Title: "An American Flute Recital - Laurel Zucker with Marc Shapiro"
...as these new releases confirm Laurel Zucker is a forceful advocate for 20th century music. The three colorful Zucker pieces, notable for their sensuality and their dazzling virtuosity, are more alert to avante-grade techniques, but they too are upbeat and high spirited."
FANFARE MAGAZINE
FEATURE ARTICLE IN THE SACRAMANTO BEE - ENCORE SECTION 1993
"There's Wind in Her Sails... Flutist Laurel Zucker, the owner of Cantilena Records, has just released its first two CDs: "Laurel Zucker Virtuoso Flutist", and "An American Flute Recital". The first features lovely and loving interpretations by Zucker of four standards: Prokofiev Sonata, Poulenc Sonata, Debussy Syrinx, and Chaminade Concertino. In the second album Zucker is more experimental but no less lyrical playing three of her own compositions and five by other American 20th century composers: Aaron Copland Duo, Kent Kennan Night Soliloquy, Alec Wilder Sonata No. 2, and Daniel Kingman Scenario Musicale. Zucker says: "I want to record as much of the flute literature as possible - virtually everything that has been written for the instrument. It's a never-ending life-long project..."
SACRAMENTO BEE 1993
"I particularly like Marc Shapiro's piano playing in the Alec Wilder Sonata from 1965 on the American Flute Recital disc."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 1995
"Excellent flute playing from American flutist, Laurel Zucker."
Vlaams Fluitsten Tijdschrif - Holland 1994
Title: "Laurel Zucker Virtuoso Flutist - with Robin Sutherland"
"...the langorous phrasing in the Debussy is especially winsome."
FANFARE MAGAZINE
"Highly recommended."
Vlaams Fluitsten Tijdschrif
Title: "All-State Flute Repertoire"
"Laurel Zucker, American flutist and flute professor at California State University, Sacramento, has recorded on the Cantilena Records label a group of five works frequently chosen by students and their teachers for High School Competitions. The Suite in A minor by Telemann - this is a good rendition with fine tempi and moods. Zucker's interpretation is quite true to Baroque performance style, including appropriate ornamentation.....Mozart G Major Concerto - ...the performance is sensitive and virtuostic....Chaminade's Concertino - "Zucker has complete command of this work, and plays it with great flair and turn-of-the-century style...The recording quality is of high caliber...Suite Modale by Bloch...movements are evocative, with a haunting ending...Faure's Fantasie - Zucker performs it with great flair..the performance is a sparkling one with which to end the CD."
SFORZANDO JOURNAL 1996
Title: "Song of the Wind"
"Four Stars! Zucker, an excellent flautist, has constructed a listenable disc of music for solo flute with fine performances."
Leslie Gerber, CLASSICAL PULSE MAGAZINE 1994
"A heart-stoppingly beautiful piece by Katherine Hoover, "Kokopeli", is worth the price of the disc itself."
Leslie Gerber, CLASSICAL PULSE MAGAZINE 1994
"Zucker has put together a fine recording of solo flute music. Kokopeli (the native American Syrinx) is spacious and forward-moving. Hoover's use of the flute's range evokes the contours of the land in the American Southwest."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 1995
"The repertoire on the disc is interesting. the works of Katherine Hoover and Zucker herself are pleasant and effectively written for the instrument."
FANFARE MAGAZINE
Title: "Poetic Justice"
"Rock 'n' Blow...The ante for performance art was raised considerably last night as classical flutist, Laurel Zucker, debuted a polished stage act called Fantasia.
The show featured flute-fronted rock instrumentation with an elaborate light show, experimental music technology and a skeleton banging the kettle drum.
Zucker and guitarist and composing partner, Davis Sapper, presented their impressive collaboration at Melarkeys before a full house that appreciated the theatrical aspects of the presentation.
This reviewer found the rock orchestration most intriquing, bringing back memories of Jethro Tull and the Blues Project. the light show was a nice touch and the film of the tiny ballet dancers imposed on the illuminated backdrop created a surreal juxtaposition of music and dance. The show was admirable in its encompassing scope, high standards, and technical expertise."
SUTTERTOWN NEWS, 1991
Title: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Flute Quartets"
"Zucker and company play the Mozart quartets with great style and elegance."
FANFARE MAGAZINE
"Zucker displays a gift for expressivity."
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL 1995
Title: "Romances for Flute and Piano - with Pianist Marc Shapiro"
"...a very wisely assembled recital of music...Zucker has a full, rich sound coupled with an impressive technique. Zucker's virtuosity is best demonstrated in Borne's difficult Fantasy on Themes from Carmen. There is also a virtuosity which is found inthe playing of a melody with a singing legato and beautiful phrasing.....a thoroughly enjoyable recording..."
