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Christian Ellenwood’s compositions have been performed nationally and internationally—from across the U.S.A. and North America to Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Slovenia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Costa Rica and Peru; his works have been broadcast on several national and regional TV/Radio networks, including PBS, Chicago’s WFMT Classical network, the WXXI Classical Network, and Wisconsin Public Radio. His compositions have been performed worldwide at prestigious festivals and concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, the World Saxophone Congress, National Flute Association, ClarinetFest, and the Chamber Music National Festival/Music for All. Recent works include commissions by Vandoren, the Willa Cather Archive, the Nebraska Chamber Players, Fuse Trio, Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, Access Contemporary Music, and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra|Milwaukee Musaik. Ellenwood teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The disc includes world premiere recordings of two works by Ellenwood, His Sonata No. 2 for Flute and Piano was written for Cristina Ballatori in 2022 in memory of her mother Marisa Ballatori, who passed away in June 2021 after a three-year struggle with ovarian cancer. The Semplice Duo premiered the work in August 2022 at the National Flute Association’s 50th Anniversary Convention in Chicago. In his description of the work, Ellenwood calls it “lyrical and vibrant. This second flute sonata is steeped in the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic styles of blues, jazz, and popular music. The three movements, Dig It, Elegy in Blue, and Get It, celebrate life, strength, and resilience, capturing Marisa’s effervescent and energetic spirit.” Dig It alternates between two different ideas, a playful interchange between flute and piano and a more sentimental song by the flute. Elegy in Blue is a bluesy, but surprisingly upbeat tribute with fine solo moments for both players. Get It begins with an emotive passage for the flute, which eventually moves into more intensely rhythmic music and a brisk closing.
Samuel Zyman has been a faculty member at the Juilliard School since 1987. Though he channels a wide variety of influences in his works, one of the dominant themes in his music is the style of his Mexican homeland. (He was born in Mexico City.) Cancion de Cuna is Spanish for “lullaby.” This work was commissioned by flutist Cindy Anne Broz in remembrance of her mother. For inspiration, Zyman turned to the lullabies he heard as a child, imbuing this work with Mexican flavor. The result is a lovely, gentle elegy that rises to a great emotional peak near the end, before reprising the opening mood.
Amanda Harberg is a composer whose work has been described by the New York Times as “a sultry excursion into lyricism.” Her writing for a wide range of instruments weaves classical Western tradition with contemporary influences to create a distinctively personal style which, according to Cleveland Classical, “conveys a thoroughly original sense of happiness in music.” Regarding her Court Dances for Flute and Piano, her publisher writes: “In Court Dances, Amanda Harberg’s palette sparkles with her trademark sense of magic, delight and warmth. Initially inspired by the fast and syncopated bounce of a squash ball, Court Dances grew into a celebratory and soulful suite in three virtuosic movements.” The opening movement, Courante, is a tongue-in-cheek take on the 17th-century dance, filled with nervous energy and constant shifts of meter. Air du Cour is a wistful and pensive interlude, capped by an introspective flute cadenza. Tambourin returns to the puckish mood of the opening, though there
are several moments of seriousness. Again, the movement ends with a cadenza. Court Dances was co-commissioned by 57 flutists from around the world in a consortium that was led by flutist Cobus du Toit. It was premiered at the National Flute Association convention in Minneapolis in August, 2017 by du Toit, with the composer at the piano.
Composer and flutist Valerie Coleman first came to national prominence as the founder of the Imami Winds, a wind quintet founded in part with the ideal of providing role models to younger African American performers in classical music (Imami is Swahili for “faith.”). She composed several works for this ensemble. She maintains a successful double career today. As a flutist, she plays as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe, and recently, in August 2022, gave the premier of Jennifer Higdon’s Flute Concerto: The Light We Can Hear. She is widely performed as a composer, and widely commissioned as well. Coleman’s Fanmi Imèn was commissioned by the National Flute Association for its 2018 High School Soloist Competition. Her publisher provides the following description of this thoroughly multicultural work: “The title Fanmi Imèn is Haitian Creole for Maya Angelou’s famous work, Human Family. Both the musical and literary poems acknowledge differences within mankind, either due to ethnicity, background, or geography, but Angelou’s refrain: “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unlike,” reaffirms our humanity as a reminder of unity. Coleman’s work draws inspiration from French flute music blending with an underlying pentatonicism found in Asian traditions, a caravan through Middle Eastern parts of the world merging with Flamenco, and an upbeat journey southward into Africa with the sounds of kalimba (thumb piano).”
Ellenwood describes his Sonata No. 1 for Flute and Piano, “night, surrendering to dawn” as “an intensely rhythmic and passionate work. It is subtitled ‘three meditations on heartbreak for flute and piano.’ The emotional arc of the three movements gives musical expression to a journey through darkness and struggle towards healing, light, and the irrepressible flow of life. The movements are as follows: I. for what was shared, II. for what was lost, III. for what will come.” The work was composed for the Semplice Duo, was premiered by them in August 2017 at the National Flute Association Convention in Minneapolis. The opening movement, for what was shared, begins with a weary flute solo which grows ever more impassioned and intense until a rather abrupt ending. For what was lost is begins as a lush melancholy theme that rises towards an uplifting new idea in the middle, before a return to the original idea, now much more exultant. The rather brief final movement, for what will come, has a more optimistic sound, filled with subtle jazz inflections.
©2025 by J. Michael Allsen