Catalog

The fact that a composer of Persichetti's stature and prominence wrote so many works for wind band was not a result of a unique devotion, but simply because he was inherently attracted to the medium. The works on this recording, which constitute Persichetti's major works for wind ensemble, represent a wide variety of lengths, forms and difficulty levels and yet certain compositional consistencies can be found throughout. The differences are in technical demands and harmonic density rather than the basic musical language. The Illinois State University Wind Symphony and their conductor Stephen K. Steele offer exceptional performances of this music.

America began forging its own cultural identity in the 19th Century with music reflecting a vast array of cultures coming together. By the time the first music conservatory opened in 1865, European classical music had begun to be mingled with music influenced by Native American themes, African-American styles of ragtime and spirituals, Latin American and rural American folk music, and the traditional military band. With Vintage America, Calico Winds showcases these American musical roots. Known for exploring the full palette of tone colors available to the wind quintet, Calico Winds plays "in perfect balance with each other, each [member] contributing lovely tone quality and flawless intonation..." (The Times Herald, Olean, NY) It is with these attributes that Calico Winds brings to life America's rich musical legacy.

William Kraft (b.1923) has had a long and active career as composer, conductor, timpanist/percussionist and teacher. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara and was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 26 years, where he also served as composer-in-residence. His music has been performed by major orchestras throughout the United States and he has been commissioned by many distinguished ensembles. This is the sixth disc devoted to his music on Albany Records.

Inspired by a work for viola and clarinet by Rebecca Clarke, clarinetist Elizabeth Crawford and violist Katrin Meidell formed Violet and began working on expanding the literature for this sorely underrepresented genre of classical chamber music. All the works on this recording were written for their duo. Since its inception in 2015, Violet's efforts have produced more than 100 new compositions. Elizabeth Crawford is on the faculty at Ball State University. Prior to this appointment, she was a member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. She has performed and taught at festivals around the world and has transcribed a number of works for E-flat clarinet. Her recording of music for this instrument appears on the Albany Records label. Violist Katrin Meidell enjoys a prolific career as a performer, pedagogue, and lecturer, traveling around the world to perform and present. She is on the faculty of Columbus State University.

Lee Actor's career as a software engineer and a musician began in Albany, New York: for several years he was a violinist in the Albany Symphony Orchestra while completing an advanced engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nearby Troy. After moving to California in the late 1970s, he studied with Brent Heisinger, Charles Jones and the late Andrew Imbrie. Actor's music is filled with rhythmic drive and shows a superb ear for orchestral color. Often he builds up a work by emphasizing one or another of the instrumental families Ð woodwinds, brass and strings Ð then mixes them in a rich impasto of orchestral color. In the process he creates music that catches the ear and draws the listener into a world of emotion and drama. All of these recent works are a perfect showcase of his distinct range and style.

Ray Bono writes in his program notes: "Fiercely independent. Self Reliant. Self-disciplined. Such descriptions invariably surface in accounts of Paul Creston's life. More emphatic is the assertion that, excluding keyboard lessons, he was "entirely self-taught" in music. And, in fact, the short, affable Italian-American was in many ways a supremely self-made man, even down to his name. Born on October 10, 1906 in Manhattan to an impoverished couple from Sicily, he was christened Giuseppe Guttovergi (the family name would later be recast as Guttoveggio). In childhood he was also called Joseph but by 15 had been dubbed Cress by his friends, after Crespino, the role he played in a high-school staging of Goldoni's comedy, The Fan. Before long, he reworked this Cress into a fuller, solidly American-sounding name - and exit Giuseppe-Joseph-Guttovergi-Guttoveggio; enter Paul Creston. He started composing at the age of eight, soon after his parents, recognizing his musical ability, managed to get him a piano and a teacher. Within a few years, he was capable enough to substitute for the teacher when the man was ill - and canny enough to deem the man musically incompetent. He moved on to better piano teachers, took organ lessons too and plunged into a ferocious self-directed study of the works of Bach, Rameau, Scarlatti, Rimsky-Korsakov, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. These masters of form, harmony and color, he would always maintain, were his true teachers; from them alone did he learn composing and orchestration. From the onset of the Great Depression, when he wasn't trying to sell insurance or real estate, Creston was accompanying singers as a Musicians Emergency Fund member - and pondering a career as a writer. Or a concert pianist. Or a composer. After a favorable response to a set of dances he wrote for solo piano in 1932, and to his incidental music for a theater piece - and encouraged by composer and concert organizer Henry Cowell, he sat down, took stock of his talents and decided to concentrate seriously on composition. His early modest pieces were successful enough to earn him a positive mention in Aaron Copland's 1936 article about "America's young men of merit" (although Copland grouped him with rising composers whose work tended to be "somewhat" abstract"). Larger works followed, and more attention. He received two successive Guggenheim fellowships. And his Symphony No. 1, debuting in 1941, won the New York Music Critics' Circle Award and later took first prize in an international competition in Paris. The three orchestral works on this disc - a symphony, a concerto and what amounts to a musical diptych - are from Creston's finest period. Never before recorded for commercial release, they exemplify his talent for uniting lyricism with propulsiveness to make a considerable emotional impact."

