This CD is a collection of my written piano music from the last six years. You will find within a wide and eclectic range of musical styles and vocabularies. The Three Pieces were commissioned by Richard Guerin and dedicated to his wife Jennifer. I was working on some etudes for the piano when the commission came to me, and I transformed the sketches into these pieces. Richard’s favorite composer is Philip Glass – in fact, he now works for Mr. Glass – and Jennifer is awfully fond of manatees. The Prelude & Toccata embark from the Baroque and travel through the music of Claude Debussy, Bill Evans, and Steve Reich, with some techno along for the ride. The Prelude is dreamy in character, a kind of floating music, and is contrasted by the Toccata, which is based on a rhythmic canon that drives to a thrilling climax. I have always been enchanted by the ragtime music of Scott Joplin and his contemporaries, among them Eubie Blake. Recently, when I came across the rags of William Bolcom and William Albright, I rediscovered all the delights and charms of this genre and committed myself to writing a few specimens. The Porcupine Rag is a classic rag in the style of Joplin, while The Lazy Susan Rag owes more to the works of Bolcom and Albright. The Nocturne is, not surprisingly, a paean to Chopin. This piece also explores the harmonic affinity between Chopin’s music and modern jazz. Orange Earth/Blue Ether was conceived with a single melody and a series of chords. Throughout the work, Dionysian and Apollonian elements of warmth and coolness and body and spirit are juxtaposed and intertwined. The work is divided into the following sections: Origins: Song of the Earth/Chords of the Ether Variations – Celebration of the Earth Remembrance – Celebration of the Ether