The Artists
Mosaic
contains recordings of music for piccolo and piano and piccolo
unaccompanied performed by Cristina Ledford and Michael McGhee.
Cristina Ledford is a big
promoter of the piccolo as a solo instrument. Since middle school, she
has performed on the piccolo in every one of her ensembles. She holds
degrees from the University of Florida, University of Central Florida,
and Indian River Community College. She can be heard playing piccolo on
“Dances and Dreams” and “Mountain Music”, with the University of
Florida Wind Symphony and on the CD “Christmas Joy” that she recorded
with her uncle who is a harpist. Ledford is an active music teacher in
the central Georgia area and is also the solo piccoloist for the
Ocmulgee Symphony Orchestra. Previously, she was the principal flutist
of the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra where she was originally the
piccoloist. She has been on the faculty at Gordon College and maintains
a small, private studio in her home. In her spare time, Cristina
maintains the popular piccolo website,
www.piccoloist.com,
which she built from the bottom up. Ledford is a member of several
flute societies throughout the country. She won the Florida Flute
Association’s Advanced Masterclass competition twice (2001, 2003) and
was a finalist in the FFA Young Artist Competition in 2000. She was
also a Young Floridian award finalist, and a Semper Fidelis award
recipient. Ledford has appeared as a soloist with the Treasure Coast
Youth Symphony, University of Central Florida Symphony Orchestra, and
the University of Florida Concert Band. She has performed in flute and
piccolo masterclasses for Bernard Goldberg, Jill Felber/Claudia
Anderson (ZAWA!) Martha Rearick, Mary Karen Clardy, Nan Raphael, Amy
Rice-Blumenthal, Jeanne Tarrant, Aaron Goldman, Alexa Still, Michel
Debost and Walfrid Kujala. Her flute teachers include Christina Burr,
Dr. Nora Lee Garcia, Susan McQuinn, Peter Lloyd, Erika Leake, and Dr.
Kristen Stoner. Her current mentor is Nicola Mazzanti, the Italian
virtuoso piccoloist. Ledford plays on a Lillian Burkart deluxe piccolo
with a Burkart style headjoint.
Dr. Michael McGhee is currently
Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia,
where he teaches courses in music theory and music history and serves
as college organist.He completed the Doctor of Music degree in organ
performance and literature at the prestigious Indiana University School
of Music where he was in the studio of Marilyn Keiser and served as an
Associate Instructor of Music Theory. An active performer, Dr. McGhee
is also an accomplished church musician. He has served as organist of
First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia, Central Presbyterian Church
in Athens, Georgia, and First United Methodist Church of
Bedford, Indiana.
The
Music
Mosaic
(piccolo or flute and piano) -
Sy
Brandon - The American Heritage Dictionary
defines “mosaic” as a picture or decorative design made by setting
small colored pieces, such as tile, in mortar. The musical ideas in
this composition are treated in a similar fashion. The small colored
pieces can be compared to the musical motifs of the composition.
Sometimes these fragments form a larger unit and become a recognizable
melody. At other times, the fragments are combined differently
therefore creating a variation to the original idea. Throughout the
three-movement composition, this technique has been employed to create
loose formal structures that still have unity and variety through the
use of contrasting sections. The three movements themselves create
contrast by being organized in a fast-slow-fast arrangement. The
musical language is tonal with frequent shifts in the tonal center and
with harmony in thirds and fourths. Composer
Sy Brandon, professor emeritus of
music from Millersville University, Millersville, PA, has received
numerous commissions and honors including 1st place in
WITF-FM's 25th Anniversary Composition Contest, the El Dorado Sacred
Music Composition Contest, Franklin and Marshall College’s Wind
Ensemble Composition Contest and the New England String Ensemble
Composition Contest. His music has been recorded by the
Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Bulgarica and the
Kiev Philharmonic, and has been performed both
throughout the United States and abroad including performances by the
United States Army, Navy and Air Force Bands and on NPR’s
Performance Today.
Mosaic is
available through
Co-op Press.
Mad Canary (solo piccolo) -
Marc Yeats - Imagine a small yellow
bird, trapped in a cage and high on speed (?) - twittering away with
manic energy and fueled by a large dose of insecurity and
paranoia . . . that's Mad Canary!
Marc Yeats began composing in 1994.
Since then he has received performances and commissions from eminent
musicians, ensembles and orchestras around the world including Psappha,
the London Sinfonietta, the Endymion Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic and
Gewandhaus Radio Orchestra, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio
Scotland as well as German, EU, Japanese and New Zealand radio. Marc
Yeats is a composer and abstract visual artist. The techniques, ideas
and inspirations he uses in both art forms regularly cross-fertilize,
engendering a very unique sound-world in his music.
Mad Canary is available from
marc.yeats@btinternet.com
| Click below
to listen to mp3 excerpts from the CD |
| Mad Canary
|
Three Sketches (piccolo and
piano) -
Katherine Hoover -
This composition is intended to show different facets of the
piccolo. Movement 1, "Dusk", focuses on the gentle sounds of the
low register in the quiet atmosphere of evening. Movement II,
"Hide and Seek", is swift and short, with unexpected turns and
reverses. The last movement recalls the use of high flutes in
Latin music, and is based on a common Cuban dance rhythm."Three
Sketches" was commissioned by the National Flute Association. The
premiere was given by Walfrid Kujala and Walter Morales at the 2004
Nashville Convention.