Steve Margoshes is the composer of the international hit musical Fame. The inspirational musical about New York City's High School of Performing Arts (written with lyricist Jacques Levy) has been performed on every continent in the world in a dozen languages. This CD continues Steve's collaboration with Fame creator, David De Silva aka Father Fame, to produce a new body of work for symphony orchestra. He has composed and orchestrated these "symphonic pop" pieces under the banner Symphonic Fame. Steve's work as an orchestrator in the theater includes the Who's Tommy, Smokey Joe's CafT (the songs of Leiber and Stoller) and the Elton John/Tim Rice musical, Aida. Barnabas Kelemen was born in Budapest in 1978. He has studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest since 1990 and in 2002 was named the gold medalist at the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. This is the first release in a new series from Albany Records called "American Light" which is classical music presented with a lighter touch. The British have been doing this sort of thing for years: presenting "light" music by serious composers and we feel that it is time we catch up. This series will present well-crafted music by serious composers whose music should appeal to a larger audience without pandering to it.

Bodil Rorbech was born in Denmark in 1967. She debuted as a soloist in 1990 at Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen where she played Alban Berg's Violin Concerto. The following year, she also had her official debut from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. She has also studied in Germany and in the USA with Joseph Silverstein. She performs regularly as a soloist in Denmark and abroad, often premiering new works. For the last five years, she has also been a member of Ensemble Ars Nova, based in Malmo, Sweden. In the summer of 1995, she received a scholarship for an intensive course in new performance technologies at the Center of New Music and Audio technologies in Berkeley, California. Inspired by the possibilities, she then began giving recitals featuring interactive performance with electronics. She has received the Jacob Gade Prize, the Music Critic's Award, the Bolero Prize from the Danish Broadcasting Company and the Composers Union's Musician Prize of Honor.

Violinist Scott Conklin and pianist Alan Huckleberry have assembled an impressive group of new American compositions for violin and piano, which, with the exception of the Bolcom and Sheng, are world premiere recordings. Scott Conklin is Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Iowa School of Music. He appears regularly as a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and teaching clinician throughout the United States and abroad. He was named the 2008 Iowa String Teachers Studio Teacher of the year and was a featured artist at the 2004 Music Teachers National Association Conference. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Conklin earned his D.M.A. from the University of Michigan School of Music.

Just intonation: A tuning system having intervals that are acoustically pure; all intervals are represented by ratios of whole numbers. Lydia Ayers composes with unlimited just intonation in Csound and with 75-tone Indian/Partch scale on the "Woodstock Gamelan," a tubular percussion instrument built to her specifications by Woodstock Percussion. She has modeled the Woodstock Gamelan and other gamelan instruments using Csound, and authored Cooking with Csound: Woodwind and Brass Recipes, a CD-ROM package which gives wavetable synthesis design for wind instruments. The music on this CD is inspired by the works of Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, the antics of the family cats, and experiences in Indonesia, such as awareness of the proximity of Merapi, Java's most active volcano, and listening to gamelan and kecak performances in Bali. Lydia Ayers has visited Java and Bali several times, where she met with such artists as I Wayan Dibia and Made Wiratini and made sample recordings of the STSI gamelan with their assistance. She has played gamelan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Hong Kong University, and extensively researched microtonal tuning systems. She has worked with extended vocal and woodwind techniques, including quarter tones, multiphonics and other unusual flute timbres. She has used algorithims to solve tuning and compositional problems, and is creating Indonesian, Native American, Australian and Chinese computer instrument designs.

