News and Events

April 3rd: Richard Cameron-Wolfe's "ARQ" at Chatter/Albuquerque

On Friday evening April 3rd at 9:00PM, Cameron-Wolfe's "ARQ: Region III - Refuge" will be featured on Chatter's "Late Works" concert, performed by violinist David Felberg with pianists Judith Gordon and Luke Gullickson. The concert also includes works by Christopher Cerrone, Caroline Shaw, Dai Fujikura and Julia Wolfe. Chatter's address is 912 Third St. NW in Albuquerque, New Mexico - tickets at the door, ranging from $5-$17.

April 23rd: David Liptak's "Spun Glass" premiere on Eastman@Washington Square, Rochester, NY

Soprano Tyler Cassidy-Heacock and pianist Daniel Pesca perform a song recital that features the piano version of Pesca's "Circe" (poem by Hilda Doolittle), Samuel Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (text by James Agee), and the premiere of David Liptak's "Spun Glass" (two songs on texts by Marianne Moore - "The Fish" and "A Jelly-Fish") at First Universalist Church in Rochester, NY.

April 25: Louis Karchin's "The Past as Present" at Bohemian National Hall, NYC

On April 25th, Louis Karchin's new song cycle for soprano and piano trio, The Past as Present, will be premiered at Bohemian National Hall in New York City. It joins six other world premieres that use music of the past to inspire present-day creativity on a program celebrating the vision of the late Czech musicologist Lenka Hlávková. Performed by sopranos Jennifer Zetlan, Alice Teysser, Marisa Karchin, and members of the Washington Square Ensemble, Curtis Macomber, Chris Gross, and Steven Beck, conducted by Tengku Irfan.

Mar. 14: Society of American Music Awards Judith Shatin Honorary Membership

The Society or American Music awards Judith Shatin Honorary Membership at their natonal conference in Richmond, VA on March 14, 2026.  Her Canta La Sal (cello, french horn and piano) and Penelope’s Song (amp. viola and electronics) will be performed as part of the ceremony. 

Album release: Aaron Larget-Caplan's Guitar America 250, on Navona Records

Aaron Larget-Caplan's twelfth album and first for Navona Records, Guitar America 250 explores a diverse nation, its ideals and contradictions, and its reinventions and dreams through traditional American songs from before the Civil War through the World Wars, classical 20th & 21st century composers, and icons Paul Simon and Eddie Van Halen.

The album contains 21 tracks of guitar solos, spoken word, and a premiere recording of Florence Price.  Poets include Frances Harper, James Madison, Thoreau-Cage, and Walt Whitman.  

Aaron's concert and album release schedule:

• April 10 - Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Cape Cod • Guests Felice Coral & Jeannette de Beauvoir
• April 11 – Arlington Street Church, Boston • Guest Jeffrey Lependorf
• April 14 - King’s Chapel, Boston
• April 19 - Music Mansion, Providence • Guest Trevor Neal
• April 25 - Unitarian Society of Northampton • Guest Jeffrey Lependorf
• April 30 - Jacob Edwards Library, Southbridge • Guest TBA
• May 16 - Upham’s Corner Library, Dorchester • Guest Richard Hoffman

Autographed CDs available via Bandcamp or at concerts

April 10: Eliza Garth solo piano recital in New York City

April 9th: Louis Karchin's "Roman Fever"

Louis Karchin's just-completed one-act opera, Roman Fever, based on a short story of the same title by Edith Wharton, and adapted by librettist Joan Ross Sorkin, will be presented in excerpts at a celebratory event at Grace Church in Manhattan. Premiering the lead roles of Grace Ansley and Alida Slade will be sopranos Kerrigan Bigelow and Sofia Scatterreggia, with Luke Poeppel as music director and pianist. Excerpts will be interspersed with commentary by Sorkin and Karchin, in a discussion moderated by Natalie Johnsonius Neubert, President and CEO of Berkshire Opera Theatre.

This performance is co-sponsored by the Mount, Wharton's ancestral home in the Berkshires and Grace Church, where Edith Wharton was baptised. This event is free, but registration is required through the Mount's website: https://edithwharton.org/event/roman-fever/.

