EDWARD TONER CONE (May 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist. Cone was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied composition under Roger Sessions at Princeton University, receiving his bachelor's in 1939. Cone was one of the first to earn graduate degrees in musical composition from Princeton (MFA, 1942). He studied piano with Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Edward Steuermann. This album is an apt objective for E&FA's mission: "The work of composers and artists is central for an enlightened culture. Ebb & Flow Arts enriches the soul of the community by educating the children and by presenting contemporary music, art and multi media on Maui, in Hawai’i, and around the world. Functioning in an international network, E&FA helps to provide a stage from which to inspire our culture to find new horizons." Ebb & Flow Ensemble comprises expert performers and veterans of several E&FA concerts. Pianist Adam Tendler (NYC) performs "Twenty-One Little Preludes". Soprano, Rachel Schutz (Honolulu), and pianist Robert Pollock (Maui), perform "Silent Noon" (poem by Rosetti). Duo Diorama (Chicago) - violinist Minghuan Xu, and pianist Winston Choi - perform "Second Sonata". Clarinetist Scott Anderson (Minnesota), and violinist ignace Jang (Honolulu), perform "Duo". "As musical property executor of Edward Cone’s estate, I’ve had the great good honor of being able to follow Cone’s development as a composer from his earliest pieces, which include a Prelude in E Minor written as a boy’s gift for his grandmother, to his last, Three Songs from Pippa Passes, a setting of texts by Robert Browning, found on the desk of his piano after his death. When surveying the entirety of Cone’s work, it is easy to see his growth to maturity. His student works, those written from his time as an undergraduate until the beginning of his service in World War II, show great diligence and enthusiasm. And when you examine the sketches and drafts of his compositions written after his return from the war, at the beginning of his compositional maturity, you see him composing with no apparent hesitation, improvising directly to the page, his revisions mostly matters of tightening and tidying. He’s become a fully equipped composer creating a body of work that is completely professional and completely personal — often intensely private — a body of work that sounds only very little like anyone else’s. Surveying his work also reveals patterns, habits, concerns, quirks. He composed to learn something, to exercise a compositional muscle, to see what could be done with an idea, to create dramas, to recreate some private moment. He also continued, as he did for his grandmother, to compose gifts – Nine Lyrics from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” for his partner, George Pitcher; Etude for Either Hand, or Both for Kitty Ellis, his Queenston Place neighbor when (“the unhappy summer of 1963”) he moved across Princeton Borough to College Road, the Cavatina for his childhood friend, Ruth Leach. Many pieces are notes of condolence and memorials – In Memoriam – R.D.W. for Roy Dickinson Welch, the founder of Princeton’s Music Department; Two Women for Cone’s Aunts Etta and Claribel; Another Page from a Diary for his teacher, Roger Sessions. The Twenty-One Little Preludes were composed to exercise compositional muscle. These pieces began as a group of 30 piano pieces, written in 1940, Cone’s first year of graduate school at Princeton. His exercise likely was modelled after a project that Roger Sessions is said to have done in the late ‘30s. Sessions, concerned that he was taking too long to complete pieces, set out to write a complete piece daily. I don't think anybody knows how many days or how regularly Sessions kept his project going, but it seems that Cone kept his project going for a complete thirty day month. He later selected twenty-one pieces from the project for publication. Charles Rosen performed five of the preludes at Princeton University in November of 1948. The Daily Princetonian reported: “These were, for us, the most stimulating offering of the evening. At the outset, it cannot be denied that we were far too conscious here of the actual processes of composition. The Preludes were definitely overly durchkomponiert. But, despite the foregoing, this was powerful, and intractable music. Gelid, mercilessly stripped of all that was extraneous, it spoke to us, not so much through statement, as through suggestion, and the fires of content emerged from the ice of form. We would not presume to suggest what Professor Cone meant, but there was no doubt in our minds that he was saying something.” Cone’s setting of Silent Noon composes Rossetti’s private moment (a silent summer noon – a dragon-fly’s hovering – shared in lovers’ silence – and remembered) for the intimate performance of a singer and a pianist. The song is also part of an instance of Cone’s habit of returning to a mood, echoing an older piece in a new. His setting of Richard Eberhart’s Solace composes another moment in summer, this time a June early evening – this time not quite silent – birds sing in place of dragon-fly hover – the singer speaks from that present moment. Rossetti’s “visible silence, still as an hour glass” – Eberhart’s “June hour of splendor