Title: French Inspirations
Artist: Karoly, Catherine Ransom
Label: CD Baby
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 724101252822
Genre: Classical Composers

Program Notes: The inspiration for this project came from students and friends. I have played and taught these pieces for decades and have always wished I had a CD to hand to students to demonstrate color, rubato, and nuance in a way that words fail to do. From the first time I learned these pieces as a junior high and high school student of Susan Morris De Jong (how she put up with my sloppy technique, I'll never understand!), to studying them in college with Robert Cole and Mary Kay Fink, and then fine-tuning them in my studies with Carol Wincenc, I have always loved this music and find these pieces to be some of the best in the literature. The Faure, Enesco, Gaubert, Chaminade, and Dutilleux were all written as competition pieces for flutists at the Paris Conservatory and still hold their ground as excellent audition and competition choices. The two pieces for solo flute are pieces that allow the player tremendous opportunities for character and interpretation. The Godard is just fun to play! I am so grateful to have worked with two wonderful colleagues from the L.A. Philharmonic on this project: pianist Joanne Pearce-Martin and recording engineer Sonny Ausman (also known as our second trombonist). I am so appreciative of their professionalism, experience and tremendous patience! I also want to thank Ethan Lin from Burkart flutes who has been a fabulous help to my career and assisted in producing this CD. Also, thank you to my fantastic student Jessica Lipstone for page-turning. Lastly, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my husband, Jonathan, for his help in producing and funding this album and for his tremendous patience and pride. Thanks also to our kids: Hannah, Ian and Eva for giving up some Mommy time!! Catherine Ransom Karoly was appointed Associate Principal Flute by former Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen in March 2009. She joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as second flutist in May 1996. In October 2000, she made her solo debut with Salonen conducting the Philharmonic in Ibert's Flute Concerto. Before coming to Los Angeles, Karoly spent three seasons as flutist in the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida under music director Michael Tilson Thomas. She appeared as soloist with the NWS on several occasions. As a member of the award-winning Dorian Wind Quintet from 1994 to 1996, she appeared regularly on chamber music series throughout the United States. She has participated in numerous music festivals, including Marlboro, Tanglewood, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy. She has been a featured performer at La Jolla Music Society's "SummerFest" since 1991. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Catherine Ransom Karoly received a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Carol Wincenc. Karoly graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with Phi Beta Kappa honors and was the recipient of a Fulbright Grant to England. Her other teachers include Trevor Wye, Mary Kay Fink, Robert Cole, and Susan Morris DeJong. She is married to LA Phil cellist Jonathan Karoly; together they have three children. Joanne Pearce Martin: Born in Allentown, PA, Martin performs all over the world as soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. With the LA Phil, she has made numerous solo appearances on piano, harpsichord, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ, appearing with such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. She is also a frequent soloist with the LA Phil during the summer Hollywood Bowl seasons. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, she has been guest soloist with many other orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, and England's Huddersfield Philharmonic. In great demand as a collaborative artist, she has performed with such artists as Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Iona Brown, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker, Aaron Rosand, and Joseph Silverstein, among others. Martin has performed at dozens of summer music festivals and concert series spanning four continents, including those in Aspen, Sarasota, Park City, Utah, New York's 92nd St. Y, Carnegie Recital Hall, Lincoln Center Library, Kennedy Center, Costa Rica, Sydney, Taipei, Edinburgh, Cologne, and Nice, France. Southern California audiences have followed her performances of New Music and "standards" for years with the LA Phil's Green Umbrella and Chamber Music Series, Camerata Pacifica, Pacific Serenades, Dilijan, South Bay, Ojai, Mainly Mozart, and San Louis Obispo Mozart Festivals. Joanne and her husband Gavin Martin were featured as a 2-piano team in the opening concerts of the current season of Toyota Symphonies for Youth, performing in Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals. She has also performed Mozart's Double and Triple Piano Concertos with Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her playing has been described by the Los Angeles Times as possessing "unusual fervor and fluency." She has performed on all the major U.S. television networks and recorded commercially for Centaur, Summit, and Albany records, as well as the Yamaha Disklavier Piano. Martin has also been the subject of a half-hour feature on The Learning Channel. Her latest recording project, a solo CD entitled Joanne Pearce Martin, Barefoot, is a 2008 Yarlung Records release. Her newest and certainly freshest musical adventure is learning to play the Theremin - she is now the proud owner of a Moog "Etherwave Pro." When she's not making music, you might find Joanne up in the air - she is an instrument-rated airplane pilot and master-rated skydiver.

Tracks:
1.1 Suite, Op. 116: I. Allegretto
1.2 Suite, Op. 116: II. Idylle
1.3 Suite, Op. 116: III. Waltz
1.4 Cantibile Et Presto
1.5 Syrinx, L. 129
1.6 Concertino, Op. 107
1.7 Fantasie, Op. 79
1.8 Nocturne Et Allegro Scherzando
1.9 Danse de la Chevre
1.10 Sonatine