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Sonata for Flute and Piano

Timothy Schmalz composer

Hannah Hammel Maser flute
Zhihua Tang piano

Release Date: December 6, 2024
Catalog #: NV6685
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Flute
Piano

SONATA FOR FLUTE AND PIANO by Timothy Schmalz is a vibrant and eclectic three-movement piece. This technically-demanding sonata incorporates a wide range of musical styles, inspired by Schmalz’s years spent studying works from the classical and pre-Romantic periods as well as the 20th and 21st centuries. The musical vernacular of the work is at once daring and playful, with the final movement representing a full “dream cycle.” Likened to a “musical children’s book” by the composer, this piece — Schmalz’s first foray into sonatas for small chamber ensembles — invites listeners young and old into the realm of imagination.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Sonata for Flute and Piano: I. Onirico Timothy Schmalz Hannah Hammel Maser, flute; Zhihua Tang, piano 6:09
02 Sonata for Flute and Piano: II. Scherzo Timothy Schmalz Hannah Hammel Maser, flute; Zhihua Tang, piano 2:45
03 Sonata for Flute and Piano: III. Fantasia Timothy Schmalz Hannah Hammel Maser, flute; Zhihua Tang, piano 8:59

Recorded in 2024 at Aashrum Studios in Ortonville MI
Session Producer Timothy Schmalz
Session Engineer Scott Loudon
Editing & Mixing Timothy Schmalz

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Danielle Sullivan

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Morgan Hauber
Publicity Chelsea Kornago
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Timothy Schmalz

Composer

Timothy Schmalz is a composer with a focus on works for the concert hall and visual media. He has a multi instrumental background, with an emphasis compositionally on orchestral and chamber music. Given that much of his composition work began in media music, Schmalz is multi faceted — encompassing a wide variety of musical thinking and creativity.

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Hannah Hammel Maser

flute

Hannah Hammel Maser joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Principal Flute in January 2020. Before joining the DSO, Maser held the position of Principal Flute of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2017–2019. An active chamber musician, she frequently curates and performs recitals with her DSO colleagues and has performed with chamber music organizations including Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and New Music Detroit.

As an orchestral musician, Maser has performed as guest Principal Flute with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and also as a guest in the sections of the New York Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Richmond Symphony, New World Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra, including as a guest with them on a tour to Austria. Maser has attended summer festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and Round Top Music Festival.

Maser joined the Flute Faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2024 and served as acting Assistant Professor of Flute at Michigan State University during the spring semester of 2023. Maser is a sought-after teacher and orchestral excerpt coach and has been invited to teach for the Oberlin Conservatory, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of North Texas, University of Alabama, University of Michigan, and Interlochen Arts Academy. Maser regularly coaches flutists through the Sphinx Organization and was a coach for Sphinx’s 2022 Audition Intensive with the New World Symphony. Maser maintains an active private studio in Detroit and a robust virtual flute studio, consisting largely of advanced flutists auditioning for professional orchestras. Maser is also enthusiastically involved in DSO community engagement performances and educational outreach programs, including regularly working with youth orchestra members of the Civic Youth Ensembles and adult flutists in the Detroit Community Ensembles.

Maser has been featured as a soloist with the DSO on numerous occasions, including performances of Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, and a world premiere of Jeff Scott’s Paradise Valley Serenade for wind quintet and orchestra. As a student, Maser won first prize in the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition, with special distinction given for the Best Performance of the Newly Commissioned Piece, and the Orchestral Excerpt & Masterclass Competition and is the only flutist in NFA history to have won all three honors. She also won first prize in the Houston Flute Club Byron Hester Competition, the Atlanta Flute Association Young Artist Competition, the Central Ohio Flute Association Collegiate Division Competition, and second prize in the Mid-South Flute Society Young Artist Competition. An active member of the National Flute Association, she now serves as the Competition Coordinator for their Orchestral Excerpt & Masterclass Competition.

