Fields of Wonder

Minneapolis-based low-voice ensemble Cantus presents a program of five choral song cycles, including four premiere recordings. The album is anchored by the recently rediscovered Fields of Wonder by Margaret Bonds set to the poetry of Langston Hughes. Three featured works have been written specifically for Cantus by contemporary composers Gavin Bryars, Melissa Dunphy, and Griffin Candey. “These contrasting song cycles …

American Vignettes: Contemporary Works for Cello and Piano

Cellist Aron Zelkowicz is the founder and director of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival which presents rare and diverse works from Jewish musical traditions. In his new album with pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova, Zelkowicz presents late 20th and early 21st century works by six American composers—Carter Pann, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kevin Puts, Margaret Bonds, Stacy Garrop, and Stephen Paulus. Though quintessentially …

Take Me to the Water

In her debut album on Decca, acclaimed harpist Ashley Jackson presents her own arrangements of spirituals and works by Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Alice Coltrane. The album also includes Debussy’s “Danse Sacrée” and original compositions by contemporary composers Brandee Younger, João Luiz Rezende, and Jeromy Thomas. Jackson sings on a few selections and is supported by the Harlem Chamber …

Fantasie

On her debut solo album, pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance. From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a program which is also very personal to …

American Woman

Cellist Juliana Soltis and pianist Ruoting Li champion women composers Mary Howe, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Florence Price.  The new album sheds light on a treasure trove of rarely heard gems of cello-piano literature. Helen Crane’s Six Idylls is of particular interest, and new to WFMT. Written in 1918, the Six Idylls for Cello …