Sept. 25: Cellist Tamar Sagiv Performs at National Sawdust Album Release Concert Featuring Music from New Album Shades of Mourning

Left, Photo of Tamar Sagiv by Marije Van Den Breg available in hi-resolution here.

Cellist Tamar Sagiv Performs at National Sawdust
Album Release Concert Featuring Music from New Album
Shades of Mourning

September 25, 2025 at 7:30pm
National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets & Information

Worldwide Release Date: August 8, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

 Press download and CDs available upon request.

www.tamarsagiv.com | www.sonoluminus.com

On September 25, 2025, acclaimed New York City-based cellist and composer Tamar Sagiv will perform music from her highly anticipated new album, Shades of Mourning, at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. The new album, which will be released on GRAMMY®-winning label Sono Luminus, will be out August 8, 2025 - pre-order here. The album features nine original compositions by Sagiv that explore the multifaceted nature of grief and mourning through deeply personal musical landscapes. Violinist Leerone Hakami and violist Ella Bukszpan collaborate with Sagiv on four of the tracks.

Described by New York Weekly as "an innovative cellist [whose] versatility sets her apart from her peers," Sagiv was drawn to music's unique ability to convey the nuance of complex emotions and lived experiences.

"I am writing these words while the Middle East, my place of birth, is bleeding. Like me, my friends, family, and neighbors who live on the other side of fences built to divide us carry excruciating pain that grows deeper as the wars continue,” Sagiv writes. “My grandfather, born in Syria and shaped by hardship, believed in peace until his last day. Because of him, I believe in peace, and I hope this is one belief I will never have to grieve. These experiences of personal loss, collective grief, and enduring hope became the foundation for the music in this album."

Shades of Mourning began in the most intimate of circumstances. "This album began, unknowingly, at my grandmother's deathbed," Sagiv writes in her liner notes. "I didn't realize then that the piece I wrote while she was taking her last breaths would grow into an album, nor did I yet know I was a composer." That first piece became the album's opening track – a passacaglia that Sagiv describes as "a farewell to a woman who shaped my life in ways I'm still uncovering."

Each work on the album illuminates different aspects of the grieving process, from profound loss to unexpected moments of renewal.

Roots explores heritage and identity with what Sagiv calls "something wild, unexpected, unapologetic," capturing the visceral connection between blood and soil, between individual identity and generational history. Roots was premiered at Sagiv’s Carnegie Hall debut in May 2023, and performed alongside her mentor, acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz, at the Cello Biennale Festival in Amsterdam.

Intermezzo, composed during an artist residency in the Catskills, emerged from Sagiv's experience of being immersed in the beauty of nature soon after her grandmother’s death. The piece is dedicated to Purcell Palmer, the founder of the artist residency, who Sagiv became close to and who passed away months later. Sagiv writes, “I wish she knew how profoundly she and her home affected me, how much healing I found in the sanctuary she created.”

And Maybe You Never Used to Be, inspired by Philip Glass's minimalist works, explores grief in new dimensions, going beyond personal loss to look at the shattering of friendships, ideas, and deeply held values through a four-movement string trio. Sagiv writes, “And maybe you never used to be – my first chamber music work – opens the collection with a question: what happens when the things we thought were certain begin to shatter?”

My Clouds of Grief captures the inescapable heaviness that follows mourners through each day, when "colors drain from the world around you" and even laughter sounds distant and hollow. “I wanted the music to envelope listeners in this heaviness, to let them experience how it feels when grief becomes your constant companion, surrounding you in its seemingly infinite darkness,” writes Sagiv.

The End of Times creates delicate and lush colors and textures while grappling with existential questions about our final moments, whispered through veiled tones and gentle dissonances. Sagiv writes, “In this movement, I grapple with uncertainty. Will we find relief in our final moments, or will pain be our lasting legacy?”

Imaginary World envisions a refuge where no living creature suffers, and is Sagiv’s imagined response to ongoing wars and conflicts, where beings exist side by side despite disagreements and painful histories. She writes, “Inspired by Philip Glass’s Mishima Quartet, whose music offered me solace during dark times, I created this movement. May it bring you the same joy and comfort that this music brought me.”

The album concludes with Prelude and In My Blue, inspired by Chet Baker's Almost Blue and Bossa Nova rhythms. "I wanted to end this album not in sorrow, but with the same quiet hope that music has always given me," Sagiv explains. "The possibility that even after profound loss, we can still move forward. Together."

Tamar Sagiv is a cellist and composer whose musical language bridges classical tradition with contemporary expression. Her work explores themes of memory, identity, and emotional resonance, often drawing on personal experiences to create sound worlds that feel both intimate and universal.

About Tamar Sagiv: Originally from Northern Israel, Sagiv began her musical training at the Kfar Blum Music Center with Uri Chen and continued at the Israeli Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem with Prof. Hillel Zori. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the Buchmann Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, and completed both her Master’s and Professional Diploma (PDPL) at the Mannes School of Music in New York City under Prof. Matt Haimovitz’s guidance.

As a performer, she has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Israel and Germany, and played at venues including Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, National Bohemian Hall, and the New York Public Library. Her music has been broadcast on Israeli National Radio since she was 16.

Sagiv has participated in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Gary Hoffman, and Frans Helmerson, and attended festivals across Israel, Europe, and the U.S. Her achievements have been recognized by awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Ronen Foundation, and a Certificate of Honor from Maestro Zubin Mehta. In 2022, she performed the music of composer James Simon – who perished in Auschwitz – at Carnegie Hall.

Her debut album on Sono Luminus highlights her distinctive compositional voice and virtuosic playing, establishing her as a powerful new voice in contemporary classical music.

Oct. 24: Martin Fröst Announces B.A.C.H. – New Album of Works by J.S. Bach Arranged for Clarinet Released on Sony Classical

Martin Fröst Announces B.A.C.H. 
New Album of Works by J.S. Bach Arranged for Clarinet
Released on Sony Classical

Out Today: Aria (Goldberg Variations) BWV 988,
Arr. for Clarinet and Bass - Listen Here

Album Release Date: October 24, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

“…a virtuosity and musicianship unsurpassed by any clarinettist – perhaps any instrumentalist – in my memory”
– The New York Times

Acclaimed Swedish clarinettist and conductor, Martin Fröst is proud to announce his brand-new album, B.A.C.H. dedicated to the music of J.S. Bach. Bach’s music has fascinated Fröst throughout his life, being enchanted and beguiled by its intimate form, even at a very young age. Although Bach never encountered the clarinet, this has proved no barrier for Martin Fröst, who has returned to Bach’s music time and time again throughout his illustrious career. In the past, Fröst devised performance programmes entitled ‘Beyond All Clarinet History’ (B.A.C.H.), which intertwined Bach’s timeless melodies with new arrangements and he returns to this original idea here with sparkling new interpretations both for clarinet and a variety of other instruments, such as bass, cello, and theorbo that form the linchpin of his new B.A.C.H. album, released by Sony Classical on October 24, 2025. New single, Aria (Goldberg Variations) BWV 988, Arr. for clarinet and bass, is accompanying today's announcement – listen here.

B.A.C.H. was recorded in an extraordinary setting: an old wooden chapel set in the Swedish countryside, purchased, restored, and turned into a studio and concert venue by Fröst himself and which provided the perfect environment for this extraordinary musical adventure which features a range of fascinating artists including Sebastien Dubé – double bass, Göran Fröst – viola, Anastasia Kobekina – cello and Jonas Nordberg – lute alongside a special guest appearance by Benny Andersson of ABBA on piano on the closing track.

Martin Fröst has spoken openly about his experience living with Ménière’s disease - an inner ear disorder - and it was during a particularly intense bout of the illness that he suddenly experienced the desire to perform JS Bach’s music again. Working in the converted chapel together with his brother, viola player Göran and alongside some close and trusted musician friends, Martin Fröst and the team crafted the arrangements as they rehearsed and by Christmas 2024, they were ready to record. It was an intense process, whereby everyone involved lived, ate, rehearsed, recorded and slept in the chapel, even producer, Hans Kipfer, who took up residence in the choir loft for the duration.

The choice of J.S. Bach’s music for the recording is based on some of Fröst’s favourite pieces that have been with him constantly throughout his own musical expeditions. The Prelude in C major, BWV 846, heard here in the form of the Ave Maria, is a remarkable musical exercise—both musically and technically—since one cannot play the clarinet for two minutes and forty-six seconds on a single breath. It’s a piece Fröst has been playing for as long as he can remember. The track also features the much-lauded young cellist Anastasia Kobekina, who features throughout a great deal of the recording.

Fröst has also chosen a few of the Inventions and Sinfonias (BWV 772–801), a collection of short pieces that connect various ideas. Here each piece is treated like an individual miniature, separate from the traditional context of the larger work and with the focus on the unique essence of each Invention, presented here as an invitation for personal exploration and contemplation.

The French Suite was a cherished companion throughout Fröst’s teenage years, and he still draws from it as a wellspring of inspiration for his clarinet playing, finding that its delicate balance of silence and sound resonates deeply within his instrument, forming a profound connection to Bach's music. With every breath, Fröst feels Bach’s essence as a gentle thread spanning time and space.

A truly special track concludes the recording. ABBA's Benny Andersson is a huge fan of classical music and especially the music of Bach. He agreed to join the proceedings, choosing a very special work for which Martin Fröst then composed a contrapuntal part, making for a deeply personal take on the second movement of Bach's Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056.

With this unique, inventive album, Martin Fröst guides the listener through the enduring landscape of Bach's music. It is an album born of moments of challenge, unexpected discovery, and profound collaboration. Its narrative of connection and the sheer joy of the music and of the collective music-making will hopefully resonate keenly with all who listen.

Track Listing:

1. Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria (Arr. for Clarinet and Bass by Martin Fröst and Sebastien Dubé) [04.49]
2. Sinfonia in G Major, BWV 796 (Arr. for Clarinet and Cello by Matthias Spindler) [00.47]
3. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 (Arr. for Clarinet and Theorbo by Martin Fröst and Jonas Nordberg) [02.26]
4. St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244: No. 62. "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" (Arr. for Clarinets and Cello by Martin Fröst) [01.16]
5. Orchestral Suite No.3 in D Major, BWV 1068: II. Air (Arr. for Clarinet, Theorbo and Bass by Martin Fröst, Jonas Nordberg and Sebastien Dubé) [04.48]
6. Invention No.10 in G Major, BWV 781 (Arr. for Clarinet and Viola by Göran Fröst) [00.46]
7. French Suite No.5 in G Major, BWV 816: III. Sarabande (Arr. for Clarinet and Theorbo by Martin Fröst and Jonas Nordberg) [03.59]
8. Sonata for Viola da Gamba in D Major, BWV 1028: I. Adagio (Arr. for Clarinet, Cello, and Bass by Martin Fröst, Anastasia Kobekina and Sebastien Dubé) [01.54]
9. Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590: III. Aria (Arr. for Clarinet and Theobo by Martin Fröst and Jonas Nordberg [02.43]
10. Invention No.4 in D Minor, BWV 775 (Arr. for Clarinet and Cello by Matthias Spindler) [00.55]
11. French Suite No.5 in G Major, BWV 816: I. Allemande (Arr. for Clarinet and Theorbo by Martin Fröst and Jonas Nordberg) [03.15]
12. Prelude in D Minor, BWV 851 (Arr. for Clarinet and Bass by Martin Fröst and Sebastien Dubé) [01.23]
13. Ave Maria (Meditation on the Prelude by J. S. Bach) (Arr. for Clarinet and Cello by Martin Fröst) [02.34]
14. Herr Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 335 (Arr. for Clarinet and Theobo by Martin Fröst and Jonas Nordberg) [01.33]
15. Invention No. 6 in E Major, BWV 777 (Arr. for Clarinet and Viola by Göran Fröst) [03.15]
16. Prelude in C-Sharp Major, BWV 872 (Arr. for Clarinet, Theorbo and Bass by Martin Fröst, Jonas Nordberg and Sebastien Dubé) [02.17]
17. Largo (after Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056) (Arr. for Clarinet and Piano by Martin Fröst and Benny Andersson) [03.05]

Oct 17: 130701/FatCat Records Releases Clarice Jensen’s Fourth Solo Album In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness

130701/FatCat Records Announces

Clarice Jensen’s Fourth Solo Album
In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness

Worldwide Release Date: October 17, 2025
Listen/Pre-Save

First Single From a to b Out Today
Listen

Downloads and CDs available to press on request

"The Zen clarity of her sound recalls masters like Phill Niblock, evoking universes by honing in on narrow ranges of frequency. But the way Jensen shifts her drones, building them gradually and then hard-cutting to completely new tones, feels singular." – Pitchfork

"languorously void-touching ideas, scaling and sustaining a sublime tension" – Boomkat

www.claricejensen.com | www.fatcat.online/130701

July 17, 2025 – Composer and cellist Clarice Jensen will release her fourth solo album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, on October 17, 2025 via FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. The new album showcases Jensen’s distinctive compositional approach, in which she improvises and layers her cello through shifting loops and a chain of electronic effects, exploring a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Pulsing, visceral and full of color, her work is deeply immersive, marked by a wonderful sense of restraint and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Jensen recorded In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness as part of the Visiting Artist Programme at Studio Richter Mahr, the creative space co-founded by Yulia Mahr and Max Richter in Oxfordshire, England.

Having made a solo move to the Berkshire Mountains in upstate New York in September 2020 after many years living in Brooklyn, Jensen found herself confronting and enjoying a newfound solitude as the non-stop movement and collaboration of city life as a musician had come to a standstill. The first LP she made post-move – Esthesis, released on 130701 in 2022 – is largely devoid of cello, synth heavy, and examines emotions in a self-conscious way from an isolated point of view that is nearly one-dimensional.

Jensen sets new parameters for In holiday clothing, placing the acoustic sound of the cello at the fore, and affecting the sound only through a few effects (octave displacement, delay, tremolo and looping).

“It felt necessary to return to the rich acoustic sound of the cello that I've loved and produced for nearly my entire life, and to return to an expression of emotion that's multi-dimensional and sincere,” she notes.