and quietude, before the inevitable darkness.” The truly powerful and certainly even for the best of performers intractable Second Sonata for Violin & Piano was first performed by the Russian violinist and composer, Nicolai Berezowski and the pianist, Beveridge Webster, at Princeton University in 1951 – a stellar cast – both players at the height of their careers. Cone comes to the piece having mastered writing for strings, always a problem for a composer whose native instrument is the piano, and having mastered his own sense of ‘the long line’ – Sessions’ term – and certainly one of Cone’s continuing compositional concerns. The sonata is in four movements – an initial Andante con moto, a movement that opens with no easing in of the players or the audience – a world is already in undulating motion, gathering strength, finally dissolving, thinning out, hesitating, then yielding to an increasingly rambunctious Allegro energico that piles difficulties upon difficulties (upon difficulties) until it releases its players in a sudden burst of quiet – at least in context – nonchalance. A well-earned break for the players – then – an Adagio – slow conversation between the players leads to (Poco piu mosso) an aria for the violin over keyboard arabesques – slow conversation resumes – climaxes – collapses – returns to the opening Andante con moto’s motion – its undulation now steady, then dissolving, slowing, dwelling, and disappearing. The Duo for Violin and Clarinet is the latest written of this collection. Cone has long been a master. He has nothing to prove. I think he created this piece for mostly fun – at least for himself. He does give his players an amazingly difficult set of ensemble problems to work through and the opportunity (necessity) to become the best of friends. It is tempting to invent a program for the Duo. After all, Cone provides ample precedent with his description of his Serenade – a gentleman’s early morning winter walk on Princeton’s Springdale Golf Course, accompanied by two dogs, all led on by a bird in the guise of a flute player. No detailed program will be attempted here – why take all of the listener’s fun away? – but here are some characterizations that might be useful for a start. Take the Duo’s outer movements as comedies – the first movement maybe some mix of Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton, and Stravinsky. The third movement – chase scenes out of the Keystone Cops for at some of it – better (really) – late Haydn finales – the last movement of Haydn’s last E-flat major Piano Sonata comes to mind. Take the middle movement as something like Bartok’s night pieces – starting gently and soon falling into quiet grotesqueries of clarinet multi-phonics and shared warbles and trills. Cone was a composer, a pianist, a music theorist, and a scholar. That his public reputation has been as a theorist and scholar is not exactly just an accident of history. The scholarly part of his work is rich and will continue to be useful and mind opening. But his work as a composer, at least as deserving, remains mostly unknown even within the community of composers. This recording is, in fact, only the second completely given over to Cone’s music. May it open some ears. My thanks, both personal and official, to Robert Pollock and Ebb & Flow Arts/Maui Institute for Modern Music for the production of this recording. And profound thanks to the players. I know how much skill and rehearsal it takes to perform these pieces with power and grace. My gratitude for your work is without reservation." Jeffrey Farrington, Ringoes, November 5, 2014 Hailed for her “diamantine high notes… and giddy delirious coloratura” (Boston Globe), Welsh-born soprano Rachel Schutz is increasingly in demand throughout the US, Europe and Asia for her sensitive and evocative performances and wide range of repertoire. In the summer of 2006, she made her much acclaimed debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall singing, most notably, Bernstein’s “Glitter and be Gay" and returned to tour with the orchestra two years later. She enjoys a multi-faceted career which includes both concert/recital and opera performances and her upcoming engagements include Papagena with Hawai'i Opera Theatre, a performance of Imbrie's "Adam" with the Riverside Symphony and recitals at Stony Brook University. After making her professional debut at age 12 premiering John Hardy’s The Roswell Incident with Music Theatre Wales, Ms. Schutz began studying with Mark Gruett of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. She completed her B.A. in Music at Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Elaine Bonazzi, and received her Masters of Music degree from the Dawn Upshaw-run Vocal Arts Program at Bard College. Most recently Ms. Schutz performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra, Johanna (Sweeney Todd) and Diana (Siren Song) with Hawai'i Opera Theater, Adele (Die Fledermaus) with Stockton Opera, and Thérèse (Les mamelles de Tirésias) and Jessie (Mahagonny Songspiel) with Opera Paralèlle, about which the San Francisco Chronicle exclaimed "the finest singing was delivered by soprano Rachel Schutz [who] brought lyricism and cogency to the Weill songs and a vivacious spirit to the role of Thérèse." In 2012 Ms. Schutz made