #: TROY0160

    Release Date: July 1, 1995
    Orchestral

    The Portland Youth Philharmonic honors their conductor of 40 years, Jacob Avshalomov, with this recording. You will be able to judge for yourselves the value of the man as a composer from these three live performances of some of his best music. For his 40 years with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, he has already been judged and indeed, has made a significant contribution tot he world of music in the United States and beyond. Alumni from the Portland Youth Philharmonic, first trained by Jacob Avshalomov, can be found in all major orchestras of the world. What an achievement! Avshalomov was born in China in 1991. His father was the Siberian composer Aaron Avshalomov. He came to the United States in 1937 and studied with the underrated composer Ernst Toch. He graduated from the Eastman School with a B.M. and M.A. In 1954, he was invited to Portland to conduct the Junior Symphony's 30th anniversary concert. He remained there for 40 years. Under his direction, the orchestra toured Europe, Japan and Korea and is acknowledged as one of America's finest youth orchestras.

  • Catalog #: TROY0174

    Release Date: November 1, 1995
    Orchestral

    The American composer, Irwin "Buddy" Bazelon died on August 2, 1995 at the age of 73. Sadly, his death occurred just two months after the completion of the recording of this CD. During his lifetime he completed nine symphonies and more than 60 orchestral pieces, including Fire and Smoke which was a featured work at the 1994 Aspen Music Festival. He was at work on his tenth symphony at the time of his death. Buddy was born in Chicago. He graduated from DePaul University, studied composition briefly with Paul Hindemith at Yale and extensively with Darius Milhaud at Mills College. The Symphony No. 9 is an orchestral version of a piano piece written for Alan Mandel. It is dedicated to Sunday Silence, winner of the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Horse of the Year. About the music Harold Farberman has written: "It is the work of a master composer. The orchestral writing is compact, direct and dazzling. Everything on the page, even the smallest detail in the densest of textures, can and must be heard. The rhythmic elements, derived from jazz, that drive and create the large structures typical of Bazelon and his sound, are crystal clear in this last symphony. He is an unmistakable and unique American voice."

  • Catalog #: TROY0821

    Release Date: April 1, 2006
    Orchestral

    By now the Illinois State University Wind Symphony under Stephen Steele has achieved renown for their adventuresome Albany recordings (TROY500, TROY600, TROY755 and TROY774-775). One of the composers prominently featured in these releases is David Maslanka, who, after Vincent Persichetti, is probably the most important American composer for band. His Symphonies 4 and 5 are featured in this series, and the Symphony No. 7, as Maslanka explains, is a Symphony of old songs remembered: "I am strongly affected by American folk songs and hymn tunes. With one exception all the tunes are original, but they all feel very familiar. The borrowed melody is from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach. Each song has a bright side and a dark side, a surface and the dream underneath." Samuel Zyman, a long-time Juilliard faculty member, is one of the most prominent Mexican composers. His Cycles is a one-movement work that consists of several distinct sections that appear and alternate "cyclically" throughout the work. Matthew Halper's works are widely performed and his Flute Concerto is an expansive, dramatic work that covers a wide musical terrain in a single movement.

  • Catalog #: TROY0413

    Release Date: November 1, 2000
    Instrumental

    Currently a faculty member of the Washington Conservatory, Haskell Small received his musical training at the San Francisco Conservatory and Carnegie-Mellon University. He has studied piano with Leon Fleisher, William Masselos and Robert Sheldon and composition with Vincent Persichetti. His musical output is difficult to categorize. Nevertheless, it is clear that he is a throwback to the great composer/pianist tradition of the past four centuries. For almost three decades he has been performing internationally as a soloist. Throughout his teen years, he was adept at playing various jazz and rock styles by ear, but he did not acquire fluent musical literacy until he was 18. Although his compositions include works for cello, voice and various chamber and orchestral groupings, solo piano music remains the main thrust of his work. The program of solo piano music found on this disc was conceived, and is presented, with the intense concentration, wit, and quirky juxtapositions that Small's concert audiences have learned to expect.

