Candlewood Digital

Candlewood Digital was founded in 2006 by Richard Price and Wayne Hileman, following thirty combined years of working together at one of New York's premier classical recording studios.

Completed by mobile engineering specialist Robert LaPorta, the Candlewood Digital staff of professionals offers musicians a high-end recording resource unsurpassed in skill, experience, and dedication to the highest standards, both musical and technical.

Our company is based on our values.

At the center of everything we do is the music.

We believe in treating people with kindness, respect, and patience.

We are an old-fashioned business.

"Candlewood has become recognized as one of the most respected classical recording firms in the industry"

Fanfare Magazine, September/October 2010

29 Lake Drive South
Candlewood Isle Box 67
New Fairfield, CT 06812

203-702-7205
info@candlewooddigital.com
www.candlewooddigital.com

The Fontenay Chamber Players record music of Sima Wolf at St. Francis Episcopal Church, in Stamford, CT: Maria Conti, violin, Una Tone, violin, Debbie Shufelt, viola, CanDig producer Richard Price, Kathy Taylor, clarinet, Maryly Culpepper, flute, Wendy Kerner, harp, Sima Wolf, composer, and Kathy Cherbas, cello. Not in the photo:

CanDig engineer Wayne Hileman.

Robert Craft's Schoenberg series for Naxos continues with an all-star string ensemble: the Fred Sherry Quartet and friends, recording Verklärte Nacht in its original string sextet version. L to R: CanDig producer Richard Price, violist Yura Lee, violinist Leila Josefowicz, cellist Michael Nicolas, violinist David Chan, violist Paul Neubauer, engineer Tim Martyn of Phoenix Audio, and cellist Fred Sherry, at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York City. Thanks to Carol Archer for the photo.

Recording rarely-performed works for violin and piano at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA,: pianist Cameron Grant, violinist Zina Schiff, Candlewood producer Richard Price (not in photo: Candlewood engineer Wayne Hileman). (More photos from this magnificent venue on the "Our Services" page. ) Thanks to Ron Eisenberg for the photos.

The Candlewood SIngers, recording a program of classic hymns with CanDig at the First Church of Christ Scientist in Greenwich, CT: Paula Jensen-Moulton, Jessica J-M Henderson, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Peter Jensen-Moulton, Violet Jensen-Moulton, Albert Jensen-Moulton, Carl Johnson. Update! The Singers just signed a major release agreement for international distribution of this release via the

Christian Science Publishing Society.

At Lee Theatre, University of Missouri at St. Louis, the end of a long journey: harpsichordist Barbara Harbach after completing the final session of her epic traversal of the 120 harpsichord sonatas of Padre Antonio Soler, to be released as a deluxe 12-CD box on MSR Classics. At left is Candlewood producer/engineer Richard Price.

Kairos, A Consort of Singers, recording a program of new works

by Hudson Valley composers with Candlewood, The Valley Sings, for MSR Classics, at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York.

Music director and conductor Edward Lundergan is at far left.

Candlewood at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY,

recording works of Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez with the

Eastman Broadband Ensemble: CanDig producer Richard Price,

engineer Wayne Hileman, composer Sanchez-Gutierrez,

conductor Juan Trigos.

Recording the Bach Partitas at Grusin Hall, University of Colorado at Boulder: master piano technician Robert F. Cloutier, pianist Dr. David Korevaar, CanDig producer/engineer Richard Price.

Recording the new Gluck Opus 13 Organ at Faith Lutheran Church,

New Providence, NJ: CanDig producer Richard Price, organist John Girvin, Gluck General Manager Albert Jensen-Moulton, and Gluck president and designer Sebastian Gluck. (Not in photo: CanDig engineer Wayne Hileman)

At the national convention of the Association of Concert Bands, recorded by Candlewood: at left, conference host and Marist College Director of Music Arthur Himmelberger is flanked by CanDig's Wayne Hileman and Richard Price; at right, Richard with John Philip Sousa IV. (Small world department: Art Himmelberger was Richard's student teacher with the Ann Arbor Huron High School Symphony Band!)

