Jim Ginsburg's blog
Cedille Records has just released a new recording with pianist Jorge Federico Osorio. His previous Cedille recordings, Piano Espanol (of Spanish repertoire) and Mexican Piano Music by Manuel M. Ponce, touched on his Mexican heritage AND on his "considerable imagination for subtle timbres and vivid characterization" (The New York Times). It was this latter characteristic that made me welcome Osorio's desire to record Debussy's Preludes Books I & II, containing some of the most colorful piano writing of all time.
As I recounted in my second post on this site, however, I knew that no matter how good his interpretations were, it would be difficult to generate interest in yet another recording of the Debussy Preludes. So I suggested we should add repertory that reflected on the Debussy in a unique way and give people extra value by charging for the two-disc program at our regular, single-disc price.
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Last week, I printed the president of the Maud Powell Society's thoughts about Rachel Barton Pine's new Cedille Records recording American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell. Today it's Rachel's turn to discuss her new disc. The following is cross-posted from Rachel's blog on violinist.com. I recommend clicking the link to the original post, which includes comments from readers at the bottom.
I’m frequently asked to name my favorite violinist. It’s virtually impossible — each of us has strengths and weaknesses. I admire certain performances and certain aspects of many players, and I draw inspiration from many violinists past and present. However, the violinist I most admire is definitely Maud Powell.
Despite being an avid researcher of violin music and history, I had never heard of Maud Powell until Karen Shaffer sent me a copy of Maud’s biography in 1995. I was fascinated to read about her remarkable and inspirational life. Reading on planes and in hotel rooms, I learned how she became the greatest American violinist in the late 1800s and early 1900s while also breaking so many social stereotypes: choosing to dedicate her life to her career; leading a string quartet of men; championing music by contemporary composers, American composers, women composers, and Black composers
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Cedille Records has just released American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell featuring violinist Rachel Barton Pine and pianist Matthew Hagle. The disc celebrates the fascinating life and repertory of the great Peru, Illinois-born violinist.
The new disc, and all full-price Cedille CDs are now on sale at the Cedille Records web site. You can hear a comprehensive review of American Virtuosa here (click the "listen" button).
Today's guest-post is by Karen A. Shaffer, founder and president of the Maud Powell Society.
Rachel Barton Pine's gracious salute to Maud Powell (1867-1920) honors the first great American violinist and her musical legacy.
Maud Powell's transcriptions and music dedicated to her have been out of print for over 80 years, yet they are worthy concert pieces capable of delighting and inspiring audiences. They represent an important part of our musical heritage
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In last week's post, Thresholds Play-a-thon co-founder Camille Witos told the story of how one of her students, a 12-year-old named Maddy, got a chance to record a professionally produced CD at the WFMT studio by raising money for an organization that helps mentally-ill homeless people. This week's guest post tells the story of that recording session from the perspective of Maddy herself.
In Nov. 2006, I participated in a music play-a-thon sponsored by the Chicago Area Music Teachers Association. My role was to solicit donations for a piano performance in a recital along with other students. Out of all of the 100 some participants, I raised the most money! All the money raised went to Thresholds, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates the homeless mentally ill.
As a result, I was awarded an opportunity to make my own CD at WFMT, Chicago’s classical radio station. The gift was generously donated by Jim Ginsburg, President of the Cedille Records recording label.
This past March, I went to the WFMT recording studio.
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Sorry I have been absent from these pages for a while. Today's guest post is by Camille Witos, co-founder of the Thresholds Play-a-thon. In an earlier post, I explained how Cedille Records and I got involved in offering the grand prize for this event (with help from WFMT) in support of an organization that works to rehabilitate the mentally-ill homeless. This week's story comes from the perspective of the teacher of the winning piano student. Next week, I will publish the thoughts of the piano student herself.
This past March (2007), one of my 12-year-old piano students, Maddy, had a rare and unique opportunity to record her own CD at WFMT studio in Chicago. How did that happen? Maddy was a recipient of a prize generously donated by Jim Ginsburg, President of the Cedille Records label, and Cedille recording engineer Bill Maylone.
The prize was donated for a student who raised the most money for a music play-a-thon held in November 2006 in the auditorium at Holy Name Cathedral. My colleague and I started this play-a-thon about ten years ago with the belief that music can make a difference in the world.
