Recordings
Zaimont's fourth symphony, Pure, Cool (Water),
has just been awarded a top prize in 2016-2017
The American Prize in Orchestral Composition
A symphony that is evocative, full of variety, power, subtlety and forward movement …[ and] a terrific Trio brilliantly played. This is an impressive and worthwhile release.
- THE CLASSICAL REVIEWER |
Judith Lang Zaimont is one of the leading compositional voices that America has produced in our own era, and her skillfully constructed music has real substance. Her Fourth Symphony resonated with me in a particularly deep way, but everything she writes is gold." - David DeBoor Canfield's 2016 Want List; FANFARE magazine
Zaimont's musical language is contemporary yet tonal, and while it doesn't grovel in front of listeners in a desire to be liked, it gives the reasonably attentive listener plenty of toeholds. It is recognizably American… [and] the music creates a sense of organic growth.
Zaimont's Symphony No. 4 works well as absolute music, and I think that tends to be a more difficult challenge. In fact, I wouldn't have known that this music was inspired by water if I hadn't read it. However, one can't miss a feeling of emotional lift as the symphony comes to a close. So, if one chooses to hear this as a message symphony, the message is one of positivity. - Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE Two masterworks.
Throughout, the Symphony splendidly demonstrates her compositional craft, and her gift for melody and exquisite harmony. - David DeBoor Canfield, Feature Review - FANFARE |
Zaimont knows what she’s doing here. Indeed, Zaimont works with an orchestral canvas in a painterly way, responding to the specific colors of each orchestral section to suit her particular sense of her subject matter, thus, the five movement [symphony] is divided into musical depictions of a river, ice, a rain shower, a tarn and the ocean. A winsome piece…. Full-bodied,…. impressively robust and expressive music. - Peter Burwasser, FANFARE
Art Fire Soul: Piano Works of Judith Lang Zaimont (2-disc box set)
Elizabeth Moak, piano (solo début recording)
Beautifully textured piano writing mixes with whimsical and unusual ideas. The really serious pieces respond to repeated listening. With the large number of shorter pieces on the disc, this is a recital to dip into. - Robert Hugill, MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL
Disc 1:
Sonata Calendar Collection (excerpts) Jupiter's Moons Wizards - Three Magic Masters Nocturne: La Fin de Siècle |
Disc 2:
A Calendar Set - 12 Virtuosic Preludes Cortège for Jack - premiere recording "Jazz Waltz" (from Suite Impressions) American City: Portrait of New York - premiere recording Hesitation Rag Reflective Rag Judy's Rag Serenade |
Release date: March 2012
Naxos 8.559665 Sonata
Nocturne 'La Fin de Siècle' A Calendar Set - 12 Virtuosic Preludes |
JUDITH LANG ZAIMONT Piano Music
Christopher Atzinger, piano
American composer Judith Lang Zaimont writes for the piano with a keen sense of the instrument's physical qualities (you can tell just by listening that she's a pianist herself) and a wonderful tonal range, from the sweetly lyrical to the aggressively dissonant. The two large pieces on this disc provide a glimpse of both her monumental vein and her more intimate voice - and both are compelling. - SFGate.com, Joshua Kosman, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Three attractive works, highly idiomatic to the piano. - BARNES & NOBLE
The sonata…is quite the ferocious, fascinating beast. What an excellent set.
- AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE |
Release date: April 2011
Navona Records (PARMA) |
ETERNAL EVOLUTION Music of Judith Lang Zaimont
The Harlem Quartet, string quartet
Awadagin Pratt, piano ( Enhanced CD includes scores and score excerpts)
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“The String Quartet, “The Figure,” is a strong, powerful post-Bartók sort of work, and the Trio No. 2, called Zones, appeals to me even more. In fact, the latter may be my favorite of Zaimont’s compositions.