The St. Louis Lower Brass Collective, recording Barbara Harbach's

Spirit of St. Louis at the Lee Theatre of the Touhill Performing Arts Center, University of Missouri at St.Louis. Composer Harbach at

back row center; in black shirts, Candlewood producer/engineers

Richard Price and Wayne Hileman.

At the Lee Theatre, University of Missouri at St. Louis, recording

Barbara Harbach's Harriet's Story: violinist John McGrosso, composer Barbara Harbach, CanDig engineer Wayne Hileman, soprano Marlissa Hudson, CanDig producer Richard Price, pianist Alla Voskoboynikova.

At LeFrak Auditorium of Queens College, NYC, the first integral recording of Vincent Persichetti's song cycle Harmonium, on texts of Wallace Stevens: soprano Sherry Overholt, CanDig producer/engineer Richard Price, pianist Joshua Pierce

Recording choral works of Nancy Wertsch at the Church of the Resurrection, NYC: Candlewood producer Richard Price, composer Nancy Wertsch, conductor Harold Rosenbaum, and the New York Virtuoso Singers (CanDig engineer Wayne Hileman is at right rear.) Thanks to Chris Creaghan for the great photo!

Recording CD2 of the piano music of Judith Zaimont

at the new Bailey Performance Center at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA: session assistant P. Gustav Westin;

Candlewood's Richard Price, pianist Dr. Elizabeth Moak.

Recording the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing string music of Barbara Harbach at Henry Wood Hall, London, for MSR Classics: above, producer Richard Price of Candlewood Digital, composer Dr. Barbara Harbach, conductor David Angus, recording engineer Mike Hatch of Floating Earth UK, and project manager Patrick Garvey, of Patrick Garvey Management, London.

Horus has landed!

Candlewood Digital is proud to be one of the first American studios to feature the remarkable new Horus interface, from Merging Technologies. Featuring cutting-edge Ravenna interconnect technology, the Horus has won virtually every major tech award and is one of the most sonically transparent and powerful tools to come our way in many years.

A Concert to Heal

in Newtown

Candlewood Digital was honored to participate in the Concert to Heal in Newtown, CT, sponsored jointly by radio station WMNR and the Newtown Friends of Music and featuring many local musicians, including members of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra New England. The free event, taking place on January 13 at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, was meant to offer comfort through music to the community. It was broadcast live on the independent classical FM station WMNR, and engineered by Candlewood's mobile engineering specialist Robert LaPorta, a Newtown resident. All involved donated their services.

Year-end honors continue for

"Art Fire Soul"

The 2-CD collection of piano music of Judith Zaimont, "Art Fire Soul" on MSR Classics, performed by Elizabeth Moak and engineered by Candlewood Digital, has garnered year-end honors from two prominent CD review magazines. American Record Guide has included it on its 2013 "Critics' Choice" list, and it was also named to Fanfare Magazine's 2012 "Want List". SaysFanfare critic Carson Cooman, "This double CD set beautifully performed by Elizabeth Moak contains nearly all Zaimont’s piano solos, ranging from a few earlier pieces, to various educational works, to a blockbuster large-scale sonata (2000). What distinguishes Zaimont’s catalog from that of many composers is the sustained excellence of her pieces." (Mr. Cooman is himself a noted composer.)

Live Concert Recordings

The new year is upon us! Candlewood's live concert recording season continues with events including Vassar College's Modfest, featuring the new quintet for clarinet and strings by Richard Wilson; the 40th season of the Pro Arte Singers under founding Maestro Arthur Sjogren; and the Westchester Symphonic Winds, under Music Director Curt Ebersole. The Danbury Concert Chorus continues its second season with Music Director Christine R. Howlett, who also leads the Vassar College Women's Chorus, Vassar College Choir, and Cappella Festiva. Robert Manno leads the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra at the Doctorow Center for the Arts in Hunter, NY, featuring music for string orchestra; the New Jersey Choral Society, under Music Director Eric Dale Knapp, continue their season, as do the singers of Charis Chamber Voices, under Music Director Arthur Sjogren; Music Director Eric Dale Knapp also leads the Connecticut Choral Society; the Choirs, Bands, and Orchestra of Grammy Signature School Greenwich High School under Music Directors Patrick Taylor, John S. Yoon, and Bethany Cook; and the Danbury Symphony Orchestra joins the Danbury Concert Chorus for a rare live performance of "The Bells", by Rachmaninoff, under the baton of DSO Music Director Ariel Rudiakov. And much more!