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This week’s guest blog is by Eugenia Moliner of the Cavatina Duo (Eugenia Moliner, flute; Denis Azabagic, guitar), which has just released its first recording on the Cedille Records label: Acrobats — Music of David Leisner. In honor of this disc and other recent releases, all chamber music CDs are on sale through the end of April at the Cedille Records web site — 20% OFF regular prices.
Guitar players are often composers too, but David Leisner is not your typical guitarist/composer. He has the advantage of knowing the guitar very well so he can exploit its possibilities and give it much more than just an accompanimental voice. He also has the ability to create deep, enchanting melodies that become entwined in rich harmonies, such that instruments lose their individual importance, instead becoming just one element in a pot of luscious colors.
We met David almost 5 years ago at a festival in Florida. He had just finished writing Acrobats, the title piece of our new CD, and was eager to have us listen to a tape of a recent performance. After a few seconds of listening, I remember looking at Denis, together smiling and enjoying the moment. We needed no words; we knew immediately it was a great piece that we couldn’t wait to play. Then David told us the inspiration that made him create this music:
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This is my response to Jim Hirsch’s recent post on Diversity in Orchestras. Readers should also consider the excellent points raised a week later by Chicago Sinfonietta clarinetist Dileep Gangolli.
To me, diversity is all about expanding the talent pool. Viewed from this perspective, I see it as good and necessary for the classical music world: something that would raise the level of performance, enlarge the repertory, and make the classical music repertory relevant to a larger population.
There is obviously a tremendous amount of musical talent in our “minority” communities. Right now, most of that talent finds its way to other musical genres. If the number of top Black and Latino musicians (for example) who chose careers in classical music increased by just a few percentage points, it would be a tremendous boon to the concert-going world.
The problem, of course, is how do we get there from here.
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With the spate of recent award shows, this seems a good time to look at how performances are categorized.
I am a member of the Classical Committee of the Chicago Chapter of NARAS (National Organization of Recording Arts & Sciences). Under the leadership of Committee co-chair Rachel Barton Pine, we are considering recommending changes in the current Grammy Classical Award categories.
The current categories are:
Best Classical Album
Best Orchestral Performance
Best Opera Recording
Best Choral Performance
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (without Orchestra)
Best Chamber Music Performance
Best Small Ensemble Performance
Best Classical Vocal Performance
Best Classical Contemporary Composition
Best Classical Crossover Album
(There are also separate awards for “Producer of the Year, Classical” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical”.)
At our last Classical Committee meeting, Rachel Barton Pine noted that the way these categories are defined results in very disparate types of performances being compared against each other, such that many superb recordings stand little or no chance of ever winning an award — or even being nominated for one.
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I just returned from a vacation in Mexico, one of the highlights of which was a visit to an ecopark called Xcaret!, which ended with a spectacular show that attempted to trace the development of Mexican culture. The early scenes were of Mayan rituals and sports. These included an early version of soccer played with what looked like a heavy rubber ball. But instead of striking it with the foot, the players used their hips (diving to the ground if necessary). Even more amazing was the Mayan version of hockey: played on a hard surface with sticks, but instead of a puck, they used a ball that was lit on fire!
Later scenes showed the Spanish arriving and conquering, bringing Catholicism to Mexico. Most of the rest of the show demonstrated how modern Mexican culture is a mixture of indigenous and Spanish influences. And most of it was devoted to music.
This got me to thinking about how some of the most interesting classical music comes as the result of different traditions mixing: whether it’s Brahms’s “Hungarian” Dances, or Dvorak’s use of Negro spirituals in the “New World Symphony”, or more recently Lou Harrison and Michael Tippet’s explorations of Javanese modes in their compositions.
So I thought I would devote today’s post to examples of different cultures mixing (or in one case not mixing) from the Cedille catalog.
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Today's post is by Cedille Records' Business Manager, Cindy Ross, who wrote this upon her return from the annual record industry conference known as MIDEM. Cindy went to strengthen our relationships with our distributors around the world and to find distributors for Cedille where we don't have them, but her observations here are far more wide-ranging than her professsional mission might suggest....
I recently returned from attending MIDEM in Cannes, France. MIDEM, the poor cousin to the International Film Festival, is a gathering of music professionals from all genres including artists, labels, and distributors. As one who is more often found at Chicago’s Empty Bottle drinking bad red wine from jelly glasses than schmoozing at Symphony Center, I have always enjoyed the diversity of music and the interesting characters prowling the famous Cannes Palais.
This year, however, something was different. The spark and energy I have always found at this event seemed to be lacking.
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