  • Catalog #: TROY0104

    Release Date: December 1, 1993
    Orchestral

    From the pen (or computer) of a composer to the written and printed page is only the beginning of a meaningful musical passage. The resulting scores must be heard in order for the journey to be complete. Such is possible only when scores are transmitted to listeners by way of interpreters, roles well assumed on this recording by the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, tenor soloist Everett McCorvey and conductor Julius P. Williams. The focus of this compact disc is the music and the five men who wrote the music. African-American composer Arthur Cunningham said, "Call me what you will; call my music music." African-American composer Hale Smith wrote, "We must be a part of the mainstream in this country...We don't even have to be called black. When we stand for our bows, that fact will become clear when it should - after the work has made its own impact." The fact that the five composers on this recording (Adolphus Hailstork, Henry Burleigh, Julius P. Williams, Gary Powell Nash, David N. Baker) are of African descent will become clear only when viewing their photographs. The music should already have made an impact.

  • Catalog #: TROY1680

    Release Date: September 1, 2017
    Chamber

    Distinguished composer Adolphus Hailstork studied at Michigan State University, the Manhattan School of Music, Howard University, and the American Institute at Fontainebleau. He has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. His music has been performed by orchestras around the country and he has received commissions from performing organizations such as the Cincinnati Opera, the Houston Choral Society, and the Atlanta Festival, among many others. He is on the faculty at Old Dominion University. This recording, his fifth for Albany Records, concentrates on music for strings and includes a trio as well as works for string quartet. The Ambrosia Quartet (Simlon Lapointe and Mayu Cipriano, violin; Beverly Kane Baker, viola; and Rebecca Gilmore, cello) are all members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and have been performing as a quartet for more than a decade both in Virginia and around the United States.

  • Catalog #: TROY0839-40

    Release Date: April 1, 2006
    Vocal

    Will Marion Cook was one of the earliest African-American composers to achieve significant commercial success in musical theater. However, even though his talents were admired at the turn of the twentieth century, he and his work have since been largely forgotten. With the interest in African-American culture sparked by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and revived interest in all American music during the Bicentennial celebrations of the 1970s, Cook has been rediscovered by such music historians as Thomas L. Riis and Marva Griffin Carter, as well as by such performers as the Black Music Repertory Ensemble of the Center for Black Music Research and, of course, tenor William Brown, who had previously recorded some of Cook's songs on the album Fi-yer! (TROY329). Having studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin and Antonin Dvorak in New York City, Cook was respected for his pioneering achievements in popular songwriting, Black musical comedies and syncopated orchestral music. His career as a songwriter spanned some 40 years from 1893 to 1934. Cook's memoirs reveal that he believed his ultimate challenge was to right social injustice while at the same time creating beautiful music. Renowned tenor William Brown's repertoire encompassed practically all musical genres. He was a particularly avid performer of American music from all ages and had appeared with major orchestras and ensembles all over the world. Sadly, Mr. Brown died shortly after this recording was made. This CD is a tribute to the memories of both Cook and Brown.

  • Catalog #: TROY0546-47

    Release Date: October 1, 2002
    Opera

    Victor Herbert conducted the first performance of his delightful two-act operetta Sweethearts in Baltimore, after which the show was overhauled and shortened before spending five weeks in Philadelphia and another five in Boston. Anticipation of the New York premiere of the work (on September 8, 1913 at the New Amsterdam Theater) was heightened by advertisements proclaiming that Christine MacDonald (whose name was printed in larger type than Herbert's) would be the star.

  • Catalog #: TROY1436

    Release Date: September 1, 2013
    Chamber

    Inspired by Virgil's Aeneid, the three works comprising Gates of Silence are connected but independent. Each is a passage that echoes with relevance today — our fallen cities, our physical passages and in our personal interactions with each other and our destinies. The third piece, Dido Refuses to Speak, sets poetry by National Book Award finalist, Linda Gregerson. As a composer and performer, Susan Botti's eclectic background and experiences are reflected in her music. Theatre and the visual arts play a formative role in the aesthetic of her work, which have encompassed traditional, improvisational and non-classical composition and singing styles. A recipient of numerous grants and awards, Botti specializes in the performance of contemporary music by composers of diverse styles, in addition to her own works. She studied at the Berklee School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, where she currently is on the composition faculty.

