Still, Still, Still

Still, Still, Still  Betty Picard
Christmas Lullabies for All Ages. When Betty Picard sings, people like what they hear. Of a performance with the Topeka Symphony, a critic wrote:  “Picard was exceptional. Her gorgeous voice, so pure, so expressive, lofted the exquisite ‘Pie Jesu” (Fauré) to the heavens.”

A Circle of Seasons

This album is a real "year-around treasure!" Whatever season, you can find music to compliment it, here. The Spring numbers are mostly romantic love songs from the 16th century. They conjure up images of "fair maidens'" and "dashing lords." The summer songs are carefree and sunny and mostly from the twentieth century. One appealing group has the songs, "Cloud Shadows" and "First Love," among others, written by Consort member, Steven Clark.
The autumn group highlights music by Consort member, James Mosher: a delicate "Fairy danse,"  and another piece by Clark, the lively  "Arundel Castle."
Winter songs sing of holiday merriment and festivities and include favorite carols, like "Silent Night" and "I Saw Three Ships," among others. The unique variety of music makes this a must-have album for Consort connoisseurs and everyone who likes delightfully pure tones, fine nuance and jovial style.  Wonderfully pleasing, relaxing and enjoyable!  

The Stoney Path

The second CD  includes beautiful and ancient dances, pavanes, canzons and galliards of the Renaissance, and the familiar Greensleeves. Following fast on the heels of the popular album "A Circle of Seasons," The Stoney Path" includes music from a cassette recording by the same name  produced by The Castle & Cross Consort seven years ago.   Superbly re -mastered for compact disc, with nine brand-new tracks, this album offers twenty-two additional minutes of music.  It is a must-have  for fans of this long-established consort! These are charming Renaissance treasures, artfully performed on recorders, harp, krumhorns, and the fascinating, rarely-heard medieval hurdy-gurdy.

Just Play

Music, I believe, should be a blend of thought feeling and Spirit. Too often we, as musicians, concentrate most of our energy on the thought and crafting of our music.
This CD represents my departure from those constraints.  Instead, I chose to reach for emotional spontaneity, to let the music speak for all I hold dear, to trust in the gift, to let go, to follow the moment to "just play" splashing in the musical river of life, flowing down my beloved mountains·to the endless sea, through hearts I have known, air I have breathed, and those whom I love. I sat down at the piano to just play for 90 minutes of my life, searching the music, the sound, and my heart transcending from one theme to another to color with no lines·to travel with no destination but my past and my being. After laying down the piano track, I hooked up five synthesizers accessed simultaneously by one keyboard, and while listening to the piano, I followed with improvised orchestrations one pass one time. The two were mixed and blended one pass one time.  CD done!  For the CD cover, I used artwork that my daughter, Kelsey, made when she was 7, and for the back panel, I used some artwork that my son Ryan did when he was 4. This was a musical creation from relaxation and trust.  I hope you feel the calm and warmth as you listen.  As I am an avid fan of old romantic movies and the great film composers, I hope this CD can become your soundtrack as you travel and wonder down your highway of life.

And don't forget, take time to "JUST PLAY"!   “Out of Stock”

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Never Summer

As Far As the Heart Can See

The music of this album is dedicated “to the preservation of the tallgrass prairies…and all the natural beauty of our Earth.”

I love the land! When I am away from the city, I can think, dream and see further and clearer than ever…with my heart. The music on this album was inspired by those feelings.  Summer Skies reflect boundless blue above, and in the distance brilliant white thunderheads, coursing across the Western sky. The Kanza Suite includes Sweet Prairie Morning inspired by the intoxicating smell of prairie grasses on the warm breeze of a dewy Kansas morning. In Cradle Song, night sounds blend with a lullaby under the stars on the plains. The winds of the prairie blow wild and free calling me to ride with them in Ride the Wild Wind. A beautiful Butterfly, gently rests on a wildflower nestled in tall prairie grasses. Song Without Words is influenced by the music of Romantic composers, whose compositions I love to play. In Spirit Rain, a gentle Autumn rain cools the summer-parched plains. The Green Fields of Home depicts the beauty and nostalgia of the rolling Kansas Flint Hills. Festival celebrates the wheat harvest and the blazing sun on golden fields of wheat.  In Canto d’Amore, an immigrant to the heartland reflects on loves and lands left behind. Prayer at Twilight and The Water is Wide, round out the album, with my son, Art, performing the violin part in this gorgeous version of The Water is Wide.                   

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As Far As the Heart Can see
Summer Skies
Butterfly

The Kiss of the Sun

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair." (Kahlil Gibrahn)

 Celebrate the passion of the day with "The Kiss of the Sun," and the rousing Celtic sounds of "River Run," the dazzle of "Daystar," the peace and serenity of "I'll Give Myself to the Wind.” The album also includes "The Last Rose," “How Sweet is the Meadow,” “Sad Birds,” “Midsummer Day,” “Heartbeats,” “How many Angels,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” and “Mountain Stars.”

From a review about the world premier of "The Kiss of the Sun”:
"The Kiss of the Sun" lived up to all its promises on Valentine's Eve as Julie Rivers and Friends treated patrons to a uniquely romantic "tour de force" presentation of her newest recording. Created by Rivers and staged with the expert help of an impressive assembly of artisans, her sensory appeal was complete through the careful choreography of instruments, voices, video images and movement. Applause to the artists and crafts people who created this one-of-a-kind presentation!"

