​

Forgotten Ballrooms is the first volume in the American Piano Music Series, a collection devoted to exploring the extraordinary range of music created for the piano in America. Across twenty-one pieces by seven composers, the album moves through ragtime, blues, classical and contemporary music.

​

You’ll hear the familiar Americana of Aaron Copland alongside the sophisticated jazz and blues of Dick Hyman, the lyrical elegance of Dana Suesse, the imaginative music of Donald Ashwander and Judith Lang Zaimont, and the irresistible ragtime of Glenn Jenks and Aaron Robinson. Some of these composers are well known; others deserve to be heard far more often.

​

Rather than separating the music by composer, the pieces on the album have been arranged as a continuous listening journey. One musical world gradually gives way to another—quiet reflection, playful syncopation, haunting melodies, unexpected harmonies, and moments of warmth and melancholy. The effect is a little like wandering through an old building and opening one forgotten door after another, never quite knowing what you will discover next.

​

At its heart, Forgotten Ballrooms is about rediscovery. It brings together music that is beautiful, distinctive, and deeply American, yet much of it lies far beyond the familiar concert repertoire. If you enjoy discovering music that feels both new and somehow timeless, this album offers twenty-one remarkable places to begin.