Horn soloist Eric Ruske has established himself as an artist of international acclaim. Named associate principal horn of the Cleveland Orchestra at the age of 20, his impressive solo career began when he won the 1986 Young Concert Artists International Audition at 22. In 1987, he won the first prize in the American Horn Competition, and in 1988, the highest prize in the Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in Reims, France. Mr. Ruske gave the 1990 world premiere of Gunther Schuller's Concerto for Horn and Orchestra with the San Antonio Symphony with Mr. Schuller conducting. He has performed as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony and the Boston Pops. Mr. Ruske was educated in his native Croatia and at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute.

"Inspired", says the San Francisco Chronicle of flutist Barbara Leibundguth. Former Co-Principal Flutist of the Minnesota Orchestra, Ms. Leibundguth also wins praise from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Bright, gleaming tone...evocative...both stylish and adroit." One of the finest flutists of her generation, Ms. Leibundguth was invited by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as by the major orchestras of Atlanta and Houston, to appear as guest solo flutist. She has also held principal positions with the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Opera Theater, and the Omaha Symphony. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Leibundguth has performed at the Marlboro, Grand Teton, and Blossom Music Festivals, and in her hometown of Chicago on the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series. Ms. Leibundguth and award-winning composer/pianist Carl Witt have worked together since 1994, and their musical chemistry creates electric, intelligent performances. In 2002, they received a $25,000 McKnight Performing Artist prize. Visionary Duos was recorded in the world-renowned acoustical space of Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis. This CD presents a collection of passionate and beautifully crafted works, featuring virtuoso counterpoint, radiant melodies, bracing intensity, jazz riffs, and gypsy flair. Here we have an intriguing and expansive view of flute music in the 20th century.

This compact disc presents keyboard masterpieces by five of our century's most acclaimed Jewish composers. The sampling of the rich and varied traditions of Jewish music seems especially appropriate as this is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. A somewhat mischievous note of caution creeps in, however, when one attempts to define precisely what "Jewish music" is. Apart from that which can be heard as either liturgical or folk, one faces an enormous gray area of diverse styles (often in the same work), national influences and musical personalities. All of which is to say that "Jewish music" is much more similar to than distinct from other music. This is especially true in America today as younger composers have shed much of their teacher's and their teacher's heritage. Jewish composers exhibit all the strengths and all the weaknesses found among all musicians as of all humanity. When describing great works of art of all styles or origins, massive or minuscule in scope, one is speaking in part of the "vision" of its creator. This is not a mystical term; rather it describes an overreaching personal statement which envelopes the work and, when combined with formal coherence, creates a sense of artistic truth. While this "vision" is common to all great art, the creator can cast his gaze in many different directions: upward towards the heavens; inward towards the mysteries of the self; outward towards the sights and sounds of the world; backward to the past or forward to the future. This sense of "Jewish music" is perhaps to be found here; while all art contains a vision, the Jewish vision is distinct in just what the artist, in this case the composer, sees and feels.

This recording seeks to celebrate the eclectic American music of the recent past. In 1994 John Sampen and Marilyn Shrude initiated a commissioning project designed to represent this diversity. Seven major American composers were invited to contribute "postcard pieces" highlighting their unique musical styles. The resulting collection, which comprises an interchangeable suite for saxophone and piano, demonstrates serialism, aleatory, improvisation, and a variety of other musical languages, styles and genres. In addition to the postcard pieces, this compact disc includes five works complimenting the musical and cultural melange of late 20th century America. Internationally-recognized saxophonist John Sampen has premiered more than 60 works, including commissions by Rands, Subotnick, Cage, Adler and Babbitt. A clinician for the Selmer Company, Sampen has presented master classes at important universities and conservatories in Asia, Europe and North America. Dr. Sampen is presently Distinguished Artist Professor at Bowling Green State University and president of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

