Written as an homage to Brahms, the Ballade was first performed in June 2004. It suggests the dark colors, compact rhetoric, intriate counterpoint and formal rigor characteristic of that great master.

The title 'Bird as Prophet" is taken from Robert Schumann's piano solo, "The Prophet Bird" . The music often shifts between major and minor, suggestive of the original Schumann piece, but also may be seen as a tribute to the prophetic and influential style of Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker.

the Dream of the Lost Traveller is based on a passage from William Blake's book, THE GATES OF PARADISE, which is actually sung by the pianist in the middle of the piece. Clearly in an expanded Bb tonality, it covers a wide spectrum of piano sonorities and styles, at times starkly chordal, at others fluid with 16th note passagework.

"Ishi was among the last of the Yahi Indians. Living in northern California, these Native Americans were part of a larger group known as the Yana. They were ruthlessly suppressed and finally decimated at the end of the nineteenth century. The few remaining Yahi people hid in the mountains until they all died, leaving only Ishi. He was found and brought to the University of California at Berkeley by sympathetic anthropology professors Alfred Kroeber and T.T. Waterman. Ishi lived for several years at the UniversityÂ's museum, then in San Francisco, teaching the professors and other researchers the ways of his people and helping to create a dictionary of his language. He was the last native speaker of the Yahi-Yana language. The opening melody of BresnickÂ's work was taken from a transcription and recording made by Ishi himself, singing what he called The Maidu DoctorÂ's Song. There is no known translation of the text. IshiÂ's Song was commissioned by Aeroporti di Puglia and is dedicated to Maestro Emanuele Arciuli. For advanced players. ".

Originally commissioned by the International Max Rostal competition in Berlin for solo violin, Martin Bresnick's, Josephine (the Singer) is now also available for solo viola. The piece takes its title from Franz Kafka's last published story Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk and is an extended passacaglia on a subject derived from his earlier work, Songs of the Mouse People. Violist, composer, and educator Anne Lanzilotti has edited this version for viola to add this beautifully somber work to the instrument's repertoire.

BresnickÂ's melancholy solo for cello with piano was inspired by the poem Â"Gods Come and Go, Prayers Remain Forever,Â" by the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. In the words of the composer: Â"Although Amichai surely meant to calm and console us by the gentle wisdom and beauty of his words, I now also hear a strain of existential reproach. In my work, Prayers Remain Forever, I join my prayer to his.Â" For advanced players.