The first single from the new album, From a to b, is out today. From a to b explores the idea of how and when a solo line becomes two, and how a singular melodic voice can become its own counterpoint. The solo line is sent through various delays creating counterpoint. In its performance, Jensen reacts to the delays which inform the expression and variable timing of the line. She explains, “What results is a feedback loop of expression and response. Compositionally, the highest note of the piece is A, and later B(flat); this half-step move marks how the small shift in height alters greatly the perspective and urgency of the melodic narrative.”

As a soloist, Jensen endeavors to establish a new tradition of solo cello performance that integrates electronics with the storied and beloved performance practice intrinsic to the instrument. She places great importance on finding and working with effects pedals that integrate well with the cello (and avoids overt use of plugins or playback).

Jensen considers the solo cello works of J.S. Bach as a central backdrop to this new album. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites display a rich range of voices created by one instrument. Having found ways to expand the sound and voice of the instrument through electronics, Jensen found it fitting to return to Bach's works – music she has played for many years – as a way to touch back in with the tradition of the instrument. 

As a composer, Jensen insists that the programmatic elements of her albums align and ring true. This album’s title is taken from the quote from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, “… what steps forth, in holiday clothing, out of the great darkness." She writes, “the quote from Rilke had been bouncing around my mind for many years; the visualisation of musical ideas being born and echoing inside a ‘great darkness,’ then emerging ‘in holiday clothing’ felt very beautiful and tangible, and this essay, which to me is a manifesto in celebration of solitude, depicts what so many artists and composers experience when they endeavor solitary work. This album reflects a personal and conceptual exploration of what solo means.”

Jensen’s live performance schedule takes her across the country this summer and fall. She performs today, July 17, presented by Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City in New York. She is currently touring with My Chemical Romance on the band's Long Live The Black Parade US tour, which runs through September 13. She shares a bill with Lavinia Meijer and Caimin Gilmore at PS 21 in Chatham, NY on July 21 and TURNmusic in Waterbury, VT on July 22. She performs with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Beacon Theatre in New York from July 28-30, 2025. This fall, she opens for Suzanne Ciani presented by Age of Reflections in Denver on November 15, San Francisco on November 21, New York on December 6, and Los Angeles on December 13, 2025. Full concert schedule: www.claricejensen.com/events

The new album adds to Jensen’s growing discography. Her striking debut album For This From That Will Be Filled was released in April 2018 on the Berlin-based label Miasmah and followed in September 2019 by the "Drone Studies" EP, a cassette release via Geographic North. Signing to FatCat’s 130701 imprint in late summer 2019, her sophomore album The experience of repetition as death was released April 2020. Naming it among the top 50 albums of 2020, NPR remarked "This collection of requiems for a dying mother ranks among the great ambient albums of the 21st century." Her latest album Esthesis was released in October 2022 and NPR ranked it among the Best Experimental Albums of the Year. Boomkat stated, “Jensen finds a fine line between in-the-moment, tactile precision and lingering hallucinatory afterimages that emerge from her improv/compositional system. The pieces betray an exquisite depth of feeling in Jensen’s diffractive rendering of shimmering layers and gently transitory movements,” with Magnetic Magazine reporting, “There is no doubt this album will impact people profoundly.”

Clarice Jensen’s music is a natural fit for film and she is increasingly in demand as a film and television composer. Her recent scores include Amber Sealey's No Man of God starring Elijah Wood which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival; Takeshi Fukunaga's Ainu Mosir, which premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival; Fernanda Valadez's 2020 Sundance Film Festival award-winner Sin Señas Particulares (Identifying Features), for which Jensen was nominated for a 2021 Ariel Award for Best Original Music by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences; Caught in the Web: The Murders Behind Zona Divas (2024), a four-part Netflix documentary on femicide in Mexico from Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez; and A Want in Her, a documentary film from Myrid Carten which premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2024.

A versatile collaborator, Jensen has recorded and performed with a host of stellar artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Björk, Stars of the Lid, Dustin O’Halloran, Nico Muhly, Taylor Swift, Michael Stipe, the National and many others. In her role as the artistic director of ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), she has helped bring to life some of the most revered works of modern classical music, including pieces by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Gavin Bryars, and more. 

Clarice Jensen: In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness
FatCat Records/130701 | October 17, 2025

1. In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness - Part 1 [12:56]
2. From a to b [5:35]
3. 2,1 [4:11]
4. 1,2 [4:08]
5. In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness - Part 2 [8:35]
6. Unity [5:29]

Recorded at Studio Richter Mahr by Rupert Coulson, 30 October - 1 November 2024
Mastered by Alan Douches
Photography by Ebru Yildiz
Album art by DLT

Photo by Ebru Yildiz. Press photos and album cover available here.

Sept. 26: Ensemble Galilei Releases Special 2-CD Album There I Long to Be on Sono Luminus – Featuring Early, Traditional, and Original Music

Ensemble Galilei Releases There I Long to Be
New Album on Sono Luminus

Special 2-CD Set Celebrating Ensemble’s 35th Anniversary

Featuring Early and Traditional Music by Turlough O'Carolan, John Dowland, Pieter de Vois, and more and original music by Isaac Alderson, Jesse Langen, James Oxley and Carolyn Surrick

Worldwide Release: September 26, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

Release Concerts in Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washington, DC

“a genuine love for the music they're playing, an uplifting spirit in their performances, and not-a-little fond sentimentality toward their work” – Classical Candor

Downloads and CDs available to press on request

www.EGMusic.com | SonoLuminus.com

Iconic musician collective Ensemble Galilei announces its new album There I Long to Be, which will be released September 26, 2025 on Sono Luminus. This special 2-CD release coincides with Ensemble Galilei’s 35th anniversary and marks the group’s fourth recording with the GRAMMY®-winning label, following 2015’s From Whence We Came.

Ensemble Galilei is a small ensemble specializing in a wide range of music for their particular instrumentation, and includes Isaac Alderson (uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, tenor saxophone), Jesse Langen (guitar), Kathryn Montoya (recorders, whistle, shawm), Jackie Moran (banjo, bodhrán, egg shaker; and founder Carolyn Surrick (viola da gamba). The group performs Renaissance and Baroque, Ancient and recent Celtic (including Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Galician music), and Irish music, including some works especially written for them. The ensemble is named after Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520-1592), a pioneer in the Greek-inspired movement that created “opera in musica.” He is credited as both simplifying and bringing passion back into music, and was also a leading theoretician of his time. (His son, Galileo Galilei, was the great astronomer.)

Featuring 47 tunes across 34 tracks on two discs, There I Long to Be contains an abundance of jigs, reels, traditional tunes, and early music, as well as works by members of the Ensemble. In addition to the five regular Ensemble members, this recording also features Hanneke Cassel (fiddle, and Ensemble Galilei emeritus member), Tim Langen (fiddle), Ronn McFarlane (lute), and James Oxley (tenor).

The project began as two albums, on parallel paths. One was new for Ensemble Galilei – an early music, classical album. The other was in line with the approach the Ensemble had embraced in its previous recordings. As Surrick put it, “For the first time, we were going to record an early music album in a conventional classical music style. Ensemble Galilei had always been known as a crossover group, meaning that while it was true that we performed early music, traditional music was always right around the corner. We never sought to achieve a level of historical performance practice that might engage early music audiences, until now.”

Recorded over the course of two years, the music on There I Long to Be encompasses a wide range of musical styles, cultures, and time periods – a combination of the musicians’ individual interests and the group’s focus. What unites it is an artistic vision that is inspired and undeterred, and unique to Ensemble Galilei. Sono Luminus CEO Collin Rae recognized this, and suggested embracing a 2-CD format to showcase the Ensemble’s full scope.

The new album adds to Ensemble Galilei’s extensive discography, which has attracted millions of streams on Spotify. Surrick writes, “I looked at our Spotify page for the first time and saw that we had millions of streams. Our big cities were Paris, Seattle, and London, and our demographic was predominantly people in their late teens, twenties, and early thirties, not our usual concert audience – they were listening and sharing with friends. This was happening all over the world.”

This discovery illustrated Ensemble Gailei’s mission of deeply connecting with humanity through music. As Surrick summarizes in this album’s liner notes, “In the end, if the musicians have brought their hearts, souls, and years of mastery, if the recording team has entered into the space with wisdom, tools, patience and good will, if LIndsey Nelson, our executive producer, is saying, ‘Sure, let’s book one more session to make this the very best it can possibly be’ then the opportunity exists for the listener to hear it all — the breath, the intention, the ensemble, the soloist, the fingers on the strings, the air as it comes out of the recorder, the hands on the regulators of the uilleann pipes, the tipper as it touches the head of the bodhran, the rosin on the fiddle’s bow, and feathered end of the note on a viola da gamba. It is all there.”

There I Long to Be is Ensemble Galilei’s sixteenth recording, adding to the group’s exceptional discography, which includes Music in the Great Hall (1992, Maggie’s Music); Ancient Noels (1993, Maggie’s Music); Following the Moon (1995, Dorian Discovery); The Mystic and the Muse (1997, Dorian/NPR Classics); Come, Gentle Night (2000, Telarc); From the Isles to the Courts (2001, Telarc); A Winter’s Night (2002, Maggie’s Music); Alta (2005, EG Records); From the Edge of the World (2007, EG Records); Notes from Across the Sea (2009, self-release); A Change of Worlds (2012, Sono Luminus); Surrounded by Angels (2013, Sono Luminus); From Whence We Came (2015, Sono Luminus); Flowers of the Forest (2018, Flowerpot Productions); A Solstice Gathering (2020, Flowerpot Productions).

Ensemble Galilei: There I Long to Be
Release Date: September 26, 2025 | Sono Luminus

Disc 1: [1-18]

[1] Planxty Hewlett - Turlough O’Carolan [6:06]
The Dusty Miller - Traditional Irish Slip Jig
The Last Minute - Isaac Alderson & Jesse Langen
[2] Come Away, Death - Tune: James Oxley [2:36]
Lyrics: Wm. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
[3] Lament for Owen Roe O’Neill - Turlough O’Carolan [4:34]
Allan Water - Playford Collection of 1700
Licke-potje - anon. with divisions by Kathryn Montoya
[4] Io son un Pellegrino - Giovanni da Firenze [1:45]
Serbian Wedding Dance - Traditional Serbian
[5] The Boys of Barr na Sraide - Sigerson Clifford [3:54]
[6] Fantasia no.3 - Pieter de Vois [1:32]
[7] Flow my teares - John Dowland [4:07]
[8] Life - Tobias Hume [2:25]
[9] Tweede Stuck - Christiaen Herwich [3:15]
[10] Gallarde Faraboscho - anon. [1:35]
[11] Bruach Na Carraige Báine - Traditional Irish [2:53]
[12] Venus Birds - John Bennet [3:17]
[13] Gjendine’s Bådlåt - Traditional Norwegian Lullaby [5:29]
Gjendine’s Waltz - Carolyn Surrick
[14] Cape Clear - Traditional Irish Air [4:44]
[15] Fantasia no. 2 - Pieter de Vois [1:09]
[16] Loftus Jones - Turlough O’Carolan [2:47]
[17] When that I was a Little Tiny Boy - Tune: The Gypsy Princess [2:27]
Lyrics: Wm. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
[18] Waltz no.1 - Isaac Alderson [2:41]

[Disc 1 Runtime: 58:06]

Disc 2: [19-34]

[19] Barn Dance no.1 - Isaac Alderson [3:52]
[20] Go Cristall teares - John Dowland [2:53]
[21] Frere Frapar - anon. [3:49]
Zesde Petit Brande - anon.
La Perichone - anon.
[22] Love is the Cause of My Mourning from A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes - Miss Noble Turlough O’Carolan [4:22]
[23] His Golden Lockes - John Dowland [3:30]
[24] Sliabh Geal gCua - Slow Air, c. Pádraig Ó Miléadha [6:26]
Aggie Whyte’s - Traditional Irish Reel
The Old Blackthorn Stick - Traditional Irish Reel
[25] As I Roved Out - Traditional Irish [3:44]
[26] The Leaving of St. Kilda - Willie Ross [3:43]
[27] Au joly bois - Claudin de Sermisy [1:37]
[28] Suzanna Galliard - John Dowland [1:51]
[29] Vierde Carileen - Cornelis Kist, divisions, Jacob Van Eyck [1:59]
[30] Onques Amour - Thomas Crecquillon [3:28]
divisions by Giovanni Bassano
[31] Jesus in Thy Dying Woes - Swedish Litany [1:29]
[32] Beware Fair Maids - William Corkine [2:24]
[33] Old Simon the King - from The Division Flute [2:46]
[34] Fair Maid of Barra - Traditional Scottish Pipe Tune [4:35]
The Sporting Pitchfork - Traditional Irish Jig
Scattery Island - Traditional Irish Slide

[Disc 2 Runtime: 53:14]
[Total Time: 1:51:20]

Lindsey R. Nelson, Executive Producer
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Robert Friedrich, Five/Four Productions, LLC®
Collin J. Rae, Executive Producer
Produced by Dan Merceruio
Joshua Frey, Layout
Carolyn Surrick, Liner Notes
Photography: Bernard McWilliams
Cover Art: Amy Fenton-Shine

About Ensemble Galilei: The principal is simple and exquisite: put five, brilliant and collaborative musicians in a room, empower them equally, and then set them free. And when they choose a piece of music, it is not the tune’s provenance that matters, not its musicological era, nor its country of origin. It is the story being told, leading to the journey that the musicians embark upon, together.

Predictably, Scottish fiddlers will bring Scottish music. Irish pipers may bring slow airs, jigs and reels. Early music wind players might bring 17th century variations. But then, the harper brings a Polska from Sweden. The gamba player brings a drone that apparently has its origins at the center of the earth, and after 35 years of being an instrumental ensemble, someone starts to sing. Go figure.

A new melody shows up, written in grief. Another, written in love. The words of Frederick Douglass are set to a tune by Turlough O’Carolan, a poem by Jim Harrison, set to a hymn from Southern Harmony. The connective tissue is not a genre, it is a passion. Theirs is commitment to remarkable music making, and indeed, this is where Ensemble Galilei dwells, sharing the journey with audiences, decade after decade.