her Ravinia Festival debut singing Zemlinsky's Maiblumen blühten überall with Maestro James Conlon and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. That same year, she returned to Stony Brook Opera to perform the role of Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and attended SongFest 2012 as a Sorel Fellow where she worked closely with Graham Johnson and Martin Katz. Other recent engagements have included Susanna with Stockton Opera; Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore with the Santa Fe Opera, which the MVDaily called "enchanting"; her Carnegie Hall Zankel Hall debut singing the world premier of Elena Langer's Songs at the Well; both Brahms' Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass with the Hawai'i Symphony, and a guest appearance at the 2011 Ojai Festival. A seasoned recitalist known for her "communicative zest" (Boston Globe), Ms. Schutz has been invited to perform at prestigious Concert and University Series around the world including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Honolulu Chamber Music Series, the Hawai'i Concert Society, the Austin Chamber Music Series and venues in China, Taiwan, Korea and Germany. Ms. Schutz has performed with famed artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Martin Katz, Leon Botstein, James Conlon, Keith Lockhart and Corrado Rovarris and frequently collaborates with husband and pianist Jonathan Korth. Know for their variety and originality, recent programs have featured both vocal and piano music woven together by creative themes. Ms. Schutz is also an avid supporter of new music and enjoys close working relationships with many young composers and new music ensembles such as Maui-based Ebb & Flow Arts. A two-time Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, she performed Babbitt's Phonemena to critical acclaim in the presence of the composer, and has premiered dozens of new works, several of which were written specifically for her. She has worked with composers Augusta Read-Thomas, John Harbison, Libby Larsen, John Musto and Thomas Osborne on their music and recently, with American composer William Bolcom on a performance and recording of his Briefly it Enters with pianist Tomasz Lis. Equally at home in the opera house as on the concert stage, Ms. Schutz's recent roles have included Giannetta with the Santa Fe Opera, Blonde with the Stony Brook Opera, Euridice in Orpheus ed Euridice with the Berkshire Bach Society; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier with The New Opera Company; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Rose in A Street Scene and St. Settlement in Four Saints in Three Acts, about which the Daily Freeman wrote "[Schutz's performance] revealed a comic streak lurking in this astounding lyric coloratura." Other roles have included First Maid in Daphne, Flora in The Turn of the Screw, Mable in The Pirates of Penzance and the title role in Patience. Ms. Schutz has been the recipient of the 2012 Sorel Fellowship at SongFest, the winner of the Roland Jones Scholarship Competition at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, New York Civic Morning Musicals Vocal Competition, both Stony Brook University and Bard College Concerto Competitions, and the Lillian Caroff Meyer Award from the Santa Fe Opera. She has been featured on Hawai'i's 88.1 KHPR and Chicago's WFMT, and can be heard on "Elements", an Albany Records album of contemporary American music, released in 2013. A "modern-music evangelist" (Time Out New York) who "has managed to get behind and underneath the notes... living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all. If they gave medals for musical bravery, dexterity and perseverance, ADAM TENDLER would earn them all." (Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun) Nominated for the 2012 American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award, and a finalist for the 2013 American Prize, Adam Tendler is quickly emerging as one of the country's most prolific and exciting pianists, building an international reputation through unique programming and a grassroots approach to classical music making, working one-on-one with presenters to cut costs and increase access. He first made national headlines with America 88x50, a completely independent recital tour organized from the front seat of his Hyundai that brought free concerts of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. Tendler has gone on to perform in some of classical music's most distinguished halls and series, and has directed modern music initiatives across the country, serving as an announcer and new music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide, direct classical music initiatives across the country, and serve as an announcer and contemporary music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide. He is also the founding director of a nightly jazz series at Soho House New York. Since 2007, Tendler has toured with a memorized performance of John Cage's complete Sonatas and Interludes, including a Symphony Space performance for the Cage100 Festival, listed by New York Magazine as one of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of 2012. An outspoken GLBTQ advocate, he was recently keynote speaker at a Human Rights Campaign