Katherine Hoover,
composer and flutist, is the recipient of a National Endowment
Composers Fellowship and an Academy of Arts and Letters Composition
Award. Her work is published by Theodore Presser, Carl Fischer,
and Papagena Press and recorded on Koch, Delos, Parnassus, Centaur,
Gasparo, Summit, Cantilena, and Leonarda labels. Her works have been
played by over 50 orchestras as well as by flutists Julius Baker, Carol
Wincenc, Alexa Still, Mimi Stillman, et. al.; cellist Sharon Robinson,
pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Christopher Taylor, and Joseph
Kalichstein; the Colorado Quartet, and the Eroica Trio. In
Classical Pulse, Jan. 1997, critic Leslie Gerber picked Hoover's piano
quintet "Da Pacem" as one of the five best recordings of 1996. She has
conducted the Harrisburg Symphony in her own “Night Skies”; and her
“Requiem 1865/2001” was premiered in New York in 2002.
Three Sketches is available through
Papagena Press.
Little Suite No. 2 (solo
piccolo) -
Barton Cummings -
This work was written as part of a series of “little” suites for
different instruments. The piece explores the full range of the piccolo
and its five movements explore a variety of styles. The piece is an
exciting and challenging composition that features a variety of styles
and is fun to both perform and hear. The styles and moods vary from
movement to movement and require complete control of the piccolo and
the ability to perform in a crisp, clear detached style as well as the
ability to play long, sustained lines.
Barton
Cummings has been involved in the field of music for half a
century as a performer, composer, arranger, author, conductor and
educator. His compositions and arrangements have been performed and
recorded by musicians throughout the world and his consistent and
scholarly writing have been published and quoted for years. As a
performer he was one of the early pioneers in establishing the tuba as
a legitimate solo instrument and was the recipient of more than 70
compositions written for and dedicated to him. Now retired from tuba
playing and teaching, he and his family live in the San Francisco Bay
Area where he devotes his timeto composing and arranging.
Little Suite No. 2 is available
through
http://www.fallshousepress.com/home.html
Fantasy on When Johnny Comes Marching
Home (piccolo and piano) - Robert Starer - This work is also
available for piccolo solo with band accompaniment.
Robert Starer (1924-2001) has taught
at Juilliard from 1949 to 1974 and at Brooklyn College and the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York from 1963 to 1991. He was
named a Distinguished Professor in 1986. Among his honors are two
Guggenheim Fellowships and grants from the National Endowment and the
Ford Foundation. He was elected a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters in 1994, awarded the Medal of Honor for Science and
Art by the President of Austria in 1995, an Honorary Doctorate by the
State University of New York in 1996 and a Presidential Citation by the
National Federation of Music Clubs in 1997.His stage works include
three operas with libretti by Gail Godwin and several ballets for
Martha Graham. His orchestral works have been performed by major
orchestras here and abroad under such conductors as Mitropoulos,
Bernstein, Steinberg, and Mehta. Interpreters of his music include
Janos Starker, Jaime Laredo, Paula Robison and Leontyne Price. The
recording of his Violin Concerto (Itzhak Perlman with the Boston
Symphony under Seiji Ozawa) was nominated for a Grammy.
Fantasy on When Johnny Comes Marching Home
is available through
http://www.ManhattanBeachMusic.com
Lunar Dance (solo piccolo)
-
Chan Ji Kim - This
composition is dedicated to Cristina Ledford. This piece is a
one-movement work, which depicts the illumination of the moon. The
formal outline of the piece is A-B-C-B-A. Each section depicts
different phases of the moon starting with a new moon,crescent, full,
crescent and new again. Just like the different phases of the moon
there is a new character in each of the sections in the piece.
Chan Ji Kim composes for dance,
chamber ensembles, orchestra, multimedia performances and
electroacoustic music. Her music has been performed throughout the
world. Dr. Kim is a native of Korea,studied composition and theory at
E-Wha Women's University in Korea (BA), New York University (MA), and
University of Florida (Ph.D). Her music is available in print from
TrevCo Music and on CD on AGS (Akashibu Gakufu Shuppan) in Japan.
Currently Dr. Kim is Assistant Professor of Music at the Brevard
Community College in Fl.
Lunar Dance
is available through the composer at
kimc@brevardcc.edu
| Click below
to listen to mp3 excerpts from the CD |
| Lunar Dance
|
Butterfly Metamorphosis
(piccolo and piano) -
Dietrich
Vasquez - This work is a miniature tone poem piece depicting
the life span of a Butterfly. It is a continuous, three movement
work originally written with only the final movement in the year
2000. The following year it was expanded to its current three
movement status. Interesting enough, "Butterfly Metamorphosis"
was composed backwards - movement three ("Butterfly"), two ("Cocoon"),
and finally one ("Caterpillar"). "Butterfly Metamorphosis" was
specifically composed for Cristina Ledford while both studied at the
University of Central Florida.
Dietrich
Vasquez earned his Bachelor in Music Education at the University
of Central Florida where he studied clarinet with Dr. Keith Koons and
music composition with Dr. Stella Sung. Under the guidance of Dr.
Sung, Mr. Vasquez wrote many pieces for chamber ensembles to full
concert band to solo instruments.
Butterfly
Metamorphosis is available through the composer at
DtricksD1@aol.com
A Piccolo Poem op.72 (solo
piccolo) -
Fred Jonny Berg -
This work was completed in January 2008, is described as a
fantasy inspired by nature. It was written for Cristina Ledford.
Fred Jonny Berg (b.1973) is a
Norwegian composer. His list of works covers everything from solo piano
pieces to piano concertos and symphonic poems. In 2006, Flute Mystery
op.66a had its world premiere – performed in Washington DC by Sir James
Galway and the National Symphony Orchestra, directed by Leonard
Slatkin.
A Piccolo Poem op.72
is available through the composer at
fjb@symbiophonic.as