These are solidly constructed works—ruggedly expressive, if consistently austere, rewarding close, concentrated attention. They compel the attention of the listener, while making clear musical—if non-verbal—sense through contrapuntal rhythmic energy. The performances of both these major chamber works convey stunning conviction, captured beautifully on the recording.” - Simmons, - FANFARE |
“Immediately immerses the auditor in Zaimont’s own soundscape…. The musical language of the works on these two CDs is unmistakably Zaimont’s” – Canfield, - FANFARE
“In these chamber works the composer seeks above all that very intimate form of ensemble music-making that results from a tightly-knit ensemble of equals, each with a distinct identity and separate part to play. Thus the String Quartet, deriving its imagery from the idea of visual figuration illuminated in different ways, is a collaboration between partners, at times passionate, mysterious or easy-going and emotionally open.” - RECORDS INTERNATIONAL
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Release date: April 2010
NAXOS: American Classics B0037TTQ92 |
Zaimont :: Chroma - Northern Lights; Ghosts; Elegy; Stillness
Music for Orchestra
CHROMA -- Northern Lights chamber orchestra GHOSTS symphonic strings ELEGY symphonic strings STILLNESS - Poem for Orchestra Slovak National Symphony Orchestra - Kirk Trevor, conductor
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Zaimont Suite
Four movement art/music video suite based upon the works of husband and wife -- artist Gary Zaimont and composer Judith Lang Zaimont; videography by Michael Bregman. Posted widely on the internet, Fall 2009. Shown at Festival of Women Composers, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, March 2010.
- Mvt. 1 “The Joy of Dance” Sets Verlaine’s ‘Clair de lune’.
- Mvt. 2 “Borealis” Mysterious night visions.
- Mvt. 3 “Beasts” Menacing growlers and howlers.
- Mvt. 4 “Serenade” Slow shifting colorfield artworks, with troubled currents hinted at beneath.
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Prestidigitations - Contemporary Concert Rags by J. L. Zaimont
'Bubble-Up' Rag - Concertpiece for Flute and Piano
Reflective Rag piano // ensemble // flute and piano Judy's Rag Lazy Beguine ensemble 'Hesitation' Rag Snazzy Sonata An Entertainment for Two Serenade The American Ragtime Ensemble, directed by David Reffkin
Doris L. Kosloff, Joanne Polk, Nanette K. Solomon & Judith L. Zaimont piano Elizabeth Ann Owens & Immanuel Davis flute |
** On CD Hotlist for February 2008 (MLA Association)
Read review here. http://cdhotlist.btol.com “An irresistible program of original rags and other pieces of popular Americana that the composer tweaks to loving, rollicking and poignant effect... The performances are captivating across the board, including those featuring Zaimont herself as pianist.... The music enchants. ” - GRAMOPHONE ~ October-November 2007 “An elegant, gorgeous, and revelatory demonstration of the possibilities latent in one of America’s most venerated but stylistically underdeveloped forms. ” - WORLD Magazine ~ July 2007 |
“Lyricism, variety - delightful contemporary music. Zaimont brings ragtime solidly forward to the 21st century, yet honors its century-old origins. She gets us to view ragtime as music.”
- Max Morath Additional reviews from American Record Guide (Nov./Dec. 2007), All-Music Guide (Sept. 2007), Ragtimers.org (June 2007), and Classical Music Guide (June 2007). Read reviews here. |
Release date:: January 2006 / NAXOS CD Naxos 8.55944 (part of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music)
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Zaimont - for Large Forces
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November 29, 2005
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PURE COLORS - Music of Judith Lang Zaimont
Solo music and other works for small forces
WIZARDS - Three Magic Masters
Young-Ah Tak, piano ASTRAL... a mirror life on the astral plane... John Anderson, clarinet Virgie Rainey - Two Narratives for Soprano, Mezzo and Piano Wendy Zaro-Mullins, soprano; Jean del Santo, mezzo-soprano; Timothy Lovelace, piano Valse Romantique Immanuel Davis, flute 'Tanya' Poems Tanya Remenikova, cello 'Bubble-Up' Rag - Concertpiece for Flute and Piano Immanuel Davis, flute; Nanette Kaplan Solomon, piano |
A rewarding collection of well-made music, consistently inventive and accomplished, rhythmically and harmonically subtle. In its use of a variety of forces, never in danger of wearying the listener … Her music is various and undogmatic, inventive and readily approachable, the work of a composer who should be more widely known. -Glyn Pursglove MusicWeb International
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Cogent and completely expressed…. pleasurable listening experience. - All Music Guide
