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Plano Symphony Orchestra Signs
First Recording Deal

Grammy Award®-winning label Reference Recordings will release an album featuring commissioned works by Plano Symphony Orchestra.

CD will feature Branford Marsalis & the Branford Marsalis Quartet with the PSO conducted by Maestro Guzmán.

August 17-20 | Meyerson Symphony Center

TRACKS

Plano Overture — Marcos Lifshitz

Tlaloc — Robert Xavier Rodriguez

A Not So Short Ride in a Burning Machine — Xi Wang

Shine Time — Quinn Mason

Ciana — Branford Marsalis (arr. Marcos Lifshitz)

Prairie Suite — David Guion

Bonus Track: Second Violin Concerto — Jack Waldenmaier

Conducted by Maestro Héctor Guzmán

Sound Engineer – Sean Martin

Produced by Marcia Martin

Executive Producer – Gregory Patterson

COMPOSERS

Branford Marsalis

Ciana

BIO
Marcos Lifshitz

Plano Overture

BIO
Robert Xavier Rodriguez

Tlaloc

BIO
Quinn Mason

Shine Time

BIO
Jack Waldenmaier

Second Violin Concerto 

BIO COMING SOON
David Guion

Prairie Suite

BIO COMING SOON
Xi Wang

A Not So Short Ride in a Burning Machine

BIO

Sponsored by

Tammy and Charles Miller
Cliff Parker
Jan and Craig Barber
Nancy Freeman
Sandy Nachman
Ellie and Ira Barash
Gary Brownfield

ABOUT REFERENCE RECORDINGS

REFERENCE RECORDINGS® records and manufactures award winning, ultimate quality CDs, Hybrid SACDs, and Reference Mastercuts LPs. Our recordings are also offered as digital downloads through our own website and through multiple sites worldwide, including high resolution PCM downloads and both stereo and surround-sound DSD downloads. We offer recordings from many of the finest classical, jazz, blues and world music artists. We record most of our releases with our own team, and also license select projects for our FRESH! series. The RR team believes that how a recording sounds is as important as the music itself. Our goal is to make your listening experience “The Best Seat in the House”.

Our current artist roster includes The Kansas City Symphony, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Utah Symphony Orchestra, Bach Aria Soloists, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, pianists Joel Fan and Nadia Shpachenko, The Dallas Wind Symphony, blues singer/songwriters Doug MacLeod and Fiona Boyes, organists Jan Kraybill and Mary Preston, and more. Legacy artists available on RR titles perennially in print include: The Minnesota Orchestra, jazz pianist Dick Hyman, Eileen Farrell, Mike Garson, the original Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik, Red Norvo, The Kronos Quartet, The Chicago Pro Musica, Frederick Fennell, Ruggiero Ricci, Robert Farnon, Jose Serebrier, The Turtle Creek Chorale, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, and many others.

Reference Recordings are distributed in North America by Naxos U.S.A. and internationally in more than 25 countries through a carefully chosen network of music and audiophile distributors. We have decades of success and experience in marketing and promoting our releases and our artists. See our full distribution list.

There are over 150 releases in the RR catalog recorded by Keith O. Johnson, our chief engineer and Technical Director. He is a true audio legend, having designed and patented many innovative products in the professional and consumer fields. The RR Sound comes from his singular methods and equipment, almost all hand-built or extensively modified by him. Microphone techniques range from purist to complex, depending on the musical forces and the performing space involved. Keith O. Johnson’s investigation of electronic behavior and acoustic perception led to his development (with digital engineer Michael Pflaumer) of the revolutionary High Definition Compatible Digital encoding process, produced and marketed by Pacific Microsonics (recently acquired by Microsoft). Reference Recordings released the first commercial CDs with the process. Currently all Keith Johnson masters are recorded at 176.4 kHz/24 bits, using Pacific Microsonics Model Two HDCD encoders. This brings a high level of accuracy and musicality to digital recordings, whether made into compact discs, SACDs, or released as high resolution digital files.

Reference Recordings has recorded and licensed multi-channel high resolution masters for many years. We have released many in the SACD format. Our first Surround Sound SACD release won a Grammy® Award for Best Surround Sound Recording in 2010. We are excited about recording and releasing more Surround Sound albums, an exciting and uniquely engaging format which fully captures the experience of a live concert performance.