FANFARE MAGAZINE
"...the best music-making with Shapiro happens in the Romances disc in the Schumann and Nielsen. The Romances disc has clever programming: the Faure and Gaubert are placed next to each other, and it becomes instantly obvious that Gaubert stole the opening notes of his Romance from Faure's Romance Sans Paroles No. 3."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 1995
Title: "Flute Sonatas by Handel - with Pianist Robin Sutherland"
"She shapes phrases and dynamics eloquently to turn her performances into highly individual statements. Of the seven sonatas presented here, a highlight is the Sonata in F major, with its joyfully dancing allegro sections. Zucker frames them beautifully by burnishing the slower lines of the larghetto and siciliana that separate them. Zucker's mastery should come as no surprise. She has built a fine international career as a performer, teacher and composer. Among her more visible projects is a role as a featured performer on PBS television's Arts Alive."
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL 1995
"Top CDs from works of Handel...Zucker and Sutherland are players who value buoyancy, color and tasteful embellishments. The program is appealing and well recorded."
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER 1995
"Four Stars....It should no longer be news that Laurel Zucker, the widely known concert artist is an extraordinary flutist- not just a master technician but a thinking, feeling musician of power."
William Glackin, SACRAMENTO BEE 1993
"Laurel Zucker is a fine flutist with a full lovely sound.The Handel Sonatas are nicely performed, the fast movements brisk, lively, and expertly articulated, the slow movements flowing, beautifully phrased and tastefully ornamented...Robin Sutherland is the fine accompanist and this recording can be recommended..."
FANFARE MAGAZINE 1994
Title: "Mozart Flute Concertos - with members of the Israel Philharmonic"
"In the latest string of Cantilena recordings Laurel Zucker gives fine traditional performances of the two flute concertos and the C major flute quartet of Mozart. A product of Juilliard, Zucker plays with sweet tone and nimble panache, and the orchestra under Zeev Dorman can be surprisingly sonorous. The low strings open the Concerto in G's slow movement with a wonderfully full, mellow tone."
"WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL 1995
"Flutist Laurel Zucker brings a clear vision of these popular concerti and backs it with a silver tone and admirable technique. Zucker's tempi are bright and she is delightfully playful in the finale to the D major Concerto, K. 314. The soloist approach to both the concerti is admirably compatible with that of the accompanying members of the Israel Philharmonic. This is a musically impressive outing where Zucker seems perfectly attuned to the repertoire. And Cantilena sound gives just the right amount of brightness to present her to full advantage."
"SCRANTON TIMES 1995
Title: "Laurel Zucker with the Erkel Chamber Orchestra of Budapest"
"The program of this CD would itself assure certain success. Laurel Zucker is a young American flutist very active in the concert field and on recordings. She has already made dozens of Cds on Cantilena Records with programs ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century and modern works, even including a curious venture into the electronic age with her CD Poetic Justice, which features the electric flute."
I FIATI MAGAZINE - Italy 1996
"Zucker..consistent in beauty of tone, clarity of phrasing and technical security. Also fine is the Erkel Chamber Orchestra, exact and accurate in carrying out its supporting role."
SYRINX MAGAZINE - Italy 1996
Title: "Haydn London Trios and Divertimentos"
"Laurel Zucker, winner of the 1996-7 Aaron Copland Award from the American Music Center, is featured on teo new CDs from Cantilena Records. Zucker displaysan agile technique and gleaming tone in these Hayn pieces, and she is joined by talented colleagues. Renee Siebert has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1974. Samuel Magill is a cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, while Shirien Taylor is that orchestra's principal second violinist."
PATRIOT LEDGER - Quincy, Massachusetts 1997
"The flute playing is at a consistent high level: Laurel Zucker's able second flute partner in the London Trios is Renee Siebert. Shirien Taylor is the reliable violinist. Samuel Magill punches out his vigorous bass lines without flaw."
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR 1997
"Pure Delight! Flutist Laurel Zucker has again provided a lovely look at some of the basic literature. In this outing she has assembled a group of colleagues whose subtly refined musical instincts match her own. With Zucker are flutist Renee Siebert, cellist Samuel Magill in the trios and violinist Shirien Taylor in the divertimenti. There is a felicitous agreement of how this music should be played and the obvious joy of making that so is quite obvious. Moreover, the engineering lets us in on the intimacy of the performances..."
"SCRANTON TIMES 1995
Title: "Mauro Giuliani Music for Flute - with Guitarist Richard Savino"
"Guitarist Savino and flutist Zucker present 52 minutes of duets by Italian classical-era master, Mauro Giuliani. Throughout Savino accompanies Zucker sensitively with a rich and warm guitar tone."
"ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAGAZINE 1997
"Laurel Zucker, a West coast flutist with a stunning tone and spectacular technique is joined by guitarist Richard Savino in Giuliani's Grand Sonata, Op.85, Qual Mesto Gemito and Serenata Op. 127. The duo on this recording plays with the joy and expressive freedom inherent in the works. Though the work lies naturally for the two instruments, it has-always-that feeling of being eminently singable."
"SCRANTON TIMES 1997
Title: "Take a Walk on the Wilder Side - Flute Music by Alec Wilder"
"In the past few years Zucker has put out 15 first-rate recordings on the Cantilena label with an astonishing aray of old and new works - including several of her own fine compositions. Whether with guitar or orchestra or harp or piano accompaniment, Laurel Zucker is consistently at the highest level of flute performance. Every flute studio should have avaailable her album of Allstate Favorites (UPC #66011-2) and many of you will want to Take a Walk on the Wilder Side where she plays the complete music for flute by American master, Alec Wilder."
"THE FLUTE NETWORK 1998
"I'll try not to turn this review into an advertisement for the California State University Sacramento flute studio, but after listening to Laurel Zucker's performances here I make no promises. None shine as brightly as Julliard -bred Zucker as she combines each melody with a beautiful tone and a proficiency that makes her flute sound the way it was meant to sound."
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE 1997
"Any fan of the irreplaceable Alec Wilder knows he has displayed an affinity for the woodwind family. He wrote numerous chamber works for flute, most of which are here gratefully gathered in one program by the fearfully proficient Laurel Zucker. Opening with an absolutely haunting, one minute 1976 vignette -Answer to a Poem - Zucker goes on to take in the 1960 Small Suite (written for Samuel Baron): a 1973 Suite for Flute and Harpsichord, two unprecedented pieces for flute and (improvised) bongos, the exceptionally inventive Suite for Flute and Marimba, ... This disc fills an important niche in American music as well as in the flute literature."
FANFARE MAGAZINE 1997
"This tribute to Alec Wilder is a charming and interesting collection of instrumentals that span the wide range of Wilder's eclectic compositions."
THE NORTH NEW JERSEY HERALD & NEWS 1997
"The brilliance of flutist Laurel Zucker playing of the classics, particularly Bach, and the breadth of her musical interests have long established her eminence on the local music scene. Here, she does something unusually valuable: a survey of the flute music of Alec Wilder..."
SACRAMENTO BEE 1997
Title: "20th Century Music for Flute and Piano - with Pianist Marc Shapiro"
"For the past several years Laurel Zucker has been systematically recording the major flute literature with Marc Shapiro and, at the same time, making recordings of some lesser-known works....she plays the II of the Hindemith exceptionally well. It is her interpretations of later 20th Century music that Zucker is strongest and has the most imagination."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 1999
Title: "Native American Stories in Classical Flute Music"
"Laurel Zucker gives a splendid performance of the John Thow's To Invoke the Clouds...This music is worth getting to know and these performances are very good indeed."
PAN THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH FLUTE SOCIETY 1999
"The recent NFA convention in Arizona made many of us more aware of the beauty of Native American flute music. This recording features works inspired by that tradition and interpreted by composers James Demars, Katherine Hoover, John Thow and Victor Frost.These selections truly evoke the spirit of the wooden flute and mood of the tales of the Southwest. Here is another fine example of how a self-produced and distributed recording can yield results as good as any major label or mass market distributor. The playing by Zucker and three of her students on the duet and flute ensemble pieces is a further testament to her teaching and artistry."
"THE FLUTE NETWORK 1998
Title: "Images for Flute and Harp"
"Images is a spectacular addition to the growing list of fine recordings Zucker has produced. With such interesting, captivating works such as Eolienne by Ida Gotkowsky, Cinque piccoli duetti by Jean Francaix, Trois Images by Theo Smit Sibinga, Sonatine by Victor Frost and Katherine Hoover's Dances and Variations, this recording provides arefreshing survey of 20th century styles of music for flute and harp. The harpistis Susan jolles, who is an admirable partner in the rhythmic and sensitively played harp part."
"THE FLUTE NETWORK 2001
Title: "Serenades for Flute and Harp"
"I am very impressed with Laurel Zucker's collaboration with harpist, Sara Cutler. Cutler's harp transcriptions of the familiar pieces are all excellent, and her warm precise playing is always in impeccable expressive taste. I like the harpist's precision and the flutist's freedom..."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 1995
"This is an appealing collection, particularly valuable for the fine performances of the Hovhaness and Persichetti pieces. The disc is nicely recorded, with a warm clear sound."