A native of Richmond VA, Maser began studying the flute with her mother, Alice Hammel. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and a minor in music theory from the Oberlin Conservatory (2015) where she studied with Alexa Still. She graduated with a Master of Music in Flute Performance in 2017 from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as a student of Leone Buyse.

Maser plays on an 18K gold Muramatsu flute and a Keefe piccolo. She lives in Huntington Woods with her husband, Ian, and their two labradoodles, Evelyn and Cooper.

hannahhammel.com

Zhihua Tang

piano

Zhihua Tang is an associate professor in collaborative piano at the Michigan State University College of Music. She has enjoyed an active performing career around the world and has been praised for her extraordinary versatility and profound artistry on the piano. Over the years, she has collaborated with some of today’s leading musicians: violinists Joshua Bell, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Yuval Yaron, Robert Chen, Yoonshin Song, Emmanuelle Boisvert, and Yuan-Qing Yu, cellists Robert deMaine and Haiye Ni, violist Mahoko Eguchi, flutists Maxim Rubtsov and Jeff Zook, bassist Alexander Hanna, and oboist Dwight Parry.

Her chamber music partners have included numerous principal players from many major orchestras, such as New York Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and symphony orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, National, Detroit, and Dallas, among others. Since 2011, she has performed frequently with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in many of its concert series. In May 2013, she appeared in Carnegie Hall with the DSO under Leonard Slatkin as part of Carnegie Hall’s annual Spring for Music Festival.

Tang was the top prize winner of the Beethoven Sonata Competition in Memphis TN, the Central Division of the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition, and the Chopin Competition in Chicago. She has also received an honorable mention at the XII International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with many orchestras on different continents, including Detroit Civic Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Ballet Orchestra, and Shanghai Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, her performance of the Beethoven “Emperor” concerto with Detroit Civic Orchestra at Detroit Orchestra Hall was broadcast live on the Detroit WRCJ radio station. As a recitalist, she has performed extensively across Europe, the United States, and Asia in major music venues such as Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Rackham Hall in Ann Arbor, Detroit Orchestra Hall, Beijing Zhongshan Music Hall, and the Shanghai Centre Theatre.

She has held teaching positions at Alma College, Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, University of North Dakota, and Summer Music Camp at Bowling Green State University. As an avid advocate for music in the community, she has worked as a chamber music coach in the Detroit Civic Youth Ensemble, one of the premier youth music organizations in the country. She has been frequently invited to give performances and master classes throughout the United States and China.

A native of Shanghai, China, Tang began her piano studies at the age of five with her father. She attended the Shanghai Conservatory, where she was a recipient of the Fei Minyi Fellowship and the Shen Xingong Scholarship. She received her Master of Music degree from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Menahem Pressler. She later completed her D.M.A. degree from the Michigan State University College of Music under the tutelage of Deborah Moriarty. She has also worked with some of the most important pedagogues including Paul-Badura Skoda, Russell Sherman, Joseph Kalichstein, John Perry, Anton Kuerti, Martin Katz, Janos Starker, Elly Ameling, and Pamela Frank. Additionally, she has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Music Festival, the Orford Music Center, and the Gilmore Piano Festival.

Notes

Sonata for Flute and Piano is a three movement work with an eclectic array of styles that covers an exciting range of technical challenges for flute and piano.

“I originally came to the idea of composing for flute and piano whilst studying form within the classical and pre-romantic period, while also studying various works from the 20th and 21st century. It sparked an idea of composing some complete sonatas for smaller chamber ensembles, for which this is the first. In this three movement work, there’s subtle evocation of dreams and fairytale-like imagery, with the final movement representing a full ‘dream cycle.’ The musical vernacular I wanted to be playful and child-like, so I also think of it as somewhat of a ‘musical children’s book.’ It was extremely fun and rewarding to write these pieces, and I hope that musicians and listeners alike enjoy it as much as I did composing it.”

— Timothy Schmalz

Videos

I. Onirico (Final)