Roxanne Howe Murphy

Throughout her storied career, composer and music activist Mary Howe elevated the status of women composers and the Washington DC music scene and gained notoriety for her orchestral works. Many of her pieces for smaller ensembles, however, remain unpublished. On BETWEEN US, premiere recordings of Howe’s duos at last see the light of day and showcase her knack for drawing out the melodic qualities and dynamic timbres of the piano, voice, and stringed instruments. The pieces transcend time, simultaneously pulling from the sensibility and formal structures of romanticism and 20th-century idioms, spanning and bridging the gaps that typically pigeonhole music into a specific milieu.

During an era when everyone wanted to be a bluesman, Howe brought jazz, country, flamenco, ragtime and psychedelia into the mix for prog - rockers Yes. Stephen James "Steve" Howe (born 8 April 1947 in Holloway, North London, England) is an English musician, songwriter and backing vocalist, best known as the guitarist of the progressive rock group Yes. He has also been a member of The Syndicats, Bodast, Tomorrow, Asia and GTR, as well as having released 19 solo albums as of 2010.