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Cameron Carpenter

Cameron Carpenter is the most virtuosic American organist, and a controversial performer who challenges the traditional image of the organ. Born in 1981 in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, Cameron was an acknowledged child prodigy who flourished under his parents’ home schooling and then, from age 11, as a student at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey. As a boy soprano he was a soloist in such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and with pop star Joe Jackson on Jackson’s 1994 album Night Music.

His debut album on Telarc, Revolutionary, named for its eponymous opening track, made Cameron the first organist ever nominated for a GRAMMY^® for a solo album. On his second release from Telarc Cameron Live! [June 2010], Cameron was hailed by KEYBOARD as "he’s the hippest thing to happen to the pipe organ since Halloween was invented. His trademark flamboyance is matched by profound virtuosity and reverent scholarship in both classical and theatre/pops styles. If anyone can make the musical mainstream aware of the power, versatility, and sheer steampunk cool of the pipe organ, Cameron is our man.”

Cameron, who designs organs, as well as performs on them – and composes for them – knows better than most what the organ requires, both physically and intellectually. The musical virtuosity, sophistication, and showmanship for which Cameron has been critically acclaimed (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, MUSO, Fanfare, The Advocate, National Public Radio, Dallas Morning News) require athleticism not ordinarily associated with the organ.

Cameron's concerts are entertaining and his interaction with the organ is astounding, but whether one is impressed or one objects it's really all about one thing – and music is it.

Mark Abel is a composer who has forged an original and provocative style that blends elements of classical, rock and jazz into a seamless whole he describes as “postmodern art song” or, on occasion, “alternative classical.” The Dream Gallery is his third CD.

As a guitarist, bassist and songwriter on the New York rock scene in the 1970s and into the ‘80s, Mark played and recorded with such seminal figures as Tom Verlaine (Television), Michael Brown (the Left Banke), Danny Kalb (the Blues Project) and Harold Kelling, founder of the legendary Atlanta fusion group the Hampton Grease Band. He also led his own groups City Lights and Architecture; produced records for “new wave” pacesetters The Feelies and The Bongos; and mixed live sound for Television and the Talking Heads.

Mark’s interest in rock faded by the mid ‘80s, however, due to the harmonic and rhythmic restrictions imposed by the pop song format and frustration with the commercial music industry’s ever-narrowing scope. He relocated to California in 1983 and made a vocational shift into journalism, eventually becoming foreign editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, a post he held until 2004. During these years, Mark’s curiosity led him back to classical music and extensive investigations of the important 19th and 20th century composers.

The Dream Gallery is an evocative, hard-hitting cycle of songs for soloists and chamber orchestra that explores the inner lives, struggles, illusions and home turf of seven archetypal Californians. The cycle pierces straight to the heart of the human condition, while laying bare the flaws, foibles and sins of the society we all share. Californians or not. With this work, Abel reveals a style - decades in the making - in which the core content of classical and rock has been so thoroughly crossbred as to constitute a new strain of American art song.

Dr. Philip Lasser

Composer Philip Lasser

Composer of poetic and lyrical music, Philip Lasser (b. 1963) has crafted a unique soundworld blending the subtle colors of French Impressionist sonorities with the crisp, direct sounds and rhythms of America's jaunty musical palette.

Philip Lasser was born in New York City, August 4, 1963. At the age of five, Philip Lasser began piano lessons and composing songs for his mother's voice. At sixteen he entered Nadia Boulanger's famed Ecole d'Arts Americaines in Fontainebleau, France and his musical ear was forever changed. There he also met the legendary pianist Gaby Casadesus with whom he formed a long musical relationship, first as her student and then as co-author of Ma Technique Quotidienne, published by Editions Max Eschig. Following studies at Harvard College where he graduated summa cum laude, Lasser lived in Paris from 1985 - 1988, a pivotal period for his musical development, working with Boulanger's closest colleague and disciple, Narcis Bonet. In 1988 Lasser entered Columbia University's masters program in Composition, and undertook intensive studies in counterpoint with René Leibowitz's disciple, Jacques-Louis Monod, thus forging a seamless link between the French world of musical color and the great German tradition of linear contrapuntal development. Two years later Lasser entered the DMA program at The Juilliard School where he studied with David Diamond.

Philip Lasser's music has been performed by the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz and The New York Chamber Symphony and by such artists as Elizabeth Futral, Simone Dinnerstein, Margo Garrett, Lucy Shelton, Cho-Liang Lin, Zuill Bailey, Brian Zeger, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger and Sasha Cooke.

Philip Lasser directs the European American Musical Alliance Summer Music Programs. A school dedicated to training young composers, chamber musicians and conductors in the tradition of legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger. The programs are held annually at the historic Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, France and is a distinguished member of the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1994.

Listen

Listen: Life with Classical Music is North America’s classical music magazine covering people, places and events; recommendations of recordings, books, and film; and all the many ways our lives are touched by classical music.

Listen: Life with Classical Music is published by ArkivMusic, the Source for Classical Music. Since 2002 the online retailer has established itself as America’s leading source for classical music CDs and DVDs, offering the widest selection of classical recordings available anywhere. Dedicated to serving classical music aficionados and professionals, ArkivMusic now offers this highly stylish, beautifully designed magazine about musicians, recordings, musical travel destinations, and much more.

New West Guitar Group features three young guitar virtuosos that have been making their mark as the premier acoustic/electric guitar ensemble. Based in Los Angeles, their original music combines the foundation of jazz with elements of blues, rock and folk.

