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PHOENIX ENSEMBLE RECORDING: BRAHMS AND CARTER


We are happy to announce that our new Phoenix Ensemble album featuring the clarinet quintets of Johannes Brahms and Elliott Carter is now released.  "The Phoenix Ensemble’s latest album JOHANNES BRAHMS / ELLIOTT CARTER: CLARINET QUINTETS is, of course, masterful. The Phoenix Ensemble now looks back on almost three decades of being a fixture in the national chamber music scene, focusing on performances and recordings of 20th- and 21st-century music. Indeed, it may be this particular specialization in complex musical structures that allows the musicians to explore Brahms' late quintet with the previously unheard thoroughness and careful reconnaissance displayed on this album."   PARMA Recordings

 

PHOENIX ENSEMBLE: JOHANNES BRAHMS / ELLIOTT CARTER - CLARINET QUINTETS: is now available in CD format, digital download, or streaming, everywhere fine music is sold: Amazon.com, iTunes, ArkivMusic, Google Play, Spotify, and many others.

Click here to listen to a selection from Brahms/Carter-Clarinet Quintets: BRAHMS CLARINET QUINTET - MOVEMENT 1

 

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Click here to listen to full length Phoenix Ensemble live performances on our YouTube Channel:

PHOENIX ENSEMBLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL

  

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                    Phoenix Ensemble Performance Calendar

                    All of these concerts and events are free to the public

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House 

331 East 70th Street

Sunday, June 11th, 2023 1pm

Friday, June 16th, 2023 2pm

Sunday, July 9th, 2023 1pm

Sunday, August 6th, 2023 1pm

Sunday, September 10th, 2023 1pm

Sunday, October 1st, 2023 1pm

Sunday, November 5th, 2023 1pm

 

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House 

331 East 70th Street

Sunday, October 9th, 2022  2:00pm

Sunday, October 23rd, 2022  2:00pm

Sunday, November 13th, 2022  2:00pm

Sunday, December 4th, 2022  2:00pm

 

Sunday, January 12, 2020  2:00pm

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House 

331 East 70th Street

 

Friday, January 17, 2020  1:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, Febraury 11, 2020  2:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

 

                   Edward Grieg: Ich liebe dich

                   Richard Strauss: Die Nacht

                   Giacomo Puccini: La boheme - Ned of Act 1 (Mimi's Entrance)

                   Franz Schubert: Nacht und Traume

                   Sergei Rachmaninoff: Do not sing my beautiful maiden

                   Ottorino Respighi: Nebbie

                   Wolfgang A. Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Per pieta, ben mio, perdona...!

                   Georges Bizet: Carmen - Chanson de la fleur

                   Charles Gounod: Faust - Oh Dieu! Que de bijoux!

                   Eduardo di Capua: Song 

   

 

 

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2019

 

 

 

Saturday, November 9, 2019  3:00pm

Tuedsay, November 19, 2019 6:00pm

Saturday, November 30, 2019 3:00pm

Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheren Church 

178 Bennett Avenue

 

      Phoenix Ensemble: Washington Heights - Vocal Arts Masterclass Series

            

 

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Friday, November 22, 2019  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, November 26, 2019  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church 

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Sunday, December 1, 2019  2:00pm

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House 

331 East 70th Street

 

 

      Phoenix Ensemble concert: Vocal Arias and Songs

            

 

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Friday, September 6, 2019  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, October 1, 2019  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church 

619 Lexington Avenue

     

                   W.A. Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Parto! Ma tu ben mio

                   Jules Massenet: Werther - Va! Laisse couler mes larmes...

                   Georges Bizet: Carmen - Habanera

                   Nicolai Medtner: Two Fairy Tales, Op 26 & Op 20

                   Franz Liszt: Concert Paraphrase on a Waltz from Gounod's Faust

                   Carl Maria von Weber: Grand Duo Concertant        

 

 

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Wednesday, September 25, 2019   2:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, September 3, 2019  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      Phoenix Ensemble: Open rehearsal and performance workshop on Weber: Grand Duo Concertant

            

 

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March thru June, 2019

 

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      Music Theater Workshop: "Performance Experience" with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi

            

 

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Friday, January 11, 2019   1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

Friday, January 18, 2019  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      Phoenix Ensemble Vocal Artists singing Verdi, Gounod, J. Strauss, Puccini and Lehar

            

 

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2018

 

 

Wednesday, November 7, 2018   2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

Tuesday, November 13, 2018   11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      Interactive Performance Workshop - Korean Vocal Music

            

 

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Friday, November 16, 2018  1:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, November 20, 2018   1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

 

                     Hugo Wolf: In the Shadow of my tresses

                                     Elven Song

                     Richard Strauss: Four Songs, Op 27

                     Franz Liszt:  Oh, when I sleep, S282/1

                     Henri Duparc: Soupir, Op 2, No 1

                     YeongSeop CHoi: Longing for Gurngang Mountain

                     Sergei Rachmaninoff: Do not sing, my beauty, Op 4 No 4

                                                  Spring Waters, Op 14 No 11

                     Jake Heggie: Raymonde linossier

                     Ernesto De Curtis: Do not forget me, love!

