For Your GRAMMY® Consideration Best Classical Instrumental Solo

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. 

Created with the 2026 America250 season in mind, RODEO: Works by Aaron Copland 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 Edwards’ recent move to one of the nation’s most  storied rodeo towns. 

The recording process took place at the Arthur Zankel Music Center (Saratoga Springs), mere steps from Yaddo, the artist colony where Copland premiered his 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. As a soloist, Ms. Edwards has been featured in performances at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall (London), and on the BBC Total Immersion Series. A staunch advocate for American music, she made her Lincoln Center debut 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), and was presented in recital by the Chicago-based American Music Project (“Critic’s Choice for 2024–25,” Chicago Classical Review). Additional highlights include giving the Philadelphia premiere of the Joan Tower Piano Concerto 1985—for which she was awarded The American Prize, a solo recital presented by the National Museum of African American Music, an Alaskan tour of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Juneau Symphony, and performances recorded for and broadcast on BBC Radio3 and 90.1 WRTI. 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. Ms. Edwards is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Temple University.

Producer: Jennifer Nulsen & Emiko Edwards
Executive Producer/Label Owner: Jonathan Estabrooks
Associate Producer: Maria Valdes

Engineer/Mixed/Mastered: Jennifer Nulsen
Design: Tamagna Design Studio

Photography: Ty Ferrell Photography

Piano Technician: Richard Hester
Recorded 11/1/25 - 11/2/25

This recording was made in the Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall at the Arthur Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY