A review of my recent album Beauty 美 with pianist Riko Higuma, written by Chicago-based music critic Henry Fogel, will be published in the November/December issue of Fanfare Magazine. Be sure to check it out, and read a few snippets from the review below.

“This is a delightful recital disc of songs and piano pieces.

“Jeffrey Palmer is an American countertenor based in Brooklyn with a particularly attractive timbre. There is more warmth to the tone than I often find with countertenors, and he sings with great imagination and deep feeling for the words. Although countertenors typically cover the range of a contralto or mezzo-soprano, Palmer is a sopranist, with a particularly high, ethereal range … Palmer is as comfortable in Handel and Purcell as he is in Debussy and Schumann. He demonstrates stunning virtuosity in the unaccompanied scene from Huang Ruo’s Paradise Interrupted … He is also adept in the lighter repertoire represented by two folksongs and Joseph Kosma’s ever-popular Autumn Leaves.

“Pianist Riko Higuma is the accomplished collaborative pianist who works very sensitively with Palmer. This is readily apparent from the delicate shading she employs in the first song, Debussy’s Beau Soir, where Higuma and Palmer breathe as one … Andrew List’s “Amon-Re,” a movement of his piano cycle The Temple of Dendera, is quite gripping in its quiet intensity.

“The recorded sound is very well balanced—neither the singer nor the piano is too far forward or too much in the background—and there is a pleasant sense of space around the performers. This CD will provide you with great listening pleasure and perhaps the joy that comes from discovering a new vocal talent.”

—Henry Fogel