Elizabeth Naccarato is a seasoned composer, pianist, and educator. She won her first piano competition at age nine and has received numerous accolades and awards over the years since. With her seventh and latest album, A Southwest Story (scheduled for release July 29, 2022), she expresses her love of the history, culture, and landscape of […]
Tag: neoclassical
DIVINE PASSAGE by Marshall Barnhouse
Marshall Barnhouse is a pianist, composer, teacher and recording artist who has pursued his love of music since age eight. In every situation, his goal is to guide others into the beautiful, expressive, and spiritual qualities of musical experience. A Glenville State College music education graduate, Barnhouse holds a Masters of Arts in Piano Performance […]
LASTING IMPRESSIONS by Lisa Swerdlow
Lisa Swerdlow’s latest release, “Lasting Impressions” was nearly two years in the making and is a milestone for this accomplished composer and pianist, as it contains her first ventures into both arranging and orchestration as well as her first trilogy. All the solo piano pieces were recorded and engineered by Joe Bongiorno at Piano Haven […]
MEMORIES OF WATER AND LIGHT by Scott Cossu
Based in Olympia, Washington, award-winning pianist and composer Scott Cossu has been performing worldwide since 1980 and was one of the first artists to join the Windham Hill label; “Memories of Water and Light,” a collection of compositions that, according to the album liner notes, “represent water, light and the love for those past and […]
THE LONG ROAD by Monica Logani
Inspired by the death of a close friend, Juliette Calayag Pralle, Monica Logani created “The Long Road,” which has been described as “a spiritual narrative about life and loss.” Many of the pieces on the album are quite short – two to three minutes in length – paralleling the life of Juliette, “whose journey was […]
A CLASSICAL MEDITATION by Gary Schmidt
Canada native Gary Schmidt decided at an early age that he would be a pianist when he grew up. Mostly self-taught as a child, he eventually studied at both Tyndale College and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. “A Classical Meditation, “ a collection of fifteen pieces composed for solo piano and interpreted here […]
Moods, Impressions & Souvenirs: About the Music, Part 2
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the stories that inspired the music in my April release Moods, Impressions & Souvenirs. Last time I talked about my visiting Prague, Czech Republic; today I will talk about the experiences that shaped two other travel-related pieces and one more. The last stop on […]
IMPRESSIONS by Shoshana Michel
Shoshana Michel’s fifth album, “Impressions,” features thirteen original solo piano compositions and is arguably Shoshana’s most intimate collection to date. Recorded and engineered by Joe Bongiorno, the piano sound is exquisite; the beautiful cover art, reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting, is also quite striking. And without exception, every performance is flawless. The opening track, […]
DAWN CONTEMPLATION by Lisa Swerdlow
One morning last winter, composer and pianist Lisa Swerdlow woke before dawn. Without knowing why, experienced a sense of foreboding and found herself reflecting on her life and contemplating all that she hoped yet to accomplish. She climbed out of bed and headed to the barn to feed her horses, as was her habit, just […]
PIANO2 by Doug Hammer
“Piano2” (actually “Piano Squared”) is Doug Hammer’s thirteenth release and arguably his most unique to date, as every performance on the album is a duet performed by Doug Hammer and…himself! Inspired by the free-wheeling improvisations that have become a tradition at the end of his solo piano concerts with other artists, Doug decided to try […]