CD Collection Features Stony Brook Composers

A number of Stony Brook University faculty members and students are featured composers and performers on "Stony Brook Soundings," a new two-disc collection of contemporary pieces released by Bridge Records.

It is the first such compilation for SBU's Department of Music, according to music department chairperson Judith Lochhead. The collection was produced through a 2006 grant from the New York State Music Fund.

"As a musical representation of the department, the CD shows the great variety of different styles of music composed by Stony Brook composers and the excellence of our performance faculty and students," Lochhead said.

The set also features Eugene Drucker – founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, SBU's Grammy-winning artists-in-residence – in his debut as a composer with his "Four Sonnets by Shakespeare."

"I was grateful for the chance to hear my music in performance, and even more so when the opportunity arose to have it recorded," Drucker said. "I have found the music department at Stony Brook to be a nurturing environment for artistic and educational activities."

SBU music professors Daniel Weymouth and Perry Goldstein have compositions in Vol. I of  "Stony Brook Soundings." Ilaria Kaila and Max Git Duykers, both PhD candidates, are also featured. SBU alumnus and pianist Jacob Rhodebeck performs on Kaila's "Kellojen kumarrus" in Vol. I.

In Vol. II, SBU faculty members Christina Dahl, Eduardo Leandro, and Gilbert Kalish contribute piano and percussion performances to the antiwar composition "Twilight's Last Gleaming" by their colleague Sheila Silver. Faculty members Daria Semegen and Margaret Schedel also have compositions in Vol. II.

Check out our track-by-track primer on Stony Brook Soundings.