Nancy Braithwaite, clarinetist
Hemenway Ensemble
Claron McFadden, soprano
Roberta Alexander, soprano
Nancy Braithwaite, clarinet
Michael Stirling, cello
Vaughan Schlepp, piano
With Composer Edith Hemenway at the CD release concert in Amsterdam
The Hemenway Ensemble was formed in 2017 to perform and record the music of Edith Hemenway. This resulted in the highly acclaimed CD "To Paradise for Onions: Songs and Chamber Works of Edith Hemenway" which came out in 2018 on Etcetera Records.
The works included are:
Doors: Three Poems by W.S. Merwin for soprano, clarinet, cello and piano
Questions of Travel: for clarinet, cello and piano
To Paradise for Onions: for clarinet and piano
A Child’s Garden: for soprano, clarinet and piano
Asian Figures: for clarinet and piano based on texts by W.S. Merwin
Four Poems of Langston Hughes duets for two sopranos and piano.
Edith Hemenway continued to write for the ensemble and a second CD which includes her music is expected out on Etcetera Records in 2025.
The works included are:
The Voyage of the Owl and Pussy-Cat: for clarinet, cello and piano (2018) Wonderings: for cello and piano
A Caged Bird: for soprano, clarinet and piano (2018)
7 Songs: for soprano and piano
I Dwell in Possibility (2018)
Fancy
The Writing on a Fallen Leaf
The Lover in Winter
Consider the Grass (2018)
Animals
Edith Hemenway's (1926-2023) final work Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: for soprano, clarinet , cello and piano, which was written for the ensemble in 2022, is scheduled to be recorded soon.