While the Arkansas Symphony is offering its new commercial recording, its former music director, Philip Mann, has his own new recording coming out.
Mann, now music director of the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra and founding artistic director and conductor of Ensemble Bravura, has his face on the cover of "Finding Home," the ensemble's recording of chamber music, being released on Sony Classics Korea.
The ensemble, essentially a group of soloists, includes violinist Grace Park and clarinetist Alexander Bedenko. Flutist Alexa Still and guitarist Jason Vieaux are "guest stars" on its debut album, soloing in Michael Fine's "Concierto del Luna" for flute, guitar and chamber orchestra, which Mann commissioned specifically for this recording.
The album also includes the world premiere recordings of Fine's "A Time for Uncertainties," part of his "Three Orchestral Essays," and the flute and piano version of Aaron Jay Kernis' "Air" with Still and pianist Tatiana Roitman Mann — Mann's wife, who is well known to Arkansas audiences. (The piece has been previously recorded in its violin and piano/orchestra versions.)
Roitman Mann also is part of the sextet performing Sergei Prokofiev's "Overture on Hebrew Themes." The recording also features Fine's "Finding Home" as the title track and the original 13-instrument version ("with slightly expanded string section," according to a news release) of Aaron Copland's suite from the ballet "Appalachian Spring."
Representatives of Sony Classics, however, say the album is apparently not yet available commercially through any U.S. distributor.