Album Notes

Classical visionary composer, Ron Clearfield, blends New Age sounds with Ethnic, Jazz and Classical genres making a new music for today. World class cellist, Ron Clearfield, also performs on keyboards and percussion and is joined by a host of gifted musicians performing on flute, oboe, French horn, voice, mbira, harp, zither and percussion. This recording climaxes in the final cut, The Journey, scored for full orchestra. This music is timelessly beautiful, powerful and heart provoking. Music that can be enjoyed over and over again.

The critics have spoken of Time on Earth:

"Time on Earth is a heart-provoking, feel-good album that you'll want to relish again and again."
Carol Wright, Barnes and Noble

" Classically trained Ron Clearfield draws on classical, jazz and ethnic motifs offering a varied program for time well spent."
Ted Cox, New Age Retailer

"World-class cellist Clearfield combines a strong classical grounding with layers of ethnic and jazz sounds producing a charming album of intimate, beautiful and meditation-provoking original music. In a musical theme celebrating life on Planet Earth is expressed masterfully by Clearfield and his cohorts."
Molly Alexander, New Age Voice

"In Time on Earth, Ron Clearfield has a dynamic approach in creating contemporary chamber music centered on solo cello, cello choirs, broad keyboard orchestrations and world elements……….and (Ron) has an unerring sense of melody."
John Diliberto, PRI's Echoes and Amazon.com

Ron Clearfield: Cellist/Composer/Conductor
110 Dan Ledbetter Rd.
Leicester, NC 28748
(828) 683-4425 clearfieldstudios@earthlink.net

An accomplished cellist, composer and conductor, Ron Clearfield graduated Summa Cum Laude with Bachelors and Masters degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music studying with Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot and string pedagogues Joseph Silverstein and Leon Barzan. Ron attended the Berkshire Music Festival (Tanglewood) as a fellowship student for two consecutive summers. Ron Clearfield comes from a lineage of gifted musicians. His father was a professional clarinetist who performed with major orchestras through out the United States and Ron’s grandfather, originally from Russia, was a fine pianist and teacher. Ron performs on a beautifully restored French cello made in 1696.

As a cellist, Ron Clearfield was previously a member of the Indianapolis Symphony, the Miami Philharmonic and the Miami Opera Orchestra. He has performed with such pop notables as George Benson, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt and Dionne Warwick as well as with classical luminaries Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Aaron Copland and Seiji Ozawa. Ron was featured on national TV as solo cellist for the A&E Judy Collins Christmas Special at the Biltmore Estate.

As a composer, he has released three critically acclaimed recordings on the EverSound record label: Dream Manifestation, Time on Earth and most currently Music in the Silence. He was recently interviewed on Public Radio International on a special program featuring his music and has toured the United States performing his music on a national Borders Books tour. He has scored for numerous television and film projects including: Homeward Journey, aired on PBS and the film Opening Doors Within, awarded first prize at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival.

As a conductor, Ron Clearfield studied conducting with Leon Barzan while at the New England Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with Joseph Eger and Robert Hart Baker. He served as Assistant Conductor of the Miami Beach Community Orchestra from 1980-1988. Ron has been Music Director of the Asheville Youth Orchestra for the past twelve years and Music Director of the Blue Ridge Orchestra from 1999 to the present. Just recently, Ron Clearfield was appointed by Joseph Eger as regional Music Director of the Asheville division of the Symphony for United Nations.