This release has a street date of October 24, 2025. Special promotional CDs for press and radio are available here.
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello
with Nora Barton, cello; Beth Troendly, piano; Doug Jones, French horn; Jennifer Higgins Wagner, cello; Earl Apel, piano; Annette Misener, violin; Phillip Roberts, piano
RSP Classics RSP-15
“[Sowash] draws on many sources from the past without losing a sense of his own identity. His music is exclusively tonal, but the approach to harmony is different in each work, and he is never sentimentally nostalgic.” ~ James Manheim, AllMusic.com
Cellist and multi-instrumentalist Michael G. Ronstadt, a member of the multi-generational Ronstadt musical dynasty, will release a new album of works for cello by Cincinnati composer Rick Sowash on October 24, 2025. The album, Ronstadt Plays Sowash, Vol. 1, includes pieces for solo cello, two cellos, cello & piano, cello & French horn, and piano trio by the unapologetically tonal composer and lifelong Ohio resident. The album (RSP Records RSP-15) will be internationally distributed by Kickshaw Records and available on major digital download and streaming platforms.
Nephew of legendary singer Linda Ronstadt, Michael G. Ronstadt has appeared on more than 200 albums in the past 20 years, traversing a wide range of musical styles, including singer-songwriter, folk, jazz, Americana & New Age. Here, he shows off his classical cello chops, cultivated through studies with Yehuda Hanani, Gordon Epperson, Nancy Green, and Nelzimar Neves at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Arizona.
Rick Sowash has been writing inventive, creative, evocative, and beautiful American-themed music for more than half-a century, with more than 600 musical compositions to his credit, as well as eight books, the most recent titled “How Music Means.”
Promotional CDs are available to record reviewers and radio programmers who require physical media.
Blues for solo cello
“My ‘Blues’ for solo cello is not really ‘the Blues’ any more than ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is jazz,” says Sowash. “Rather it uses elements of the Blues to do things no Blues musician would do. In the hands of my friend cellist Michael Ronstadt, this music moves beyond the realms of either classical music or the Blues. Employing a slower tempo than I indicated, inserting glissandos all over the place and playing with deep feeling and a sense that we have all the time in the world, he creates a musical entity that amazes me. There are sounds in his rendition which I did not know a cello could make, particularly in the last few bars.”
For his part, Michael Ronstadt says that he loves Sowash’s Blues for solo cello. “The reason that is one of my very favorites is because it feels like Rick Sowash but it also feels like a blues improvisation. He’s pulling from Gershwin, and then he’s got some very curious directions you go in the middle of the piece and toward the end, to the climax. You don’t expect it.”
A Simple Tune for cello and piano
“I almost always begin a piece with a simple idea, a short phrase, a relatively straightforward melody. Such an opening can seem inane, hackneyed, clichéd. Worse, predictable. But before long, things take a different turn. The music flows in unexpected directions. Contrasting ideas are presented. Opposites are established, then reconciled. It is as if the opening simple idea is the hero of a fairy tale who, as his story unfolds, gets lost in a dark forest, encounters strange beasts and mysterious beings, who have something to teach him, from whom he learns. Finally, as the piece concludes, he returns home, wiser and more self-confident, because of what he has experienced. He has not merely survived; he has thrived. Or so it seems to me.” – Rick Sowash
Trio #6 for violin, cello & piano “Brickdust & Buttermilk”
The subtitle of Sowash’s Piano Trio #6 refers to a Shaker invention: they mixed brickdust with buttermilk to make the rust-colored paint with which they decorated their distinctive furniture. Sowash says, “Did you know that Shaker furniture is the ONLY uniquely American furniture style? All the others mimic styles and fashions derived from elsewhere. The Shakers’ commitment to simplicity, utility and honesty is reflected in everything they did. Their achievements in furniture design, architecture, cuisine, music and other fields astonish me. Practicing humility, individual Shakers took no credit for their achievements. Their works are anonymous. Just as the Shaker paint blended brickdust with buttermilk, this piece blends contrasting elements.”
Michael G. Ronstadt adds, “I love the backstory, using brick dust mixed with buttermilk to create a rust-colored paint that the Shakers used to paint furniture. And, it’s so Rick Sowash to think about that. But, when you listen to it, you hear that it’s at least two keys at the same time. It’s a different thing to the ear compared to some of the other works, and that’s the thing that drew me to it when he showed it to me.”
Sowash discography
In addition to the new release, Sowash’s currently available discography includes 20 full albums and EPs devoted in whole or in part to his music. For the complete list, visit https://sowash.com/recordings/index.html.
His CDs can be purchased at https://kickshawrecords.com.
Promotional copies of Sowash’s back-catalog CDs are available on request to press and radio.
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Ronstadt Plays Sowash, Vol. 1 (RSP Records RSP-15)
1. The Neverending Melody (2022) for cello & piano (5:28)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Beth Troendly, piano
2. A Winter Night (2022) for 2 cellos (5:05)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Nora Barton, cello
3. To and Fro (2022) for solo cello (5:14)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello
4. Sweetness & Light (2023) for cello & piano (6:34)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Beth Troendly, piano
5. A Joyful Fugue (2022) for 2 cellos (4:56)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Nora Barton, cello
6. Blues (2022) for solo cello (4:35)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello
7. Majesty (2024) for cello & French horn (4:55)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Doug Jones, French horn
8. The Mystic (2022) for cello & piano (5:23)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Beth Troendly, piano
9. Chorale Prelude (2022) for solo cello (3:17)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello
10. Prayer for Ukraine (2022) for 2 cellos (6:44)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Jennifer Higgins Wagner, cello
11. A Simple Tune (2022) for cello & piano (5:43)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Earl Apel, piano
12. A Pirate’s Christmas (2023) for solo cello (6:05)
Michael G. Ronstadt, cello
13. Piano Trio #6 “Brickdust & Buttermilk” (2023) (12:12)
Trio Apertif (Annette Misener, violin; Michael G. Ronstadt, cello; Phillip Roberts, piano)
