Eric Berlin - Along The Continuum - Music for Trumpet, Trombone and Piano (2020)

As Principal Trumpet and Principal Trombone of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, colleagues in the Majestic Brass Quintet and Empire Brass Quintet, and faculty members at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Greg Spiridopoulos and I have enjoyed a nearly two-decade long friendship and working relationship. This album is an outgrowth of all those years of collaboration. In the midst of recording my album Fantastique [MSR Classics MS1506], I commissioned our University of Massachusetts colleague, Jeffrey Holmes, to write a piece for trumpet, trombone and wind ensemble to conclude the disc. The resulting work, Continuum, utilized our commercial music experience while showcasing our overall strengths a rare opportunity to show what we love to do. We were so pleased with Jeff s composition that we asked him to create a piano reduction for more performance opportunities. Using the reduced version of Continuum as a starting point, we put together a recital program with our pianist colleague, Ludmila Krasin, and toured throughout the northeast and Texas, concluding with performances at the American Music Festival in Troy, New York and the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 2017.

This program takes the listener backward in time, along the continuum of music for trumpet, trombone and piano. Starting with the Holmes work, which is the most recently composed, we then turn to three of our favorite living composers for brass: Eric Ewazen, Anthony Plog and Joseph Turrin. We then cross the Atlantic to mid-20th century France for the only composer not based in the United States, Jacques Castérède, and finally return to America, to an imagined Sousa Band gazebo concert, performing a classic 1904 work by Herbert L. Clarke. Greg and I are indebted to pianist Ludmila Krasin for her tireless work as a band, orchestra and brass ensemble, as all of these works are piano reductions of scores for those larger forces.

Eric Berlin is Principal Trumpet of the Albany Symphony, Associate Principal Trumpet of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and a member of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Empire Brass Quintet. In addition to his titled positions, he has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a soloist, Berlin has appeared most notably with Albany Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki University Orchestra, and the United States Coast Guard Band. A champion of the music of our time, he has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous new works for trumpet.

Greg Spiridopoulos has gained recognition a highly sought-after trombonist in New England. Since 2001, Spiridopoulos has been Principal Trombone of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. He is also Principal Trombone of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Glimmerglass Festival, Boston Philharmonic, a member of the Portland Symphony and a member of the Empire Brass Quintet. As an active free-lance musician, he frequently performs with a wide variety of ensembles in the greater Boston area and throughout New England. Spiridopoulos has made several notable guest soloist appearances his performance of Christopher Rouse's Trombone Concerto, with the Albany Symphony, was hailed by the Albany Times Union as a highlight in live classical music performances.

Ludmila Krasin is a Senior Lecturer in Piano at the University of Massachusetts, teaching classes for music majors and serving as a collaborative pianist for students and faculty. Her recent appearances as a guest artist include performances with the Association of Brazilian Trumpeters and a recital tour in Ohio which included Ohio State University, Bowling Green University and Ohio University. As a chamber musician, Krasin has appeared at Yale University, McGill University and Eastman.