Cafe Music

Paul Schoenfield’s infectiously enjoyable chamber music has been brought together for the first time on innova’s Café Music. With some of the country’s most prodigious virtuosos and a stunning recording (originally intended for the Decca Argo label), this disc guarantees a good mood whenever it is played.
Combining ingredients of classical music, jazz, klezmer and whimsy, Café Music is instantly accessible despite its rich complexities. Irresistible and full of energy, this is caffeine-fuelled music at its most entertaining. Schoenfield playing the piano is joined by such leading players as Lev Polyakin (assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra), Nathaniel Rosen, and Charles Neidich.
The Ohio-based composer began studying piano at age six and wrote his first composition the following year. He received degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Arizona, where he studied both music and mathematics. He has received numerous commissions and has been awarded grants from the NEA, the Rockefeller Fund, the Bush Foundation and Chamber Music America. His three concertos for piano, flute and trumpet have been released by Decca. Among his recent works are an opera for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and a viola concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra.