Feature Articles

Nick Peros, the Canadian composer who I had the pleasure of interviewing a few issues back ( Fanfare 35:5), wanted to state his case for his...

Given that Osias Wilenski is not exactly a household name—yet!—to the readers of this publication, I’ll introduce him briefly with some biographical details of his interesting...

The name Colin Maier may ring a bell for some. He is currently the oboist for the internationally renowned and critically acclaimed ensemble Quartetto Gelato. Born...

This is one of those strange CDs that draw you in due to odd cover art and unusual programming but give you zero indication as to...

So there I was in a Tim Horton’s in Calgary, having a coffee and a moose bacon sandwich with my friends Remy and Gordon. Who should...

I fell in love with Hristo Kazakov’s playing after hearing his recording of the Goldberg Variations , so when the editor asked me if I was...

Without going to the trouble of actually documenting the statistics, I think it would be safe to say that this music is as oft recorded, especially...

Justin Henry Rubin is an American composer who was born in New York City in 1971. He specializes in chamber music, and his second CD on...

An accomplished keyboard artist, Justin Rubin started his professional work as an organist and choir director in his native New York, where he began composing for...

Rubin’s first Innova CD was recorded in the fall of 2008, and released the following year. All of the works were composed between 2005 and 2008,...

Music Director David Bernard founded New York City’s Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in 1999 and has since built a thriving ensemble that has not only performed...

Park Avenue Chamber Symphony recordings are available to download at iTunes, Amazon, and ClassicsOnline, and to stream at Naxos Music Library, Spotify, and Rhapsody. Back in...

As with the above Mendelssohn and Schubert coupling, we have on this recording two of Richard Strauss’s beloved tone poems that are often found sharing a...

When one thinks of interpretations of Richard Strauss’s tone poems, one thinks of super-virtuoso conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, George Szell, and Fritz Reiner—and their...

Great Mahler can come from places off the beaten track. The best live Mahler First I ever heard was by Yoav Talmi and the Waterloo Festival...

During the 1887-1888 season when Gustav Mahler was the second conductor at the Leipzig Opera, he began to write his Symphony No. 1 in D Major....

Ensemble Gaudior is one of the latest early music groups to venture forth with an initial outing on their own label. Formed in Washington, D.C., over...

Independently issued CD, available at CD Baby, CD Universe, and Ensemble Gaudior’s website. This is a fine CD of music by six noted Baroque composers played...

Independently issued CD, available at CD Baby, CD Universe, and Ensemble Gaudior’s website. This new recording was made to exhibit the glories of the St. Luke...

It’s not easy to keep up with Rachel Barton Pine. We all know that she is world famous for solo performances with major orchestras. Her numerous...

This is my third visit with Luisa Guembes-Buchanan, a fascinating woman and pianist who is exploring Beethoven’s keyboard works in her own time and her own...

This self-published disc, decorated with meticulous, surrealistic pen and ink drawings, could be easily overlooked, but is enjoyable and distinctive. Luisa Guembes-Buchanan, a Peruvian-born musicologist, concert...

Free to download at luisagbuchanan.bandcamp.com/album/john-cage-remembered Up to this point in time, Peruvian-born pianist Luisa Guembes-Buchanan has been represented in Fanfare primarily for her scholarly—and perhaps somewhat...

Ethan Sperry is director of choral activities at Portland State University, where he conducts the school’s world-renowned Chamber Choir and the new ensembles: Man Choir and...

The Portland State Chamber Choir serves as an ambassador of the Portland State University Music Department, both locally to the Portland, Oregon, arts community and to...

Paul Chihara is a rare bird indeed: a composer who is equally respected in the concert and film worlds, and highly sought after in each. Even...

Luiz de Moura Castro is a Brazilian-born pianist who received his training at the National School of Music, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (summa...

As a student, pianist Renée Reznek probably never dreamt that, some day, composers would be writing music specifically for her to play in concert. And yet...

Available at CD Baby, CD Universe, and Amazon as audio CD or download. Reznek, a South African pianist, has here issued her first (so far as...

Available at CD Baby, CD Universe, and Amazon as audio CD or download. This London based, South African native plays with no little skill and insight,...

Available at CD Baby, CD Universe, and Amazon as audio CD or download. Pianist Renée Reznek is a new name to me and given the somewhat...

Josef Heinzer and his life partner, Doris Maria Sigrist, live in Lenggenwil, a country village situated some 12.5 kilometers west of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Huge trees...

Given that the name Josef Peter Heinzer is, as far as I can determine, new to the pages of Fanfare, some biographical information is undoubtedly called...

In 1935, Josef Peter Heinzer was born to a cabinetmaker and his wife in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland. Growing up, the young man studied cabinet making...

In late December 2012, I spoke with violinist and composer Buckley Mills, who was at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He said it was only about...

When I interviewed Maureen Gregory, she was at her home in Rhinebeck, New York, a beautiful small town in the Hudson River Valley that has attracted...

Through e-mail, I conducted an interview with Richard Caniell, the force behind the Immortal Performances label, which has been responsible for some remarkably good transfers of...