A reception follows the performance.

Feb. 26th: Robert Carl's "Just Listen" at the DiMenna Center in NYC

On Thursday Feb 26 at the Dimenna Center for Classical Music, the New York Composers Circle will perform Robet Carl's Piano Quartet, "Just Listen". The piece is a tribute to Robert's late friend and colleague David Macbride, and is the winner of this year's John Eaton Memorial Prize, awarded annually by the NYCC. 

March 13, 15: Sonitudes by Robert Hughes, Berkeley performances

February 27: Thomas Read's Piano Partita to be performed by David Pihl

Thomas Read's "Piano Partita" will be featured at pianist David Pihl's recital, 7 pm at Salem Convent Church, Wooster, MA.

May 28: Will Rowe’s “Rituals” to be Performed in Bucharest on the World New Music Days Festival

Will Rowe's Rituals has been selected for performance on the 2026 World New Music Days festival, taking place this year in Bucharest, Romania. The performance will take place on a recital given by violinist Diana Moş (and pianist Adriana Maier) alongside works by composers Hisataka Nishimori, Zosha Di Castri,  Iris Szeghy, Mihaela Vosganian, and Mihai Măniceanu.

The recital is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. EET on May 28th in Tinerimea Română Hall, Bucharest. Complete festival information can be found here.

Feb. 5th: Morris Rosenzweig Portrait Concert at BYU

A portrait concert of Morris Rosenzweig's piano music will be performed at the Recital Hall of Brigham Young University on Feb. 5, 2026 at 7:30pm. Rosenzweig is a featured guest composer, with pianist Wesley Ducote championing his works for the evening.

https://onstage.byu.edu/school-of-music/wesley-ducote-2026-02-05

Feb. 7 & Summer 2026: Karen Griebling "Facets" to be Performed by the Arkansas Composers Guild and on IDRS 2026

Facets by Karen Griebling will be featured on the Arkansas Composers Guild Concert, February 7, 2026 and at the International Double Reed Society Society’s Conference in Oxford, Ohio in July 2026. Exact schedule for the IDRS performance TBD.

Facets was commissioned by oboist Dr. Lorraine Duso Kitts for her group, the Topaz Trio (Oboe, Saxophone, and Piano) in 2021. Griebling created an alternate version that calls for viola instead of saxophone, and this is the version that will be performed on both concerts.

Feb 20 Christopher Shultis new album release on Neuma "Waldmusik"

New recording out on Neuma Records, Waldmusik, with works by Christopher Shultis, written between 2002 and 2016 and recorded between 2013 and 2025, release date Feb. 20 by @Neuma Records.  Waldmusik is a concert length piece covering many years of creative work. The Cover art is by Hee Sook Kim. Album engineered and produced with the amazing Doug Nottingham. This is a great collection of compositions by Chris Shultis with a rockin cast of musicians laying it down. Finishing touches by Nathan James.

Waldmusik includes Circlings (2010) for Gayageum Ensemble; Wissahickon, Pulpit Rock, French Creek (2009) for piano and percussion, Devisadero for piano with Curt Cacioppo, World's End Preludes, and One Far Noise. 

Neuma Records is a label for experimental classics. Food for the mind’s ear.

February 10: Album release, Eliza Garth, Works for Solo Piano "By the River", on Centaur

Eliza Garth's new album "By the River" solo piano works featuring premiere recordings of music by David Froom, Scott Wheeler, and Sheree Clement, as well as works by Frederick Tillis, and Brahms. Produced by Judith Sherman, Recorded at Oktaven Audio. 

Jan 24: Shall We Gather - Film by Eliza Garth - Premiere at SMCM

Saturday, January 24 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Shall We Gather is a new documentary and musical arts film that, through spoken word and related American music, explores the history of racial segregation in churches in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, and its reverberations in the present day. Naeem Cobb, Director; Eliza Garth, Executive Producer.

 What happens when members of two historic rural church communities - one traditionally Black and the other traditionally White - gather for dinner and real conversation? In an era of soundbites and shouting, SHALL WE GATHER speaks softly and thoughtfully. What can we all learn from these two small church communities?