  • Catalog #: TROY0816

    Release Date: January 1, 2006
    Instrumental

    The University of Houston Percussion Ensemble serves as the cornerstone of the Department of Percussion studies at the University's Moores School of Music. Established in 1997 and directed by Dr. Blake Wilkins, the Ensemble has steadily gained recognition throughout the state of Texas through appearances on campus and in public schools. The group achieved further distinction when it performed at the 2002 Texas Music Educator's Convention. Their selection as Winner in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society Percussion Ensemble Competition and its appearance at the 2003 Percussive Arts International Convention has secured its reputation internationally as a leader in percussion performance. Since its inception, the Ensemble has given the world or U.S. premieres of a number of new works. In the fall of 2002 it also initiated its Commissioning Project to encourage new works for the medium. Two of the works on this new disc, Donald Grantham's Houston Strokes and Rob Smith's Surge were among the first in this series. Percussion music has proven over the years to be phenomenally popular with performers as well as listeners. This release is an exceptional addition to the catalog; and wait until you hear Vaughan-Williams' Thomas Tallis Fantasia arranged for five marimbas and two vibraphones!

  • Catalog #: TROY1972

    Release Date: March 29, 2024
    Instrumental

    In his introduction, pianist Agustin Muriago says that “This recording showcases Argentine composers from different backgrounds and time periods whose works are rooted in folk music. Most of these composers combined a Eurocentric musical tradition with Argentine folk music, producing stylized versions of milongas, tangos, and vidalas…” Agustin Muriago has presented recitals featuring Latin-American music at festivals in Hong Kong, New York, the Sonus International Music Festival and the Latin American Music Center, among others and offered recitals, lectures, and master classes in China, Chile, Brazil, and the U.S. A graduate of The Hartt School, New York University, and Rowan University, he now serves on the faculty at the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University.

  • Catalog #: TROY0978

    Release Date: January 1, 2008
    Chamber

    Joshua Rosenblum has composed extensively for both the concert hall and the theater. In addition to the works on this CD, he has written pieces on commission for trumpeter Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic, flutist Kathleen Nester of the New Jersey Symphony and for French hornist Eric Ruske, one of Albany's premiere artists. For the theater, Rosenblum wrote the score for the acclaimed cult hit Off-Broadway musical, Fermat's Last Tango. He has also conducted the orchestras for such Broadway shows as Miss Saigon, Wonderful Town and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The works on this disc are a melding of both classical and popular idioms, with many inspired by or commissioned from several of the musicians involved.

  • Catalog #: TROY1639-40

    Release Date: August 1, 2016
    Chamber

    This 2-CD set honors the life and career of Charles Bestor with a selection of his late chamber music. Bestor (1924-2016) studied at Yale with Paul Hindemith after returning from service in World War II; then at Juilliard where he was a student of Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin. Bestor worked as a jazz arranger to supplement his income as a composer but turned to teaching. He taught at the University of Colorado; Juilliard; was Dean of the College of Music of Willamette University; but his longest tenure (35 years) was as Head of the Departments of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts. He continued to compose, tending toward shorter works because of time constraints. The compositions on this recording include song cycles; a suite for saxophone and piano; a cello sonata; a work for chamber ensemble; and a work for narrator and piano.

  • Catalog #: TROY1272-73

    Release Date: June 1, 2011
    Opera

    This is a world premiere recording of Lee Hoiby's 1971 two-act opera, with libretto by Lanford Wilson, based on the play by Tennessee Williams. Lee Hoiby, who died on April 8, 2011, was best known as a composer of operas and songs, although he was a child prodigy as a pianist, studying at the University of Wisconsin with Gunnar Johansen and Egon Petri. But on the verge of a career as a concert pianist, he received a scholarship to study composition with Gian Carlo Menotti. His immense contribution to American music, particularly opera and song repertoire is recognized by American singers everywhere. His style is an elegant and unobvious bridging of the lyrical works of Verdi and Gershwin.