There is a new generation of performing artists and composers who in recent years have been redefining the temporal and aesthetic dimensions of music, thus paving the way for a veritable cultural renaissance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the work of James J. Pellerite, one of the world's great virtuosi of the modern orchestral flute and no less a master of the Native American flute, which he now plays almost exclusively. Former solo flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra and a distinguished soloist and teacher for many years, Pellerite in 1995 launched a second career as a Native American flute virtuoso. His company, Zalo/JP-Publications, produces an important catalog featuring a wide selection of orchestral, chamber and solo works by living composers who share his vision of bringing the Northern Plains instrument firmly into the 21st century and to elevate it to the status of a significant new voice on the contemporary concert stage. The present recording is the most recent of his many collaborations with living composers. Should anyone still require proof that the Northern Plains flute is more than a quaintly happy find for tourists browsing gift shops for souvenirs conjuring the color and spirit of the American West, he/she has only to experience the invigorating musical diversity and consummate artistry represented by this remarkable disc.

Viva Concertante! showcases works for chamber orchestra involving soloistic display, and features the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Conservatory Studio for New Music, as well as the University of Iowa's Center for New Music Ensemble. The compositions were either written or revised in the last dozen years. And just as old- and new-world connections are forged by means of the performing groups, a like situation extends to the ethnicity of the composers, with Italian, German, and English contributors as well as Chinese-, German-, Macedonian- and Welsh-Americans.

Robert Starer was born in Vienna in 1924. He entered the State Academy at age 13. Soon after Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938, he went to Jerusalem and continued his studies at the Palestine Conservatory. During World War II, he served with the British Royal Air Force. In 1947, he came to New York City for post-graduate study at Juilliard. He also studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood in 1948. In 1957, he became an American citizen. He taught at Juilliard from 1949 to 1974 and at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York from 1963-1991. In 1994, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His book, Continuo: A Life in Music was published by Random House in 1987. His complete works for solo piano have recently been published in one volume. In 1986, Itzhak Perlman recorded his Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. This disc offers a selection of Mr. Starer's chamber works for voice and various instruments.

Two performers passionate about American art song -- soprano Mary Mackenzie and pianist Heidi Louise Williams perform a program of songs by John Harbison, James Primosch, Daniel Crozier and Ned Rorem. Mary Mackenzie, who has captured the attention of audiences throughout the United States, has been described by the New York Times as "a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration," and the Boston Globe as "sensational." She has appeared as a recitalist, a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician with the best known ensembles in the U.S. Her discography includes recording on the Albany and Bridge record labels. Pianist Heidi Louise Williams has appeared in solo and collaborative recitals across North America, in Europe and Asia. She has been praised by New York critic Harris Goldsmith for her "impeccable soloistic authority" and Dazzling performances." On the faculty at Florida State University College of Music, her recording for Albany Records received rave reviews from critics.

Cellist Jonathan Golove offers a program of contemporary Mexican works for cello, five of which are world premiere recordings. All of these composers are major figures in Mexican music and this recording showcases the exciting and vibrant work that is being done in Mexico. Golove is a dedicated performer of both new and traditional works as well as of improvised music. A native of Los Angeles, he now serves as associate professor in the University of Buffalo's Department of Music.

Herbert Bielawa earned his degrees in piano and composition at the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculties of Bethany College and San Francisco State University where he founded the Pro Music Nova and created the electronic music studio and courses for the Computer Music Major. He has written music for instrumental ensembles, piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, choir, electronics, chamber opera, band and orchestra. His much-performed Spectrum for Band and Tape was composed during his Contemporary Music Project residency in Houston from 1964 to 1966. Other residencies were with the San Francisco Summer Music workshop in 1976 and with the San Francisco Choral Artists in 2000. Since 1991, he has been a member of the Ilona Clavier Duo and founding director of Sounds New, a Bay Area new music ensemble.

