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Classical Crossover ARTISTS list
Classical Crossover ARTISTS list
LibraryPreviews.Com...for new Books, CDs & DVDs in...Sweeten's music additionally reflects her passion for nature. "I spend some time outside every day, no matter the weather! I love the 'naturalness' of nature because there's no pretense. It's the wonder of our world." She begins her new album with "Walking With the Wind" ("the message is that we should be working in harmony with nature instead of ravaging Mother Earth") while "Cotton Candy Skies" and "Canopy of Stars" also pay tribute to aspects of nature. "White Spirit" was inspired by the endangered White Spirit Bear (Kermode Bear) of British Columbia that was saved when clear-cut logging was banned there. "Sapphire Days" is a musical memory of "those standout days that we treasure always." Some tunes ("Thin Ice" and "Grains of Sand") draw inspiration both from nature and personal relationships.
An active environmentalist and vegetarian, Sweeten has a reputation in her community for regularly rescuing stray dogs and cats, and helping injured wild animals such as seagulls, sparrows, pigeons and squirrels. Her dogs are all former strays and when one died it inspired two tunes on the album -- "A Prayer for Shazu" and "Autumn's Child." In addition, Sweeten named her record company Orange Band Records after the dusky seaside sparrow which became extinct in 1987. "The novelist Robert James Waller wrote a beautiful elegy in the Humane Society News for the last of those sparrows who was known for the orange wildlife tag on his leg. Waller wondered what it would be like to be the last of a species. I want my company to have significance and meaning, so I hope the name calls attention to the fact that we must take care of our planet."
Ann has always had wide-ranging interests and been immersed in many forms of artistic _expression. She trained for many years as a ballet dancer, earned a degree in foreign languages (French and Spanish), and sang lead vocals and was the lyricist in a regionally-popular rock band that she co-founded. "I take pride in being a well-rounded artist and person. I don't like to be straight-jacketed.
"I wanted a keyboard when I was young, so when I was six my mother gave me a Hammond organ," Ann remembers. "I was too small to reach the pedals so I had to play standing up. I took lessons for three years until my teacher suggested I switch to piano to develop strength and technique. I got a Baldwin piano for my ninth Christmas. The turning point for me technically and creatively was when I was able to study under David Sokolof, a Russian-born concert pianist who taught at a local college, but also took on a few private students. He didn't overdo the importance of scales, but pushed repertoire. Playing beautiful pieces was so much more inspiring!"
Sweeten went to Smith College in Western Massachusetts where she majored in languages, but took a variety of musical courses and often played show tunes with her own arrangements for college audiences. She spent her junior year in Paris where she continued her piano studies. After graduating cum laude, she began taking formal vocal lessons and soon co-founded Fall Out, a rock band playing original music. After a couple of years she attended the prestigious Boston Conservatory and spent an additional two years studying music, acting, singing, dance and musical theatre. "I enjoyed trying new things like singing opera and learning jazz theory."
Sweeten became a member of Actors Equity and began auditioning in New York City for musical theatre companies that performed shows throughout the East. These musicals included "Chicago," "A Chorus Line," "Sweet Charity," "West Side Story," "Gypsy," "Annie Get Your Gun," "Man of La Mancha," "Nonsense" and numerous others. During that same period she was playing piano at clubs, cabarets, hotels and restaurants. Occasionally she would include some of her original compositions and the positive reception led to recording her own instrumentals in the mid-Nineties and performing concerts of all-original material. Now Ann is a member of the National Recording Academy of Arts & Sciences and an ASCAP Popular Awards recipient.
"My focus has come full circle back to music again. My music comes from the soul and, of course, I want it to touch people and add an element of healing to their lives. But my main message is to just suck the marrow out of life and bask in the wonder and beauty of nature that is all around us -- in the crystal-blue sky, the puffy clouds floating by, your footprints in the sand at the beach, the first brave flowers bursting through the snow, or sunlight glittering on the ocean. There is treasure everywhere, if you know how to look!"
Nana Mouskouri's 2003 release...
Ode To Joy
Classical crossover music.
Nana Mouskouri is one of the best-selling female artists in the world with a career spanning more than 40 years. She has been awarded more than 350 gold and platinum records since the inception of her career in 1961.
The
Ode To JoyCD features songs such as “Come and Sing” (the “Ode to Joy” music from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony), “Casta Diva,” “L’amour gipsy,” “Love Changes Everything,” “Panis Angelicus,” “Ave Maria,” “Con te Partiro” and many more.
Ode To Joywas released in the UK in the fall of 2002 and received with overwhelming delight. The Guardian stated that Mouskouri’s music “appeals to the most simple and basic emotion in everyone, anywhere.”
Magazine Subscriptions
The bulk of the content found in the monthly magazine "Stereophile" centers on pricey audiophile hardware most of us can only dream about. But the magazine's take on jazz, rock, and classical music is equally awe-inspiring.
Visit our Magazine Subscriptions store available here.
Massimo Quarta, soloist and conductor,
Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova
This prestigious set of four CDs crowns one of the most courageous projects
of the Italian record industry. With this set, Dynamic offers lovers of
classical music not only its outstanding complete edition of Paganini's 6
Violin Concertos (the strengths of which are the use of Paganini's violin,
new editions based on the autograph manuscripts and new orchestrations), but
also a bonus multimedia CD containing the audio track of the beautiful
Adagio for violin and orchestra M.S. 49 - a world première performance and
recording - a videoclip of its recording, the history of Paganini's violin,
photographs and technical drawings of the instrument, and the catalogue of
Dynamic's Paganini recordings.
Massimo Quarta, in the double capacity of soloist and conductor, leads the
Orchestra of Genoa's Carlo Felice theatre. The 64 pages booklet offers
exhaustive liner notes in four languages.
New Classical CDs... / New Books
