Those Americans
Raven CDs OAR-182
Organ Music by Rayner Brown, Calvin Hampton, Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Anne Wilson
Featuring the 4-manual, 64-rank, organ built in 2009 by Nichols & Simpson of Little Rock, Arkansas, for the exceptional acoustics of First Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Michigan.
Also streaming widely on most platforms
Reviews:
“The album is rounded off with the most recent work, the 2003 Toccata by Anne Wilson (b1954). This is incisive and vigorous music and a formidable technical cahllenge, happily met in full by Nicole Keller. Her playing is of the first rank and is matched by exemplary notes, recording and presentation.”
Gramophone, October 2024
“This is an exciting programme of twentieth- and twenty-first-century works by composers from the USA…Nicole Keller meets their considerable technical challenges with aplomb, as the outer movements bristle with finely controlled energy, while the contrasts of the inner movements are equally finely captured.”
Organists’ Review, December 2024
“…the performances are top-notch. Keller is a skilled and stylish player with a keen ear for orchestration and a strong sense of rhythm…Her artful orchestrations bring these pieces to life and allow the listener to fully enjoy their beauty and possibility…Keller brings out these features in what I believe to be the definitive recording of Price’s best work for organ.”
The American Organist Magazine, December 2024