Anne LeBaron

Composer/harpist Anne LeBaron has had an interesting career in both classical and jazz genres. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied with Gyorgy Ligeti. Her active career as a harpist has led to collaborations with Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton, and her own Anne LeBaron Quintet in the jazz fields as well as solo and chamber works, including a recent commission for a Double-Harp Concerto.

A description of Anne LeBaron’s sound world can best be told by the composer herself: “These works respond to diverse stimuli in my life, ranging from the sounds of frogs, birds, and preachers, the sonic geography of the American South, to the writings of Artaud and the vocal and dramatic art of Korea and Japan.”

Ms. LeBaron has achieved international recognition for her pioneering work with extended techniques for the harp, fully demonstrated here by her solo performance of Planxty Bowerbird.

The balance of the CD is performed by the outstanding ensembles, the New Music Consort and the Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center, including the Artaud inspired Rite of the Black Sun for percussion ensemble, and the evocative Concerto for Active Frogs for soloists with frog sound accompaniment.

Lamentation/Invocation (1984) 15:05
Rite of the Black Sun (1980) 16:35
Planxty Bowerbird (1982) 7:35
Noh Reflections (1986) 22:10
Concerto for Active Frogs (1975) 8:10
All first recordings

Alan Shearer, baritone, and the New Music Consort conducted by Linda Bouchard (Lamentation/Invocation)
New Music Consort conducted by Claire Heldrich (Rite of the Black Sun)
Anne LeBaron, harp, tape (Planxty Bowerbird)
The Theatre Chamber Players of Kennedy Center (Noh Reflections)
New Music Consort conducted by Anne LeBaron, with George Cartwright, tenor sax and animal calls, Jim Staley, trombone, William Trigg, percussion and tape, David Shea, baritone voice (Concerto for Active Frogs)