Music like this is a nail in the heart of the avant-garde. The Concerto is followed up by an exquisite Pavane for String Orchestra, called Aina’s Song, and a Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra. This CD…is another winner in Naxos’ “American Classics” series, and is done to perfection by the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, under Vladimir Lande, with the excellent violinist Charles Weatherbee. © 2012 Crisis Magazine

James Aikman’s works “embrace a colorful tapestry of stylistic influences, including jazz and pop”…the results are fat-free, tasty musical fare that will appeal to most palates. © 2012 MusicWeb International Read complete review

Violin Concerto…a work of soaring lyricism, romantic beauty, and emotional urgency. Unquestionably, this is a major addition to the 20th-century violin concerto repertoire, and soloist Charles Weatherbee is simply fantastic.

Aikman’s Ania’s Song…begins slowly and softly, builds to a big climax, and then subsides…there’s almost a sense of transcendent peace and joy… What emotionally stirring and spiritually uplifting music this is!

In a score like Aikman’s alto saxophone concerto…Sullivan produces a smooth, evenly balanced tone and navigates the technical obstacles of the score with ease and poise.

His latest CD, for Naxos, is attracting brilliant reviews in the likes of “Fanfare” and “Gramophone,” which recently declared, “This could easily be a best-seller in the USA if there were some mechanism to make innovative American composers the talk of the town. © 2011 AnnArbor.com Read complete review

The soloists…are spectacular…Ania’s Song…makes an ideal interlude between two wonderful concertos.

To read the complete review, please visit Gramophone online.

The three Aikman works here draw on multiple stylistic influences, with distinct jazz and pop-music elements and very different levels of expressiveness. The Violin Concerto is the most intricate of the pieces, retaining a strong flavor of improvisation even when thoroughly written-out…At the other emotional and structural end of things is the dissonant and rather harsh Saxophone Concerto, whose clarity of orchestration strongly contrasts with its generally acerbic tone and a sound recalling that of Alban Berg. …Ania’s Song…functions…as a respite for the ear…the orchestra here is Russian and the recording was made in St. Petersburg, yet nothing sounds exotic or as if it is played by musicians uncomfortable with Aikman’s American style. Read complete review