Henry Cowell

The Concordia String Trio explores and expands the eclectic repertoire of an under-appreciated genre — the string trio. This versatile ensemble has built a reputation for its exciting performances and innovative programs, juxtaposing pieces from the standard string trio repertoire with new compositions and little-known works of great composers. On this release, the Concordia String Trio performs a program of great American works for String Trio, including works by Walter Piston, Alan Hovhaness, Leonard Mark Lewis, John Harbison, Henry Cowell, and David Colson. The trio is made up of Marcia Henry Liebenow, concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and professor at Bradley University, Leslie Perna, respected artist and teacher, and Karen Becker, active soloist and avid chamber and orchestral player.

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) is frequently considered the most significant American female composer in this century. Joining Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell as a key member of the 1920s musical avant-garde, she went on to study with modernist theorist and future husband Charles Seeger, writing her masterpiece, String Quartet 1931, not long after. But her legacy extends far beyond the cutting edge of modern music.

SOMM ushers in the New Year with an invigorating new release of American Piano Sonatas to remind us of 20th-century America's achievements in music.

The latest album from Michael Tilson Thomas and the GRAMMY Award-winning San Francisco Symphony features breathtaking live recordings from the SFS’ widely acclaimed American Mavericks festival. American Mavericks includes scintillating performances of four works by three influential twentieth century masters: Henry Cowell’s Synchrony and his Piano Concerto, Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra and Edgard Varese’s Ameriques and the orchestral siren that has influenced generations of composers.

Japanese pianist Yoshiko Shimizu, a graduate of the Toho Gakuen School of Music (both the high school and college divisions), first heard Crumb’s Makrokosmos I during her college years.

In this second volume, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Sir Andrew Davis play some of the most characteristic pieces of Charles Ives, an insurance salesman by trade and one of the most precociously original of all American composers.

Peter Dickinson’s strikingly original approach to organ music, which the composer himself has described as ‘far from the English cathedral tradition’, reflects a background that was not typical of British organists or composers during the mid- to late-twentieth century. The award-winning, internationally-renowned organist Jennifer Bate is an ideal interpreter of his works, which range from the introspective A Cambridge Postlude to the improvisatory Three Statements and the awe-inspiring Millennium Fanfare.