  • Catalog #: TROY0943

    Release Date: July 1, 2007
    Orchestral

    A student of Lukas Foss and Lejaren Hiller, Horwood writes music with an individual stamp, drawing from academic or popular styles, or ranging from Romantic yearnings to avant-garde experimentation. Born in Buffalo, Horwood studied composition and theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1972-2003 he was a professor of music and humanities at Humber College of applied Arts and Technology in Toronto. His more than 70 compositions constitute a kaleidoscope of the traditional and the avant-garde. His music has been performed in North America, Europe and Japan. The four orchestral works on this CD provide a concert program revealing a composer of substantial musical thought.

  • Catalog #: TROY1769

    Release Date: May 1, 2019
    Chamber

    Composer David Gompper has lived and worked professionally as a pianist, conductor, and composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas, and Iowa. He studied at the Royal College of Music, and the University of Michigan. Since 1991 he has been Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. His many awards include an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, and a Fromm Commission. Recordings of his music appear on the Albany and Naxos record labels. He has chosen recent chamber music written for string instruments for this recording, which are given stellar performances by violinist Wolfgang David, cellist Hannah Holman, double bass player Volkan Orhon, and pianists Réne Lecuona and David Gompper.

  • Catalog #: TROY1924

    Release Date: February 1, 2023
    Orchestral

    This recording is taken from live performances of the distinguished Sinfonietta of Riverdale and includes works by American composers Karel Husa and Steven Stucky as well as works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Edward Elgar, and Anton Bruckner. Large enough to perform chamber symphonies, it is also small enough that each of its world class musicians is a featured soloist. Their recordings are on the Arabesque and Albany labels. Conductor Mark Mandarano enjoys an international career as a conductor that has included performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and other major venues in the U.S. and abroad. He has served as principal guest conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and is now director of the Macalester Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies.

  • Catalog #: TROY0973

    Release Date: November 1, 2007
    Orchestral

    A student of Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman and William Thomas McKinley, Meira Warshauer has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. As she writes, “The Torah, Jewish teaching and tradition, is likened to water. It is the source of blessing and goodness, filling all who drink from its well with the knowledge of God. I hope this recording will help to satisfy our thirst and encourage us to continue opening our hearts to the Eternal Spirit in each of us.”

  • Catalog #: TROY0231

    Release Date: April 1, 1997
    Instrumental

    Martin Herman composed his Arena in 1990-91. Herman has worked at IRCAM with Pierre Boulez and in Iannis Xenakis' studio. He is currently on the faculty of California State University, Long Beach, where he teaches music composition and theory and directs the Computer and Electronic Music Studio. Augusta Read Thomas' coolly austere Whites resulted from the composer's desire to make a sonic equivalent of a visual exploration of white. Stephen Jaffe composed his Impromptu in 1987. It is a short set of variations based on a bluesy pavanne and was composed for a 70th birthday concert in honor of George Rochberg. Jaffe is currently on the faculty of Duke University where he directs the concert series "encounters with the Music of Our Time." According to the composer Randall Woolf, the hard-driving Nobody Move "tries to find the common ground between the menace of the hard-core Hollywood villain and the fearless bravado of the virtuoso pianist, with the audience as helpless victim, too frightened to bat an eye." John Harbison won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1987. His Four Occasional Pieces were written over a ten year period between larger, more serious works. Today he holds an endowed professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Robert Kyr's White Tigers is based on a legend found in Maxine Hong Kingston's novel "The Woman Warrior" in which a young girl learns the ways of a woman warrior in part by emulating a white tiger - the wildest, most mysterious beast in the jungle - and goes on to liberate her people from oppression.