Aug. 22: Sony Classical Releases Fourth Album in Beethoven For Three Series with Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma

Album Artwork (Download)

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma
Announce Fourth Album in Beethoven For Three Series on Sony Classical

Symphony No. 1 / Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost” / Op. 11 Gassenhauer

Symphony No. 1: III. Menuetto. Allegro Molto e Vivace 
Out Now | Listen Here

Album Release Date: August 22, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma announce the fourth album in their Beethoven for Three series, out August 22, 2025 on Sony Classical and available for pre-order now. Featuring Symphony No. 1 (Op. 21) and the Ghost (Op. 70, No. 1) and Gassenhauer (Op. 11) piano trios, this new recording marks another milestone in three friends’ journey through the marvels of one extraordinary composer. Accompanying today’s album news is the first single – the Minuet from Beethoven’s First Symphony – listen here.

Beethoven for Three features three artists in pursuit of the essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, presenting his most iconic symphonies in trio arrangements. By performing the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, the artists give audiences a rare look at Beethoven's compositional language at its most intimate and raw—all while conveying the power and immediacy of his orchestral works.

From the symphony that gave the world its first glimpse of Beethoven's revolutionary voice, carefully reinterpreted for piano, violin, and cello by Shai Wosner, to the singular “Ghost” trio and cheerful “Gassenhauer” trio, this newly-announced recording presents more than a decade of the composer's output and evolution distilled to brilliant fundamentals by the longtime friends, collaborators, and musical explorers.

“We all feel that being able to participate in a symphony is such a wonderful thing to do,” says Ma. “One of the things that has separated people since recording began is the categories that we put people in, in which chamber musicians, orchestra players, people who play concertos, people who do transcriptions, people who compose, people who conduct, are all viewed as separate categories with no overlap. That siloed thinking discourages actual creativity and collaboration between people. And so we feel that one of the things that is really important to do today is to actually go back to the first principles of music, the simple interaction between friends who want to do something together."

Beethoven for Three has its origins in the 2021 Tanglewood Music Festival, where Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in trio format. The performance was an instant success, and the first release in the series, Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5, was recorded soon after. Gramophone highlighted their recording of Symphony No. 5, noting that “the performance by Ax, Kavakos and Ma is not just aptly intense—the opening Allegro con brio is as involving as any orchestral performance I've heard—but also incredibly sensitive to the music’s crucial juxtapositions, as one can hear in the Andante con moto, where they so deftly balance delicacy and heroic swagger—note the vulnerability in Kavakos's tone at 1'42"—in a way that I find deeply moving."

The second installment in the project, Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” and Op. 1, No. 3 was released in 2022 to further acclaim. The Strad noted that "the blend and balance between these three hugely experienced players is just about ideal in the relaxed outer movements [of Symphony No. 6] and in the ‘Scene by the Brook’, while the ‘Peasants’ Merrymaking’ is as rustic and playful as the ‘Storm’ is disruptive...They are just as urbane and sophisticated in the C minor Piano Trio...This is Ax’s stamping ground and he brings his string-playing friends along with him for a performance that beguiles and delights from beginning to end."

Their third, a pairing of the unforgettable "Archduke" trio with his fourth symphony, arranged for piano, violin, and cello by Shai Wosner, was released in 2024. "Ax’s ten fingers provide most of the symphony’s harmonic support, leaving Ma and Kavakos free to concentrate on melodic charms and quirks," wrote The Times. "All unite in ensemble verve and kaleidoscopic hues: qualities that equally mark Beethoven’s Archduke trio of 1811, which follows... intimate chamber music playing doesn’t come much better than this."

Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first performed together as a trio at the 2014 Tanglewood Festival, playing a program of Brahms's piano trios. Their first recording effort, Brahms: The Piano Trios, was released in 2017 to universal critical acclaim; Gramophone observed that "These performances get straight to the heart of Brahms’s music, relishing its pull of opposites," while Limelight noted, "There’s no doubting the ardour that these players bring to the music, which is delivered with an eye to creating broad, sweeping phrases … there are plenty of opportunities to swoon along the way.”

They return to Tanglewood once more on August 3 for an all-Beethoven recital centered on a performance of Symphony No. 3, arranged for piano quartet by Shai Wosner. Also on the program are the Leonore Overture No. 3—also arranged for piano quartet by Wosner—and the "Gassenhauer" trio; violist Antoine Tamestit joins for the Leonore overture and Symphony.

Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.

Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 1 / Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost” / Op. 11 “Gassenhauer” 
Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, & Yo-Yo Ma

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
1 I. Adagio molto - Allegro con brio
2 II. Andante cantabile con moto
3 III. Menuetto. Allegro molto e vivace
4 IV. Finale. Adagio - Allegro molto e vivace

Piano Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70 No. 1, Ghost
5 I. Allegro vivace e con brio
6 II. Largo assai ed espressivo
7 III. Presto

Piano Trio No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 11, Gassenhauer
8 I. Allegro con brio
9 II. Adagio
10 III. Tema: Pria ch'io l'impegno. Allegretto

Approved PR Image (Credit: Lawrence Sumulong): Download
Left To Right: Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma

Connect With The Artists

Emanuel Ax
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Leonidas Kavakos
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Yo-Yo Ma
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# # #

Sept. 26: Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Releases New Album of Bach's Cello Suites on Sony Classical – Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ Out Today

Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Records Bach’s Cello Suites
for New Album to be Released on Sony Classical

New Single: Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ Out Today

Worldwide Release Date: September 26, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

“There might not yet be as many recordings of Bach’s cello suites as there are stars in the sky, but there are certainly as many ways of interpreting this monumental music, both in performance and philosophically.”

An extraordinary two years for Anastasia Kobekina, who reaches a high point in September when Sony Classical releases the trailblazing cellist’s recording of Bach’s iconic Cello Suites on September 26, 2025. Pre-order is available now. Accompanying today’s announcement is the release of Suite No. 5 ‘Sarabande’ - listen here.

Kobekina’s career has been gathering momentum since her receipt in 2024 of both the Leonard Bernstein Award and an Opus Klassik Award and the release of the full length documentary ‘Jetzt oder nie!’ through ARD.

Taking on Bach’s set of six suites for solo cello – an Everest for cellists – she aims to open up ‘a shared space for interpretation, mine and yours.’ As with her previous album for Sony Classical, the hugely acclaimed Venice, Kobekina promises a fresh view of familiar music. She performs on period instruments, bringing a historically informed perspective to these iconic works.

Bach’s Cello Suites represent the music that has accompanied Kobekina the longest and which has performed most frequently. ‘The dialectic nature of Bach’s suites – their internal dialogue and contradictions – has always fascinated me,’ says

Kobekina. ‘The language is abstract, architectural, rational, logical, and at the same time passionate, emotional, and deeply personal to the performer.’

The works themselves represent the baroque composer’s most inwardly concentrated and revered music. Each consists of a prelude and a suite of dance movements. Adding to the work’s iconic status is the mystery behind its creation. No autograph score exists – only a copy, in the hand of Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer’s second wife – while the work’s original recipient remains unknown.

Kobekina studied baroque cello with Kristin von der Goltz in Frankfurt. Her singular intelligence is brought to bear on Bach’s suites, which increasingly straddle the realms of classical art and popular culture. Courtesy of her ‘almost overwhelming sincerity’ (The Strad) and her formidable musicianship, Kobekina’s playing reaches beyond technique into the realms of direct communication. ‘At times,’ wrote Gramophone of her album Venice, ‘you forget you are listening to a cello at all.’

Kobekina is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Butoni Trust Artist, and signed to Sony Classical in 2024. In February 2025, the German television channel ARD broadcast a four-part documentary about her, Anastasia Kobekina: Now or Never. She returns to the BBC Proms in London this summer, having debuted in 2024, when she also made her first appearance with the Czech Philharmonic under its Music Director, Jakub Hrůša. In the summer of 2025, Kobekina will be artist-in-residence at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Beethovenfest Bonn.

‘She is the embodiment of grace.’
Le Monde

‘Kobekina plays with gorgeous elegance and effortlessly wide lines’
Der Tagesspiegel

DOCUMENTARY ‘JETZT ODER NIE’ WATCH HERE
 

ANASTASIA KOBEKINA LIVE DATES

July –September Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele (Residency), Germany

July 5 Wonderfeel, Netherlands
July 24 Gstaad, Switzerland

July 26-August 1 Verbier Festival, Switzerland
August 2-3 Schleswig-Holstein-Musikfestival, Germany
August 7 Rheingau-Musikfestival, Germany
August 8 BBC Proms, London, UK
August 22 Wismar, Germany
August 24 France
August 27 Helsinki, Finland

Sept 5 Musikfest Bremen, Germany
Sept 6-21 Beethoven Festival, Bonn (Residency), Germany
Sept 10 BBC Proms, London, UK
Sept 27 Wigmore Hall, London, UK
Sept 29 Canterbury, UK
Sept 30 Leicester, UK

WEBSITE
https://www.kobekina.info

INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/anastasiakobekina

July 12: Newport Classical Presents GRAMMY®-winning Soprano Karen Slack in African Queens – An Evening of Music and Storytelling

Karen Slack, Credit: Kia Caldwell

Newport Classical Music Festival Presents
Soprano Karen Slack in African Queens

An Evening of Music and Storytelling
Co-Commissioned by Newport Classical

Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 8pm
The Breakers | 44 Ochre Point Ave | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information

“One of opera’s strongest voices at present—both as a singer and a shaper of its culture”
– The Washington Post

www.newportclassical.org/music-festival

Newport, RI – The 2025 Newport Classical Music Festival presents GRAMMY® Award-winning soprano Karen Slack in African Queens on Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 8pm in The Breakers (44 Ochre Point Ave). Co-commissioned by Newport Classical, the extraordinary evening of music and storytelling features Slack’s operatic virtuosity in a powerful selection of new works by both African and American composers. “One of the nation’s most celebrated sopranos” (Trilloquy), Karen Slack is joined by pianist Kevin J. Miller for this collaborative song cycle, which shines a spotlight on seven fierce African Queens, whose legacies as rulers and warriors have often been overlooked in the West, with each piece reflecting their beauty, passion, humility, and power.

The evening centers around eight new songs written for Slack by some of today’s most acclaimed composers including Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson. Each new vocal work on the program is woven together through interspersed narrative text by Lorene Cary, Alicia Haymer, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton, and Creative Collaborator for the African Queens project Jay Saint Flono.

Newport Classical has commissioned and presented several world premieres of works as part of its ongoing commission initiative as a commitment to the future of classical music, including works by Cris Derksen, Clarice Assad, Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, and Curtis Stewart. African Queens is made possible through the generous support of Suzanna and John Laramee in loving memory of Toni D. Green and in honor of her family and friends. Newport Classical is proud to be among the early presenters of this important new work.

In addition to Newport Classical, African Queens was co-commissioned for Karen Slack by the Ravinia Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Tanglewood Learning Institute, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, Washington Performing Arts, and The 92nd Street Y in New York.

From July 4-22, 2025, the Newport Classical Music Festival offers an unparalleled experience, combining 29 intimate concerts featuring over 100 artists with the grandeur and opulence of 11 iconic venues, making the City by the Sea an ultimate summer destination for live music. For 56 years, Newport Classical has united artists and audiences to experience the joy of music and the connections it inspires, offering concertgoers the opportunity to discover new composers or experience timeless works offered from a fresh perspective.

Highlights this year include Opening Night featuring pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung; two evenings with Broadway star Jessica Vosk; performances by pianists Inon Barnatan, Sara Davis Buechner, and Wynona Wang; soprano Karen Slack's African Queens project co-commissioned by Newport Classical; the US premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang co-commissioned by Newport Classical; performances by world-class artists including violinist Leila Josefowicz, The Westerlies, Third Coast Percussion, Attacca Quartet, Twelfth Night, and more; Opera Night: An American Tapestry; and Closing Night with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and violinist Stefan Jackiw.

About Karen Slack

Praised for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” (The New York Times), GRAMMY® Award-winning soprano Karen Slack is celebrated as both an extraordinary performer and a change-maker in classical music.

Highlighting Slack’s 2024-2025 season is the nationwide tour of her new commissioning project, African Queens, a recital of new art songs by Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson. In July 2024, she released her debut commercial recording, Beyond the Years, alongside pianist Michelle Cann and ONEcomposer on Azica Records, and the project won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Slack has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera and many others. In concert, her credits include the Melbourne and Sydney symphonies, Bergen Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia Orchestra. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in May 2024.

A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and 2025 MPower Artist Grant, Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and Astral Artists and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In the 2024-2025 season, she serves as Artist-in-Residence at both Lyric Opera of Chicago and Babson College.

A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program. Learn more at www.karenslack.com.

About Newport Classical

Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.

Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 56 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of live performing arts on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.

Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”

In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.

July 21, Aug. 4: Jupiter Quartet Brings Family Chemistry to Two Collaborations at Bowdoin International Music Festival

Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at https://www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string

Jupiter String Quartet Brings Family Chemistry
to Two Special Collaborations at Bowdoin International Music Festival
with Ying Quartet and pianist Jon Nakamatsu

Monday, July 21 at 7:30pm: Jupiter Quartet and Ying Quartet
Sold Out, Free Livestream Available
More Information

Monday, August 4 at 7:30pm: Jupiter Quartet and Pianist Jon Nakamatsu
Studzinski Recital Hall | 12 Campus Road S. | Brunswick, ME
Tickets and Information

Free Livestream for Both Performances: www.bowdoinfestival.org/festivalive

“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker

www.jupiterquartet.com

Brunswick, ME – The internationally esteemed Jupiter String Quartet, a uniquely intimate ensemble built around family bonds, will present two distinctive collaborative programs at the 2025 Bowdoin International Music Festival this summer. The quartet – featuring sisters Meg and Liz Freivogel (violin and viola), Meg’s husband Daniel McDonough (cello), and violinist Nelson Lee – brings their signature blend of technical excellence and familial chemistry to performances on July 21 and August 4.

July 21, 7:30pm: The Jupiter joins forces with longtime collaborators, the Ying Quartet, for an evening of large-scale chamber works including Richard Strauss's Sextet from Capriccio, Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, and Antonín Dvořák's String Quintet No. 2. This performance is sold out, but will be livestreamed free at www.bowdoinfestival.org/festivalive.

August 4, 7:30pm: The quartet teams up with celebrated pianist Jon Nakamatsu for a program featuring Johannes Brahms's String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Carlos Simon's Warmth from Other Suns, and César Franck's Piano Quintet in F Minor. Tickets and information: www.bowdoinfestival.org/event/jupiter-quartet-2025/

Both concerts take place at Studzinski Recital Hall, 12 Campus Road South, Brunswick, ME.

