Flutist Beth Chandler Cahill has released her debut album, TIME PLACE SPIRIT: Music for Flute and Piano, with pianist Paulo Steinberg on the MSR Classics label. The program features 6 Pieces for Flute and Piano by Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov; Autumn for Flute and Piano, by Cécile Chaminade; Impressions Exotiques for Flute and Piano by Sigfrid Karg-Elert, which also includes the “Colibri” movement featuring piccolo; and an epic work, Blue Ridge Airs II for Flute and Piano by North Carolina-based composer Kenneth Frazelle. The unifying thread in this collection of works is a connection to nature, and the evocation of a particular time or place, all with spiritual undertones.  

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The program opens with the Amirov, a charmingly unique work based on folk melodies from Azerbaijan. The Chaminade is a beautiful little gem, a transcription by Trevor Wye, of a lyrically dramatic piece originally for piano. The Karg-Elert is better known within the flute canon, but is a rather unusual and colorful work, each movement having a programmatic, nostalgic, or spiritual influence. The cornerstone of the program, Kenneth Frazelle’s Blue Ridge Airs II, is a truly epic work, profoundly reflective of the beauty of the mountains and the inherent culture of the region where both the performers reside.  

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The album is widely available online, and CDs can be purchased directly: bethchandler.com, or chand2be@jmu.edu.