Jan. 16: Guitarist David Leisner Releases New Album, Dedications, on Azica Records

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406

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Guitarist David Leisner Releases New Album, Dedications

Featuring Works by Randall Woolf, 
Pierre Jalbert, David Del Tredici, 
Bun-Ching Lam, João Luiz, Laura Kaminsky, Carlos Carrillo, Marilyn Ziffrin, 
Chester Biscardi, and Peter Sculthorpe 

Out Digitally January 16, 2026 on Azica Records

“Among the finest guitarists of all time"
– American Record Guide

www.davidleisner.com

 

New York, NY (November 17, 2025) — On Friday, January 16, 2026, guitarist, composer, and prolific recording artist David Leisner releases Dedications on Azica Records (Digital Only) – a collection centered almost entirely on works he has commissioned, celebrating the composers who have shaped his artistic life. Conceived in the quiet of the pandemic and expanded to honor decades of collaboration, the album brings together ten composers in a rich set of world premiere recordings. Dedications is a portrait of community, creativity, and long artistic friendships.

American Record Guide praises Leisner as “among the finest guitarists currently performing and, given that the level of playing has never been higher, that means among the finest of all time. He has a probing intellect, finding insights in music that most others miss, and delivering them with a virtuoso technique. He is a musician first, a guitarist second, and that is a rare quality.”

Dedications opens with Randall Woolf’s going home (1997), a blues-inflected homage to the composer’s Detroit childhood boogie-woogie roots. It is a musical homecoming, filtered through its blend of improvisational spontaneity and classical clarity.

Pierre Jalbert’s Two Sides (2023) unfolds in sharply contrasting movements – one long-lined and introspective, the other taut and propulsive – revealing how shared musical DNA can express itself in entirely different emotional worlds. 

David Del Tredici’s Farewell, R.W. (2010), in Leisner's second recording of the work, is the slow movement and emotional center of the composer’s four-movement symphony for solo guitar, Facts of Life, another commission by Leisner. Its tender, searching melody opens into a quiet, luminous intensity.

During the pandemic, Leisner encouraged composer Bun-Ching Lam to return to writing for guitar; the result is Five Contemplations (2022), a set of miniatures inspired by Lam’s earlier setting of poems by Song Dynasty poet Li Chin-Zhao, Autumn Sound. The work is a meditation on color and stillness.

João Luiz’s MadrigAfro II (2023) bridges 16th-century vocal polyphony and Afro-Brazilian rhythmic traditions. Part I. Curandeiro evokes the trance-like energy of Candomblé ceremonies, while Part II. Movido, tempo de Afoxé dances forward on the buoyant Ijexá rhythm. 

Laura Kaminsky’s Ruminations (2022) explores both calm introspection and restless mental motion. Leisner’s performance traces the work’s psychological journey – from searching meditation to fervent bursts of energy – bringing clarity to its inner conversations.

Carlo Carillo’s Mariluna (2012), from his The Book of Lullabies, evokes two images: moonlight reflected on water and the moon’s “Sea of Tranquility.” The work's gentle radiance hovers between dream and memory.

Marilyn Ziffrin’s Rhapsody (1958) – the only work on the album not commissioned by Leisner – was originally written for Andrés Segovia but left unperformed until Leisner premiered it in 1979. Its lyrical, freely tonal writing unfolds with expressive breadth, revealing the guitar’s full palette.

Chester Biscardi’s Finding Beauty in Small Places (2021) follows the natural rhythm of breath, expanding and contracting in waves. Its title (inspired by a close friend of the composer) frames the piece's inward-looking charms, with its intimate warmth and spacious phrasing.

The album closes with Peter Sculthorpe’s Oh, T.I.! for piano and guitar (2012), featuring pianist Alan Moverman. The first movement, Island Song, celebrates Thursday Island’s cherished anthem T.I.!., while Night Song incorporates the Aboriginal chant Djilile (“whistling-duck on a billabong”). Leisner’s opening solo radiates quiet resolve, reflecting the islander’s desire to protect their beautiful home.

About David Leisner
David Leisner, winner of the Leyenda Foundation’s 2026 Celedonio Romero Lifetime Achievement Award, is an extraordinarily versatile musician with a multi-faceted career as a performing artist, composer, and teacher.

