New Album Rodeo: Works By Aaron Copland Featuring Pianist Emiko Edwards, To Be Released On Lexicon Classics Label July 31, 2026

The Lexicon Classics label is releasing Rodeo: Works by Aaron Copland, an album featuring pianist Emiko Edwards performing solo piano works by Aaron Copland. The official release date is July 31, 2026.

“Created with the 2026 America250 season in mind, Rodeo reframes Copland’s piano music through the lens of the American cultural landscape, moving from rugged, rarely heard works to lyrical, jazz-inflected gems, inspired in part by my recent move to one of the nation’s most storied rodeo towns,” writes Ms. Edwards, “What better way to celebrate America250 than an album dedicated to the ‘Dean of American Music?’”

Co-produced and recorded by 3× GRAMMY nominee Jennifer Nulsen at the Arthur Zankel Music Center, the recording process took place mere steps from Yaddo, the artist colony where Copland premiered his Piano Variations. The photography for the album was captured by rodeo photographer Ty Ferrell at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo grounds. The full program follows:

The recording will be available on CD and all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. For more information, please visit Lexicon Classics’s website and pianist Emiko Edwards’s website.

Artist’s Statement:

Many will have heard Copland’s name in reference to works such as Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man, but his piano works remain virtually unknown. Years ago, I had the privilege of performing on the BBC Total Immersion Series, a weekend of concerts dedicated to one composer, and a fascinating way to become more intimately familiar with a composer’s body of work. In many ways, this was the impetus that led me to program an all-Copland recital, his piano works being the perfect microcosm of his overall output, and a wonderful representation of the vast array of compositional moods and styles that can be found in his writing.

 

The album begins with In Evening Air, the material rooted in an earlier work, the film score for The Cummington Story (1945). A World War II propaganda film, it depicts the assimilation of immigrant refugees into American society. It is followed by his Piano Sonata (1941), a true war sonata, tragic in nature, and written in the romantic style. In his autobiography Copland reflects on the great uncertainty and anxiety of the times and you can certainly hear its effect in the score. The first movement is painful and expansive, the second, though marked Scherzo and humorous at times, is riddled with the sound of ricocheting bullets, and the third, a requiem, oscillates between moments of hope and despair.

 

With Saturday Night Waltz (the third episode from Copland’s ballet Rodeo) comes a reprieve. Choreographed by Agnes de Mille, the ballet tells the story of a cowgirl in search of love. Initially infatuated with the Head Wrangler (who has his eyes set on the Rancher’s Daughter), she instead finds happiness with the Champion Roper having gone through a complete makeover, or as Agnes de Mille put it, “The Taming of the Shrew—cowboy style.” This is followed by the Four Piano Blues, each dedicated to a prominent pianist and each prefaced by wonderfully descriptive words: no. 1 Leo Smit, “Freely poetic,” no. 2 Andor Foldes, “Soft and languid,” no. 3 William Kapell, “Muted and sensuous,” and no. 4 John Kirkpatrick, “With bounce.”

 

In stark contrast, the Piano Variations, is the most modern and dissonant work of the set. It was most influenced by his studies with Nadia Boulanger, each variation written individually before being pieced together. Leonard Bernstein was a huge proponent of the work writing, “I had dug up and learned as much of [Copland’s] music as I could find; the Piano Variations had virtually become my trademark. I was crazy about them then—and I still find them marvelous today—but in those days, I especially enjoyed disrupting parties with the work. It was the furthest you could go in avant-garde ‘noise,’ and I could be relied upon to empty any room in Boston within three minutes by sitting down at the piano and starting it.” Both technically and musically fulfilling to play, it is remarkable how many colors, textures, and characters Copland creates using such a stark theme.

 

And finally, to conclude the album is Down a Country Lane. Beautiful in its simplicity, it serves as a palate cleanser after the tumultuous ending of the Piano Variations.

Called “dazzling” and “scintillating” by the Classical Source, Emiko Edwards has captivated audiences and critics in the United States and abroad with her stellar musical interpretations and her astonishing palette of tonal color. A staunch advocate for American music, Ms. Edwards recently made her Lincoln Center debut recital performing an all-Copland program. "One has rarely heard a pianist bring out so many of the nuances latent in Copland's piano music...[an] exceptional meeting between composer and musician," (New York Classical Review).

As a soloist, Ms. Edwards has been featured in performances at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall (London), the Yamaha Salon, and on the BBC Total Immersion Series. She was presented in recital by the American Music Project in Chicago and was singled out for a 2024-2025 “Critic’s Choice” by the Chicago Classical Review.  Ms. Edwards gave the Philadelphia premiere of the Joan Tower Piano Concerto 1985—for which she was awarded The American Prize and appeared in solo recital at the National Museum of African American Music. She also toured Alaska with the Juneau Symphony, performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Collaborative highlights include the American premiere of an original score by Karen Lefrak at the David H. Koch Theater, choreographed by a member of the American Ballet Theatre and danced by a member of the New York City Ballet, as well as a recital at the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound Festival in London.

A champion of modern music, Ms. Edwards has collaborated with the BBC on several occasions. Her performances of Gorecki’s Piano Sonata and Four Preludes as well as Richard Rodney Bennett’s Noctuary: Variations on a Theme by Scott Joplin were praised highly by critics and have been recorded for and broadcast on BBC Radio3. Footage of Ms. Edwards’s performances and interviews have been broadcast on television and radio not just in the UK but also throughout the United States. She appears in two music documentaries, “On a Personal Note” and “Piano Forte: The Julia Crane International Piano Competition,” both which have aired nationally. Most recently she was featured on WRTI 90.1’s Steinway Week in Philadelphia. Ms. Edwards has won numerous awards at the national and international level, including The New York Piano Competition presented by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, the Julia Crane International Piano Competition, the 1000 Islands International Piano Competition, 5 Towns Music & Art Foundation Competition, and the Princeton Festival Piano Competition. 

Ms. Edwards enjoys presenting canonic repertoire through thematic and educational concerts. She has been invited to appear as a soloist with the Guildhall Brass Ensemble, Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, Bravura Philharmonic, Temple University Symphony, Juneau Symphony, Manalapan Battleground Symphony, New Sussex Symphony, Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra, and Westfield Symphony Orchestra. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and scholarships (Linklaters, James Gibb, Banff Centre, Orford Arts Centre, Nelly Ben-Or Trust, est. Sir Andrew Davis) for which she is eternally grateful, and in her formative years appeared in public masterclasses with world-renowned artists and pedagogues such as Steven Kovacevich, Andre Michel Schub, Robert McDonald, Joseph Kalichstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Jacquis Rouvier, John Perry, and Nelly Ben-Or MBE.

Ms. Edwards made her piano concerto debut with the New Sussex Symphony at age ten, and, one year later, took top prize in the 18^th International Young Artist Piano Competition, Washington, D.C. A 2024 winner of The American Prize, Ms. Edwards is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Temple University where she had the pleasure of studying with Julian Martin, Ronan O’Hora, Lambert Orkis, and Sara Davis Buechner. Her doctoral research “Gendered Trends in Piano Performance: A Study of Women Pianists” can be found listed and summarized in The Pianist’s Bookshelf (Indiana University Press).

Founded in 2022, Lexicon Classics is a modern independent label dedicated to providing an artist-centered approach to a broad variety of genres including classical, musical theatre, jazz, and more. The label has quickly built an impressive legacy, with 4 GRAMMY® nominations and a growing catalogue of dozens of albums. By overseeing everything from recording to global distribution, they make it possible for musicians to focus on their craft while delivering world-class performances to listeners everywhere.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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