On Friday, November 6, 2026, Sono Luminus releases American Landscape: Music of Jeff Lippencott (SLE-70052), three world premiere recordings that channel the grandeur of the American West through the orchestra that calls it home. The Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra performs under Music Director William Intriligator, joined by Grammy Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey in a concerto written for him and Emmy Award-winning actor Gary Sinise as narrator.
Recorded at the Cheyenne Civic Center in November 2025 by the Grammy-winning team of producer Elaine Martone (Sonarc Music) and engineer Robert Friedrich (Five/Four Productions), the album arrives as the United States marks its semiquincentennial, an anniversary Lippencott meets head-on with American Patriot Hymn, a three-movement work built on texts attributed to Samuel Adams and John Quincy Adams, narrated by Sinise and sung by the Cheyenne Chamber Singers and University of Wyoming Collegiate Chorale.
“The majesty of God’s creation in forming the western landscape gave me pause to reflect musically on what that could sound like. The music is intended to draw the audience closer to his creator and bring a scenic soundscape to the listener’s ear, said composer Jeff Lippencott. “The people, terrain, courage, and faith of the western frontier have long been told through the written word and the artistic eye. American Landscape is an attempt to paint the western story through the lens of melody, rhythm, and chord.”
The album opens with the Pasturelands Cello Concerto, written for Zuill Bailey in an accessible Americana style that traces a day on the ranches and rangelands of the West across four movements: “Awakenings,” “Great Plains,” “Calves at Play,” and “Open Range.” Lippencott credits Bailey’s “determination and tenacity” with bringing the project into being.
Grand Teton Suite follows, a two-movement symphonic portrait of the iconic mountain range that moves from the peaks themselves (“Tetons”) to the river valley below (“Up the Gros Ventre”), matching sweeping orchestral textures with moments of quiet intimacy.
The album closes with American Patriot Hymn, composed in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. Rather than quoting familiar patriotic tunes, Lippencott builds original melodies — broad, singable, and resonant — around founding-era texts that illuminate themes of liberty, sacrifice, and civic responsibility. Sinise, whose four decades of advocacy for veterans and service members have made him one of the country’s most recognizable voices of gratitude, delivers the narration.
Assets:
Streaming link
Download cover art, liner notes & music
A Composer’s Second Act
Jeff Lippencott is one of the most-heard composers in America, even if audiences don’t know his name. As half of the composing team Ah2, alongside Mark T. Williams, he has scored dozens of hit television series — The Biggest Loser, MasterChef, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Dancing with the Stars — earning gold and platinum records, more than 40 ASCAP and BMI awards, and two Primetime Emmy nominations. In recent years his concert music has taken center stage: his Frontier Symphony earned the 2019 Western Heritage Music Award for Best Original Western Composition and a producer Grammy nomination, and he now serves as Composer in Residence of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra.
Zuill Bailey, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winning, internationally renowned soloist, recitalist, Artistic Director and teacher. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has made him one of the most sought after and active cellists today.
Mr. Bailey has been featured with symphony orchestras and music festivals worldwide. He won the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award in 2017, for his recording of Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guerrero. His extensive discography includes his newest release – the world premier recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. In 2021 he released his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites for PS Audio’s Octave Records label, recorded and mixed in stereo and multichannel sound.
He appeared in a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” and has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,” “Performance Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s “In Tune,” XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” and his latest disc of Bach Suites was the disc of the week on Sirius’ Symphony Hall.
Mr. Bailey received his bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory where he was named the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni and received a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. He performs on the “rosette” 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.
He is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival/Series and Cello Seminar, (Alaska), Juneau Jazz and Classics, (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington), Classical Inside Out Series- Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and is Director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.
For nearly 75 years, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra has been the sound of possibility in southeast Wyoming. Under Intriligator’s leadership, the orchestra has built a reputation for artistic ambition that reaches far beyond its size, collaborating with soloists including Zuill Bailey, Michelle Cann, Miriam Fried, and Gene Pokorny.
American Landscape: Music of Jeff Lippencott is available [Friday, November 6, 2026] on Sono Luminus. Total time: 57:22.
Track Listing
Pasturelands Cello Concerto — Zuill Bailey, cello
1. I. Awakenings (9:44)
2. II. Great Plains (5:10)
3. III. Calves at Play (4:48)
4. IV. Open Range (6:14)
Grand Teton Suite
5. I. Tetons (5:18)
6. II. Up the Gros Ventre (5:22)
American Patriot Hymn — Gary Sinise, narrator
7. I. Movement 1 (9:31)
8. II. Movement 2: The Source of Liberty (4:23)
9. III. Movement 3 (6:16)
Cheyenne Chamber Singers, Dir. Sean Ambrose
University of Wyoming Collegiate Chorale, Dir. Brian C. Murray