“Among the finest guitarists of all time,” according to American Record Guide, Leisner is a featured recording artist for the Azica label, with 11 highly acclaimed solo CDs. His recent recordings of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin with baritone Michael Kelly (Bright Shiny Things) and his solo album for Azica, Charms to Soothe, featuring early 19th-century music, garnered rave reviews. Other recordings have been released on the Naxos, Telarc, and Koch labels, with a concert DVD published by Mel Bay. 

David Leisner’s recent seasons have taken him around the US and far beyond, including a major tour of Australia and New Zealand, and debuts and reappearances in China, Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, the U.K., Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. An innovative three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall included the first all-Bach guitar recital in New York’s history, and for 12 years, he was the Artistic Director of Guitar Plus, a New York series devoted to chamber music performed with the guitar. 

Celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire, David Leisner has premiered and commissioned works by major composers including David Del Tredici, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Sculthorpe, and Osvaldo Golijov. His recent Pandemic Commissions project elicited works from Pierre Jalbert, Laura Kaminsky, Chester Biscardi, Bun-Ching Lam, and João Luiz. He has also spearheaded the revival of neglected 19th-century composers J.K. Mertz and Wenzeslaus Matiegka. He has performed at chamber music festivals including  Santa Fe, Rockport, Vail Valley, Bargemusic, Bay Chamber, Cape Cod and Islands, Maui, Portland, Sitka, Music in the Vineyards, Crested Butte, and Angel Fire.

Leisner is also a highly respected composer, noted for the emotional and dramatic power of his music. Fanfare Magazine described it as “rich in invention and melody, emotionally direct, and beautiful,” and Textura praised its “arresting melodic character, emotional depth, and dramatic sweep.” His music has been performed worldwide by eminent soloists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras. An extensive discography includes a much-praised recording on Cedille Records, Acrobats, performed by the Cavatina Duo, and Letter to the World, an album of his vocal chamber music. His compositions are published by Theodore Presser Co. and Dobermann-Yppan. 

Recent works and commissions include a guitar concerto, Wayfaring, for Pepe Romero and the New American Sinfonietta; Singing to the Stars for soprano, violin, saxophone and two guitars for the New Music Festival at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Pranayama for the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas; Love Dreams of the Exile for the Cavatina Duo and the Avalon Quartet; and Das Wunderbare Wesen for baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and solo cello.

A distinguished teacher, Leisner is currently on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and has taught for over two decades at the New England Conservatory. His book about ergonomic guitar technique, Playing with Ease, is published by Oxford University Press. Primarily self-taught as both guitarist and composer, he studied guitar with John Duarte, David Starobin, and Angelo Gilardino, and composition with Richard Winslow, Virgil Thomson, Charles Turner, and David Del Tredici. Learn more at www.davidleisner.com.

Dedications Track List
1. Randall Woolf – going home [7:48]

Pierre Jalbert – Two Sides 
     2. I – Freely, lyrical [5:05]
     3. II –  Propulsive, driving [4:49]

4. David Del Tredici – Farewell, R.W. (from Facts of Life) [5:49]

Bun-Ching Lam – Five Contemplations
     5. I – Search Search [2:37]
     6. II – Seek Seek [1:07]
     7. III – Ennui [1:32]
     8. IV – Wutang in Light Rain [1:07]
     9. V – Let Go [1:53]

João Luiz – MadrigAfro II 
     10. Part I – Curandeiro [3:58]
     11. Part II – Movido, tempo de Afoxé [2:53]

12. Laura Kaminsky – Ruminations [5:53]

Carlos Carrillo – Mariluna
     13. 1. reflejo de la luna sobre la superficie de el agua… [1:58] 
    14. 2. y la mar se refleja en la luna [2:37]

15. Marilyn Ziffrin – Rhapsody [6:15]

16. Chester Biscardi – Finding Beauty in Small Places [5:50]

Peter Sculthorpe – Oh, T.I.! (with Alan Moverman, piano) 
    17. I. – Island Song [6:41]
     18. II. – Night Song  [7:53]

Total Time: 75:45

Recorded June 15-17, 2025 at Abeshouse Studios, South Salem, NY.
Producer and Engineer: Silas Brown
Cover Painting: “Shakespeare”(2019), acrylic on paper, by Ralph Jackson.
Used with permission. From the collection of Emily and Derek Jenkins.
Graphic Design: Monica Mussulin
ACD-71389

 

 

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