Our FRESH! series showcases outstanding artists and engineering teams from beyond the original RR team. We are extremely pleased to be releasing high quality, hybrid multi-channel SACDs on this series with some of the best American orchestras, recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera, and chamber recordings have received over 135 Grammy nominations and awards. FRESH! is part of Reference Recordings’ mission to encourage artists and give them a strong platform for promotion and sales nationally and internationally.

The Reference Mastercuts series of LP records is winning critical acclaim everywhere. 20 LP titles have been released to date in this new series, with more planned in 2023 and beyond. Disc mastering is from original high resolution digital masters, with lacquers cut by industry experts to ensure maximum accuracy. Reference Mastercuts LPs are 180 gram pressings made at audiophile-favorite pressing plants, currently Record Technology Inc. or Quality Record Pressings. They are packaged in heavy, deluxe gatefold jackets from Stoughton Printing. Depending on the program they are issued at 33 1/3 rpm or 45 rpm.

In 2008, we created a new sound format, HRx DVD-R data discs containing exact, digit for digit copies of the original Reference Recordings 176.4 kHz/ 24 bit masters as WAV files. At the time, high resolution audio was not available to download off the internet at our standard of quality. The files on HRx discs could be copied to computers and played through various digital music servers, and there were specialty players which could play the discs directly. This invention won a Best of Show Award for “Greatest Technological Breakthrough: Reference Recordings’ HRx ultra-high resolution (176.4/24) digital music format.” from The Absolute Sound. HRx was monumental for its time. The format has been discontinued as of 2022. Most of our customers now prefer to download (or even stream) the same quality of audio from our website or other sites. Our original HRx titles are still available to purchase exclusively from Elusive Disc.

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis continues to thrill audiences around the world while racking up achievements across diverse musical platforms, even after four decades in the international spotlight. From his initial recognition as a young jazz lion, he has expanded his vision as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader and educator, crossing stylistic boundaries while maintaining an unwavering creative integrity. In the process, he has become an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence winning three Grammy Awards, a Tony nomination for his work as a composer on Broadway, a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as Jazz Master, and a 2021 Primetime EMMY nomination for the score he composed for the Tulsa Burning documentary.

Marcos Lifshitz

Mexican composer Marcos Lifshitz was the first to serve in the new role of PSO’s Composer in Residence for the 2025/2026 Season.  Mr. Lifshitz’ new piece, Plano Overture premiered at the Plano Symphony’s October 18, 2025 concert.

Mr. Lifshitz studied music at Mexico’s National Conservatory and became a guitar concertmaster at the age of 19. In 1973 he was honored with a full scholarship for the “Taller de Composition Carlos Chavez”, at the National Institute of fine Arts, where he studies Composition until 1976. After writing and producing the music for 12 movies, 2 documentaries, over 600 advertising jingles, several T.V. shows and T.V. network ID´s, in 1987 he became one of the co-founders and Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Concert Society in Mexico City.  Since then, he has devoted his professional life to write, produce and promote symphonic and chamber music in Mexico. To help Mexican children through UNICEF,  he wrote and produced a CD with 10 songs, performed by famous Mexican pop and rock stars.

He has been honored with movie, T.V. and radio awards, as well as with acknowledgements as lecturer and jury for his participation in several conferences, music and dance events.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez

Robert Xavier Rodríguez (b. 1946) is “one of the major American composers of his generation” (Texas Monthly). His music has been described as “Romantically dramatic” (Washington Post), “richly lyrical” (Musical America) and “glowing with a physical animation and delicate balance of moods that combine seductively with his all-encompassing sense of humor” (Los Angeles Times). “Its originality lies in the telling personality it reveals. His music always speaks, and speaks in the composer’s personal language.” (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters).