Since forming in 2001, the Jupiter String Quartet has turned their unique family dynamic into a musical strength. The personal connections that bind them – sisters who grew up making music together, a marriage that deepened musical partnership – create an intuitive ensemble communication that audiences consistently notice. Their performances exude an energy that feels friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, bringing their close-knit musical relationships to the stage.

The Jupiter Quartet has been a regular presence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where their collaborative spirit aligns perfectly with the Festival's mission of bringing together exceptional musicians from around the world. Their partnership with the Ying Quartet spans multiple Festival seasons, creating the kind of musical friendships that produce memorable performances.

“It is always an immense pleasure, and one of the highlights of our year, to return to the Bowdoin Festival music community, especially when we get to play with longtime friends and colleagues like Jon Nakamatsu and Phil and David Ying! The Festival has a uniquely enthusiastic and warm atmosphere, and we always come away feeling refreshed both musically and personally.”

More about the Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter String Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Music Festival, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program. 

Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.

The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. 

The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.

For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com. 

About the Bowdoin International Music Festival: The Bowdoin International Music Festival is one of the world’s premier music institutes. The Festival engages exceptional students and enthusiastic audiences through world-class education and performances. Each summer, 275 students from across the globe attend the Festival to study with distinguished faculty and guest artists, and the Festival presents 200 events, including concerts, masterclasses, composer lectures, and community programs. Over its 61-year history, the Festival has established itself as a vital force throughout the music world. The Festival is an independent non-profit organization. Learn more at bowdoinfestival.org.

Aug. 22: Telegraph Quartet Announces Edge of the Storm – New Album on Azica Records

The Telegraph Quartet Announces New Album on Azica Records
20th Century Vantage Points Volume 2: Edge of the Storm

Music From the World War II Years by Bacewicz, Britten, Weinberg

Worldwide Release: August 22, 2025

“precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication” – The Strad

Downloads and CDs available to press on request

www.telegraphquartet.com

The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) announces its new album, Edge of the Storm, to be released on August 22, 2025 on Azica Records. Edge of the Storm follows the Telegraph Quartet's acclaimed 2023 album Divergent Paths as the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series. Where the first volume featuring the quartets of Ravel and Schoenberg explored the century's opening decade of unbridled creativity, this new installment examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.

On Edge of the Storm, the Telegraph delves into the brief but historically significant ten-year period of 1941-51. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably influenced their equally unique quartet masterworks of the period.” Together, these quartets form a powerful triptych of wartime experience: Britten's exile and displacement, Weinberg's direct confrontation with genocide and loss, and Bacewicz's emergence from underground resistance into post-war renewal. Each composer's unique response to this defining historical moment creates a cohesive artistic statement about creativity's persistence through one of humanity's darkest periods.

Grażyna Bacewicz's String Quartet No. 4 (1951) emerges from the cautiously hopeful aftermath of war. During the German occupation, Bacewicz was part of the Underground Union of Musicians that sustained Polish musical life. After her family fled following the Warsaw uprising, she completed this quartet as a work commissioned by the Underground Union. It became an immediate success, capturing both the trauma and resilience of the post-war period.

Benjamin Britten's String Quartet No. 1 (1941) was written early in the war while Britten lived in exile as a conscientious objector. Having sailed to America in 1939 with Peter Pears both because of the war and for new opportunities as a composer, Britten wrote this "American" work while processing his displacement and the unfolding global tragedy. Some of the quartet's textures and moods foreshadow his later opera Peter Grimes, born from discoveries made during this pivotal wartime period.

Mieczysław Weinberg's String Quartet No. 6 (1946) represents perhaps the most direct artistic response to wartime trauma. Written just after the war's end, it processes Weinberg's devastating personal losses – the disappearance of his parents and sister (who he later learned were murdered at Trawniki concentration camp), his father-in-law "disappeared" in Stalin's purges. The composer himself declared: “Many of my works are related to the theme of war... I regard it as my moral duty to write about the war, about the horrors that befell mankind.” Weinberg’s sixth quartet was deemed "not recommended for publication" by Soviet authorities and remained unperformed for 60 years until its 2006 premiere by the Quatuor Danel. The Telegraph Quartet was coached on the piece by Quatuor Danel's second violinist Gilles Millet in 2019.

This powerful exploration of music born from conflict continues the Telegraph Quartet's compelling discography, which in addition to 2023’s Divergent Paths, also includes the group’s full length debut, Into the Light, featuring a gripping set of works by Leon Kirchner, Anton Webern, and Benjamin Britten. Strings Magazine described the Telegraph Quartet’s performance of Britten's Three Divertimenti as “sparkl[ing] with brilliant humor,” calling the full recording an “exciting new disc.” AllMusic describes the ensemble as an “adventurous group,” stating that Into the Light “[put] the Telegraph Quartet on the map.”

Celebrated by the San Francisco Chronicle as having “soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail,” and seen as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape," the Telegraph Quartet’s sophisticated blend of meticulous technicality and emotive chemistry has led the group to connect with audiences from all walks of life, bringing their memorable musicality to concert halls, classrooms, and vineyards alike.

Telegraph Quartet: Edge of the Storm
20th Century Vantage Points, Vol. 2
Release Date: August 22, 2025 | Azica Records

[1-3] Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): String Quartet No. 4 (1951) [19:51]
[1] I. Andante-Allegro moderato [9:06]
[2] II. Andante [4:59]
[3] III. Allegro giocoso [5:46]

[4-7] Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D major (1941) [26:07]
[4] I. Andante sostenuto-Allegro vivo [9:16]
[5] II. Allegretto con slancio [3:04]
[6] III. Andante calmo [9:49]
[7] IV. Molto vivace [3:58]

[8-13] Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996): String Quartet No. 6, Op. 35 in E minor (1946) [30:45]
[8] I. Allegro semplice [​​6:35]
[9] II. Presto agitato - attacca [2:31]
[10] III. Allegro con fuoco - attacca [1:48]
[11] IV. Adagio [7:40]
[12] V. Moderato commodo [5:25]
[13] VI. Andante maestoso [6:46]

[Total Time: 76:43]

Recorded and Produced by Alan Bise
Cover image: Twilight | Wassily Kandinsky | Used by permission
Graphic Design: Monica Mussulin ©2025 Azica Records
Published by Azica Records 2025

About the Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. In fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg expert Henk Guittart in conjunction with the Arnold Schoenberg Center, researching all of Schoenberg's string quartets.

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

Aug 12: Composer Tina Davidson's Memoir Let Your Heart Be Broken - Released as Audiobook Featuring Her Music

Composer Tina Davidson's Memoir Let Your Heart Be Broken
Available in Audiobook Format on August 12, 2025

Read by Davidson & Featuring Her Music Woven Throughout

Published by Boyle & Dalton

"Let Your Heart Be Broken is a consummate read in its entirety, exploring with uncommon sensitivity and poetic insight the fundamentals of love, forgiveness, creativity, and what it takes to emerge from the inner darkness into a vast vista of light, rooted in the life-tested truth that 'we are, in the end, a measure of the love we leave behind.'" – Maria Popova, The Marginalian 

"an unequivocally poetic memoir on love, loss, and music" – Hugh Morris, VAN Magazine 

More Information: www.tinadavidson.com/let-your-heart-be-broken

Composer and author Tina Davidson’s memoir, Let Your Heart Be Broken, will be available in audiobook format on all major platforms starting August 12, 2025 via publisher Boyle & Dalton. The audiobook, read by Davidson herself, features her music woven throughout, interspersed in sections where she discusses the compositions’ creation. This rare look inside a composer’s creative process juxtaposes recordings of Davidson’s music, memories, journal entries, and insights into the life of an artist and mother at work. Let Your Heart Be Broken was published in hardback and paperback in 2023.

“Part of my commitment as a composer is to bring others into my musical world, both through the music itself and by writing about my creative process,” says Tina Davidson. “By weaving my compositions into the chapters of this audiobook containing my journals, I'm creating a bridge between my inner creative practice and the finished work, opening the door for listeners to understand and connect more deeply.”

Davidson, a highly regarded American composer, creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyrical dignity. Lauded for her authentic voice, The New York Times has praised her “vivid ear for harmony and colors.” 

Her extraordinary life story begins with her adoption at age three-and-a-half from Sweden by a visiting American professor. As the oldest of five children, she lived in Turkey, Germany, and Israel before becoming a prolific pianist and composer.

But something about her birth remained hidden—until she returned to Sweden years later and contacted the adoption agency. "Come," said the voice on the phone, "I have information for you." Along her life journey, Davidson meets Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg, survives an attack by nomads in Turkey, and learns her birth father is a world-famous scientist.

“To create this memoir, I relied heavily on my memory, family stories of my childhood, and pulled from my journals, editing for clarity,” Davidson writes. “These I piece together side by side like patchwork – my growing up next to my artistic process, my evolving understanding of my life and origins next to the music I create. Writing, however, is more vulnerable, truer to life's storytelling. Composing is in a world of its own – both emotion and energy; I camouflage myself, wrap myself in a language that has no direct translation. Writing reveals me naked.”

Throughout, there is the thread of music, an ebb and a crescendo of a journey out of the past and into the present, through darkness and into the light. Compositions highlighted in Davidson’s remarkable memoir include her pieces It Is My Heart Singing for string quartet and piano (1996); Fire on the Mountain for vibraphone, marimba, and piano (1993); I Hear the Mermaids Singing for violin, cello, and piano (1990); Bleached Thread, Sister Thread for string quartet (1991); Cassandra Sings, written for the Kronos Quartet in 1989; and more. These works and others are embedded in the new audiobook. 

“Rarely does a composer tie together life events and inner creative propulsion in a narrative that speaks directly to their audience. Ms. Davidson’s music is lyrical and vulnerable, as is her voice in words. Her book will allow listeners and musicians alike to build their own connections to Ms. Davidson’s work in all of its forms.”
– Hilary Hahn, violinist 

“Whether she is writing about the hauntings of childhood or the day-to-day practical work of a leading American composer, Tina Davidson writes with precision and poetry, bringing us into her remarkable life.”  
– Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning music writer 

“Tina Davidson’s book, Let Your Heart Be Broken, is a poignant telling of a life inextricably entwined in the art of making music. It is a rare peek into the inner workings of the mind and its desires, joys, and fears, and how that affects the process of wrestling notes onto a page; a memoir filled with the twists and turns of the soul, it is a rewarding read.”
– Jennifer Higdon, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer 

Read excerpts from Davidson’s memoir on her blog: www.tinadavidson.com/blog

About Tina Davidson: Opera News describes Tina Davidson’s music as “transfigured beauty,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that she writes “real music, with structure, mood, novelty and harmonic sophistication – with haunting melodies that grow out of complex, repetitive rhythms.” 

Over her forty-five year career, Davidson has been commissioned by well-known ensembles such as National Symphony Orchestra, OperaDelaware, Roanoke Symphony, VocalEssence, Kronos Quartet, Cassatt Quartet, and public television (WHYY-TV). Her music has been widely performed by many orchestras and ensembles, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Relâche Ensemble, and Orchestra 2001.

Davidson was commissioned by Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn as part of her In 27 Pieces project. The work, Blue Curve of the Earth, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2013, and again in 2018 on Hahn’s new album, Retrospective.

Long-term residencies play a major role in Davidson’s career. As composer-in-residence with the Fleisher Art Memorial (1998-2001), she was commissioned to write for the Cassatt Quartet, Voces Novae et Antiquae, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She also created the city-wide Young Composers program to teach inner city children how to write music through instrument building, improvisation, and graphic notation. She was composer-in-residence as part of the innovative Meet The Composer “New Residencies” with OperaDelaware, the Newark Symphony and the YWCA in Delaware (1994-97). During this residency, she wrote the critically acclaimed full-length opera, Billy and Zelda, as well as created community partner programs for homeless women, and with students at a local elementary school.

The recipient of numerous prestigious grants and fellowships, Davidson was the first classical composer to receive a $50,000 Pew Fellowship. She has been awarded four Artist’s Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, CAP grants from the American Music Center and numerous Meet the Composer grants. Her work, Transparent Victims, was selected by the American Public Radio as part of the International Rostrum of Composers, held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Tina Davidson’s music can be heard on Deutsche Grammophon, Albany Records, CRI, Mikrokosmik, Callisto, and Opus One recording labels. Her second solo album, It is My Heart Singing, was released on Albany Records and features three works for strings performed by the Cassatt Quartet. I Hear the Mermaids Singing was released on CRI’s Emergency Music label and includes six of her chamber works.

Tina Davidson was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Oneonta, NY and Pittsburgh, PA. She received her BA in piano and composition from Bennington College in 1976 where she studied with Henry Brant, Louis Calabro, Vivian Fine and Lionel Nowak. She founded the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum and served as its director from 1999-2001. She was president of the New Music Alliance, a national organization, which has been responsible for the New Music America Festivals. She organized a nation-wide festival entitled “New Music Across America,” which ran in 18 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 1992 she wrote a widely-circulated article on women in music for Ms Magazine. She lives in central Pennsylvania.

Sept. 5: Jonas Kaufmann Releases New Album Doppelgänger on Sony Classical with Long-Time Pianist Helmut Deutsch

Sony Classical Presents Doppelgänger
New Album by Jonas Kaufmann

New Single Out Today
Dichterliebe: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai – Listen Here

Jonas Kaufmann presents central works of the German Lied repertoire together with his long-time collaborator at the piano, Helmut Deutsch

Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder on CD
Plus a spectacular staging of Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang on DVD

Album Release Date: September 5, 2025
Pre-Order is Available Now

Just like the album Selige Stunde, the recordings of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder were made during the first COVID lockdown in 2020. In retrospect, the circumstances were as bizarre as they were artistically creative, and, according to Helmut Deutsch, “made the recordings feel almost like ‘domestic music-making’, which is very different from the usually austere atmosphere of a concert hall or a studio.” For Jonas Kaufmann, it was a welcome opportunity to intensively engage with Dichterliebe once again: “It is an incredible stroke of luck to be able to sing this song cycle both as a young and as a mature singer. Dichterliebe is unique and unparalleled in the entire Lied repertoire.”

Kaufmann had already worked on the famous song cycle during his student years in Munich, while attending Helmut Deutsch’s Lied class. His piano accompanist at the time was Jan Philip Schulze, who is now Professor of Art Song Interpretation at the Hanover University of Music; together, they presented the final result at a recital, which was also recorded. Jonas Kaufmann has chosen six songs from this previously unreleased recording, made in March 1994, as bonus tracks for the Schumann CD – a fascinating contrast to the 2020 recording. Sony Classical will release Kaufmann’s new recording, titled Doppelgänger, on September 5, 2025 – pre-order is available now. Accompanying today’s announcement is the single Dichterliebe: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai – listen here.

Unlike Heinrich Heine’s ingenious texts in Dichterliebe, the poems of Justinus Kerner (1786–1862) were viewed rather critically by some of his contemporaries. “His poems may not be the greatest on their own,” Jonas Kaufmann points out, “but they become something very special when combined with Schumann’s incredibly expressive music.” Especially when it comes to the last two songs of the cycle, “Wer machte dich so krank” and “Alte Laute,” one has to be rather hard-hearted to remain unmoved.

In over 30 years of working together, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch have performed Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise many times. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that they decided to perform Schwanengesang. Their hesitation stemmed from the fact that it is not a real song cycle “but rather a collection of Schubert’s last songs left behind in a manuscript and subsequently described by the publisher as Schubert’s swan song, i.e. a dying man’s last utterance,” states Jonas Kaufmann. “From today’s perspective, the whole thing would more likely be described as a collection put together by a publisher. But Claus Guth’s staging has now turned it into a genuine cycle.”

Claus Guth, one of the world’s most renowned theatre directors whose work encompasses stagings for the Salzburg Festival as well as opera houses in London, Vienna and New York, presented Schwanengesang as the story of a wounded soldier during the First World War: in the former Drill Hall of the historic Park Avenue Armory in New York, dancers portrayed nurses and war invalids on a huge stage filled with seventy hospital beds. Kaufmann’s intense portrayal of the protagonist, the musical dialogue with Helmut Deutsch, the sophisticated use of lighting, and electronic soundscapes resulted in a performance that was enthusiastically received by audience and press alike.

“The theatrical force of this scene was so strong that the audience let out an audible gasp of shock,” wrote The New York Times. And Theatermania stated: “Doppelganger is awesome experimental theater on a grand scale … There’s really nothing like it in New York right now.” The New York production also marked Helmut Deutsch’s début as a solo pianist: playing the “Andante sostenuto” from Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D 960, he created a haunting moment of repose in the middle of the performance.

For both musicians, this production was an experience that had a lasting impact. “The staging added a new dimension. It is certainly far more than anyone could have imagined for this song cycle,” says Jonas Kaufmann. “For me, the shadow of the plane that swept over us was an extraordinary moment. It was very oppressive, and we could vividly imagine how the people who were constantly exposed to such attacks from the air at that time must have felt. For the audience, the most powerful moment was probably the final scene, when I, close to death, walk into the light and the heavy gate of the Armory Hall suddenly opens onto Lexington Avenue: you see pedestrians and cars, and hear the street noise. Many audience members have described this intrusion of reality into the stage action as an unforgettable experience.”

Jonas Kaufmann Concert Calendar: https://jonaskaufmann.com/kalender/

July 16 at Lincoln Center: Anthony Cheung's Powerful Song Cycle Reflecting on Identity, Family, and Legacy Sets Texts by Asian-American Poets

Photos available in high resolution here.

Anthony Cheung’s Large-Scale Song Cycle
the echoing of tenses

Powerful reflections on identity, family, loss, and legacy in a richly layered tapestry of sound, setting texts of seven
intergenerational Asian-American poets

Presented by the Run AMOC* Festival
Within Summer for the City at Lincoln Center

Performed by Paul Appleby, Tenor
Miranda Cuckson, Violin; Anthony Cheung, Piano
Readings by Victoria Chang, Arthur Sze, Jenny Xie, and Monica Youn, Poets

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 7:30pm
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center | 1941 Broadway | New York, NY
Tickets and More Information

“gritty, inventive and wonderfully assured” – San Francisco Chronicle
“intensely colourful, exquisitely wrought ensemble-writing” – Gramophone
“[Anthony Cheung] is an alert, cool pianist, and played with focus and clarity” – The New York Times

Anthony Cheung: www.acheungmusic.com

New York, NY – On Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 7:30pm, composer and pianist Anthony Cheung’s multi-movement, large-scale song cycle the echoing of tenses will be performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center as the epic conclusion to the Run AMOC* Festival, a monthlong slate of opera, dance, and music curated and produced by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) within Lincoln Center’s fourth annual Summer for the City festival.

In the echoing of tenses, Anthony Cheung sets the texts of seven prominent intergenerational Asian-American poets – Victoria Chang, Cathy Park Hong, Li-Young Lee, Arthur Sze, Ocean Vuong, Jenny Xie, and Monica Youn. The performance features musicians from AMOC including tenor Paul Appleby and violinist Miranda Cuckson – who conceived of the work for the company – with Cheung on piano/keyboards, sound design by David Bird, and live readings by four of the poets – Victoria Chang, Arthur Sze, Jenny Xie, and Monica Youn. The poets will perform their words live within the production, sharing reflections on memory, cultural and personal identity, family, migration, and loss.

Anthony Cheung writes of the work:

“Memory here is made complicated by the circumstances and tensions of cultural and personal identity, family, migration, loss, and reflection. Opening with Arthur Sze’s “The Network,” which presents the image of a photograph lost to history – a kind of origin story of Asian-American immigration – the cycle begins by looking backwards. But in ensuing texts by Jenny Xie and Cathy Park Hong, past/present/future tenses elide and become confused in dreamlike states. Ocean Vuong’s “The Gift” converses with Li-Young Lee’s earlier poem of the same title, turning to striking childhood memories of each author’s mother and father, respectively. Monica Youn’s raw but dispassionate style contrasts strongly with the emotionally vulnerable explorations of intergenerational trauma in Victoria Chang’s “Obit” and the epistolary “Dear Memory.” Xie’s poems from “The Rupture Tense” share Chang’s exploration of postmemory, which Marianne Hirsch defines as “the relationship that the ‘generation after’ bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before – to experiences they ‘remember’ only by means of the stories, images, and behaviors among which they grew up.”

The echoing of tenses was commissioned by the Ojai Festival and AMOC in 2022 and presented in New York at the 92nd Street Y in 2023.

Watch an excerpt from the echoing of tenses, performed at the Ojai Festival:

Anthony Cheung writes music that explores the senses, a wide palette of instrumental play and affect, improvisational traditions, and multiple layers of textural meaning. Praised for “instrumental sensuality” (Chicago Tribune), Cheung’s work reveals an interest in the ambiguity of sound sources and constantly shifting transformations of tuning and timbre. Critic Paul Griffiths writes that his music’s precision “is responsible for a wealth of sonic magic.” Cheung is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, and First Prize at the Dutilleux Competition, among other awards and honors. He served as the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra from 2015-17, and was a co-founder, pianist, and artistic director of New York’s Talea Ensemble.

Cheung’s 2025-2026 concert season features milestone performances and premieres by world-class musicians and leading venues including Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Elim Chan, New York’s Miller Theatre at Columbia University, Berkeley’s Cal Performances, American Modern Opera Company, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, flutist Claire Chase, pianist Gloria Cheng, tenor Paul Appleby, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and more. In addition, Cheung’s recent orchestral piece Volta will be included on a new album featuring Brown University faculty, to be released in fall 2025 on the New Focus Recordings label, recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) conducted by Gil Rose.

Anthony Cheung’s music has been commissioned by leading groups such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Musikfabrik, ICE, Yarn/Wire, Atlas Ensemble, and American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and performed by the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW, and more. His recent projects have included Well with New Chamber Ballet, the field remembers with the Parker Quartet and Fleur Barron, and premieres with JACK Quartet and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Cheung has also written for flutists Claire Chase and Denis Bouriakov, the Escher and Spektral Quartets, violinists Miranda Cuckson and Jennifer Koh, and pianists Gilles Vonsattel, David Kaplan, Shai Wosner, and Joel Fan.

Cheung’s recordings include five portrait discs: All Roads (New Focus, 2022), Music for Film, Sculpture, and Captions (Kairos, 2022), Cycles and Arrows (New Focus, 2018), Dystemporal (Wergo, 2016), and Roundabouts (Ensemble Modern Medien 2014). His music and performances have also appeared on Warner Classics (performed by Bertrand Chamayou), Tzadik, and Mode.

Anthony Cheung received a BA in Music and History from Harvard and a doctorate from Columbia University, and was a Junior Fellow at Harvard. He previously taught at the University of Chicago and is an Associate Professor of Music at Brown University, where he teaches courses on topics ranging from theory and composition to the jazz orchestra and Asian musical modernisms

About Anthony Cheung: www.acheungmusic.com/about
Anthony Cheung’s Schedule of Performances: www.acheungmusic.com/schedule

Aug. 8: Cellist Tamar Sagiv Releases Shades of Mourning on Sono Luminus – New Album Shaped by Personal Loss and the Experience of Grieving

Sono Luminus Releases Cellist Tamar Sagiv’s New Album
Shades of Mourning

Featuring Nine Original Works by Sagiv
Shaped by Personal Loss and the Experience of Grieving

Worldwide Release Date: August 8, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

 Press download and CDs available upon request.

www.tamarsagiv.com | www.sonoluminus.com

On August 8, 2025, acclaimed New York City-based cellist and composer Tamar Sagiv will release her debut album, Shades of Mourning, on the GRAMMY-winning label Sono Luminus. The album features nine original compositions by Sagiv that explore the multifaceted nature of grief and mourning through deeply personal musical landscapes. Violinist Leerone Hakami and violist Ella Bukszpan collaborate with Sagiv on four of the tracks. 

Described by New York Weekly as "an innovative cellist [whose] versatility sets her apart from her peers," Sagiv was drawn to music's unique ability to convey the nuance of complex emotions and lived experiences.

"I am writing these words while the Middle East, my place of birth, is bleeding. Like me, my friends, family, and neighbors who live on the other side of fences built to divide us carry excruciating pain that grows deeper as the wars continue,” Sagiv writes. “My grandfather, born in Syria and shaped by hardship, believed in peace until his last day. Because of him, I believe in peace, and I hope this is one belief I will never have to grieve. These experiences of personal loss, collective grief, and enduring hope became the foundation for the music in this album."

Shades of Mourning began in the most intimate of circumstances. "This album began, unknowingly, at my grandmother's deathbed," Sagiv writes in her liner notes. "I didn't realize then that the piece I wrote while she was taking her last breaths would grow into an album, nor did I yet know I was a composer." That first piece became the album's opening track – a passacaglia that Sagiv describes as "a farewell to a woman who shaped my life in ways I'm still uncovering."

Each work on the album illuminates different aspects of the grieving process, from profound loss to unexpected moments of renewal.

Roots explores heritage and identity with what Sagiv calls "something wild, unexpected, unapologetic," capturing the visceral connection between blood and soil, between individual identity and generational history. Roots was premiered at Sagiv’s Carnegie Hall debut in May 2023, and performed alongside her mentor, acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz, at the Cello Biennale Festival in Amsterdam.

Intermezzo, composed during an artist residency in the Catskills, emerged from Sagiv's experience of being immersed in the beauty of nature soon after her grandmother’s death. The piece is dedicated to Purcell Palmer, the founder of the artist residency, who Sagiv became close to and who passed away months later. Sagiv writes, “I wish she knew how profoundly she and her home affected me, how much healing I found in the sanctuary she created.”

And Maybe You Never Used to Be, inspired by Philip Glass's minimalist works, explores grief in new dimensions, going beyond personal loss to look at the shattering of friendships, ideas, and deeply held values through a four-movement string trio. Sagiv writes, “And maybe you never used to be – my first chamber music work – opens the collection with a question: what happens when the things we thought were certain begin to shatter?”

My Clouds of Grief captures the inescapable heaviness that follows mourners through each day, when "colors drain from the world around you" and even laughter sounds distant and hollow. “I wanted the music to envelope listeners in this heaviness, to let them experience how it feels when grief becomes your constant companion, surrounding you in its seemingly infinite darkness,” writes Sagiv.

The End of Times creates delicate and lush colors and textures while grappling with existential questions about our final moments, whispered through veiled tones and gentle dissonances. Sagiv writes, “In this movement, I grapple with uncertainty. Will we find relief in our final moments, or will pain be our lasting legacy?”

Imaginary World envisions a refuge where no living creature suffers, and is Sagiv’s imagined response to ongoing wars and conflicts, where beings exist side by side despite disagreements and painful histories. She writes, “Inspired by Philip Glass’s Mishima Quartet, whose music offered me solace during dark times, I created this movement. May it bring you the same joy and comfort that this music brought me.”

The album concludes with Prelude and In My Blue, inspired by Chet Baker's Almost Blue and Bossa Nova rhythms. "I wanted to end this album not in sorrow, but with the same quiet hope that music has always given me," Sagiv explains. "The possibility that even after profound loss, we can still move forward. Together."

Tamar Sagiv is a cellist and composer whose musical language bridges classical tradition with contemporary expression. Her work explores themes of memory, identity, and emotional resonance, often drawing on personal experiences to create sound worlds that feel both intimate and universal.

Originally from Northern Israel, Sagiv began her musical training at the Kfar Blum Music Center with Uri Chen and continued at the Israeli Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem with Prof. Hillel Zori. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the Buchmann Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, and completed both her Master’s and Professional Diploma (PDPL) at the Mannes School of Music in New York City under Prof. Matt Haimovitz’s guidance.

As a performer, she has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Israel and Germany, and played at venues including Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, National Bohemian Hall, and the New York Public Library. Her music has been broadcast on Israeli National Radio since she was 16.

Sagiv has participated in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Gary Hoffman, and Frans Helmerson, and attended festivals across Israel, Europe, and the U.S. Her achievements have been recognized by awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Ronen Foundation, and a Certificate of Honor from Maestro Zubin Mehta. In 2022, she performed the music of composer James Simon – who perished in Auschwitz – at Carnegie Hall.

Her debut album on Sono Luminus highlights her distinctive compositional voice and virtuosic playing, establishing her as a powerful new voice in contemporary classical music.