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Release date: December 2003
Albany Records CD, Troy 617 |
Callisto: Music for Piano
Joanne Polk, piano
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"...full of rapturous melodies… harmonically fascinating"
- Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox (full review here)
- Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox (full review here)
Release date: October 2001
Harmonia Munda CD 907289 |
2001 Cliburn Competition Gold Medal Recital: Olga Kern
"Impronta Digitale" -- Cliburn competition selected work
Album Reviews: "The impromptu spirit not only lives but thrives in Judith Lang Zaimont's Impronta Digitale, one of the four works by living composers chosen for the [Cliburn] competition's semifinal round. A long, jazzy single line darts around the keyboard's lower register and materializes into toccata-like sequences and spiky arpeggios. As the piece progresses, textures grow more varied in terms of register and articulation, with generous portions of stabbing, motoric chords. A professor composition at the University of Minnesota School of Music, Zaimont has composed more than one hundred works in virtually every medium: opera, orchestra, chamber, vocal, choral, dance, film, and solo instrumental. One suspects that Impronta Digitale's ingenious and idiomatic keyboard writing has more than a little to do with the fact that Zaimont is an accomplished pianist in her own rights, who plays her own music with tremendous authority and verve." - Jed Distler, CD program notes |
Release date: August 2001
Jeanne Inc. CD |
Blend |
" ... 3: 4, 5 ... " (3-movement quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, contrabass)
Members of Minnesota Orchestra Album review: "A major contribution to chamber music for winds and strings which hopefully will be heard frequently in concert halls worldwide. A remarkably effective 21+ minute work by a major American composer perhaps just reaching the height of her powers…. Skillfully constructed, listener accessible, and yet retains a sense of fresh newness about it throughout…. Strong timbral imagination… tour de force of technical display for the ensemble … clos[ing] with a moving and at times tender "Elegy" which conveys an unmistakable American character." - William Nichols, The Clarinet, September 2002 |
reSOUNDings -- Orchestral Music by Judith Lang Zaimont
SYMPHONY No. 1 / ELEGY for Strings / MONARCHS - Movement for Orchestra
Czech Radio Symphony Leos Svarovsky and Doris Kosloff, conductors |
Album Reviews:
"Judith Lang Zaimont is, along with Christopher Rouse, Arnold Rosner, and Joseph Schwantner, one of the most interesting compositional voices of her generation. … Most of the works of hers I know reveal a convincing sense of authenticity and expressive purpose." - Walter Simmons, Fanfare, May/June 2001 Vol. 24 No. 5 (full review here) |
* Symphony No. 1 cited in Summer2007 American Record Guide as one of the most significant American symphonies" written to date.
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"Zaimont writes in an au courant but very appealing idiom that blends bright, wide-spaced harmonies (both triadic and iridescent) and sumptuous, imaginative textures with invigorating freshness, energy, and warmth. At her best -- certainly in Symphony No. 1 and the Elegy -- Zaimont shows herself to be an impressive symphonic composer." - American Record Guide, November/December 2000 (full review here)
Radiance -- Choral Music by Judith Lang Zaimont
MEDITATIONS at the Time of the New Year
The Chase Sunny Airs and Sober Excerpts from SACRED SERVICE for Sabbath Evening Choral Society of Southern California - Nick Strimple, conductor |
Release date: February 2000
4-Tay CD 4015 |
Album Reviews:
Music by "a mid-career master" "The pieces on this CD are terrifically good in many ways…. Zaimont clearly possesses a keen sense of characterization, pacing, and drama. Best of all, each cycle inhabits its own distinct emotional world." - New Music Connoisseur, Summer 2000 Vol. 8 No. 2 (full review here) Interesting and distinctive…. Enjoyable, intelligent music; word-setting which demonstrates a consistent perceptiveness as regards the meaning and shape of the words, without ever forfeiting the proper liberties of the composer. A CD well worth hearing. - Glyn Pursglove in MusicWeb International
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Greyed Sonnets is, appropriately, more powerful, more adventurous in sound, while the Chansons Nobles are more closely related to the French tradition of understatement. Zaimont keeps the accompaniaments rather independent, does not always follow the structure of the poem in the music, but succeeds in presenting the text in a clear setting, with a fine balance of words and music. These songs are far from easy to sing, but are an impressive contribution to the song cycle repertoire....
