You can find most of my solo piano music, plus a few of my chamber works, on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Pandora, Deezer, and other streaming sites.
My original solo piano releases include the CDs Whereas (2011), a concept album of thirteen original solo piano works inspired by poetry; and October Wind (2005), a retrospective album of thirteen original piano works from 1981 to 2005, plus one art song for tenor and piano. You might also enjoy my digital-only single Claro de Luna (the "Moonlight Sonata" Tango). My piano music can be heard on online streaming sites such as Pandora, Spotify, etc.
I have performed my original solo piano music for audiences all over the U.S. as well as in Canada, the U.K., France, the Dominican Republic, and Spain, and have shared concert stages with many other solo pianists including David Nevue, Louis Landon, Neil Patton, David Lanz, Joe Bongiorno, Joseph Akins, Isadar, and more. In October 2010 I was one of five featured artists, along with fellow composer/pianists Julio Mazziotti (Argentina), Lisa Downing (U.S.), Mario Lopéz-Santos (Spain), and Grammy nominee Suzanne Ciani (U.S.), at the First International Gathering of Solo Pianists in Mallorca, Spain.
In addition to my music for solo piano, my instrumental concert music catalogue includes a piano sonata, numerous works for various chamber ensembles, string orchestra, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, and a clarinet concerto. Here are a few highlights from my instrumental catalogue: Bowerman, Man of Oregon is a 22-minute symphonic biography about Bill Bowerman. Premiered by the Central Oregon Symphony in 2007, in 2008 the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra performed a larger reorchestration of this same work as the centerpiece of a special Bowerman gala tribute concert. My orchestral work Finding the Murray River and string orchestra work Sleep, Child were recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic and released in 2011 on the compilation CD Light and Shadow: Modern Orchestral Works by PARMA Recordings / Navona Records. Rebecca's popular Aesop's Fables for woodwind quintet and narrator has been performed many times. Recorded in 2013 by the Arrieu Quintet, it was released as a digital EP and receives frequent airplay. Quintetto Andersen (of Italy) recorded that same work but with Italian narration, releasing it as the title work on their 2015 CD Fiabe di Esopo.
I have composed for all types and sizes of choral ensembles, a cappella and accompanied, sacred and secular, and I often write my own choral texts. Here are a few highlights from my choral catalogue: In 2001 my choral/orchestral work The Sunbringer's Tale, a 22-minute choral allegory with an original text and full orchestral accompaniment, premiered in Eugene, Oregon under the baton of James Reddan. In 2002 a performance of The Soul Contemplates the Creator In the Creation, from the set Three Songs of the Soul, earned this praise from noted NPR reviewer Tom Manoff: “Rebecca Oswald is not a showy composer, but she’s an honorable one. ‘The Soul Contemplates the Creator in the Creation’ is splendid choral writing. This unpretentious style isn’t calculated to impress the trendy set, but in terms of craft, it sure impressed me. Spend some time with the score, and you’ll find that inside the ‘simplicity,’ each voice has its own lyrical life. Oswald would win the prize for best choral-writing in honor of Bach, if there were one.” (Eugene Register-Guard, July 11, 2002) Journeys to Freedom: Rännakud Vabadusse. a nine-minute work for SATB chorus and treble chorus with four winds and two percussions, incorporates folksongs from Estonia and the U.S. in a musical celebration of human freedom and dignity.
• Two of my orchestral works (Finding the Murray River and Sinfonia no. 1) won readings by the Women's Philharmonic (in 1998 and 2001).
• Let Him Return (SSA, piano) received Top Honors in the 2002 Waging Peace Through Singing international choral composition competition.
• Reciprocity, an 11-minute a cappella choral work in 11 non-western languages, won a commission prize from the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, premiering in 2005 in NYC.
• Die Alster won the 2013 Houston Saengerbund composition competition.
• In 2014 and 2015 several of my scores were finalists for The American Prize in Composition (choral music, professional division, and chamber music, professional division).
• In 2015 my mixed chamber work Theseus and the Minotaur was awarded Honorable Mention by The American Prize in Composition (chamber music, professional division).
• In June 2016 three performances of my first opera Viá Láctea, with libretto by Ellen Waterston, premiered in Bend, Oregon. In support of my work on this project, I received a 2015 Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission. For the 2017-2018 prize year I received a Special Judges' Citation from The American Prize in Composition, acknowledging the overall unity of my work as "Music for Use: Accessible, Well-crafted, and Always Attractive."
• In the late 1990s I wrote, recorded, and produced the music for two Taiwanese CD-ROM strategy games, 三國群英傳 & 三國群英傳 II.
• In 2003 I orchestrated the soundtrack for the independent, critically acclaimed film Westender.
• I composed, recorded, and produced the soundtrack for the three-hour video documentary series A History of the University of Oregon (2001, 2007).
• I wrote and produced the theme song for the weekly interview show UO Today.
• In 2014 I wrote and produced the main theme song and soundtrack for a 19-minute pitch reel for the historically inspired dramatic adventure saga Runestone, currently being considered for a miniseries.