FANFARE MAGAZINE 1995
Title: "Inflorescence - Music for Solo Flute"
"On this two-CD set Zucker plays the core of the 20th century literature for solo flute. Holding a listeners attention for over two hours of any solo instrument is an accomplishment, but Zucker carries off this feat with ease with her brilliant technique, variety of colors, and convincing interpretations. Included are solo pieces by Ibert, Liebermann, Muczynski, Feld, Honegger, Hindemith, Francaix, Kuhlau, Takemitsu, Hovhaness, Fukushima, Kay, Blumberg, Nielsen, and Varese. Last are three pieces by Zucker herself. In fact my only reservation about all these fine recordings she is bringing out is that I fear this may be distracting her from writing her own compositions. She is a composer who deserves much wider recognition."
"THE FLUTE NETWORK 2001
Title: "The Complete Flute Sonatas of J.S. Bach - with Harpsichordist Gerald Ranck"
"Zucker's interpretations are splendid all round -as polished and gratifying as those by Galway and Rampal. Her tone is airy and sweet, her virtuosity graceful. One might describe her style as old-fashioned, since it seems more concerned with sculpting phrases and nurturing Bach's expansive melodies... Perhaps the most endearing quality of Zucker's playing is its naturalness. Her account of the well -known Siciliana of the Sonata in E flat is blessedly unencumbered by any expressive emphases, and is all the more touching as a result. Harpsichordist, Gerald Ranck is a worthy partner, playing in a similarly plainspoken manner. If the quality of these interpretations is any indication, then Zucker's students at California State University, Sacramento - whom she graciously credits in the CD booklet- are in very good hands indeed.
"GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE 2002
"The performance is delightful, stylistcally accurate for the period, and tasteful in all respects. The program notes are informative as to the authenticity issues that surround several of the Bach sonatas."
"FLUTE TALK MAGAZINE 2002
Title: "Twelve Fantasies For Flute by Georg Philipp Telemann"
Title: "Inflorescence II - Music for Solo Flute"
The Flute Network June 2003 recommends...
"Oh! she's done it again- another brilliant two CD set of some of the best and most interesting works for solo flute. zucker brings to this collection of solos the kind of variety of intensity, high level musicality, and just plain perfect technique and intonation that makes it all a joy to listen to. These performances are so clear, open, direct and from the heart that it all seems so simple and easy, which belies the incredible work and accomplishment that goes into all of her many and diverse recordings. This collection of works for flute alone is a worthy successor to her earlier Inflorecence solo compilation.
The 14 works presented have a varied style and pace, shaping the individual pieces into a very satifisfying whole that includes a dazzling array of brilliant compositions and extraordinary flute playing. Her rapturous tone, rhythmic drive, and creative musicianship will inspire you. Inflorescence, indeed, this recording is WHITE HOT AND INCANDESCENT!
THE FLUTE NETWORK 2003 [Read full review]
"I can not resist the urge to write wonderful things about her CD and about her. Zucker's superior technique and tone are evident from start to finish....She and recording engineer, Don Ososke, did a masterful job of highlighting the textures of the individual pieces, while minimizing the pitfalls that typically befall solo recordings.
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE - MAY 8, 2003
Title: "Flute Music by French Composers"
Title: "Claude Bolling Suites for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio"
"Dear Laurel Zucker, Your recording is beautiful, musician partners are excellent and your flute playing superb!!!"
CLAUDE BOLLING - March 17, 2004.
EJAZNEWS.COM [Rated 10/10]
2004. [Read full review]
Title: "Complete Kuhlau Flute Duos and Divertissements with Renee siebert"
"The Best New Recordings From North America. In the mood to be charmed? Kuhlau's your man. Passages in thirds can thrill, the Variations on an Old Swedish air in opus 102 can charm.... Recorded at Concordia College in New York, the sound is excellent, as one would expect when Grammy-winning Adam Abeshouse is involved..."
Gramophone Magazine, December 2004 (Page A9-10)
Title: "Caliente! World Music for Flute and Guitar"
"Caliente! - Laurel Zucker and Christopher Caliendo - World Music for Flute and Guitar" is everything it advertises to be. Laurel Zucker is an amazing flutist that has made a beautiful transition to an entirely unknown realm..."
JAZZREVIEW.COM
2004. [Read full review]
THE SACRAMENTO BEE
2004. [Read full review]
ZONGOO.COM [Rated 10/10]
2004. [Read full review]
BUZZLE.COM [Rated 10/10]
2004. [Read full review]
BLOGCRITICS.COM [Rated 10/10]
2004. [Read full review]
MUSIC-SITES.NET REVIEW
2004. [Read full review]
EVOLVINGARTIST.COM
2004. [Read full review]
Title: "HOPE - Music from Israel and South America"
Reviews coming soon!
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