ABOUT THE ALBUM

Kristine Dizon lived in Paris from 2017 to 2020, simultaneously studying and conducting the clarinet while working on her Ph.D in cultural studies. Her time as an American in the City of Lights inspired this album.

In her search for the content of the album, Dizon came across the music of Francine Aubin and Germaine Tailleferre, both female French composers she felt were really important to include, representing a French perspective.

From the American point of view, the work of the influential George Gershwin was selected, along with that of those who he influenced — hence the inclusion of Béla Kovacs, Oscar Navarro, Corentin Boissier along with Michelle Mangani.

This program selection is a study on the role of globalization, connection, and influence between artists. Composers with distinct backgrounds and lived experiences were able to connect through art and creation.

BIOGRAPHY

​​Kristine Dizon (born 1988) is an international artist and teacher who has performed in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. An passionate music educator, she has taught clarinet masterclasses in Armenia, Cyprus, Thailand, Perú, and Poland. Kristine has been a part of several socio-cultural and educational projects that include the Philharmonie de Paris-Project DEMOS, Conservatoire de Montargis (Orchestre á l'école) and the Minnesota Project Opera.

She has premiered works by Agnieszka Zdrojek-Suchodolska, Nicolas Bacri, Kryštof Maratka, and Reinaldo Moya. In 2017, she guest taught at the VI Taller para Jóvenes Clarinetistas organized by Clariperu, served as part of the international jury for the V Concurso de Bandas Escolares 2016 where she held a residency with PeruBandas and taught clarinet masterclasses in Cusco and Lima, Peru.

​Kristine performs exclusively on F.A. Uebel Clarinets, Silverstein Works, and Barkley Brazil Mouthpieces.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Lindsay Garritson has performed throughout the United States and abroad since the age of four. She has appeared on stages such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Place des Arts (Montreal), and has been featured as soloist with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra (Texas), Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica Barra Mansa (Brazil), the Yale Philharmonic Orchestra, and the European Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. An award-winning performer,

​Lindsay has received top prizes at the Montreal International Piano Competition, USASU Bösendorfer International Piano Competition, and the Mozarteum International Chopin Competition (Salzburg).

She was invited as one of thirty participants internationally to compete in the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and she was selected as one of six finalists worldwide for the 2014 German Piano Award in Frankfurt, Germany. An avid chamber musician, Lindsay has performed with Ani Kavafian, Elmar Oliveira, Carter Brey, Ettore Causa, and Ian Rosenbaum, among many others.

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CD LINER NOTES

George Gershwin, arr. Denwood: Promenade 'Walking the Dog'

George Gershwin is the starting point of this album. He is the American whose work is the catalyst for a lot of other composers’ work. He is the inspiration for the title of this album, as he has a homonymous piece — “An American in Paris” (1928) — a jazz-influenced orchestral piece inspired by the time he spent in Paris. This piece was later used, along with several of his other compositions, in the movie An American in Paris, with Grace Kelly.

Having a wide catalog that spans across musical genres, including popular, jazz, and classical, Gershwin himself shows permeability and adaptability in his work as a composer. 

​Gershwin was also incredibly prolific as a composer for film and musical theater. The selected piece, “Walking the Dog”, was written for the film score of Shall We Dance, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and it is used in a scene where a group of dogs is walked along a luxury cruise ship. This specific arrangement is done by the British composer Russell Denwood.

Germaine Tailleferre: Arabesque

Germaine Tailleferre is the second female French composer that was selected for this album. She was the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six, whose work is regarded as a neoclassical antithesis of the impressionist and romantic movements. 

She lived in the States for a short amount of time, both before and after WWII, having an interesting mirrored trajectory to Dizon’s, and wrote music for film scores, paralleling George Gershwig’s work. Gershwin has even said he was inspired by the work of Les Six when writing “An American in Paris”.