Guitarists John Storie and Perry Smith established New West when they were all students at the University of Southern California. As music majors, New West collaborated with USC to become the first group to receive the coveted Thornton Protégé Grant. It was during this time that the Los Angeles Sister Cities Committee honored the group as musical ambassadors of LA. This honor gave them the chance to perform at the 2005 World Exposition in Nagoya, Japan and the 2007 German-American Volksfest in Berlin, Germany. The group has continued to perform in major venues throughout Canada, Japan, Europe, and the United States. In August 2009 New West performed at the Britt Festival in Southern Oregon as the opening act for Diana Krall. In October 2011, New West's recording Round-Trip Ticket will be released by Summit Records.

Marking his first foray into the world of dance, Paul McCartney has announced the general release of Ocean’s Kingdom, commissioned by the New York City Ballet. The recording will be released by Hear Music/Telarc on October 4th and is conducted by John Wilson, produced by John Fraser and performed by The London Classical Orchestra.

Ocean’s Kingdom is the first time Paul has written an original orchestral score or any kind of music for dance and is the result of a collaboration between Paul and New York City Ballet’s Master in Chief Peter Martins, who have worked together to present the world premiere of a new ballet for the company’s 2011/2012 season this September.

Opera Shorts, a production by Remarkable Theater Brigade (RTB) showcases ten 10-minute operas and 2011's season features works by composers William Bolcom, Tom Cipullo, Jake Heggie, Marie Incontrera, Mike McFerron, Anne Phillips, Patrick Soluri, Davide Zannoni and Christian McLeer.

Opera Shorts 2011 will be held at Weill Recital Hall in New York City on Friday, November 4th.

RTB creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electroacoustic works and co-produces the Composers Voice Concert Series. RTB was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

The Pinetop Perkins Foundation is a tax exempt non-profit organization. It's mission is to provide encouragement and support for youth and young people at the beginning of their musical career; and help provide care and safety for elderly musicians at the twilight of their career.

The Foundation is named after blues pioneer, Pinetop Perkins [July 7, 1913 - March 21, 2011]. RIP Pine

Steinway & Sons

Recordings on the Steinway & Sons label are produced by ArkivMusic, a subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc., and can be purchased at ArkivMusic.com, Amazon.com, iTunes and other fine music retailers. Naxos of America is the exclusive wholesale distributor for the label in the US.

Famed Marlboro Music Festival Launches a Series of Live Recordings of Great Chamber Performances Hand-Picked by Artistic Directors Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode. The first three releases from Marlboro Recording Society include recordings of Beethoven and Schubert featuring Uchida, as well as vocal chamber scores by Respighi, Cuckson, and Shostakovich and lastly Debussy/Ravel quartets will be available digitally August 2 and on CD August 30.

Admired for her adventurous programming, Jenny Lin records a new album of works by Spanish composer Federico Mompou. Featuring the mystical masterpiece Música Callada, the disc includes 28 movements highlighting Mompou’s intimate, improvisatory style. A member of the “vanguard of young artists with interest in unusual repertoire and the technique to give it life” (ClassicsToday), Lin demonstrates her commitment to 20^th-century music with her newest offering.

Bach On A Steinway, is the first release on Steinway & Sons, and features keyboard masterworks by J. S. Bach as performed by virtuoso pianist Jeffrey Biegel, whose extensive embellishments and ornaments in a Baroque style give the recording a unique flavor. The album was produced by 15-time Grammy^® winner Steven Epstein. “Biegel is a sensitive and imaginative interpreter who brings this music to life,” writes Jed Distler of ClassicsToday.com. "This auspicious and superbly engineered debut bodes well for the success of this new label.”

Classical music on Telarc - 2012 Releases:

Cellist Zuill Bailey – whose 2010 recording of J.S. Bach's Suites for Solo Cello went straight to the top of the Billboard classical chart – releases Dvořák Cello Concerto on the Telarc label on January 17, 2012, in collaboration with conductor Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Guitarist David Russell explores Baroque music on The Grandeur of the Baroque featuring Bach, Handel, Couperin and Weiss.

Telarc signs the Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez who "returns home" with a recording of Chopin’s Preludes, due for release May 8, 2012 in US, April 10, 2012 in Europe/UK.

Turtle Island Quartet

Its name derived from creation mythology found in Native American Folklore, the Turtle Island Quartet, since its inception in 1985, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover category, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles, and by devising a performance practice that honors both, the state of the art has inevitably been redefined. Cellist nonpareil Yo-Yo Ma has proclaimed TIQ to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”

Kelly Welch's interest in Chinese Medicine was born out of an internal search for a meaningful life initiated by his Jesuit education throughout high school and college. After graduating from college with a Finance-Accounting degree and working at what was formerly known as Arthur Andersen & Co. in Dallas, TX, he took some time to consider the future of his life and what he wanted out of it. This path of inquiry involved a daily, self taught, morning meditation which led him to a deeper pursuit of Asian philosophy and then to Chinese Medicine. With the emotional support of his parents, he researched the top schools in the country for Masters programs in Chinese Medicine. This landed him at Bastyr University in Seattle , WA where he completed a four year full time program in Chinese Medicine, met his wife and business partner Kate Yonkers, and departed to establish their Internal Medicine practice in Washington DC. Welch & Yonkers, LLC specializes in the lost discipline of Chinese pulse diagnosis through the lineage of the renowned master John H. F. Shen, as taught to Lonny Jarrett who remains a close friend and teacher of Welch and Yonkers. Kelly Welch's interests in Chinese medicine specifically involve how he can reach each individual patient most effectively to shift their health towards a more balanced state. As a personal disciple to maintain as much balance as possible in his own life running a private practice and raising three small children, he practices the Ashtanga Yoga System daily in the morning Mysore tradition.