Shades of Mourning | Tamar Sagiv | Sono Luminus
Release Date: August 8, 2025 (Worldwide)
Recorded January 31-February 13, 2024 at Skillman Music in Brooklyn, NY

[1] Shades of Mourning (2022) [4:14]
[2] Roots (2022) [5:14]
[3] Intermezzo (2023) [2:47]
[4] And Maybe You Never Used to Be (2023) [3:11]
[5] My Clouds of Grief (2024) [6:41]
[6] The End of Times (2024) [2:31]
[7] Imaginary World (2024) [4:28]
[8] Prelude (2024) [2:13]
[9] In My Blue (2024) [3:47]

Total Time: [33:39]

Recording, Editing, Mixing Engineer: Wei Wang
Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Producer: Tamar Sagiv
Composer: Tamar Sagiv

Musicians:
Tamar Sagiv - Cello
Leerone Hakami - Violin (Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7)
Ella Bukszpan - Viola (Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7)
Photo credits: Zan Wang, Apar Pokharel
Liner Notes: Tamar Sagiv
Layout: Joshua Frey

Oct. 10: Eydís Evensen Announces Oceanic Mirror New Album to be Released on XXIM Records – New Single Helena's Sunrise Out Now

© Einar Egilsson

Pianist and Composer Eydís Evensen Announces Oceanic Mirror
New Album to be Released on XXIM Records

New Single: Helena’s Sunrise Out Now
Listen Here | Watch the Music Video

Worldwide Album Release Date: October 10, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now

Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen announces her third studio album Oceanic Mirror to be released October 10, 2025 on XXIM Records – pre-order is available now. Holding the promise of what lies in store, she unveils Helena’s Sunrise - the first of its thirteen pieces which reflect the human experience through sonic translations of the ocean’s secrets. Alongside the album announcement, she also announces a series of international tour dates, inviting audiences to experience the music live. Tickets are available here.

Turbulent and beyond prediction; serene and spiritually transformative - Oceanic Mirror captures the ocean in all its power, movement and contradictions to speak to truths which transcend language. Listening to this album reawakens you what you knew all along; the things that the pace of our lives can lead us to forget. Loss, reincarnation, the cycles of life and nature: Evensen’s compositions share elemental lessons which we can bring on our own voyages across troubled waters.

Helena‘s Sunrise is the dawning of hope - a reminder of how the ocean’s expansive beauty can set our minds at ease. Married to swelling strings and the swoon of woodwinds which mirror the flutter of our hearts, Evensen’s music is the soundtrack to our own stories. The video is a summer’s day in technicolour: Evensen is living in an idyll where the ocean has never been more brilliant.

Another powerful aspect of Oceanic Mirror is the inclusion of compelling artistic collaborators, whose contributions expand Evensen’s sound world in unexpected and resonant ways.

It follows on from her 2021 debut Bylur and its 2023 successor The Light - each an excavation of elemental truths told through nature. As an Icelandic artist, Evensen has spent her life awed and humbled by its lessons; her music teaches these to us without having to speak a word.

TOUR DATES
July 8 – Gent Jazz Festival
October 17 - Berlin - Silent Green
October 20 - Brussels - Royal Circus, The Club
October 22 - Hamburg - Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal
October 24 - Paris - Les Trois Baudets
October 28 – Tivoli - Cloud 9
November 13 - NYC - Le Poisson Rouge
November 15 - Montreal - Gesu
November 16 - Toronto - Great Hall
November 18 - Evanston, Chicago - Space
November 20 - Seattle - Woodlawn Hall
November 23 - LA - Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever

More information - https://www.eydis-evensen.com/concerts

© Einar Egilsson

XXIM Records (Twenty One M) is headquartered in Berlin. It is predominantly devoted to innovative, progressive instrumental music, offering a bespoke home to a new generation of artists whose work explores and integrates, among other realms, neo-classical, post-rock, electronic and ambient sounds. At the heart of XXIM’s ethos lie experimentation and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of providing a solid platform for the creative development of the label’s impressive international roster of unusually talented musicians. www.xximrecords.com

July 18: ECM New Series Releases Signum Quartett's A Dark Flaring - Works for String Quartet from South Africa

ECM New Series Releases

Signum Quartett
A Dark Flaring
Works For String Quartet From South Africa

 Compositions by Priaulx Rainier, Arnold van Wyk, Péter Louis van Dijk, Mokale Koapeng, Robert Fokkens, Matthijs van Dijk 

Florian Donderer, violin; Annette Walther, violin; Xandi van Dijk, viola; Thomas Schmitz, violoncello 

Release Date: July 18, 2025
ECM 2787

Press downloads and CDs available upon request.

A Dark Flaring marks the Signum Quartett’s return to ECM’s New Series after debuting for the label with striking performances on Erkki-Sven Tüür’s acclaimed chamber music recording Lost Prayers (2020). Here, the quartet has put together a unique programme dedicated to South African composers, born in the 20th century, whose works for string quartet are united by the way they blend respect for the past with an instinct for the future in a wide-flung idiomatic scope. The grid of references unravelled between the six composers here – their dates of birth span from 1903 to 1983 – is as geographically wide as it is idiomatically deep, with large musical bridges connecting inspirations ranging from South African Xhosa and Zulu traditions through the late Renaissance to 19th century Romanticism as well as 20th century impressionists and minimalists. There’s even a nod to popular culture, as Matthijs van Dijk’s (rage) rage against the borrows inspiration for its title from the rock group Rage Against The Machine.

The complicated historical and in the same breath cultural backdrop that goes hand in hand with musical repertory composed over this specific period, in the South African context, is not only impossible to ignore but moreover serves as catalyst, canvas and disrupter – sometimes all at once – for most of the music presented here. The country after all didn’t become united until 1910, when South Africa was declared a self-governed country under the Commonwealth in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer Wars. Apartheid ensued following the World Wars – racist segregational policies that lasted until 1990 and continue to be worked through, digested and dealt with today. 

Whether writing at home or abroad, all six composers reflect their country’s complex and troubled history through music which is strikingly original. As Shirley Apthorp notes in the CD’s liner note, Mokale Koapeng’s Komeng, which opens the disc, “owes what is perhaps this recording’s most overt debt to the ancestors, drawing for its inspiration on ‘Umyeyezelo’, a celebratory song by Nofinishi Dywili.” Dywili was particularly accomplished in her use of complex polyrhythms, which Koapeng acknowledges by setting triple against duple metre. As Apthorp writes. “’Umyeyezelo’ is a song for the completion of Ulwaluko, the Xhosa initiation ritual which marks the transition from boyhood to manhood. ‘Komeng’ treats Dywili’s melody gently, using rocking rhythmic figures and col legno, a technique of striking the string with the wood of the bow, a direct invocation of the Uhadi.”

The programme continues with Matthijs van Dijk’s aforementioned rage, a piece that reflects the composer’s multi-disciplinary background by its use of a variety of techniques and sounds, densely packed into this explosive one-movement work. Similar in its dynamic scope, yet far more Romantic in its formal fabric, Arnold van Wyk’s Five Elegies For String Quartet (1940-1941) represent some of the earliest repertory here, only surpassed by Priaulx Rainier’s Quartet For Strings, which she completed in 1939. A student of Nadia Boulanger, among others, Rainier, as some of the other composers included here, moved to England for her studies. She lived there for most of her life, creating music that always remained, in one way or another, tied to the earliest music she heard growing up in Zululand, South Africa. As with many of the other works in this programme, the South African roots of the music can be found most prominently in its rhythmic components, bound to ostinatos and repetition.

Great variety in form and texture invigorate the Signum Quartett in its performances here, seemingly inciting a whirlwind of emotions as they travel across these broad musical streams. Gramophone magazine has described the quartet’s sound as “passionate, often brilliant, but also clear and lean” and their sensitive approach to these dynamically contrasting works is further evidence of the quartet’s accomplished craft. They excel with precision also in “iinyembezi”, a composition by Péter Louis van Dijk, which owes its heritage to John Dowland’s “Flow My Tears” on the one hand, and Xhosa tradition on the other. Downland’s theme is extrapolated through a series of variations, while an extended pizzicato section evokes the sound of the Mbira – the African thumb piano. What seems couldn’t be further musically apart, here unites coherently on the brink of tonality.  

And like the works of his fellow compatriots, Robert Fokkens’s Glimpses of a half-forgotten future can’t evade a certain dichotomy in its musical inspirations either, with debt owed to Western classical composers John Cage, Morton Feldman and French spectralists, while at the same time drawing inspiration from the Xhosa Uhadi – the South African musical bow whose build and percussive qualities are reminiscent of the Brazilian Berimbau. Fokkens contextualises his string quartet – a stark reflection on the inevitability of our own demise – with the poem that gives this album its name: 

Through now's incessant numbness
Flickers a glint,
A startling glimmer,
A dark flaring...

The album was recorded at Sendesaal Bremen in March 2022. The CD includes liner notes by South African journalist and music critic Shirley Apthorp.

Emerald City Music Celebrates 10 Years with Expanded 2025-26 Concert Season

High resolution press photos available here.

Emerald City Music Announces Milestone Season: ECM at 10

Twelve Concerts from October 2025 through May 2026
in Seattle and Olympia, WA

Inaugural Ensemble-in-Residence: GRAMMY®-Nominated Sandbox Percussion

Plus Brand New Late Night Sessions Concert Series

And New Season Partnerships with
The Metropolis Ensemble, Meany Center for the Performing Arts,
and the University of Washington School of Music

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director; Sean Campbell, Executive Director

Season Subscriptions on Sale Today June 3, 2025
Single Tickets on Sale August 5, 2025

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – Continuing under the leadership of Artistic Director and violinist Kristin Lee and Executive Director Sean Campbell, Emerald City Music (ECM) celebrates its milestone tenth anniversary, ECM at 10, taking bold steps into the future with new programs, new partnerships and – for the first time ever – an Ensemble-in-Residence with GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion. Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for a casual environment combined with award-winning artists, ECM has gained recognition since its founding in 2015. The programming of ECM at 10 will reach every corner of chamber music from the last 250 years, from Beethoven and a recently discovered work by Charles Loeffler, to minimalist work of the ‘70s and new works by renowned composers Joan Tower and Vivian Fung (both co-commissioned by ECM). Season subscriptions go on sale today, June 3, 2025 and single tickets will be available on August 5, 2025.

Mainstage performances throughout the season will be held at ECM’s signature venues – in Seattle at 415 Westlake and in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts and Capital High School Performing Arts Center. This season, ECM is also proud to have new partnerships with The Metropolis Ensemble, Meany Center for the Performing Arts, and The University of Washington School of Music.

In addition to ECM’s twelve mainstage performances between October 2025 and May 2026, ECM is launching a brand new series of Late Night Sessions, featuring three more performances. This series embraces an intimate concert experience and will directly follow the conclusion of selected mainstage performances, keeping the music going well into the night. ECM’s new Late Night Sessions will spotlight outstanding local musicians and offer audiences an eclectic mix of genres. Dates for the Late Night Sessions will be announced this fall.

“Season 10 is more than just a season,” says Artistic Director Kristin Lee. “It's a reflection of our past, a celebration of our mission, and an exciting step into the future with the extraordinary community that has grown with us every step of the way. We’ve cultivated a passionate and dedicated group of music lovers, artists, and supporters who have made Emerald City Music sustain thus far, and all of us at ECM cannot wait to experience with you what the next decade has in store!”

The concept of the concert series as a platform where artists and audiences transform one another breathes life into every element of what ECM does – from the casual open-bar setting of its flagship Seattle concert experiences, to the enthusiastic communities that faithfully assemble in its concert halls in Olympia and beyond. At Emerald City Music concerts, the audience’s presence matters, transforming the artists, the community, and the future of classical music.

The Seattle Times reports: "ECM isn’t falling back on the tried-and-true, under the assumption that a new listener is an unadventurous, easily frightened-off listener. Instead, they’re betting that the tried-and-true could be precisely one of the barriers to sparking interest that classical-music organizations need to overcome."

“Our mission has always been to create a musical home for the eclectic, open-minded, and curious – a place where classical music comes to life through world-class performances that feel personal, accessible, and engaging,” says Executive Director Sean Campbell. “As we step into our tenth season, that mission continues to guide everything we do!”

“Every performance we’ve had the pleasure of giving with Emerald City Music since our first ever performance in 2017, is one we truly cherish,” says ECM Ensemble-in-Residence Sandbox Percussion founding member Victor Caccese. “We love playing concerts because we love connecting with audiences and sharing percussion music with them. This is at the core of Emerald City Music – presenting great music, played at a high level, in an inviting and comfortable setting. Being part of this kind of environment has deeply inspired us and continues to shape how we think about performing and presenting percussion in fresh, innovative ways.”

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Emerald City Music’s Season 10 Mainstage Performances

Musical Milestones: The Loeffler Project
Friday, October 17, 2025 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, October 18, 2025 at 7:30pm: Minnaert Center | ​​2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA

Kristin Lee, Andy Liang, violin | Katie Liu, viola | Nathan Chan, cello | Jennifer Godfrey, double bass | Graeme Steele Johnson, Angelique Poteat, clarinet | Bridget Kibbey, harp

Emerald City Music celebrates its milestone tenth anniversary with a festive season opener, featuring the enchanting sounds of harp and clarinet performing imaginative and expressive works by Saint-Saëns, Coleridge Taylor, Debussy, and Loeffler, connecting the 19th and 20th centuries. The cornerstone of the program is the Seattle premiere of Charles Loeffler’s recently discovered Octet, brought to life and reconstructed after 128 years by acclaimed clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson. Charles Loeffler (1861-1935) was a violinist and composer who, despite his German birth and parentage, had a career which largely thrived in the U.S., where he moved in 1881 and became a citizen in 1887. In 1883, he became the second concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he held the position for over two decades.

Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124
Coleridge Taylor: Clarinet Quintet, Op. 10
Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane
Loeffler: Octet (Seattle premiere)

Quartet in Spotlight: Aeolus Quartet
Friday, December 5, 2025 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 7:30pm: Capital High School, 2707 Conger Ave NW | Olympia, WA

Aeolus Quartet: Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, Rachel Shapiro, violins | Caitlin Lynch, viola | Jia Kim, cello

The “high octane” (The Strad) and award-winning Aeolus Quartet makes its ECM debut with a vibrant program featuring the music of Beethoven, Bacewicz, and Dvořák. Dedicated to sharing the joy of chamber music with new audiences, the ensemble’s highly anticipated performance will be a memorable evening of luscious string quartet music.