Pierce/Cage MSR Set is WQXR Q2 Music

Album of the Week

Joshua Pierce's 2-CD retrospective set of John Cage's piano music, on MSR Classics, has been named WQXR Q2 Music Album of the Week.

The WQXR website says:

"There are few pianists as equipped to tackle the polarizing music of John Cage as powerfully as Joshua Pierce... Pierce’s balance of careful technique and violent abandon throughout offer a profound and accessible portrait of the landscape-changing composer."

Copland Grant awarded to

Overholt/Pierce recording

of Persichetti Harmonium

The recently completed premiere recording of Vincent Persichetti's song cycle Harmonium, on poems of Wallace Stevens, has been awarded a prestigious Copland Foundation recording grant. Pictured above at the sessions at Lefrak Auditorium, Queens College (at, appropriately enough, the Aaron Copland School of Music): soprano Sherry Overholt, CanDig producer/engineer Richard Price, and pianist Joshua Pierce. The CD will be released on MSR Classics in the fall.

Association of Concert Bands National Convention

Candlewood was pleased to recor the concerts of the 2012 convention of the Association of Concert Bands, held at the historic Bardavon Opera House (above) in Poughkeepsie, New York. Participants included The West Point Military Band, The Greater New York Wind Symphony, Westchester Symphonic Winds, Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and many other great bands.

In the Editing/Mastering Rooms

Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht in its original string sextet version, with the all-star Fred Sherry String Quartet and friends, part of the ongoing Robert Craft Schoenberg series for Naxos; the complete 120 harpsichord sonatas of Padre Antonio Soler, with Barbara Harbach; rare music for violin and piano performed by Zina Schiff and Cameron Grant, recorded by Candlewood at historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA; choral music of Christmas, sung by the Wilton Singers under Patrick Taylor; music of Brahms, Dvorak, and Haydn, recorded for the BBC by pianist Todd Crow; music for brass quintet and organ featuring two different classic Fisk organs, with trumpeter James Thompson, trombonist Philip Swanson, and organist Barbara Bruns, recorded at St. John's Church in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and at Old West Church, Boston, MA; piano concertos of Tchaikowsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, featuring Joshua Pierce joined by Paul Freeman and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; the ongoing complete Stravinsky and Schoenberg series for Naxos, with conductor Robert Craft and the Philharmonia of London; a new traversal of the Bach cello suites with soloist Mary Costanza; French music for flute, piano and harpsichord from the 17th and 20th centuries with baroque and modern flutist Don Hulbert; new and vintage projects from Music Minus One, Classic Jazz, and Inner City Records, and much more!

Candlewood Featured on Lavry Engineering Website

The website of Lavry Engineering, one of the most respedcted names in high-end pro audio, currently features a lengthy article about Candlewood Digital, including interviews with Richard and Wayne. The author states that "both musicians and record label clients alike have developed a high comfort level with Candlewood Digital, due to their ability to travel nationwide and deliver pristine recording, editing and mastering projects afterwards". CanDig engineers have used Lavry's state-of-the-art high-resolution converters exclusively since the inception of Candlewood Digital. We are proud of our association with Dan Lavry and his company, and delighted to be featured on their site.

Retrospective: Alec Wyton

Candlewood Digital has been selected to restore, evaluate, and remaster historic tapes of the great American organist, composer, choirmaster, and church musician Alec Wyton (1921-2007). Many of the tapes come from Mr. Wyton’s twenty years at the helm of the music program at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York; unreleased and unheard for many years, they were in the private collections of the Wyton family. Richard Wyton, the artist’s son, will be executive producer of the project. Candlewood engineers have completed similar archival restoration and remastering projects for John Browning, Leonard Pennario, John Solum, Blanca Uribe, and the composer Viktor Kalabis (see below!), among others.