Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Will Release CELLO CONCERTO & OTHER WORKS Recording in September

A new disc of music by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich including the debut recording of her Cello Concerto (2020), performed by soloist Zuill Bailey and the Santa Rosa Symphony led by its music director, Francesco Lecce-Chong, is a new release from Delos Records, available September 16, 2022. The recording also features three of the composer's popular works: Peanuts® Gallery for piano and orchestra (1996), featuring soloist Elizabeth Dorman; Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (1993), featuring soloist Joseph Edelberg; and Prologue and Variations for String Orchestra (1983).

Ellen was the Santa Rosa Symphony Artistic Partner January through May of 2021, during which time the orchestra performed her music in five virtual concerts streamed on its website; this recording is devoted to works that were performed on those concerts. The orchestra has commissioned a new work, Concerto for Two Pianos, which will have its world premiere May 6-8, 2023, in performances led by Francesco Lecce-Chong and featuring soloists Christina Naughton and Michelle Naughton.

Ellen's Cello Concerto had its world premiere in early March 2020, right before the concert world came to a pandemic-induced halt, performed by Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra led by Sebrina Maria Alfonso. The work received critical praise, Lawrence Budmen in South Florida Classical Review calling it "an important addition to the cello concerto literature ... a standout." "Zwilich's snazzy cello concerto soars in Florida," John Fleming wrote in Classical Voice North America, continuing, "Zwilich's harmonies are elegant and unpredictable.... The three movements, played without pause, had a narrative drive and coherence stemming from an inner pulse that propelled the music."

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Few composers have emerged with the unique musical personality of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians states: "There are not many composers in the modern world who possess the lucky combination of writing music of substance and at the same time exercising an immediate appeal to mixed audiences. Zwilich offers this happy combination of purely technical excellence and a distinct power of communication."

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's works have been performed by leading orchestras and major ensembles in the U.S. and abroad. Her works include five symphonies and a string of concertos commissioned and performed by the nation's top orchestras.

Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award), an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and four Grammy nominations. Among other distinctions, Ms. Zwilich has been elected to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, she was named to the first Composer's Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and she was designated Musical America's Composer of the Year for 1999. Ms. Zwilich, who holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School, currently holds the Krafft Distinguished Professorship at Florida State University. www.zwilich.com