                     Charles Gounod: I want to live from Romeo & Juliet          

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018   2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

Tuesday, September 4, 2018   11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      Interactive Performance Workshop - Robert & Clara Schumann vs Franz Liszt

            

 

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Wednesday, September 5, 2018,  2:30pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Friday, September 7, 2018  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Robert Schumann:  Papillons, Op 2

                    Clara Schumann:  selections from Lieder, Op 12 & Op 13

                    George Gershwin:  Summertime from Porgy and Bess

                    George Gershwin:  Rhapsody in Blue

                    Gioachino Rossini: "Cruda sorte!" from L'Italiana in Algeri

                    Franz Liszt:   Vallee d'Obermann

                    Richard Strauss:  "Wie du warst" from Der Rosenkavalier

                    Richard Strauss:  "Presentation of the Rose" from Der Rosenkavalier

                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Ah, guarda sorella" from Cosi fan tutte

            

 

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2017

Tuesday, December 12, 2017,  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Monday, December 18, 2017  2:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

        Interactive Performance Workshop - Elliott Carter: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings

            

 

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Friday, December 15, 2017  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, December 19, 2017,  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Thursday, December 21, 2017  2:00pm

Center on the Square 

20 Washington Square North

 

                   

                         (Wind trio works to be announced)

                    Elliott Carter: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings

            

 

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Monday, August 28, 2017,  2:00pm

Center on the Square 

20 Washington Square North

 

Tuesday, September 5, 2017 11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, September 13, 2017  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

             Interactive Performance Workshop - Elliott Carter:  Esprit Rude / Esprit Doux

            

 

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Thursday, September 7, 2017,  2:00pm

Center on the Square 

20 Washington Square North

 

Friday, September 8, 2017  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, September 19, 2017  1:30pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Elliott Carter:  Esprit Rude / Esprit Doux

                    Johannes Brahms: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op 115

            

 

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, May 3, 2017  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

             Interactive Performance Workshop - Poulenc Sextet for Piano and Winds

 

 

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Friday, April 28, 2017  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, May 2, 2017  2:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Friday, May 5, 2017  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Francis Poulenc:  Sextet for Piano and Winds

                    Claude Debussy:  Three Selections from his Piano Preludes

                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds, K452

            

 

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2016

 

Wednesday, November 30, 2016  4:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Wednesday, December 7, 2016  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, December 13, 2016  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

 

             Interactive Performance Workshop - Music of Victor Babin and Maurice Ravel

 

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Wednesday, December 14, 2016  4:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Friday, December 16, 2016  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, December 20, 2016  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Victor Babin:  Hillendale Waltzes

                    Franz Schubert: Three Piano Pieces, D. 946

                    Maurice Ravel:  Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera

                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:  "Non piu di fiori" from La Clemenza di Tito

                    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:  "Parto! Ma tu ben mio" from La clemenza di Tito

             

 

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Tuesday, September 6, 2016  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2016  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

Monday, September 12, 2016  4:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

             Interactive Performance Workshop - Witold Lutoslawski: Dance Preludes

 

 

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Friday, September 9, 2016  2:00pm

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, September 14, 2016  4:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Friday, September 16, 2016  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Witold Lutoslawski:  Dance Preludes

                    Frederic Chopin:  Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op 44

                    Frederic Chopin:  Polonaise in A-flat major, Op 53

                    Johannes Brahms:  Clarinet Sonata in E-flat major, Op 120 No 2

             

 

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Wednesday, July 13, 2016  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

           Opera Workshop Performance: From Mozart to Bellini

                      Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart:  Excerpts from Cosi fan Tutte

                      Vincenzo Bellini:  Excerpts from I Capuleti e I Montecchi     

 

 

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

           Opera Workshop Performance: Bel Canto in Context

                      Robert Schumann: Kennst du das Land

                      Franz Schubert:  Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt     

                      Giuseppe Verdi: Excerpts from Rigoletto

                      Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart:  Excerpts from Magic Flute