Taileferre had a fruitful career, producing a lot of work in the 1920s and 30s. “Arabesque” was written towards the end of her life and career, in 1973, for the piano and clarinet.​

Nicolas Bacri: Prelude et toccata

Nicolas Bacri is a prominent contemporary French composer whose work is extensively performed. Having gone through different aesthetic periods and genres, he’s composed more than 140 works, 31 of which involve the clarinet in a soloist manner.

Bacri dedicated a version for solo clarinet or bass clarinet of “Ophelia’s Solo” to Kristine Dizon – who premiered the work in Nicosia, Cyprus – and J. Lawrie Bloom of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“Prelude et Tocatta” is Bacri’s 158th work, made for the clarinet and piano and published in 2020, making it one of the most recent pieces in this album.

Corentin Boissier: From Midnight to Dawn, Ballade for clarinet and piano

Corentin Boissier is a French neo-romantic classical composer, orchestrator, and arranger. He began composing at the piano when he was six years old and later studied at the City Conservatory of Paris, graduating “with highest distinction” on all his degrees. 

Intending to write accessible classical music, Boissier is the author of about thirty works, including “From Midnight to Dawn” (2014), a ballade written for both alto saxophone/clarinet, string orchestra, and harp, and also for saxophone/clarinet and piano.

Francine Aubin: Deux Pièces en Forme de Jazz

Francine Aubin is one of the two female French composers included in this album. She was the first woman to get a degree to be a Director of a Conservatory and the first to become a Director of a National French Conservatory. 

Being a woman of many talents, she also dedicated herself to painting — exclusively so between 1970-1973 — orchestral conduction, teaching, and composing. She wrote many pieces for the clarinet and piano, including “Deux Pièces en Forme de Jazz” (1985), a two-part piece that showed a romantic style from Aubin.

Béla Kovács: After You, Mr. Gershwin

Béla Kovács was a Hungarian clarinetist, teacher, and composer. A well-respected and influential figure within his field, he often performed pieces by contemporary Hungarian composers, which encouraged their creation of pieces for the clarinet. 

He also composed more than 60 works for different instruments, including his Hommage series, which shows how deeply other composers influence Kovác's work. “After You, Mr. Gershwin” came out in 2004 and is a tribute to Gershwin’s jazz work.

Óscar Navarro: 'Lenny' Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano

Óscar Navarro is a highly awarded Spanish composer and conductor. He specialized in composition for cinema and TV and has written the awarded scores for movies such as La Mula and Sueños de Sal. 

As with many of the composers selected for this album, Navarro is deeply influenced by other artists and shows that in his work. “Lenny” (2020) was written to honor the maestro Leonard Bernstein, for the centenary of his birth. It’s inspired by Bernestein’s jazz repertoire, which is in its turn was influenced by Gershwin’s work.

Michele Mangani: 'Blues' from An American in Paris

Michele Mangani is a highly awarded Italian composer, conductor, and clarinetist. He composed over a thousand pieces, which are often used as mandatory pieces in execution contests, showing how intricate they are.

Mangani made a blues arrangement of Gershwin’s seminal piece “An American in Paris”, for several different instruments, including one for the piano and the clarinet in 2003. This arrangement shows Mangani’s admiration for Gershwin’s work as well as for the Blues style of music.

Paul Harvey: Three Études on Themes of George Gershwin

Paul Harvey is a British clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and teacher. He worked as a freelance player for the majority of his career, playing for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and National Philharmonic, doing film and recording sessions, and a multitude of West End Musicals, not unlike Gershwin.

He now focuses more on his teaching, composition, and writing, having published works mostly for the clarinet and saxophone spanning across different genres, like jazz, blues, rock, flamenco jazz, and Irish Gig. 

Harvey’s “Three Études” (1975) started as a single-piece commission by Anton Wienberg for an encore piece of a recital, based on “It Ain’t Necessarily So”. Later the publishers commissioned two more pieces to make a suite, adding “I’ve Got Rhythm” and “Summertime”.

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