EVERGREEN

Album notes…

On the surface, the two composers represented on this album seem separate in their American experience. Michael Young (b. 1939) was born on the west coast, is an avid mountaineer and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonian, and composes for keyboard and idiosyncratic chamber groups while Stephen Dankner (b. 1944) was raised in Brooklyn, studied at Juilliard, writes frequently for large orchestra, and has composed 24 string quartets.

Yet what connects both is their love of nature and their desire to revitalize traditional modes of musical expression, updating classical forms and Romantic harmonies with a contemporary twist. These characteristics may be heard in their works The Blue Flower and Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op. 150 - both composed specifically for and dedicated to Misty Rondeau.