Rodríguez received his musical training in San Antonio, Austin (UT), Los Angeles (USC), Lenox (Tanglewood), Fontainebleau (Conservatoire Américain) and Paris. His teachers have included Nadia Boulanger, Jacob Druckman, Bruno Maderna and Elliott Carter. Rodríguez first gained international recognition in 1971, when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace at the Palais Princier in Monte Carlo. Other honors include the Prix Lili Boulanger, a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from ASCAP, five NEA grants and the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence with the San Antonio Symphony and the Dallas Symphony. He is currently University Professor at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he holds an Endowed Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble. He is active as a guest lecturer and conductor.

Rodriguez’s works have been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart and Leonard Slatkin and by such organizations as the New York City Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna Schauspielhaus, Israel Philharmonic, Mexico City Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and the Seattle, Houston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Baltimore, St. Louis, National, Boston and Chicago Symphonies. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer, and twenty CDs of his music have been recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Gasparo, Pro Arte, ACA, Urtext, CRI (Grammy nomination), First Edition, Schott, Naxos and Albany labels.

Quinn Mason

Praised as “One of the most sought after young composers in the country” (Texas Monthly), composer and conductor Quinn Mason (b. 1996) has distinguished himself as an artist of national and international renown. He recently finished a successful tenure as Artist in Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for the 2022-2023 season. He also recently served as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Roots composer in residence in 2022 (the youngest composer appointed to that role) and as KMFA 89.5’s inaugural composer in residence.

His orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by over 160 professional, regional, community and youth orchestras in the US and Europe, including the San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of the United States and numerous others, including Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, UK’s Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra and Scotland’s Nevis Ensemble.

As a conductor, Quinn made his major orchestra debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center at age 27. He studied conducting at the National Orchestral Institute with Marin Alsop and James Ross, at the Eastern Music Festival with Gerard Schwarz, José-Luis Novo and Grant Cooper and with Christopher Zimmerman and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Quinn has guest conducted numerous orchestras around the country, including the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, Harmonia Orchestra, MusicaNova Orchestra and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. He also recently served as the Houston Ballet Orchestra’s youngest ever guest conductor. 

His music has also received significant radio play. He served as KMFA 89.5’s inaugural composer in residence and has had his music broadcast on NPR in the US, CBC in Canada, BBC in London, ORF in Vienna, RAI in Italy, in countries such as Switzerland, Hungary, Latvia, Israel and many others.

His chamber music has been presented by celebrated organizations such as Voices of Change, Midsummer’s Music, The Cliburn, One Found Sound, loadbang, MAKE trio, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Axiom Brass, and the Cézanne, Julius, Invoke and Baumer string quartets.

A multiple prize winner in composition, he has received numerous awards and honors from such organizations as the American Composers Forum, Voices of Change, Texas A&M University, ASCAP, the Dallas Foundation, Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, National Flute Association, the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Heartland Symphony Orchestra and the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, Quinn was honored by the Dallas Morning News as a finalist for ‘Texan of the Year’.

Xi Wang

Since arriving in the USA from her native China in 2001, Xi Wang has pursued a whirlwind of musical activities that have made her a rising star in new music. Her unique fusion of Asian and Western instruments and techniques with theatrical and choreographic elements has captivated audiences. Her original concert music has been performed worldwide by notable orchestras and ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Voices of Change, Soli Chamber Ensemble, among others.

Xi Wang is the recipient the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts award, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, American Music Center, MacDowell Colony residency, as well as seven prizes from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Xi Wang has been nominated for the Grawemeyer Award, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Stoeger Prize from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, and Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin.

Xi Wang has received commissions from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Albany Symphony, League of American Orchestras, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, Voices of Change, Great Dallas Youth Orchestra, Soli Chamber Ensemble, among others. Xi Wang was the sole recipient of the 2006-2007 Robbins Family Prize in Music Composition for her exceptional merit and promise as a composer at Cornell University. Her Music for Piano, Percussion and Wind Ensemble was one of the 21 obligatory pieces (selected from over 700 band pieces submitted from over 50 countries) for the 2010 Coups de Vents International Band Competition in France.

As a conductor, Xi Wang has conducted a number of premieres of her own compositions as well as the music by her colleagues. She performs as a solo pianist as well as a chamber music player.

Xi Wang’s music education started at the age of five, She received her B.M. from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, M.M. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and D.M.A. from Cornell University. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the Meadow School of Arts of Southern Methodist University, where she received the Rotunda Award for Outstanding Teaching.