Romancing the Piano

The latest album in the collection of the recorded piano music of Eugénie Rocherolle. Romancing the Piano in the Continental elegance of Spain, France and Italy in the Rich tradition of composer Eugénie Rocherolle.  Plus, Blues Concerto. Pianist Julie Rivers . An Aureus Recording. 

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Rhapsody
Un Giorno a Roma
Recuerdos Andaluces

Spinning Gold

The first in the series of the recorded piano music of Eugénie Rocherolle! Spinning Gold: The Piano Music of Eugénie Rocherolle, features the richly imaginative and highly personal style of this modern romantic composer in works for solo piano, one hand alone, and two pianos, all beautifully performed with precision and sensitivity by concert artist, Julie Rivers. An Aureus Production.
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Le Salon de Musique
La Chapelle
 

Touch of Blue... and Other Colors

If you like Gershwin, you  will love Touch of Blue! It’s the fourth in a series of albums of the music of Eugenie Rocherolle that Julie Rivers has recorded. Down-home Boogies with drums and bass take you to the French Quarter in New Orleans and soft jazz invites you to sit back, relax and enjoy.
                  

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Late Train
Lonely Nights
Laid Back Boogie
Jitterbug

One Starry Night

Starry nights are magical. We all have memories of nights when the Universe seemed to be cooperating with all of our dreams. The Vincent Van Gogh painting on the album cover portrays such a night. Van Gogh wrote about this scene:
"...a night sky with a crescent moon emerging from the shadows: stars of exaggerated brilliance in an ultramarine sky across which are hurrying and swirling almost invisible clouds."
The pieces on this album take you through the hours and moods of one starry night to the dawn of the next day. Meridian Crossing, Sunflower Fields, Aphrodite, Star Pool, Astrid’s Song, Wishing, Midnight Blue, Walk With the Moon, Senorita de la Noche Estrellada, Falling, Soul Thoughts, Spheres and Seraphs, How the Sun Rose. Thanks you for allowing me to share some of my dreams with you through my music! -- Julie Rivers                      

James And Julie Rivers DUO - PIANISTS

This collection of favorite twentieth century duo-piano works from their live performances celebrates the fortieth year of James and  Julie Rivers’ professional collaboration. They met as piano students of Stefan Bardas at the University of North Texas where their earliest concerts were given. Associated with three touring programs over the years (Texas, Kansas and the Mid-America Arts Alliance) they played dozens of concerts each year from the Oregon Bach Festival to the Texas Round Top Festival with countless appearances in smaller communities and major cities across the United States. They have performed major duo piano concerti (Mozart, Poulenc and Bartok) with symphonies in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas and Missouri, including the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

The performances on this album are live and unedited. They were retrieved from in-hall tape recordings of live concerts for capacity crowds attending Topeka Chamber Music Series concerts between April 1978 and November 1983, some of our most active concertizing years. During our collaboration, we played for audiences, not recording studio microphones. We recently decided to document those years with a compilation of music from the concerts most memorable to us. We hope this memento will be accepted by listeners in the joyful spirit in which the performances were offered and received at the time of these recordings.   — James and Julie Rivers

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Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances (Waltz)
Lutoslawski Paganini Variations
Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos (Finale)
Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (Finale)

Summer Past

Remember the hot days of summer, bicycle rides, tall glasses of lemonade, and the smell of freshly mowed grass? Think of the simple things that make summer, summer. All of the pieces on the album are somehow linked to my childhood, to my summer past… each piece recalling something different, yet all unified by something that is the same… an image of summer.

Tabitha Reist Steiner

DAN KOZAK:  TAO & GRACE
Saxophones,  clarinets, flute, krumhorn, piccolo
Guest artist:  Charles Rumback:  percussion

In the Asian perspective of the spiritual, Tao is known as "The Watercourse Way", cultivating the serenity & ability to flow effortlessly around obstacles, & settle at one's natural level, as well as cultivating a sense of positive spontaneity whereby one can instinctively "do the right thing" from moment to moment without burdensome, deceptive "thought". 

"Grace" seems to be the Judeo-Christian parallel to Tao. It is a blessing indeed to have been able to walk about this beautiful building called Grace, spontateously creating music, and, I hope, good vibrations.
Dan Kozak / March 2001Recorded in majestic Grace Cathedral, the fluid sounds of Dan  Kozak’s solo and duo jazz improvisations resonate life-energy and spirituality.

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Whisper Wills’ Pianissimo
Three Rivers

Knockin’ on Your Hearts Door

Three decades of popularity, return engagements, and year around back-to-back bookings affirm The Exceptions as one of the Midwest's best bands.  The energy and intensity they bring to any style accounts for their large number of dedicated fans and popularity with first-time listeners, as well.  Backed by the expertise and resources of The Exceptions Studio, the band's live performances and recordings demonstrate the highest quality and production.Band members are: Randy Wills, Peter Larsen, Tom Thomas, Marta Barron and Richard Barron.

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Knockin on Your Hearts Door

Wind Stories

What the critics are saying....
Frank Conroy, NY Times/Esquire:  "I've never heard eighth-note lines that truly hung together played as fast as alto saxophonist Kim Park plays them in this cut ("Cherokee).  The man deserves a medal."
Rex Reed:  "The result is so musical, I feel certain BIRD himself is somewhere, somehow, smiling wicked approval."  (Duet with Karrin Allyson on "Yardbird Suite.")
Stan Getz: "My favorite saxophonist to come along in years! And that flute!"
Russ Dantzler, Jazz Entrepreneur:  "Surely some of the spirit of LESTER exists within him (Kim Park)."
Claude "Fiddler" Williams: "He's playing more sax than Getz!

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