Like a book, this CD is divided thematically into four parts: Music of the Great Poets, Our Sacred Heritage, Holocaust Suite and Music of the People. The composers represented range from the young American, Eric Whitacre to the old - Norwegian Alfred Jansen. Situated in Coral Gables, the University of Miami is the most comprehensive private research university in the southeastern United States. Its School of Music ranks among the most innovative in the nation. While building on the classical tradition, the School incorporates a contemporary approach to learning and creatively responds to the changing needs of the world of music. The Chorale is one of nine choral ensembles in the School of Music and it was founded in 1993. It has quickly established itself as one of Florida's leading collegiate choral ensembles. The voices of the chorale are chosen from across the campus, drawing both music majors and majors outside the School of Music. Note that Peter McGrath helped with the engineering of this recording.

This recording contains some of William Mayer's finest music. "William Mayer's music sings out with real beauty, both in the vocal writing (he is especially known for his operas and songs) and the instrumental settings," wrote John Rockwell of the New York Times on the occasion of the composer's sixtieth birthday. And indeed this recording gives the listener a rich sampling of his vocal music; opera, songs and choral compositions. But, just as importantly, it contains two purely instrumental works - Abandoned Bells for piano and Inner and Outer Strings for string orchestra - which must count as two of the composer's most haunting scores. Mayer's career has contained such memorable events as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt narrating his Hello World, a musical trip for orchestra and Leopold Stokowski premiering his Octagon for Piano and Orchestra.

This recording project began with a concert in October 2000 at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, New York, a community college with a vision. Larry Berk, then director of its library and information services, had recently created an Artist in Residence Program, with the support of the Ulster Foundation, to leaven the practical course offerings typical of most community colleges with a healthy dash of inspiration from working artists. Soprano Danielle Woerner was the resident artist for the fall of 2000, and designed a program for students of varying ages, backgrounds and experience. The residency required one major public presentation, and the concert of October 2000 featured some of her favorite Hudson Valley composers. Some of the music had an extra Hudson Valley flavor: words by Woodstock writers Pearl Bond and Gail Goodwin. Nearly all of the composers took part in the musical preparation and several participated as performers in both concert and on this CD. Since the project began, both Alan Shulman and Robert Starer have passed on, adding some additional poignancy to the presentation. Soprano Danielle Woerner is acclaimed for her performances of concert and operatic repertoire ranging from early Baroque to modern works. While maintaining active professional ties to New York City, she has lived in the mid-Hudson Valley. An alumna of Barnard and Bard Colleges, she counts among her most influential singing mentors Nora Bosler, Martha Gerhart and Bethany Beardslee Winham.

The cycle of birth, death, experience, and the renewal of life can be found in varying degrees as the inspiration for several of the works on this recording, and in some cases, their reinterpretations. This recording highlights the diversity and creativity that can be found in the music of these distinguished American composers. The music is brought to life through the exquisite performances of Jonathan Keeble and Ann Yeung. Their collaboration as a flute/harp duo since 2002 has led them to venues in Asia, Europe and throughout North America.

Elliott Schwartz was born in New York City and studied composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University. Since 1964, he has taught at Bowdoin College, where he is currently the Robert K. Beckwith Professor of music. There are five orchestral works on this disc which share a number of traits - in particular, a fondness for bright, splashy instrumental colors, multi-layered textures (akin to photographic "multiple exposure"), eclectic style juxtapositions, and references to pre-existent music of the past. Many of the principal motives are derived from patterns - number sequences, or musical spellings - which are related to extra-musical programmatic sources. Moreover, these pitch patterns often expand into twelve-tone rows (which in turn generate new patterns). The musical surfaces, however, are far removed from the world of strict serialism. Quite the opposite, in fact: tonal, triadic passages and angular, dissonant ones jostle each other, and controlled improvisation often flows through and around strictly notated narrative. Finally, a distinctly "theatrical" strain runs through these compositions. Performers may be asked to walk or speak; orchestra choirs - the wind section, or the brasses (appropriately at the rear of the stage), may play "competing music" - fragments of pre-existing material - at odds with the prevailing music that surrounds them. Unusual instruments - metronomes, police whistles, flashlights, or piano interiors - may be employed by the players. These are intended to create a multi-dimensional, and perhaps even dream-like, experience.

