Paradise Found – Music for Cello and Piano by Bruce Wolosoff Sara Sant'Ambrogio & Bruce Wolosoff

• Bruce Wolosoff (b. 1955): Cello Sonata No. 1: “Paradise Found”:
• 1 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 1: “Paradise Found”: I. Ecstatically 05:14
• 2 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 1: “Paradise Found”: II. Semplice 05:35
• 3 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 1: “Paradise Found”: III. Largo – Andante – Più Moderato 06:32
• 4 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 1: “Paradise Found”: IV. Allegro 05:16
• Cello Sonata No. 2: “Requiem for the Planet”:
• 5 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 2: “Requiem for the Planet”: I. Song of the Earth 06:34
• 6 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 2: “Requiem for the Planet”: II. Requiem Aeternam 05:35
• 7 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 2: “Requiem for the Planet”: III. The Great Waters 05:10
• 8 Wolosoff: Cello Sonata No. 2: “Requiem for the Planet”: IV. Epilogue: I have loved this world so dearly 03:39
• Circe:
• 9 Wolosoff: Circe 05:36
• “The Woods” (for April Gornik):
• 10 Wolosoff: “The Woods” (for April Gornik) 06:45
• Total Runtime 55:56

Info for Paradise Found – Music for Cello and Piano by Bruce Wolosoff

The distinguished New York-based composer-pianist Bruce Wolosoff synthesizes traditional tonal idioms with lifelong enthusiasms for jazz, blues, and rock music, creating a distinct musical language that speaks to the heart, but is unmistakably contemporary. His soaring, soulful melodies are strikingly suited to the cello, “in some ways my favourite instrument,” admits Wolosoff, “after my own of course.” For Paradise Found, Wolosoff reunites with Grammy Award-winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio – the pair previously collaborated on Wolosoff’s Cello Concerto, a Top 10 Billboard Classical chart hit – for the first recordings of his two Cello Sonatas, and two miniatures Circe and The Woods.

Paradise Found is indelibly inspired by the splendours of the natural world. The title track – Wolosoff’s first cello sonata – was composed under the shadow of 2020’s first COVID lockdown and serves as an affirmation of lasting beauty when the world was plunged into a very dark place. “In composing this piece,” Wolosoff reveals, “I wanted to remind myself, and future listeners, that the world is still beautiful.”

Wolosoff’s second cello sonata, “Requiem for the Planet,” is a musical response to climate change. With movements titled ‘Song of the Earth,’ ‘Requiem Aeternum,’ ‘The Great Waters’ and ‘Epilogue: I have loved this world so dearly,’ the work is a sort of musical requiem in sonata form. But it is not without hope. Wolosoff acknowledges, “It is my most fervent wish that this beautiful, ephemeral world will endure throughout my children’s lifetimes.”

The album concludes with two “encores” – Circe inspired by the sorceress in Homer’s The Odyssey, and The Woods, after a drawing by Wolosoff’s friend April Gornik, whose beautiful paintings adorn the album’s booklet.

Sara Sant’Ambrogio, cello
Bruce Wolosoff, piano

Sara Sant’Ambrogio
Grammy Award-winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio first leapt to international attention when she was a winner at the International Tchaikovsky Violoncello Competition in Moscow, Russia. As a result of her medal, Carnegie Hall invited Ms. Sant’Ambrogio to perform a recital that was filmed by CBS News as part of a profile about her, which was televised nationally. The New York Times described Ms. Sant’Ambrogio’s New York recital debut as “sheer pleasure,” saying “There was an irresistible warmth in everything Miss Sant’Ambrogio did.”

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the Atlanta, Beijing Philharmonic, Boston, Budapest, Chicago, Dallas, Moscow State Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Osaka Century Orchestra (Japan), Royal Philharmonic, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle and Vienna Symphony; she has performed thousands of concerts on six continents at the world’s major music centers and festivals including Aspen, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Konzert Huset in Stockholm, Marlboro, Muiskverein in Vienna, Ravinia, Orchard and Suntory Halls in Tokyo and Great Mountain Festival in Korea. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio is particularly excited to have finally performed in all 50 United States last season when she performed at the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival in Alaska!!

Always looking to draw in new audiences and push the boundaries of classical music, Sara has performed with Sting and Joshua Bell in the production of “Twin Spirits,” the story of the love affair between Clara and Robert Schumann. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Joshua Bell and Sara Sant’Ambrogio played with lyrical restraint and lovely tone.” Tracks from her solo cd “Dreaming” have been featured on multiple film soundtracks, including the opening title on the HBO award winning documentary, “A Matter of Taste.” Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has collaborated with the New York City Ballet in 7 highly successful sold out concerts at Lincoln Center performing the Bach Suites and was recently featured in the opening Fall Gala of the ballet performing Elgar Cello Concerto. Sara has recorded with Tim McGraw on the #1 hit “Humble and Kind” and performed with Rufus Wainwright in the inauguration of a new concert series at the National Arts Club.

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio started her cello studies with her father John Sant’Ambrogio, who was principal cellist of the St. Louis Symphony, and at the age of 16 was invited on full scholarship to study with David Soyer at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received her high school diploma. Three years later, world renowned cellist Leonard Rose invited Ms. Sant’Ambrogio to study at The Juilliard School; within weeks of arriving, she won the All-Juilliard Schumann Cello Concerto Competition, resulting in the first of many performances at Lincoln Center.

In addition to her Tchaikovsky Medal, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has won numerous international competitions, including The Whitaker, The Dealey, Artists International, Palm Beach Awards and the Naumburg Award with her ensemble the Eroica Trio. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio won a Grammy Award for her performance of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles and a NPR Best Debut Recording with Eroica for their Debut recording. She has been profiled in Strings, Glamour, Gramophone, Vogue, Strad, Elle, Bon Appetit, In Fashion, Travel and Leisure, Detour, Fanfare magazines as well as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and on CBS, ABC, PBS, USA and CNN networks. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio is the subject of a feature length documentary, which has had hundreds of airings nationwide on PBS and international networks.

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio is a founding member of the Eroica Trio, which has toured extensively the US, Europe, Asia, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. The trio opened the “Distinctive Debuts” series at Carnegie Hall, and that year represented Carnegie Hall and the United States as the official chamber music ensemble in concerts worldwide. While touring the globe, Eroica has released 9 celebrated recordings garnering multiple Grammy nominations.

While touring with all the beloved standards of the cello repertoire, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio is very excited to be giving the world premiere of Michael Bacon’s Cello Concerto with conductor Alexander Micklethwate and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in the 2019-2020 season as well as the release of her latest recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of the romantic masterpiece, Elgar Cello Concerto, a gorgeous new concerto written for her by the American composer Bruce Wolosoff and two of her own arrangements of Astor Piazzolla’s sultry Oblivion and Libertango.

Booklet for Paradise Found – Music for Cello and Piano by Bruce Wolosoff