event in Boston, and performs regularly for clients at New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis Center. He lives and teaches in New York City, and maintains the blog, The Dissonant States. He is currently developing an album on the Albany label of piano music by Robert Palmer. DUO DIORAMA comprises Chinese violinist MingHuan Xu and Canadian pianist Winston Choi. They are compelling and versatile artists who perform in an eclectic mix of musical styles, ranging from the great standard works to the avant-garde. It is a partnership with a startlingly fresh and powerful approach to music for violin and piano. Comprised of two renowned soloists who can effectively blend their distinctive personalities together to create a unified whole, the duo maintains an active performing and touring schedule. Their name "Duo Diorama" captures the couple's artistic ideals. In 19th-century Paris, the Diorama was a popular theater entertainment that prefigured cinema. A marvelous landscape scene - one telling the tale of some mythic event - was painted on linen and brought to life using dramatic effects o lighting (executed using sunlight redirected by a series of mirrors); such were the skills of its virtuoso light artists that the Diorama's scenes would appear to take on dimensionality and motion - to literally come alive. Duo Diorama seeks to bring sheets of music notation to life using similar sonic manipulations of color, feeling, and movement; thus transporting their listeners to realms of musical drama, profound emotions and inspiring aesthetic ideas. Having performed extensively throughout Asia, North America, South America and Europe, Duo Diorama has gained a loyal following wherever they travel to. The duo’s recent appearances at the Colours of Music Festival, Ebb and Flow Arts, the GroundSwell Series, the Mammoth Lakes Music Festival and Walla Walla Music Festival were met with critical and audience acclaim. Their recent South American tour included performances at the Festival Musica Nova in Brazil and Festival Encuentros. As the inaugural recipients of the Banff Centre’s Rolston Fellowship in Music, they have recently toured throughout Canada, having performed in recital series from coast to coast. Recent concerts in China included the Central, Shenyang, and Sichuan Conservatories of Music, as well as Shandong University. In 2006 they gave their successful New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as winners of Artists International Presentations’ “Special Chamber Music Award.” A feature broadcast on the debut was covered by Voice of America, a weekly television program viewed by millions of people in Asia. They were also named Artists-in-Residence for the Chinese Fine Arts Society's 2011-2012 season. Having already commissioned and premiered over 20 works in the last few years, Duo Diorama is a leading proponent of music of living composers. Their insightful and dynamic interpretations of music of living composers have established the duo as a true champion of contemporary music. They are committed to music from today’s culture and take a very personal approach to the presentation of these works – both those by the established modern masters and today’s emerging young composers. Composers they have commissioned include Marcos Balter, George Flynn, Derek Hurst, Gregory Hutter, Felipe Lara, Jacques Lenot, Andrew List, M. William Karlins, John Melby, Robert Morris, Michael Pisaro, Robert Pollock, Huang Ruo, Stephen Syverud, Kurt Westerberg, Daniel Weymouth, Amy Williams, Amnon Wolman, Jay Alan Yim, and Mischa Zupko. They have also worked with composers William Bolcom, John Corigliano and Gunther Schuller. Bright Sheng and Chen Yi. Their many projects include performing multi-disciplinary works involving electronic media. By juxtaposing their performances with colorful commentary, Duo Diorama’s unique performances emphasize the relevance and vivacity of classical music. A husband and wife team, the duo makes their home in Chicago, with their twins Lillian and Ethan. MINGHUAN XU performs extensively in recital and with orchestra in China and North America. She is also a highly sought-after chamber musician, having collaborated with the St. Petersburg Quartet, Colin Carr, Eugene Drucker, Ilya Kaler, and Ani Kavafian. She delights audiences wherever she performs with her passion, sensitivity and charisma. Xu was a winner of the Beijing Young Artists Competition and gave her New York debut at age 18 as soloist with the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra. Currently on faculty at Loyola University Chicago and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, she plays on a 1758 Nicolas Gagliano violin. WINSTON CHOI was Laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition (Canada) and winner of France’s 2002 Concours International de Piano 20e siècle d’Orléans. He regularly performs in recital and with orchestra throughout North America and Europe. Already a prolific recording artist, he can be heard on the Albany, Arktos, Crystal Records, l’Empreinte Digitale, Intrada and QuadroFrame labels. Formerly on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory and Bowling Green University, he is Associate Professor and Head of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. SCOTT