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1
Bacewicz: String Quartet No. 3
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106

An Evening with Mikaela Bennett and The Metropolis Ensemble
In partnership with The Metropolis Ensemble
Friday, February 6, 2026 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, February 7, 2026 at 7:30pm: Minnaert Center | ​​2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA

Mikaela Bennett, soprano | Adam Rothenberg, piano | Kristin Lee, Sarah Ma, violins | Tanner Menees, viola | Audrey Chen, cello

Garnering praise for her artistic versatility in concert halls across the globe, acclaimed singer Mikaela Bennett joins forces with the Metropolis Ensemble for a vibrant program of American music to kick off 2026. The artists will collaborate to perform music by American composers Molly Joyce and Sarah Kirkland Snider, including the West Coast premiere of Joyce’s new work. In her note on the work, Sarah Kirkland Snider describes her work Penelope as, “a meditation on memory, identity, and what it means to come home.” ECM will be presenting Snider’s work in a new arrangement for soprano and piano quintet.

Molly Joyce: New Work (West Coast Premiere)
Sarah Kirkland Snider: Excerpts from Penelope, Arranged for Soprano and Piano Quintet

FIVE! - Sandbox Percussion and Kristin Lee
Friday, March 6, 2026 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, March 7, 2026 at 7:30pm: Minnaert Center | ​​2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA

Kristin Lee, violin | Sandbox Percussion, Ensemble in Residence: Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion

Artistic Director Kristin Lee teams up with three-time GRAMMY®-Nominated Ensemble-in-Residence Sandbox Percussion for a groundbreaking performance featuring three new works – including two world premieres – by acclaimed composers Joan Tower, Gabriella Smith, and Vivian Fung. Tower’s work, To Sing or to Dance, considers two different origins of music: voice and instruments. She says, “When I was asked to write a piece for violin and percussion, that difference became immediately apparent: how to have these two very different instruments in the same space, living fairly comfortably together.” Similarly, Fung’s work, which she describes as a concerto for violin and percussion, explores the coexistence of two types of sound. She explains: “[M]y focus will be finding percussion sounds that complement, contrast, and augment the sounds of the violin.” FIVE, a new work by Gabriella Smith written for Sandbox Percussion, completes this cutting-edge program, which showcases the dynamic blending of violin and percussion quartet – an unforgettable experience that pushes the boundaries of chamber music.

Joan Tower: To Sing or to Dance (Seattle Premiere, ECM co-commission)
Gabriella Smith: FIVE (World Premiere)
Vivian Fung: New Work (World Premiere, ECM co-commission)

Canto Ostinato
In partnership with The Metropolis Ensemble & University of Washington School of Music
Friday, April 10, 2026 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 7:30pm: Minnaert Center | ​​2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA

Andrew Cyr, Music Director | Kristin Lee, violin | Erik Hall, keyboard/synthesizer | Sandbox Percussion, ECM Ensemble in Residence | UW School of Music Faculty- Bonnie Whiting, percussion & John Popham, cello | UW School of Music Students, to be announced.

Sandbox Percussion and UW School of Music students and faculty come to ECM to give a performance of Simeon Ten Holt’s evening-length minimalist work, Canto Ostinato. Originally a keyboard piece by the Dutch composer, Canto Ostinato is made up of overlapping layers and repeated patterns, and has amassed a cult following. Conceived and developed by Andrew Cyr, Erik Hall, and Jonny Allen, this version of Canto Ostinato features a 17-piece ensemble arrangement led and commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble’s Founder and Director Andrew Cyr. As Canto Ostinato is commonly performed with either two or four pianos, this ambitious arrangement highlights the musical freedom of Holt’s most popular work, which can be performed by different instruments and a varying number of performers.

Simeon Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato

East Coast Chamber Orchestra x Vijay Iyer 
In partnership with Meany Center for the Performing Arts
Friday, May 15, 2025 at 8pm: 415 On Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday May 16, 2025 at 7:30pm: Capital High School, 2707 Conger Ave NW | Olympia, WA

Vijay Iyer, Shai Wosner, piano | East Coast Chamber Orchestra

For the grand finale of this milestone anniversary season, ECM presents two different programs on two nights. Friday night’s performance in Seattle features dynamic works from the early 20th century to the present day, performed by GRAMMY®-nominated pianist and composer Vijay Iyer and members of East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO). Saturday in Olympia, ECCO joins pianist Shai Wosner to perform a program that juxtaposes works from the classical canon with contemporary works inspired by the musicality of the Baroque era, in addition to Vijay Iyer’s piano concerto, Handmade Universe, closing out ECM at 10 with a piece that explores the balance between group collaboration and independent expression.

May 15 Program
Bohuslav Martinů: Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola
Vijay Iyer: The Diamond for Violin and Piano
Paul Wiancko: Tiny Doors to Big Worlds for String Quintet
Max Bruch: String Octet

May 16 Program
Edward Elgar: Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20
David Serkin Ludwig: Virtuosity
Vijay Iyer: Handmade Universe
J.S. Bach / Michi Wiancko: Chaconne

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For Emerald City Music’s Complete Schedule and Concert Details, visit www.emeraldcitymusic.org/calendar.

Emerald City Music’s 2025-2026 concerts take place on Fridays at 8pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle, WA and on Saturdays at 7:30pm at The Minnaert Center for the Arts in Olympia (2011 Mottman Rd), or Capital High School Performing Arts Center (2707 Conger Ave NW). Season tickets and tickets to individual concerts will be on sale on June 3 and August 5 respectively. Please visit www.emeraldcitymusic.org for more details.

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director

Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”

As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.

An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.

Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.

For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

About ECM

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed “a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making” (The Seattle Times), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours six productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival.

ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.

ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

June 21: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts Performing Reflections – A Concert Shaped by Musical Interconnection

GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performs Reflections

A Concert Shaped by Musical Interconnection
Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts

Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 5pm
Charlemont Federated Church | 175 Main St. | Charlemont, MA
Tickets and More information

“lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” – The New Yorker

PLUS Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s New Bach Album Complicité Out Now

Review downloads & CDs available upon request.

Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com

Charlemont, MA – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “an intrepid artistic personality,” performs on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at Charlemont Federated Church (175 Main St.) presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts.

Dinnerstein –– who is celebrated for her Bach recordings –– will perform the music of J. S. Bach and other Baroque era-inspired selections in a program titled Reflections, which includes Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations On A Chorale By J.S. Bach (2002); Gavotte et 6 Doubles from Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau (c. 1729-30); J. S. Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias, BWV 787–801 (1720-23); and Encore From Tokyo (1978) by Keith Jarrett.

“I have titled this program Reflections, as I think that each work sounds unusual because of the way it is reflected against the music around it,” Dinnerstein says. “To enhance this quality, I play each half of the program (Rameau-Lasser and Bach-Jarrett) without pause between the pieces.”

Simone Dinnerstein has been playing Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach for over two decades –– including as part of The Berlin Concert, her 2008 album. Lasser takes the chorale from Cantata No. 101 in which, he says, “Bach chooses a particular melodic moment from the Lutheran hymn and infuses all the other voices of the Chorale with this unique sonority, with an almost maniacal insistence. In my Variations, I take on this mania to see how far one can go.”

Bach’s contemporary Rameau also composed a set of variations but on his own gavotte: Gavotte et 6 doubles from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin. In his preface, Bach wrote that his Fifteen Sinfonias were, “An honest guide by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way…to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition." Keith Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo embraces the Baroque convention of a descending repeating bass line and builds a harmonically adventurous and wide-ranging improvisation around it.

On May 30, 2025, Dinnerstein released her fifteenth recording, Complicité on Supertrain Records. This is her first all-Bach album in over ten years and features Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with the string ensemble Simone founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, Dinnerstein’s home New York borough). Recorded with producer Silas Brown, the album also includes composer Philip Lasser’s continuo realizations and recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String. Read the album press release here.

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made fourteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts and were recorded by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a GRAMMY.

In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. She released her live recording of the premiere in October 2024 on Supertrain Records to coincide with Ives’s 150th birthday. The Eye is the First Circle also marked Dinnerstein’s fourteenth and final recording produced with the late Adam Abeshouse. Dinnerstein premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: GRAMMY-nominated® pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as “an intrepid artistic personality” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, will perform a program of Baroque-era inspired works in a concert presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts. Her program, titled Reflections, will include J.S. Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias (1720-23), Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002), Keith Jarrett’s Encore From Tokyo (1978), and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Gavotte et 6 Doubles from Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin (c. 1729-30).

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein 
Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts
What: Reflections – Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Lasser, Keith Jarrett, Jean-Philippe Rameau
When: Saturday, January 21, 2025 at 5pm
Where: ​​Charlemont Federated Church, 175 Main St., Charlemont, MA 01339
Tickets and information: www.mohawktrailconcerts.org/2024-season

June 13: Newport Classical Presents the GRAMMY-Nominated Trio Mediaeval in Final Chamber Series Concert of the Season

Photos available in high resolution here.

Newport Classical Concludes 2024-25 Chamber Series with Enchanting Finale

Trio Mediaeval

Friday, June 13 at 7:30pm
Friday, March 21, 2025 at 7:30pm

Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn St | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information

Newport, RI – Newport Classical closes its fourth full-season Chamber Series, which featured twelve concerts held at the organization’s home venue the Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.), with the GRAMMY®-nominated Trio Mediaeval on Friday, June 13, 2025 at 7:30pm.

Known for their crystalline voices and ethereal blend, The New York Times reports, “few vocal ensembles produce quite as beautiful and finely blended a sound as this Norwegian trio.” For the 2024-25 Chamber Series finale, Trio Mediaeval (Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Jorunn Lovise Husan) immerses Newport audiences in the sonic worlds of Swedish and Norwegian vocal folk music. The ensemble showcases the countries’ traditional songs, hymns, fiddle tunes, ballads, and distinctive tradition of singing without words – a style known as tulling, sulling, or tralling, in which a sequence of consonants is invented or improvised by the singer. 

Of their program, the Trio says, “Originally, these folk songs were all a part of daily life; people created tunes and texts for all sorts of daily events and special occasions. In this program we present a selection of love songs, wedding tunes, lullabies, sun-prayers, ballads and hymns. None of this music was composed to be a part of the concert scene nor to be performed for an audience, as we understand the term today. In the twentieth century, ethnographers and folk song collectors began to record these wonderful songs and tunes, and a vast number of melodies have been transcribed and preserved for future generations of singers and listeners. It is quite a listening friendly programme with beautiful melodies and rhythms. In the same way that cultures, languages, and dialects vary from place to place, so do forms of musical expression. We would like to see this performance as our contribution to a living oral tradition; although these songs bear our musical imprint, they are colored by all those who have performed and passed on the music before us.”

Formed in 1997, Trio Mediæval has toured extensively throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and Australia, performing at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York; the Barbican Centre in London; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; the Vienna Konzerthaus; the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and other iconic halls throughout the world.

Recently, the trio has collaborated with musicians and orchestras such as Catalina Vicens, Vox Clamantis, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Arve Henriksen, Anders Jormin, John Potter, Sinikka Langeland Ensemble, Mats Eilertsen Trio, Grauschumaker Piano Duo & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. The Chamber Series, newly expanded to twelve concerts held between September and June, reaffirms Newport Classical’s commitment to offer year-round classical music programming. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with a complimentary glass of wine from Greenvale Vineyards and homemade treats by Newport Classical volunteers. 

As part of Newport Classical’s desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series also visit Newport-area schools to perform for, speak with, and inspire students, through Newport Classical’s Music Education and Engagement Initiative.

Tickets are now available for the 2025 Newport Classical Music Festival, which takes place from July 4-22, 2025. Highlights include Opening Night featuring Two Pianos with Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung; two evenings with Broadway star Jessica Vosk, best known for her lead role in Wicked; performances by extraordinary pianists Inon Barnatan, Sara Davis Buechner, and Wynona Wang; celebrated soprano Karen Slack's African Queens project co-commissioned by Newport Classical with a national consortium; the US premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang co-commissioned by Newport Classical with an international consortium; performances by world-class artists including violinist Leila Josefowicz, The Westerlies, Third Coast Percussion, harpist Emily Levin, guitarists Ziggy and Miles, Palaver Strings, Attacca Quartet, Twelfth Night, The Gesualdo Six, Tallā Rouge, Empire Wild, and more; Opera Night: An American Tapestry; and Closing Night with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and violinist Stefan Jackiw. For the fifth year in a row, Newport Classical has commissioned a brand new work to be premiered at the Festival. This year's Composer-in-Residence is Cris Derksen, a Juno-nominated Indigenous cellist and composer, who has written a new work for the Galvin Cello Quartet. 

About Newport Classical

Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.

Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 56 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.

Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”

In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.

Composer Anthony Cheung's Upcoming Highlights - Performances at Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic

Composer Anthony Cheung’s 2025-2026 Season Highlights

Include Performances at Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, and by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic

July 16, 2025: the echoing of tenses
Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City
Run AMOC* Festival 

November 13, 2025: Miller Theatre
Composer Portrait Concert
Performances by Yarn/Wire, Claire Chase, JACK Quartet, and Cheung

 February 3, 2026: Piano Concerto
World Premiere by Los Angeles Philharmonic
Pianist Gloria Cheng, Conducted by Elim Chan
Curated by Creative Chair John Adams 

March 12-17, 2026: The People United ...
Collaborative Orchestration for the New York Philharmonic
Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel 

Forthcoming Fall 2025 Album on New Focus Recordings Features Volta
Recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project Conducted by Gil Rose

Plus Debuts at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Cal Performances, and More 

“gritty, inventive and wonderfully assured” – San Francisco Chronicle
“intensely colourful, exquisitely wrought ensemble-writing”” – Gramophone

Anthony Cheung’s Performance Schedule: www.acheungmusic.com/schedule

Composer and pianist Anthony Cheung writes music that explores the senses, a wide palette of instrumental play and affect, improvisational traditions, and multiple layers of textural meaning. Praised for “instrumental sensuality” (Chicago Tribune), Cheung’s work reveals an interest in the ambiguity of sound sources and constantly shifting transformations of tuning and timbre. Critic Paul Griffiths writes that his music’s precision “is responsible for a wealth of sonic magic.” Cheung is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, and First Prize at the Dutilleux Competition, among other awards and honors. He served as the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra from 2015-17, and was a co-founder, pianist, and artistic director of New York’s Talea Ensemble.