Film showing at St Marys College of Maryland, Sat. Jan 24, 4:30pm Registration required. 

Jan 25: Music of Dana Richardson, Edward Smaldone, Catherine Neville, Jay Gach, and more, LICA New York series

Dec. 12: Album release - Earl Louis Stewart: RHYTHM OF THE SPIRIT VOL. 1

Rhythm Sonatas 2, 5, and 12 by Earl Louis Stewart have been released by Navona Records, featuring the artists Hope Easton, cello; Sidney Hopson, vibraphone; Thomas Mellan, harpsichord; and Benjamin Ring, drums.
Listen here.

RHYTHM OF THE SPIRIT VOL. 1 from Earl Louis Stewart makes a bold statement: that America’s music — born of sorrow, improvisation, resistance, and joy — belongs within the same canon as Bach or Palestrina. Stewart’s fugues, canons, counterfugues, and retrogrades are written with the strictness of Europe’s 16th and 18th century conventions, yet pulse with the syncopation and soul of ragtime, blues, and jazz.

Review translation: Reading the biography of the African American musician Earl Louis Stewart (b. 1950), one comes across the definition of a composer of “intellectual jazz.” This is an expression that might make jazz musicians and aficionados of the genre cringe. Yet, by delving more deeply into the composer’s work—and above all by listening to his music—it becomes clear that this is in fact a perfectly apt description of his poetics, devoid of any attempt at cultural appropriation or (supposed) cultural elevation.

Stewart has collaborated with major figures in jazz—most notably Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Kent Jordan—and has conducted several jazz ensembles. More importantly, as a great lover of both classical polyphonic tradition and Afro-American musical traditions, he has sought—and successfully achieved—a synthesis of these two worlds. The result is a substantial catalogue of works in which the contrapuntal art of Bach and Palestrina merges with the harmonies and rhythms of jazz, ragtime, and blues.

The three sonatas recorded here—entitled Rhythm Sonatas Nos. 2, 5, and 12—are a perfect example of this approach. Each is structured as a suite, whose individual movements develop fugues, counter-fugues, canons, and retrograde motions, infusing them with swing and syncopated rhythms. The instrumentation itself—harpsichord, cello, vibraphone, and drums—reflects this dual musical and cultural dimension, producing fresh and engaging sonorities.

The result—thanks also to the masterful interpretation by the musicians involved, who are able to combine attention to formal detail with a vibrant, groove-rich sound—is unquestionably successful and engaging. Some movements may perhaps resemble one another, but the listener’s attention is always sustained and curiosity continually stimulated. I recommend listening to this CD both to jazz enthusiasts and to devotees of classical music.

Jan 31, Feb 1: Program including Sonitudes by Robert Hughes, Left Coast, Berkeley and San Francisco

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble will perform Sonitudes by Robert Hughes as a part of its Metamorphosen program on January 31 in Berkeley, and February 1 in San Francisco. 

Program

Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen
for septet

Luciano Berio - Sequenza XIVb
for double bass

Hendel Almetus - Tounen
for solo flute

Robert Hughes - Sonitudes
for flute and cello

Sonitudes, written in December 1970, was commissioned by Gene Hambelton as a Christmas present for his wife Patrice, an accomplished flutist, and for his son Craig, a talented cellist. The first movement unfolds with a quasi-Japanese “kokko” rhythm and supine koto position of the cello played with a drumstick. The rhapsodic second movement features the cello; the third movement “Serenade,” the most complicated section, demands great care in the synchronization of the free-sounding cross rhythms. The final “Caprice” is a technical tour de force for the flutist. Due to the time required to master the flute part, the piece has the aspect of an “etude,” yet the extension of its sonorities by the cello make it a serious concert piece, a “sonorous etude,” and, hence its title, Sonitudes. The work will be performed by Stacey Pelinka on flute and Leighton Fong on cello. Sonitudes is paired with other works that extract maximum power from small forces.

Jan 11-25: Music of Edward Smaldone, Catherine Neville, Jay Gach, Dana Richardson and more, New York