Product Description

Many of these works were commissioned and written specifically for me. Following the elegant Tarrega is Nakina by Peter Ware, a special work in my repertoire that I commissioned through the Ontario Arts Council. This virtuoso showpiece has a strong blues influence and exudes a dramatic flare throughout its four movements. The selections from Schumann's Kinderszenen are introspective in character and their expressive subtleties emerge from simplicity of form. Titles suggest extra-musical and poetic connotations. Music for the Waiting Angel and Sonare by composer-guitarist Richard Jordan Smoot are lyric works revealing idiomatic writing in a beautiful harmonic language. In contrast, Robert Rollin's Hassidic Dance, which I commissioned with additional support from Youngstown State University in Ohio, is a playful setting of a folksong traditionally sung at weddings asking all to put past differences aside and join in friendship. The biting harmonies humorously symbolize conflict while interacting with the folksong theme.