Summer at Blue Griffin, or "Summertime, and living is BUSY..."

Summer is over, and it has been the busiest one at the Ballroom yet. Here are some of the projects and sessions that happened over the summer:

- Ralph Votapek (MSU professor emeritus, East Lansing, Michigan) has started working on his Schubert CD with recording of the big Sonata in A Major

- Trio Kapell (violinist Steven Shipps (University of Michigan violin professor), cellist Pablo Mahave-Veglia (Grand Valley State Univerisity cello professor) and pianist Steven Swedish) recorded a CD of complete trios by Bohuslav Martinu to be released on Naxos

- Sistrum, Lansing Women's Chorus, recorded a CD "Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn", that includes world-premiere recording of a commissioned work

- Pianist Logan Skelton (piani professor at the University of Michigan) recorded 3 (three!) complete CDs of his own songs

- Richter-Uzur Duo (guitarist Brad Richter from Tucson, AZ and cellist Viktor Uzur from Ogden, Utah) recorded their debut CD "String Theory", that includes classical, folk, rock music and everything in between!

- The Verdehr Trio (East Lansing, Michigan) continued their work on American IV CD to be released on Crystal Records.

- The Helix Collective (Sarah Robinson, flute, Phil Popham, oboe and Meghan Schaut, piano) recorded their debut CD of works by Dring, Still and others, including world-premiere recording of Phil's piece "Pharmacy"

- Patricia Green (voice professor at University of Western Ontario in London, Canada) finished recording her 3rd Blue Griffin CD "Naked Voice", works for solo voice by living composers with a remarkable session at the Lake Lansing park recording R. Murray Shaffer's piece in the woods!

- Short, but nevertheless very interesting and rewarding sessions with pianists Ling-Ju Lai (Ann Arbor) and Ivan Moshchuk (Detroit) , as well as singer Jim Noble accompanied by Doug Austin (Lansing)

- Irena Portenko (New York City) recorded Chopin's 24 Etudes following her triumphant debut at Carnegie Hall earlier in the summer

- Ricky Ian Gordon (New York City) finished recording a CD of him singing his own songs

- Baritone Jesse Blumberg (New York City) and Miami String Quartet (Kent, Ohio) completed the world-premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers", the work that has been called 'masterpiece' by American Record Guide.

- Pianist Juyeon Kang (piano professor at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa), after the success of her debut CD "Joyful Noise", came back to record her next album "Joyful Dances" to be released on Fleur de Son

- Pianist Nicholas Roth (piano professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa) revisited his first Blue Griffin recording of Schumann's Novellettes that has sold out, and re-recorded the whole set adding Schumann's Humoresque to this new CD.

- Composer and conductor Murray Gross (Alma College, Michigan) is editing, mastering and preparing a CD of Alma Symphony orchestra for release later this fall

- and of course, at the end of August, students are back, and Blue Griffin is in the full swing into the school year with recording and editing sessions with pianist Jeong-Ha Lee, vioinst Margarita Krein, cellist Fedor Amosov and others

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