This site is home to Alea Publishing & Recording, specializing in music for the bass clarinet.
We offer a growing catalog of creative, artistic transcriptions and new works for bass clarinet solo & ensemble.
About the Composer
Jan Vičar, born on May 5, 1949 in Olomouc, studied accordion at the Conservatory in Ostrava, music and Czech at the Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University in Olomouc, and composition at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He specializes in musicology and composition. He served as editor-in-chief of the leading Czech music journal Hudební rozhledy (Music Review, 1986-1989). His fifth book, Imprints: Essays on Czech Music and Aesthetics (2005), was published in English.
He is a professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and head of the Musicology Department of Palacký University in Olomouc. As a Fulbright/CIES scholar-in-residence, he lectured at eight universities in the United States (1998-1999). As a visiting professor, he taught composition and music theory at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama (2005). He is the author of circa sixty diverse compositions - from orchestral pieces to cyclic works for children's choirs.
About the Work
The Phantasms/Preludes, composed in 2001 with revisions by the composer in 2006, are a stunning set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano, with a total duration of approximately 34 minutes. The titles of the individual Preludes are shown below. The set has been recorded by pianist Daniel Wiesner (with the composer at the piano for No.9: Bad Day), and is available from the Czech label Radioservis.
Piano Score: 43 pages, spiral bound.
Kim Davenport
President
Duo Alea, the father-daughter duo of Michael and Kimberly Davenport, began performing music for bass clarinet and piano in 1996. As performers searching for new repertoire and teachers working with students eager to develop as performers, it quickly became clear that there was a need for more repertoire featuring the bass clarinet. Filling this need became the mission of Alea Publishing & Recording.
Since our first publication in 1997, the Alea catalog has now grown to include over 300 titles. We pride ourselves on the accuracy and quality of our sheet music, as well as our ability to ship directly to customers around the world.
We are proud of the diversity of our catalog in terms of the inclusion of works by composers and arrangers from around the world. We are interested in continuing to expand this diversity, representing musical ideas from around the world.
Following Michael's passing in 2019, Kim has taken over solo management of Alea Publishing. In 2020, Alea established the Dolphy Prize, an annual composition award for new works for bass clarinet by black composers.
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