 

 

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

           Opera Workshop Performance: Belllini

                      Vincenzo Bellini:  Excerpts from La sonnambula

                     

 

 

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Friday, January 22, 2016   2:00pm

92nd Street Y  (Weill Art Gallery)

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

      

                Darius Milhaud:  Pastorale

                Erwin Schulhoff: Divertissment

                Jacques Ibert:  Five Pieces for Trio

                Ludwig van Beethoven: Duet WoO 27 No 3

                Darius Milhaud: Suite d'agpres Corrette

                George Auric:  Wind Trio

                     

 

 

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2015

Sunday, February 15, 2015   2:00pm

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House

331 East 70th Street

 

                    Darius Milhaud: Suite d'apres Corrette, Op 161

                    Ludwig van Beethoven:   Duo No. III for Clarinet & Bassoon, WoO 27

                    Darius Milhaud:  Pastorale, Op 147

                    Witold Lutoslawski:  Trio for Winds

                    George Auric:  Trio for Winds

 

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Friday, March 27, 2015   2:00pm

92nd Street Y  (Weill Art Gallery)

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Friday, April 10, 2015   1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

                    Gian Carlo Menotti:  Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano

                    Aram Khachaturian:  Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano

                    Johannes Brahms:  Trio, Op 114

 

 

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Tuesday, September 8, 2015   11:00am

92nd Street Y

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Thursday, October 15, 2015   1:30pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2015  2:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue (54th and Lexington Ave)

 

                      Interactive Performance Workshop - Alban Berg: 4 Pieces for Clarinet & Piano, Op . 5

 

 

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Friday, October 9, 2015  2:00pm

92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Friday, October 16, 2015   1:30pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Friday, October 23, 2015   1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue (54th and Lexington Ave)

      

                Claude Debussy: La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin

                Andre Messager: Solo de Concours

               Johannes Brahms: 6 Klaverstucke, Op 118

                Alban Berg: 4 Pieces for Clarinet & Piano, Op. 5

                Franz Schubert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

 

 

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Monday, November 9, 2015  2:00pm

Center on the Square

20 Washington Square North

 

            Interactive Performance Workshop - Igor Stravinsky: 3 Pieces for Solo Clarinet  

 

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Friday, November 13, 2015  2:00pm

Center on the Square

20 Washington Square North

 

Sunday, November 15, 2015   2:00pm

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House

331 East 70th Street

 

           Darius Milhaud:  Pastorale

           Erwin Schulhoff:  Wind Trio

           Ludwig van Beethoven: Duo for Clarinet & Bassoon WoO 27 No 3

           Jacques Ibert:  Five Pieces for Trio

           George Auric:  Wind Trio

 

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015   11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, November 18, 2015   2:00pm

Saint Peter's Church   (Music Room at the Theater Level)

619 Lexington Avenue

 

            Interactive Performance Workshop - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade in E flat major K 375

                                                                               Henri Marteau: Serenade, Op 20

 

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015  11:00am

92nd Street Y 

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Wednesday, December 16, 2015  2:15pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

            Interactive Performance Workshop - Mozart: Clarinet Quintet, K 581

                                                                         Brahms: Clarinet Quintet, Op 115

 

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Friday, December 11, 2015   2:00pm

Center on the Square

20 Washington Square North

 

Monday, Decermber 14, 2015  4:00pm

Sirovich Community Center

331 East 12th Street

 

Friday, December 18, 2015  2:00pm

92nd Street Y (Weill Art Gallery)

1395 Lexington Avenue

 

Tuesday, December 22, 2015  1:00pm

Saint Peter's Church

619 Lexington Avenue

 

            Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581

            Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet, Op 115

 

 

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Phoenix Ensemble Recording

Music of Stockhausen and Schoenberg

Our Composer Workshop announces the release of a new recording on the Albany Records label.  Our Phoenix Ensemble presents the first American recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zeitmasze, and a fresh reading of a very important work of Arnold Schoenberg, his Wind Quintet, Op 26.  Schoenberg's Wind Quintet was his first ensemble work written in the strict 12-tone method, and stands as a monumentally influential piece in the history of 20th and 21st century art music. 

Click to buy this Phoenix Ensemble recording available on Amazon.com

This new recording was featured on the March / April 2013 Fanfare Magazine issue. This feature includes a spotlight interview with Mark Lieb discussing the recording and the Phoenix Ensemble.

This project took two years to complete and we are very proud to present it to you.  The CD is available on Amazon.com, iTunes, emusic and Rhapsody.  All proceeds generated from this project will be used for the direct expenses of our programs.

Click to listen to the 4th movement of the Schoenberg Wind Quintet

 

Reviews:

The music may be tough sledding for some, but with first-rate sonics and first-class performances such as these, even such challenging music becomes no more arduous than a vigorous walk through an unfamiliar park.    Art Lange, Fanfare Magazine                                                                  

The Phoenix Ensemble is a cracker-jack band of New York-based wind, brass, string, and percussion players.  They play with passion, commitment, and superb technique. I already cherish this release as a splendid display of but one face of the wonderfully multifaceted world of 20th-century music.    Peter Burwasser, Fanfare Magazine

 

Morton Feldman / Milton Babbitt World Premiere Recording

Our new CD featuring the Phoenix Ensemble performing the Clarinet Quintet of Morton Feldman and the world premiere recording of Milton Babbitt's Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet was released on July 9, 2009 on the Innova Records label.  This recording was put on the semi-finals ballot for the 2010 Grammies in two categories, Best Chamber Music Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album.

The CD is available on Amazon.com, iTunes, emusic and Rhapsody.  All proceeds generated from this project will be used for the direct expenses of our programs.

 Click link for CD Promo: Feldman Babbitt Promo

Link to Feldman / Babbitt Quintets on Amazon.com

Milton Babbitt was one of the 20th century's most preeminent composers. He was a principal developer of postwar musical thought and expression, theory, and pedagogy in the United States, and his influence on American musical composition has been enormously significant. With his approval, we are happy to present this first look at his important masterwork.

 

Reviews:

It would be hard to conjure up two more dissimilar bodies of late 20th century American music than those of Morton Feldman and Milton Babbitt - the one contemplative and elusive, the other frenetic and hyper-cerebral. Yet by juxtaposing their works for the same performing forces (clarinet and string quartet), this intriguing disc from New York's Phoenix Ensemble uncovers some telling connections, even if the contrasts are more overt. Feldman's 1983 work (titled "Clarinet and String Quartet") unfolds in a series of gentle sighing figures, almost like the breathing of a large, furry beast; Babbitt's Quintet, written in 1995-96, leavens its intricacy with plentiful nods to jazz. What binds the two pieces, perhaps surprisingly, is the gestural richness they share beneath their very different surfaces, and the way each of them forges a rhetorical style free from the prescriptions of tonality. The performances, led by clarinetist Mark Lieb, are at once tender and incisive. 

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

 

 

The Pheonix Ensemble does a brilliant job in capturing the specific character of such radically different pieces of music. The Babbitt, by the way, receives its premiere recording—one wonders why such an exhilarating piece was neglected for so long. Highly recommended.

Art Lange, Fanfare Magazine

 

Feldman's "Clarinet and String Quartet" is filled with lush chordal voicing and beautiful, almost pastoral clarinet sections. The work makes for both a relaxing and uplifting listening experience. Babbitt's almost unknown "Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet" is much denser, brimming with angular clarinet lines and deliciously dissonant string parts, which interact with a ballet ensemble's grace. The ensemble's dynamics and careful attention to timbre balance make even the subtlest interactions clearly perceptible. New music this accessible is a treat.

Glen Hall, Exclaim.ca

 

The performances here are impeccable. Clarinetist Mark Lieb and members of the New York-based Phoenix Ensemble play with absolute commitment; their care in putting each of these pieces over with the intent to sell listeners on each composer's work is evident in the energy and nuance of their performances.

Stephen Eddins, allmusic.com

 

The Phoenix Ensemble's commitment to these works is implicit; their intonation, precision and palpable enthusiasm is conveyed in each measure. Despite the seeming stylistic disparity of the two works, the album flows effortlessly.

Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com

 

 

 

Fanfare Magazine Spotlight Interview:

Mark Lieb and the Phoenix Ensemble were spotlighted in the May/June 2010 issue of Fanfare Magazine.  Mr. Lieb was interviewed about our Phoenix Ensemble Feldman/Babbitt CD and the work of Ansonia Music Outreach.  Please click the link below to read the complete interview:

 Link to Fanfare Magazine spotlight interview and review

 

 

 

Music of Jonathan Dawe

Our first commercial CD, featuring the Phoenix Ensemble and the chamber music of Jonathan Dawe, was released in August of 2006.  The recording was produced by the label Furious Artisans and co-funded by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.  Information on the recording can be found at www.furiousartisans.com

 

Link to Jonathan Dawe release on Amazon.com