American Portraits is the 17th CSO recording with Music Director Paavo Järvi, and is part of the year-long celebration of Maestro Järvi’s triumphant, ten-year tenure as music director. The release features works by American composers Jennifer Higdon, Charles Coleman, Carter Pann, Jonathan Bailey Holland and Kevin Puts.

American Portraits is taken from live recordings between 2001 and 2007, and begins with Charles Coleman’s Streetscape, a work commissioned by the CSO that had its world premiere at Cincinnati’s Music Hall on September 14, 2001, Mr. Järvi’s inaugural concert as CSO Music Director.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico, which according to the composer, “celebrates the rhythm and speed (tempo) of life,” was written in 2000 for the The Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco.

Carter Pann’s Slalom was completed in 1999 and had its premiere with the Haddonfield Symphony in 2000.

Jonathan Bailey Holland’s Halcyon Sun was commissioned by the CSO to honor the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and had its world premiere in Cincinnati on April 30, 2004.

The final track on American Portraits is Network by Kevin Puts, a work premiered by the California Symphony in 1997. The CSO’s recording was taken from the Orchestra’s performances on March 10, 11 and 12 of 2005.