Sunny Knable composer/performer/educator/author
"Keys": Keyboard Works of Sunny Knable
Featuring Sunny Knable, piano
Faythe Vollrath, harpsichord
Matthew Lau, marimba
Trouvère Records, 2022
Works on this album span nearly two decades and are laid out in compositional order from my earliest mature work for marimba solo, You in the Space of Me, to a recent collection of miniatures for piano as a result of my friendships in Switzerland, Cartes Postales de la Suisse. In between are works that run the gamut from comical (B'roque Joke Suite), to serious (Rhythm Changes), to fun (Keeping Faythe), to celebratory (Pajdushko [Drunken Dance]), to irreverent (My Toy President). These 22 tracks show many sides of my compositional voice, but what unites them all is my love for the keyboard. The piano is my first love. One could say that it is how I think: from left to right, low to high, black and white, and with all the possibilities at my fingertips. Out of all these options, I think there is probably a track here for you. Give it a spin and find out!
Listen here!
"Cobalt Blue" 2022
Cobalt Blue Saxophone Quartet:
Raymond Kelly, Anthony Izzo, Ryan Mantell, and Josh Lang
With works by Anthony Izzo, Sunny Knable, Mathew Rosenblum, Zdenek Lukas, and David Mecionis
Cobalt Blue was written for the rip-roaring, virtuosic, New York Metropolitan-based saxophone quartet, Cobalt Quartet. It is organized around the mathematical proportions of the atomic formula for the element Cobalt and inspired in form and rhythm by the concept of a vibrant (cobalt) version of the blues, the traditional American art form. Thus, it is a battle between two approaches of the same idea—bringing the element of cobalt into musical form. It was premiered with the Long Island Composers Alliance in 2019 at The Church-in-the-Gardens. I am grateful to the Cobalt Quartet for bringing it to life.
Purchase here!
"Song of the Redwood-Tree:
Bassoon Works of Sunny Knable"
Featuring Scott Pool, bassoon, and Natsuki Fukasawa, piano
Stefanie Izzo, Gina Cuffari and Xelana Duo, MSR Classics, 2020
If you had asked me ten years ago what my second composition album would consist of, I would probably give you a lofty answer, like an opera or a symphony. Though I have written those as well, I didn't know that this decade would define me as the composer of multiple successful pieces for bassoon. I had written for the often-underused bass instrument in woodwind quintets and large ensembles. Still, I had never fully explored its soloistic capabilities until I had the good fortune of meeting the rollicking performer that is Scott Pool. What emerged from our friendship was the commissioning of two of my most proud and personal achievements: "Song of the Redwood-Tree" and "The Busking Bassoonist" which have been performed multiple times by Scott and his long-term collaborator Natsuki Fukasawa. Since then, I have gone on to write for bassoon in odd combinations including for the singing-bassoonist Gina Cuffari and for the sax/bassoon group, Xelana Duo. It's safe to say that this is only the beginning of a. long relationship I will have with this instrument.
Buy on MSR Classics!
"cloudServer" by Verismo Trio
Available on ACA Digital Recording, 2015
I had the pleasure of meeting members of the Verismo Trio at the National Flute Association in Chicago in 2014 and shortly thereafter, found myself working with them to make an arrangement of my trio for flute, clarinet, and piano, Glassworks, now with alto saxophone in place of the clarinet. This fine album features many talented composers and a rip-roaring trio of performers. If you're anything like me, you'll love the variety.
Trio #1 by Russ Peterson
Glassworks by Sunny Knable
In Memoriam: Toru Takemitsu by Marilyn Shrude
Trio by Dave Deason
Spiritual Mountain by Ivan Bozicevic
Torschlusspanik by Jason Barabba
cloudServer by Jason Emerson
Buy on iTunes!
"American Variations" by Sunny Knable
Featuring Richard Cionco, Centaur Records 2012
The music which comprises this recording is a portion of my compositional output from the last 5 years. Listening to this album, I can hear my own voice change from that of a recent hometown college graduate to a musician who is struggling to find his place in the “real world” of New York City. Even within one composition, American Variations, commissioned by pianist Richard Cionco, I can hear a composer experimenting and slowly letting an increased dissonance into his sound world. This title work has many influences and represents the many definitions we find in being American. Whether you are a farmer in South Dakota or a business on Wall Street, you are part of a nation defined by its ideals as much as its borders.
As a whole, I hear this album as having one voice, despite its many influences. I can only hope that you, the listener, might find meaning and enjoyment in part if not all of it. No matter what “song” you like best, consider Walt Whitman’s words from Leaves of Grass:
“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear
Singing with open arms, the strong melodious songs.”
Buy on iTunes!
"David Lincoln Burnam: Complete Piano Works"
Featuring Sunny Knable, piano
Future Recordings, 2006
After David Lincoln Burnam died in 1954, his music was stored away until the composer's family rescued the handwritten manuscripts, engaging pianist/composer Sunny Knable to perform and record the complete piano music. At times, the music is reminiscent of the early 20th-Century American school to which composers such as Joplin, Gershwin and Copland belong. Mr. Burnam was survived by his wife, the famous "Dozen a Day" composer Edna Mae Burnam who made sure this music was heard and recorded before her death in 2007.