Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of today’s most important American composers. The works heard here in their world premiere recordings are part of a growing legacy that one pundit has described as “The Power of Tower”. Strike Zones is tailor-made for percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s dazzling technique and impeccable musicianship. The work’s orchestration is crafted to enhance a stage filled with percussion instruments – while in Small they are contained on a single table, the soloist working like a brilliant chef. The piano concerto Still/Rapids was inspired by the glistening beauty and powerful force of water, and Ivory and Ebony, written as a test piece for an international piano competition, is infused with Tower’s “high-energy” signature.

Joan Tower’s growing catalogue of Naxos titles is a core element in our contemporary music discography, and with multiple GRAMMY nominations and wide critical acclaim can be counted amongst our outstanding success stories in this field. Previous releases of Tower’s music have included the GRAMMY-winning Made in America (8559328), which was ‘Enthusiastically recommended!’ by ClassicsToday.com, and her GRAMMY-nominated Violin Concerto (8559775) was admired by Gramophone for its ‘moments of luminous serenity’.

David Alan Miller is one of the leading American conductors of his generation. The two-time GRAMMY Award-winning music director of the Albany Symphony has reaffirmed the orchestra’s reputation as the nation’s leading champion of American symphonic music. He and the orchestra have appeared twice at Spring for Music, a festival featuring America’s most creative orchestras at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and at The Kennedy Center’s SHIFT Festival of American Orchestras in 2018. Miller received GRAMMY Awards in January 2021 for his recording of Christopher Theofanidis’s Viola Concerto, and in 2014 for his Naxos recording of John Corigliano’s Conjurer with the Albany Symphony and Dame Evelyn Glennie.

Dame Evelyn Glennie travels the globe, playing and recording with the world’s finest orchestras and ensembles. She is notably recognised as the first musician to maintain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, rising above her deafness to create a unique and remarkable career that has earned her many honours as a musician, composer, collaborator and advocate.

Pianist Blair McMillen, dedicatee of Still/Rapids, has also appeared in Joan Tower’s acclaimed Dumbarton Quintet (8559795) and is one of the most versatile and sought-after pianists today, having performed in major venues including Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, and the Library of Congress.

A further attraction for this disc is the Albany Symphony, a dynamic orchestra that specialises in American repertoire and contemporary music. Its reputation has been enhanced through several Naxos recordings, including Michael Daugherty’s Dreamachine (8559807), summed up as ‘scintillating’ by Gramophone, and in which Evelyn Glennie also appears as soloist.