Composer and conductor, Anthony Iannaccone, is one of a handful of contemporary artists whose exploration of musical polarities in the 1960's and 70's consistently separated their output into populist and specialist works. In the world of music, the former tended to be tonal and accessible, while the latter leaned toward atonality and abstraction. In his own case, Iannaccone refers to these categories as "large-audience" and "small audience" music, respectively. The first three pieces on this disc demonstrate a remarkable blending and balancing of both "small" and "large-audience" music. The last two works clearly inhabit the realm of the "large-audience." Not unlike the overview afforded on earlier Albany releases of Iannaccone's music for strings (TROY 414) and music for winds (TROY 280), this CD includes works that span nearly two decades of music for the orchestral medium. From his earliest orchestral venture, Suite for Orchestra, to his most recent, From Time to Time, one can trace the development of a truly personal voice from an early mixture of influences, both traditional (Brahms, Debussy, Mahler) and modern (Stravinsky, Berg, Copland, Bartok).

This is the third release in Albany Records' continuing series of recordings devoted to the music of the American composer George Walker. This release presents a further selection of Mr. Walker's chamber music. For this recording, Walker is joined by other members of his family who are also performers. His son Gregory, a violinist, is the concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a Professor of Music and Director of Ensembles at the University of Colorado in Denver. He joins his father in a performance of the Violin Sonata No. 1. Ian Walker has pursued a career as an actor, director and producer of numerous theatrical performances. He is the speaker in the Poem for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble.

Don Walker's second recording for Albany Records features some of his chamber works for mixed ensembles -- ranging from a work for flute, violin, and piano to a piano quartet to larger ensembles such as the last work on the program for flute, bassoon, trumpet, horn, violin, and cello. These compositions also display a range of style with Soul Music containing 12-tone elements combined with a traditional Blues melodic style; to the Piano Quartet where Walker's sense of humor led him to imagine Arnold Schoenberg compositing a twelve-tone piece in honor of John Cage's 100th birthday; to the Divertimento which features a second movement that borrows material from Schubert. Now retired, Don Walker had a distinguished career as a composer, teacher, organist, and archivist.

A major historical recording featuring George Walker as composer, with the 1977 recording of his Mass by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Comissiona and George Walker as pianist in a live concert from 1956 with the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson. In addition there are two works for choir performed by the Morgan State College Choir conducted by Dr. Nathan Carter.

The Pulitzer Prize winning composer, George Walker, composed his Serenata for Chamber Orchestra for the Michigan Chamber Orchestra. It received its premiere in Detroit in October 1983. It received another performance by the New York Philharmonic in July 1984 on a Horizon's 94 concert. The Lyric for Strings was composed in 1946 and premiered that year by the student Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music conducted by Seymour Lipkin in a radio concert. It received another performance the following year by Richard Bales and the National Gallery Orchestra. The Poeme for Violin and Orchestra was premiered by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Cho-Liang Lin as violin soloist in 1991. It is a revised version of an earlier Violin Concerto. Orpheus for Chamber Orchestra was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and was completed in 1994. It received its premiere in March 1995. Besides the Chamber Orchestra, it includes a part for narrator and singer. The Folk Songs for Orchestra were completed in the fall of 1990 and was premiered in May 1992 by the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman. The composer describes his intention as "to set these melodies in an interesting way, in a respectful Orchestral manner. They are wonderful melodies. Four spirituals are quoted intact."

Not to be confused with the Scottish composer William Wallace (1860-1940), this William Wallace is a man of our time. His works, widely performed and broadcast. He studied with Leroy Robertson at the University of Utah and Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra at the University of Oxford. He has taught at both Rutgers University and Canada's McMaster University. He holds both U.S. and Canadian citizenship and lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

War & Peace is a video production released in Blu-Ray format and conceived as a total entertainment concept. The production combines artistic resources from other cultures with advancing techinologies in order to create music that impacts our senses in a manner seldom achieved before. Art, dancing, music, western and eastern cultures all combine to push the boundaries of musical entertainment by using new combinations of musical instruments, new multicultural art direction and new dance styles. War & Peace provides an entirely different visual and auditory impact to the audience. Entertaining sounds and rhythms, beautiful and meaningful visual imagery, and culturally diverse creative expressions are the hallmarks of War & Peace.