I am especially impressed with the broad range of styles and sounds that Zaimont brings to such widely divergent poems. - Jocelyn Mackey, in Pan Pipes Fall 2000, Volume 93, Number 1
I am especially impressed with the broad range of styles and sounds that Zaimont brings to such widely divergent poems. - Jocelyn Mackey, in Pan Pipes Fall 2000, Volume 93, Number 1
Release date: May 1999
KOCH: Classical Arts NR 246-CD (originally released on Northeastern Records, March 1993) |
Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Women in Ragtime
Virginia Eskin, piano
Two Piano Rags: Reflective Rag and Judy's Rag Album reviews: "An anthology that will stick in your memory for its collective impact more than for any single piece -- except, perhaps, for the two contemporary rags by Judith Lang Zaimont, who combines classic style with more contemporary harmonies to extremely good effect." - Leslie Gerber "Elegiac [Zaimont]" - TIME Magazine |
Spring Beauties - The Ragtime Project
Hesitation' Rag
Virginia Eskin, piano Score excerpts: "Hesitation' Rag," page 1 Release date: June 1998 Koch International Classics CD 3-7440-2H1 |
Available through ArkivMusic.
(original release in 1997 on Arabesque CD Z6683) |
ZONES - Chamber Music by Judith Lang Zaimont
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Available through ArkivMusio
(original release date in 1996 Arabesque CD Z6667) Album Reviews:
"Entirely impressive music" - Classical Compact Disc Guide , Fall 1996 Vol. 9 No. 1 (full review here) Review: Neon Rhythm in Fanfare
May/June 1996 Vol. 19 No. 5 |
Neon Rhythm - Chamber Music of Judith Lang Zaimont
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Release date: October 1996
4-Tay CD 4001 |
Summer Melodies - A Piano Album
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Album Reviews:
"Zaimont expresses an innate musicality that is made especially appealing by a sincere and joyous spirit. This is refreshingly uncomplicated, easy to enjoy music..." - Fanfare |
"The piano music of Judith Zaimont is distinctly American and unapologetically nostalgic... the title is warmly apt..."
- American Record Guide |
Character Sketches: Solo Piano Works by 7 American Women
Calendar Collection (16:00)
Nanette Kaplan Solomon, piano Album review: "Zaimont's suite is replete with dandy tunes, poetically rendered moods, and more than enough sumptuous pianistic color and variety to make them great favorites with performers and audiences alike." - Lehman, American Record Guide Release date: August 1994 Leonarda CD LE 334 |
The American Chamber Ensemble
From the Great Land (22:00)
Album review: "Judith Lang Zaimont's cycle is a touching and sensitive treatment of poems from Frank Buske's Woman's Songs. Mezzo Deirdre Kingsbury gives a dramatic performance, and the instrumental work of Blanche Abram and Naomi Drucker is exemplary." - Journal of Singing Release date: February 1992 Leonarda CD LE 329 |
Release date: March 1991
Leonarda CD: LE 328 |
Florilegium Chamber Choir
Parable: A Tale of Abram and Isaac (16:23)
Soli - Cheryl Bensman, soprano; Paul Kelly, tenor; William Sharp, baritone; Walter Hilse, organist; JoAnn Rice, director Serenade: To Music (8:47) JoAnn Rice, director "A great work!" - Gregg Smith, conductor.
"Zaimont has fashioned a powerfully theatrical work ... Solo voices are combined with the ensemble in varying textures, evoking vivid images which complement the strongly emotional story." - Journal of Singing.
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LP Recordings (prior to 1990)
The Authenticated Composer - JUDITH LANG ZAIMONT
Sunny Airs and Sober Three Aryes Songs of Innocence Greyed Sonnets Gregg Smith Singers - Gregg Smith, conductor; Elaine Olbrycht, soprano; Pierce Brown, tenor; Roger Nierenberg, conductor; Nancy Allen, harp; Patricia Spencer, flute; Judith Zaimont, piano Release date: Early recordings (LP) Label: Golden Crest ATH #5051 |