  • Catalog #: TROY1782

    Release Date: September 1, 2019
    Instrumental

    Oboist Dan Willett can't resist transcribing works written for other instruments for the oboe and this recording is a testament to not only his transcription abilities but also to his fine performances of repertoire not originally intended for oboe. Three works by Mozart, Grieg, and Prokofiev make up this recording — the Mozart and Grieg originally written for violin and the Prokofiev for flute. Willett is a professor at the University of Missouri School of Music. In addition to frequent solo and chamber recitals, Willett has performed with numerous orchestras and at festivals. His collaborator is Natalia Bolshakova, who enjoys and active performing career.

  • Catalog #: TROY1305

    Release Date: November 1, 2011
    Instrumental

    Violinist Airi Yoshioka's curiosity in the electro-acoustic medium led her to commission works from five composers -- part of the seven breathtaking works that are all given their world-premiere performances on this recording. The program exhibits a wide range of contemporary styles and reveals a diverse culture of American women composers productive in the electro-acoustic music. Airi Yoshioka has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. Deeply committed to chamber music, she is the founding member of the Damocles Trio and Modigliani Quartet and has performed and recorded with the members of the Emerson, Brentano and Arditti Quartets. She has premiered dozens of works and continues to build repertoire for violin through her numerous commissions. A graduate of Yale and Juilliard, Ms. Yoshioka is associate professor of violin at the University of Maryland.

  • Catalog #: TROY0288

    Release Date: June 1, 1998
    Chamber

    Dr. Harvey J. Stokes is professor of music at Hampton University, and founder and director of the Computer Music Laboratory. His degrees are from Michigan State University, the University of Georgia and East Carolina University. He writes about this music: "One of several pinnacles in my creative career has been the composition of a trilogy of works for the Oxford String Quartet. My String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned by this ensemble and completed during the fall of 1990 in Hampton, Virginia. Since its premiere in 1991, it has been performed many times by them to great acclaim. Due to the success of this work, I decided to dedicate two additional compositions to the Oxford String Quartet. String Quartet No. 2 and String Quartet No. 3 were completed in 1992 and 1995 respectively. String Quartet No. 3 was premiered in 1996 on a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Oxford String Quartet, and String Quartet No. 2 was premiered later that year during a concert tour of Argentina by the ensemble." In the Oxford String Quartet innovation and tradition come together. The Cleveland Plain Dealer raves about "vibrant, spell- binding strings...first class from top to bottom...who interacted with a corporate sense of articulation, balance and nuance provided by only the most astute Chamber players."

  • Catalog #: TROY1276

    Release Date: July 1, 2011
    Instrumental

    Saxophone virtuoso Noah Getz explains: "Still Life represents a snapshot of the music that I have been performing and enjoying over the last several years. This recording is an eclectic mix of works, most of which were written for me, from a number of trusted composer friends and colleagues." Based in Washington, DC, Noah Getz has performed at major venues throughout the United States. He has commissioned and premiered numerous works for the saxophone, including collaborations with Aaron Jay Kernis and Lewis Spratlan. He maintains an active schedule performing jazz as well as presenting masterclasses, recitals and lectures at universities across the country. He is the Saxophone Musician-in-Residence at American University.

  • Catalog #: TROY1570

    Release Date: June 1, 2015
    Chamber

    Three string quartets by the distinguished American composer Steven R. Gerber as well as a Fantasy, Fugue, and Chaconne are performed by the Amernet String Quartet. Praised for their "intelligence" and "immensely satisfying" playing by the New York Times, the Amernet has garnered recognition as one of today's exceptional string quartets. They are Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami. Gerber's String Quartet #4 was written in 1972 for the Fine Arts Quartet; #5 in 1995 for the Carpe Diem Quartet; and #6 in 2011 for the Amernet String Quartet. The Fantasy, Fugue, and Chaconne was written in 2007. In addition to this recording, Albany Records has released a recording of Gerber's piano music. Other recordings of his music appear on the Naxos, Arabesque, Chandos, and Koch International record labels.