ANDERSON was Principal Clarinetist of the Honolulu Symphony. He served on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and was Principal Clarinetist of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. In the summers he teaches at Interlochen Arts Academy, in Michigan. A frequent chamber music performer and soloist in Hawai’i, Scott has performed over thirty concerts as clarinetist in Ebb & Flow Ensemble. A native of Minneapolis, Scott attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and subsequently the Eastman School, where he studied with Stanley Hasty. He then did graduate work at Northwestern University, where he was a student of Robert Marcellus. In recent years, he has continued his studies with Rosario Mazzeo, Keith Underwood and Burton Kaplan. Prior to coming to Hawaii, Scott was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and before that Principal Clarinetist of the Grand Rapids Symphony. He also played in orchestras in Mexico and Germany. Scott currently teaches clarinet at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. An active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, IGNACE JANG has been the concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra since 1997. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia in concert halls such as the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sejong Cultural Arts Center in Korea. Guest solo appearances include the Honolulu Symphony under the baton of Music Directors Samuel Wong, and Andreas Delfs, the Colorado Symphony with Music Director Marin Alsop, the Versailles Chamber Orchestra and L'Orchestre Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur in France. As a chamber musician, he was invited to the Colorado Music Festival, the Merkin Hall in New York, Harvard University, the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics Music Festival, the Modern Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and Berlioz, Trieves, Chirens Festivals in his native France. In 1998, Jang gave his debut recital in Istanbul, Turkey, as well as a first visit to China with the Brahms violin concerto. Since 1991, he has also been performing as member of the Equinox violin and harp duo. The ensemble released in 1999 its first CD "Under the Shooting Stars," a compilation of avant-garde works aimed at challenging the musical palate. Mr. Jang was a grand prize winner at the 1989 Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition, held in Italy, where he was also the recipient of the Jury's Special Prize for outstanding musical personality. Jang also won prizes at the Lion's Club of France Violin Competition and the Eastern Music Festival. He received the early part of his training from Professor Flora Elphege, before entering the class of Gerard Poulet at the Paris Conservatory. In 1985, he obtained the Premier Prix as the youngest laureate of that year. Various grants from the Franco-American Commission and the French Ministry of Culture allowed him to further his studies under the tutelage of Franco Gulli at Indiana University. After receiving the Artist Diploma degree, he was invited the following year as a visiting scholar. ROBERT POLLOCK, composer and pianist, now directs  Ebb & Flow Arts, Inc., in Hawai'i. He co founded Guild of Composers, New York, 1975, and founded and directed Composers Guild of New Jersey, 1980-1997. He recently performed solo piano and chamber music recitals in Honolulu, Hawai'i, Seoul,  Korea (twice), Xalapa, Mexico (twice), and Tokyo, Japan (twice).  He has received numerous commissions and awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Grant Fellowship, Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music Award, Ingraham Merrill Award, New Jersey State Arts Council Fellowships and Composers String Quartet Award (first prize).  Edward T. Cone Foundation - has stimulated musical organizations throughout the country for many years. Ebb & Flow Arts is one of the beneficiaries. Since E&FA's mission is to bring worthy, neglected music from the 20th and 21st centuries to the general public, naturally we focus on Edward T. Cone's sizeable body of musical compositions. E&FA is a 501 (c) (3) non profit presenter of modern music and multi media events. It is the only such presenter in Hawai'i, and was founded in 1999, by composer/pianist Robert Pollock. It aims to build bridges between the arts through multi media stage composition. Abstraction helps us break down barriers and also understand ancient art. In the Hawaiian ancient art form, Hula, there were no divides between song, dance, poetry and color. E&FA also aims to teach all of Maui's children how to read and write music with "Scaling Haleakala," a multi disciplinary curriculum. Now in its seventeenth season, E&FA serves a recognized and documented need in Hawaii’s community. E&FA receives support from the Makana Aloha Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, AHS Foundation, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture & Arts, Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, Edward T. Cone Foundation, BMI Foundation, Kosasa Family Foundation (ABC Stores), Central Pacific Bank Foundation, Mayor Arakawa Community Kokua Fund, and private contributions. Web site service provided by Maui Web Designs.