Arizona University Recordings has released a compact disc in the Connecticut Composers Spectra series containing a recording of Allen Brings’ Two Songs for Soprano and Violin, performed by soprano Amanda Page Smith and violinist Justin Smith, a former member of the Weston Music Center faculty. Included is also Brings’ Three Sonnets after the Portuguese for contralto, violin and bassoon setting the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and performed by the Hungarian ensemble The Corelli Trio. This CD also features faculty member Jennifer Foster singing four songs by Dave Brubeck accompanied by Brings. Parma Recordings on its Navona Records label has issued an enhanced compact disc of Brings’ Quintet for clarinet & string quartet that also contains the full score of the composition. The performers are members of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra. Brings is looking forward to the release in 2011 of a recording by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra under Petr Vronsky on the Navona label of his Short Symphony No. 1 for string orchestra. Soprano Jennifer Foster, a member of the Weston Music Center faculty, together with Allen Brings performed his Five Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins at a concert in New York City on June 7 presented by the National Association of Composers/USA; their recording of this work together with four other works by Brings appears on a Capstone Records CD entitled “A Concert of Music by Allen Brings” that opens with his performance of Three Studies for piano, left-hand.

Faculty-member and cellist Adam Grabois reports the release with former Weston Music Center faculty member, violinist Deborah Wong, of “Duos: Martinů, Ravel, Kodály.” Their recording has received critical acclaim and is available at www.reflexeditions.com. Previous recordings by Mr. Grabois include “Music for Cello and Piano by Beethoven, Debussy and Rachmaninoff” and “The Finckel Cello Quartet Plays Bach.” Chamber concerts during the 2010-2011 season will include performances in New York at the Metropolitan Museum as well as concerts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, DC; Tucson, AZ; Claremont and Cerritos, CA; and Bartlesville, OK. The summer of 2010 featured numerous performances on the faculty music series at Kinhaven Music School in Weston, VT.

Faculty-member and jazz pianist Jay Spadone brought his Kitchen Sink Band for the sixth year in a row to the Emmanuel Church concert series in Weston in June, 2009. Featured artists included Broadway veteran Kirsti Carnahan, jazz and concert pianist Mario Grigorov, faculty members soprano Jennifer Foster and Jazz violinist Justin Smith, and the a cappella singing group The Colgate Thirteen. In March of 2009 Mr. Spadone presented the 30th Annual StrawHat Auditions at the Michael Schimmel Performing Arts Center at Pace University in New York City. Information is available at www.strawhat-auditions.com. Mr. Spadone is also the director of the Bronxville High School a cappella group Sha! Cappella, which sang the national anthem for the Knicks in Madison Square Garden in January, and is an adjunct choral director for Fairfield Warde High School. Mr. Spadone will be playing at the Fairfield Theatre Company September 20th with Sweet Remains, with appearances by James Naughton, Buskin and Batteau and Kelly O'Hara.