Art Music Recording, LLC

07/11/2024

Watching a live stream now of the wonderful National Repertory Orchestra.
They're performing Jonathan Leshnoff's violin concerto and dedicating it to the memory of the great and dearly missed violinist Chas Wehterbee. I remember producing the premiere recording of this concerto for Naxos. Chas performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, with Markand Thakar conducting.

Kudos to Michael Stern and the young musicians of the NRO - you sound fantastic!

ABOUT THE PROGRAMMichael Stern, conductor (bio)Sadie Hamrin, violin (bio)Carl Nielsen Helios Overture, Op. 17Jonathan Leshnoff Violin Concerto No. 1INTERMISS...

07/10/2024

This live recording was a special one.

The five performers pictured here (from left: Winston Choi, MingHuan Xu, Maria Sampen, Tim Christie, and Norbert Lewandowski) were featured in a recent (June 29) Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival performance of a piano quintet by Dave Glenn (third from right) titled Sculpture Garden.

One of the sculptures that inspired the work was created by artist Squire Broel (second from right), who has become a dear friend since I moved to Walla Walla in 2017.

The quintet was the very first work I worked on with the chamber music festival. I remember clearly making the four-hour drive over from Boise and pulling up to Chism Hall on the campus of Whitman College. The next several hours I got to know the hall, the composer, and the artists on the session. The recording turned out great, and an accompanying video was later produced.

The work struck me as sharing many of the same qualities I found in the composer—it's genial, thoughtful, warm, witty, and urbane. To record it in performance almost precisely fourteen years later, now as a resident of this miraculous little town and with folks who are now dear friends, was a beautiful experience aesthetically and emotionally.

02/12/2024

It was an honor to be a part of this wonderful project. Congratulations to Andy, Ankush, my dear friend BIll, and everyone at the Omaha Symphony for the nomination! Next time we'll take home the statues! :-)

Enriching our community through the exhilarating experience of live orchestral music.

07/02/2021

Awesome recording venue, great performances on this recording. It was a lot of fun to make!

3 track album

05/07/2021

Performing arts peeps, I read this interesting article on https://trevorodonnell.com/ today, about things to expect in the coming seasons (I won't use the silly word "post-pandemic"). I recommend it - it's mostly great. But I do want to take exception with one or two of the author's premises. First: that audiences are somehow immune to appeals to aspiration. I mean, wouldn't any luxury car or even pharmaceutical ad exec laugh at that? I saw Yo-Yo Ma on Desus and Mero today - they fawned over him like a living god. People *aspire*, and classical musicians (for worse, not better) have always been tokens of that aspiration. Second: the idea that performing-arts marketing materials are "boastful," like that's a bad thing. I don't disagree, because that tone is off-putting to me personally, and the alternative tack the author suggests is definitely sharper and more appealing. But I don't see how you could look at pop culture (let alone presidential elections) and argue that Americans don't respond to boasts and brags. Nothing is more culturally American than that. Again, to be clear: I don't think we should do it just because it works. I just think he has nary a leg to stand on claiming that audiences won't respond to it.

PS - that Desus and Mero video is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMhK9WcAdvk&ab_channel=DESUS%26MEROonSHOWTIME

We visit the legendary Yo-Yo Ma just outside of Boston at his favorite barbershop, La Flamme, to talk music, learn about cellos, and to collaborate on rendit...

09/30/2019

For your grammy voting consideration:

09/15/2019

Thanks for the shout-out, Brookings Register!

BROOKINGS – “It’s like playing in the best cathedral in Europe – except it’s this water tank.” That’s how South Dakota State University associate professor Aaron Ragsdale, a percussionist, described recording new music with associate professor Tammy Evans Yonce, a flutist, in The Tank ...

07/11/2019

Congratulations Tammy Yonce and Aaron Ragsdale for the NewMusicUSA grant! It was wonderful recording with you at the TANK.

Sounds from The Tank and New Music on the Plains: new music for flute and percussion

06/12/2019

As One is a chamber opera in which two voices—Hannah after (mezzo-soprano) and Hannah before (baritone)—share the part of a sole transgender protagonist. Fifteen songs comprise the three-part narrative; with empathy and humor, they trace Hannah’s experiences from her youth in a small town to her college years—and finally traveling alone to a different country, where she realizes some truths about herself.

Help us cross the finish line! Please make a pledge of support now for this very important project. Talk about it on your podcasts and on your radio programs. Tell your students about it, your parents, your work friends.

The first studio recording of AS ONE, a chamber opera in which two voices share the part of a sole transgender protagonist.

06/08/2019

Congratulations, Memphis Symphony!

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has recently appointed a new assistant conductor, Kalena Bovell. Her first appearance in that role will be conducting the orchestra for...