Euphonium.com

2007 was a blockbuster year for CDs with having 3 releases: Beyond the Horizon, Taking Flight, and Majestic Journey...it has been like the perfect storm...in a good way. As with many things, I have future plans and ideas and moving forward is the way, so one of my great friends, Scott Hagen, and I discussed over the span of maybe 4 years of recording a CD together. One of the great beakthroughs was both of us working together with Canadian Brass hornist, Jeff Nelsen, who also serves as a Professor at Indiana University. Jeff and I meet at Bands of America functions as well as having him down to the IEI 2006 for a class on Fearless Performing. This project will be similar to the Little Buckaroos in that it will combine two solo artists, a great conductor, and a wonderful ensemble performing a few solos each as well as a few duets. These projects take a long time, so don't expect a release of this disc until Summer 2009.

After a lot of planning, we finally laid down the first tracks Oct 28-30, 2007. The University of Utah Wind Ensemble played fantastic and really rose to the occasion of making the sessions run smoothly. It was great fun to record the Willson Suite by Robert W Smith as well as Nightsong by Ron Nelson. While I have performed the Smith many times, many people have commented on the particularly effective and beautiful second movement, In a Gentle Rain. So, I decided it was a must to appear on the next wind band project. Nightsong is lesser known and this is a shame. I truely hope this recording will promote it along with its piano reduction (available on the site) as a wonderful lyrical selection that really focuses on the mood and ambience of the work versus dramtic technical passages. It is a refreshing work and one that I plan on programming much more often in the future.

Look for more on this in the future.

Adam