Voicesfrom
Chris King, who penned a profile of local musician and composer Barbara Harbach just about a year ago, forwarded me some cool news: Marty Wimmer and Bill Raffel of WNED Classical 94.5 FM radio in Buffalo, New York named two of Harbach’s CDs in their “Making a List: Best of the Year 2008,” roundup: Barbara Harbach: Orchestral Music (Czecho-Slovak Radio Orchestra, Kirk Trevor, cond. MSR CD 1252) and Barbara Harbach: Chamber Music (Moyzes String Quartet; Ensemble Istropolis, Kirk Trevor, cond. MSR CD 1253). The very prolific Ms. Harbach has just released a new CD, Toccatas, Flourishes & Fugues, A Celebration of Hymns, performed on the Aeolian-Skinner Organ at Christ Church Cathedral; hopefully it was released late enough in 2008 to make it for WNED's 2009 list! St. Louis is really lucky to have this lady living and working here - she's a top-notch scholar, composer and performer whose work has been released by some of the biggest classical music labels, including Naxos. As the press relase that Chris forwarded to me notes, Harbach has composed in just about every form, including "symphonies, works for chamber ensemble, string orchestra, organ, harpsichord, musicals, choral anthems, film scores, modern ballets, and many arrangements for brass and organ of various Baroque works." The really cool thing to me, though, is her scholarly research, which involves publishing work by historical and contemporary women composers. Here is her site, for those who want to investigate further.
And, in light of one of Tony Renner's comments about Miles Davis' Sorcerer ("in 1977, herbie hancock reconvened these musicians, with freddie hubbard replacing miles davis, for a concert that was released as "v.s.o.p.: the quintet". freddie hubbard passed on december 29...") I wanted to pass along this post at Jazz Beyond Jazz, which includes a link to a great NPR interview with Hubbard (with music samples) and some album recommendations, too. —Stefene Russell