Anthony Cheung’s 2025-2026 concert season features milestone performances and premieres by world-class musicians and leading venues including Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Elim Chan, New York’s Miller Theatre at Columbia University, Berkeley’s Cal Performances, American Modern Opera Company, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, flutist Claire Chase, pianist Gloria Cheng, tenor Paul Appleby, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and more. In addition, Cheung’s recent orchestral piece Volta will be included on a new album featuring Brown University faculty, to be released in fall 2025 on the New Focus Recordings label, recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) conducted by Gil Rose. This new recording follows the five portrait albums of Cheung’s music which are already available on the New Focus, Kairos,Wergo, and Ensemble Modern labels, along with additional releases on Warner Classics, Tzadik, and Mode.

On July 16, 2025, Anthony Cheung’s multi-movement, large-scale song cycle the echoing of tenses will be performed at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Run AMOC* Festival, a monthlong slate of opera, dance, and music curated and produced by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) within Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City. In the echoing of tenses, Cheung sets the texts of seven prominent intergenerational Asian-American poets – Victoria Chang, Cathy Park Hong, Li-Young Lee, Arthur Sze, Ocean Vuong, Jenny Xie, and Monica Youn. At Lincoln Center, the performance features musicians from the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) including tenor Paul Appleby and violinist Miranda Cuckson, with the composer on piano/keyboards, sound design by David Bird, and live readings by Victoria Chang, Arthur Sze, Jenny Xie, and Monica Youn. The work was commissioned by the Ojai Festival and AMOC in 2022 and presented in New York at the 92nd Street Y in 2023.

The echoing of tenses is a series of reflections and ruminations on memory. Cheung writes:

Memory here is made complicated by the circumstances and tensions of cultural and personal identity, family, migration, loss, and reflection. Opening with Arthur Sze’s “The Network,” which presents the image of a photograph lost to history – a kind of origin story of Asian-American immigration – the cycle begins by looking backwards. But in ensuing texts by Jenny Xie and Cathy Park Hong, past/present/future tenses elide and become confused in dreamlike states. Ocean Vuong’s “The Gift” converses with Li-Young Lee’s earlier poem of the same title, turning to striking childhood memories of each author’s mother and father, respectively. Monica Youn’s raw but dispassionate style contrasts strongly with the emotionally vulnerable explorations of intergenerational trauma in Victoria Chang’s “Obit” and the epistolary “Dear Memory.” Xie’s poems from “The Rupture Tense” share Chang’s exploration of postmemory, which Marianne Hirsch defines as “the relationship that the ‘generation after’ bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before – to experiences they ‘remember’ only by means of the stories, images, and behaviors among which they grew up.”

Also this season, JACK Quartet continues performing Cheung’s Twice Removed, a piece the ensemble commissioned and premiered in fall 2024 in celebration of its 20th anniversary, at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival on August 1, 2025 and presented by Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA on March 15, 2026. Twice Removed is a set of reflections on artworks that are themselves responses to other works. Each movement draws inspiration from a different artistic dialogue: “Stretto House” responds to Steven Holl's architecture inspired by Bartók's music; “830 Fireplace Road” engages with John Yau's poetic variations on Jackson Pollock’s words; “Meditation on Motion” reflects on Dean Rader’s poems about Cy Twombly's visual art; and “Journey to Mount Tamalpais” contemplates Etel Adnan's written and visual meditations on the iconic Marin Hills peak. A recording with JACK will follow in 2026. 

Anthony Cheung’s Clocks for Seeing will be performed by Collage New Music in Boston, MA in November 2025, with additional performances by other groups planned later in the season. The piece is inspired by Roland Barthes' meditation from Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography on the relationship between time, sound, and visual mechanisms, particularly his observation that early cameras were “clocks for seeing,” and continues Cheung’s exploration of alternative tunings. The piece was commissioned for the Talea Ensemble by Chamber Music America in 2023.

Another highlight of Cheung’s concert season in New York will be his Miller Theatre Composer Portrait, a concert dedicated entirely to his music, on November 13, 2025, with performances by Yarn/Wire, Claire Chase, and JACK Quartet, with Cheung at the piano. The program includes an Improvised Intro on keyboards performed by Cheung, Twice Removed performed by JACK Quartet, Tactile Values performed by Yarn/Wire, and The Real Book of Fake Tunes performed by flutist Claire Chase and JACK Quartet. Tactile Values for two pianos/keyboards and two percussionists is dedicated to the musicians of Yarn/Wire, and explores concepts of dimensionality and sensory translation, drawing inspiration from Bernard Berenson's writings on how painters construct third dimensions through “tactile values” and Carolee Schneemann's ideas about transforming bodily experiences into “painterly, tactile translation edited as a music of frames.” Cheung composed The Real Book of Fake Tunes for Claire Chase and the Spektral Quartet in 2015. He writes that the title references, “the infamous Real Book that has served as a gateway anthology and/or gig enabler for so many aspiring jazz musicians since the 70s [but] belies a formal architecture of five movements with distinctive characteristics.” 

In Los Angeles, on February 3, 2026, pianist Gloria Cheng and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Elim Chan will give the world premiere of Cheung’s new piano concerto at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Green Umbrella series, curated by Creative Chair John Adams. Of the new piece, Cheung says, “Gloria Cheng is a legendary and much-admired presence on the Los Angeles new music scene as well as a good friend, and I was absolutely honored when she and John Adams asked me to write this new concerto commissioned in her honor as part of the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella series. The piece will be my second piano concerto — again with chamber orchestra, but more contemplative in character than its predecessor. It also engages certain corners and cornerstones of the piano repertoire through alternative and reimagined histories.”

Cheung will also write a new chamber work commissioned by Winsor Music as part of their Lineage project on March 1, 2026, and will serve as mentor composer for their Opus 1 Project, working with young musicians in Boston to co-compose a new piece together.

Anthony Cheung will also contribute to the collectively orchestrated version of Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, which will have its premiere performances from March 12-17, 2026 at David Geffen Hall. Cheung joins the other selected composers – Kati Agócs, Marcos Balter, Brittany J. Green, Tania León, Andrew Norman, Maria Schneider, Nina Shekhar, Roberto Sierra, Conrad Tao, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Joel Thompson, Wang Lu, and Nina C. Young – in interpreting the Chilean protest anthem as a hymn to the power of communities to effect social change.

Anthony Cheung’s music has been commissioned by leading groups such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Musikfabrik, ICE, Yarn/Wire, Atlas Ensemble, and American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and performed by the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW, and more. His recent projects have included Well with New Chamber Ballet, the field remembers with the Parker Quartet and Fleur Barron, and premieres with JACK Quartet and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Cheung has also written for flutists Claire Chase and Denis Bouriakov, the Escher and Spektral Quartets, violinists Miranda Cuckson and Jennifer Koh, and pianists Gilles Vonsattel, David Kaplan, Shai Wosner, and Joel Fan. 

Cheung’s recordings include five portrait discs: All Roads (New Focus, 2022), Music for Film, Sculpture, and Captions (Kairos, 2022), Cycles and Arrows (New Focus, 2018), Dystemporal (Wergo, 2016), and Roundabouts (Ensemble Modern Medien 2014). His music and performances have also appeared on Warner Classics (performed by Bertrand Chamayou), Tzadik, and Mode.

Anthony Cheung received a BA in Music and History from Harvard and a doctorate from Columbia University, and was a Junior Fellow at Harvard. He previously taught at the University of Chicago and is an Associate Professor of Music at Brown University, where he teaches courses on topics ranging from theory and composition to the jazz orchestra and Asian musical modernisms.

Concert details are available on Anthony Cheung’s performance schedule: www.acheungmusic.com/schedule

For more information about Anthony Cheung: www.acheungmusic.com/about

August 1: Cellist Maya Beiser Releases New Album - Salt - Music by Missy Mazzoli, Meredith Monk, Clarice Jensen, Tavener, Purcell, and more

Maya Beiser: Salt

A profound musical meditation on memory, reflection, and women’s voices across time

Music by Missy Mazzoli, John Tavener, Meredith Monk, C. W. Gluck, Clarice Jensen, Claudio Monteverdi, Y. Admon, and Henry Purcell

 Release Date: August 1, 2025

Islandia Music Records

 Press download and CDs available upon request. Hi res photos available here.

New York, NY – On August 1, 2025, cellist and producer Maya Beiser, hailed as a “force of nature” by The Boston Globe, will release her newest solo album, Salt, on her Islandia Music Records label. This conceptually rich collection centers around the biblical figure of Lot's Wife, exploring themes of memory, witness, and the cost of remembering. 

“There's a moment in the story of Lot's Wife that has haunted me for years,” says Maya Beiser. “It's not the turning to salt—it's the turning to look. That instinctual, human act of looking back at what you love, even as it's being destroyed. That moment holds everything: memory, defiance, tenderness—and the impossible cost of remembering.”

The new album emerges from Maya’s ongoing artistic engagement with the figure of Lot’s Wife, whom she first explored in her 2012 “cello opera,” Elsewhere. In it, Maya offers a powerful reinterpretation of this ancient story: “She disobeyed not out of rebellion, but out of memory. She preferred the pain of looking back to the emptiness of blind escape. She chose the past— its beauty, its ruin, its truth—over the safety of an unknown future. And for that, she was turned to salt,” she says. “I've always seen that pillar not as punishment, but as a monument.” 

On her new album, Maya gives voice to this nameless biblical figure who, for her, became “a symbol of all the women who have been punished for remembering, for feeling too much, for refusing to move on. I imagined her not as a cautionary tale, but as a witness. A woman who couldn’t unsee what she had loved. A woman who dared to turn around.”

At the album's core is Missy Mazzoli's Salt, a powerful mini-opera for alto voice, amplified cello and electronics, featuring text by celebrated screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and vocals by the extraordinary performer Helga Davis. Maya describes the work as, “a conversation across time: Lot's Wife speaking from her 'salted jail' to the future.” She adds, “Playing this piece feels like uncovering a fossilized voice—fragile, ancient, and ferociously present.”

The album weaves together works that meditate on these central themes of remembrance, resistance, and reflection, including Maya’s arrangements of Gluck’s Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice, Tavener's Lament to Phaedra and Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna, which she approaches as musical explorations of mythic women condemned for their profound longing. 

Clarice Jensen’s Salt Air, Salt Earth conjures a sonic landscape that seems to evoke geological time. Maya describes the piece as, “playing through sediment—layers of ancient sound and sensation, buried but not gone.” Jensen has said she was inspired both by the story of Lot’s Wife and the ancient ritual of “salting the earth” of a conquered city.

Maya’s reimagining of Meredith Monk's Hocket examines memory and fragmentation—of two voices within one instrument. Her reconstruction of Shedemati, a song from her childhood in Israel, is performed with the compelling vocal artist Odeya Nini. She says of the piece, which she has known for most of her life, “I felt the bittersweet pull of land, loss, and identity. My ancestors sang it as pioneers; I now play it as a mourner.”

The album concludes with Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth, which Maya calls, “not just an ending—but a laying to rest.” 

“In January 2025, we were deep in the making of this album as fires raged across Los Angeles, war tore through the Middle East, and political discourse in the U.S. grew ever more ominous,” Maya adds. “In this moment, Salt feels uncannily timely.”

About Maya Beiser:

Hailed by The Washington Post as “the reigning queen of avant-garde cello,” Maya Beiser is a cellist, sound artist, and musical innovator whose work has redefined the scope of contemporary classical performance. Raised on a commune in the Galilee Mountains of Israel by her Argentinean father and French mother, Beiser grew up immersed in the music and rituals of Jews, Muslims, and Christians—an early fusion of worlds that continues to shape her boundary-defying artistic vision.

A Yale graduate and United States Artists Distinguished Fellow, Beiser has performed on the world’s most iconic stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Barbican, challenging norms and reinventing the solo cello as an expansive sonic canvas. Her fifteen solo albums—many topping classical charts—span reimagined masterpieces, original works, and cinematic collaborations. She is the featured soloist on numerous film soundtracks and a sought-after collaborator across genres and continents.

As the founder of Islandia Music Records, Beiser creates projects with deep cultural, spiritual, and social resonance—pushing the art-music genre into uncharted territory. 

For more information, visit www.mayabeiser.com.

Track Listing: 

Maya Beiser: Salt
Islandia Music Records
Release Date: August 1, 2025 

1-5 Salt [21:35]
Composed by Missy Mazzoli, text by Erin Cressida Wilson
Featuring Helga Davis, vocals 

6 Lament to Phaedra [14:31]
Composed by John Tavener, arranged by Maya Beiser 

7 Hocket [5:54]
Composed by Meredith Monk, reimagined by Maya Beiser 

8 Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice [3:56]
Composed by C. W. Gluck, arranged by Maya Beiser 

9 Salt Air, Salt Earth [15:28]
Composed by Clarice Jensen 

10 Lament d’Ariana [4:54]
Composed by Claudio Monteverdi, arranged by Maya Beiser 

11 Shedemati [5:06]
Composed by Y. Admon, reimagined by Maya Beiser
Featuring Odeya Nini, vocals 

12 When I am Laid in Earth [7:03]
Composed by Henry Purcell, arranged by Maya Beiser

Total Length: 78:33

All tracks performed by Maya Beiser, cello/electronics 

With:
Track 1-5 Helga Davis, vocals
Track 11 Odeya Nini, vocals 

Produced by Maya Beiser
Engineered and mixed by Dave Cook*
Mastered by Scott Hull

*Missy Mazzoli’s Salt was engineered by Lawson White, edited and mixed by Dave Cook and generously supported by Linda and Stuart Nelson. 

Album design and concept art by Denise Burt
Photos of Maya by Abigail Fenton 

Recorded at The Art at Foothill Farm, Lenox, Massachusetts
Mixed at Area 52 Studios, Saugerties, NY
Mastered at Masterdisk Peekskill, NY 

About Islandia Music Records:

Islandia Music Records is an independent label founded by cellist and producer Maya Beiser. A home for boundary-breakers and sonic visionaries, it brings together avant-garde musicians, visual artists, sound designers, and technologists to forge new frontiers in art and sound.

Maya Beiser by Abigail Fenton, available in high resolution here.