What's New

The Moderately Lazy Biker’s Guide to Litchfield County
(and Just Beyond)
by Rick Sowash
with quotations from Odell Shepard
and illustrations by Beatrice Stevens

A moderately lazy biker loves a long downhill glide, has no complaint with more or less level terrain, but abhors a steep climb. Though decidedly hilly, even mildly
mountainous, Litchfield County offers many a glorious ride for the moderately lazy.

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Classical Magazine Review - June, 2009
Sowash - Three trios for violin, clarinet and piano
by Michèle Gingras

Rick Sowash. Three trios for violin, clarinet and piano. No. 1: Sunny Days (Suite) (1996); No. 2: American Variations on a Belorussian Folksong: “The Sun Already Shines” (2005); No. 3: Memories of Corsica (2007). www. sowash.com

Here are three delightful trios for violinclarinet and piano by a prolific Cincinnati composer who, luckily for us has had a long and ongoing love affair with the clarinet. A few decades ago, musicians were hard pressed to find works for this trio combination. The internationally acclaimed Verdehr Trio has championed the cause of expanding this repertoire by commissioning both audience friendly music and experimental pieces to our repertoire, including the third of these trios by Rick Sowash.

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Help Produce Two New CDs

Two new CDs are planned for release by the end of the year, and I need your help to make it happen.

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Rick Sowash's New Film on Johnny Appleseed!

One of the most beloved folk heroes in history, Johnny Appleseed transformed the American frontier. He planted the apple trees that fed and sheltered the early settlers of our nation’s heartland.

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Review of "Memories of Corsica"
Stephen Brookes, The Washington Post

"Rick Sowash composed his "Memories of Corsica" for the Verdehr Trio in 2007, and it's an engaging, colorful tone poem in the time-honored genre of musical travelogue. "
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"Audubon" a Wind Octet
Listen to the premiere performance which took place on June 11, 2006 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, at "WindFest III." The concert was sponsored by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society.
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Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Listen to the premiere performance of Rick's newest major work, the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra.
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Ohio Rocks

Rick Sowash is the narrator and host on a new public television series for kids on Ohio geology entitled, "Ohio Rocks."
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CD: Sanctuary at 3am
Five works for various chamber ensembles

"The piece [Sanctuary] evokes the peculiar feelings we have upon encountering large, empty places that are intended to be occupied by crowds - in this case, the sanctuary of a church in the deep of the night. It is empty but not quite silent; hear the little creaks and murmurs of an old building, the chimes ringing in the steeple above and perhaps the ghostly echo of a remembered hymn. But the piece is also about the idea of "sanctuary" - a safe place during the dark night of the soul. "
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CD: Enchantement d'avril
(Enchantment of April)
Three Trios for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

"Yes, it's in the lovely inner lentos ... of these trios that Sowash outdoes himself, achieving serene, radiant, golden sunsets of long-spanning, perfectly-shaped melody over aching harmonic suspensions that seem to speak directly from soul to soul. One might have to return to Brahms himself to hear elegies at once so entranced and so rapturous, so sad and so sweet."

Mark Lehman, American Record Guide May-June, 2004

Published in France by Trio les Gavottes; Lucien Aubert, clarinet, Francios Adolf, cello, Jean Tatu, piano.
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Heroes of Ohio: Coloring Book

Here is a one-of-a-kind coloring book, based on Rick Sowash’s celebrated book, “Heroes of Ohio: 23 True Tales of Courage and Character.” The coloring book shows what the heroes looked like, how they dressed and the scenes in which they appeared, and is meant to give young readers a glimpse of these colorful heroes —and prompt them to want to learn more! Each of these thrilling heroes has a tale and each tale is told as only Rick Sowash can tell it in the 160-page book...“Heroes of Ohio.”
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Critters, Flitters and Spitters

The new book by Rick Sowash, features 24 tales about animals of Ohio. Tales from long ago: the Ice Age, the Moundbuilders, the Shawnee, pioneers, the Civil War. Tales of the Amish, Lake Erie, the Ohio River, zoos, parks and farms. Some are funny, some are sad. Some are scary, some are inspiring. All are entertaining and told as only Rick Sowash can tell them.
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CD: Eroica

"Three earlier CDs of Rick Sowash’s chamber music -- two on Gasparo, one (like this new arrival) self-published by the Cincinnati-based composer himself -- earned David Moore’s enthusiastic recommendation (Nov/Dec 1992, Sept/Oct 2000). I can see why. Sowash (born 1950) writes well-made, staunchly tonal, and immensely likable music. It has a homespun freshness that values (though doesn’t always restrict itself to) simplicity and directness, and an emotional warmth that welcomes optimisim and affecting tenderness while dancing lightly above gloom or irony. And there are ingratiating tunes aplenty, too -- some folksy, some jazzy, some tinged by a mild exoticism".

from American Record Guide, May/June 2002
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