Dahn / Duhamel Ruckblick CD

How would you re-imagine Brahms? What does transformation sound like? Pianist Ann DuHamel posed these questions to five composers-the result is her debut album R?ckblick, a wide-ranging anthology of new piano music. Edie Hill's intimate title track borrows from early and late piano works of Brahms to create a nostalgic piece that looks forward and backward in time. The miniatures of Joseph Dangerfield and Luke Dahn's "Letters"-musical postcards from one composer to the other-pay homage to Brahms's relationships with Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann. Jocelyn Hagen's lyrical variations evoke the transformations of grief. And Marc Chan's humor and wit is on full display in his inventive re-imaginings of Brahms waltzes. Pianist Ann DuHamel's performances have been praised as poetic and "... a delight for the ears and the soul" (Encuentro Universitario Internacional de Saxof?n, Mexico City). She's performed in sixteen countries, including concerts at Sala Verdi in Milan, Italy; the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; and Trinity College in Oxford, England. A champion of contemporary works, she has commissioned works by Tyler Kline and J. David Moore in addition to the composers featured on this album. In demand as a collaborative pianist, Ann has performed chamber music with members of both the Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as with Martha Councell-Vargas, flute; Preston Duncan, saxophone; and Clara Osowski, mezzo-soprano.