Christopher Jesina 10/30/26 Christopher Jesina 10/30/26

OUT TODAY: Ian Axel of A Great Big World Releases The Spider – Cinematic Piano Track on Sony Music Masterworks

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Ian Axel from A Great Big World Unveils Cinematic New Piano Track
The Spider

NEW YORK, NY (OCTOBER 30, 2026) –– Today, IAN AXEL, GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, and one half of A Great Big World, unveils his cinematic new piano track The Spider via Sony Music Masterworks – listen here. Released just in time for Halloween, Axel’s favorite holiday, the haunting, yet whimsical new instrumental song was inspired by a vivid image of a lone spider spinning its web as the world around it slowly comes alive.

“When I was a kid, the piano felt like this place where anything could happen,” says Ian Axel. “I could sit down and create my own musical world with my imagination. While composing The Spider, I found my way back to that kid and am honoring the part of myself that fell in love with music before I ever thought about what it was supposed to become.”

With The Spider, Axel embraces a new kind of storytelling, using melody in place of lyrics to conjure characters, images, and worlds of his own. This release marks an exciting and deeply personal new chapter, reaffirming his place as a visionary artist as he continues to push creative boundaries and welcome listeners into the vivid soundscapes of his imagination.

PR Photo - Photo Credit: Juankr (Download)

ABOUT IAN AXEL
Ian Axel is a GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, and one half of A Great Big World. A classically trained pianist and lifelong songwriter, Axel first gained attention with “This Is the New Year” before joining longtime collaborator Chad King to form A Great Big World in 2012. The duo achieved worldwide success with their Christina Aguilera collaboration “Say Something,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned the 2015 GRAMMY® Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The song has since been certified RIAA Diamond and surpassed one billion streams, while the duo’s Gold-certified debut album, Is There Anybody Out There?, debuted in the top three on the Billboard 200. Beyond A Great Big World, Axel and King’s work spans music, film, television and theater, with songwriting credits and collaborations including Andrea Bocelli, Matteo Bocelli, Ellie Goulding, Gwen Stefani, Ingrid Michaelson, Pentatonix, Jason Mraz and Rachel Platten. Most recently, the duo wrote the musical adaptation of Wonder and are developing a musical adaptation of Silver Linings Playbook. At the same time, Axel is creating a great big world of his own, returning to his roots as a pianist with new solo music set for release in spring 2027.

Ian Axel – The Spider
Listen Here

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Christopher Jesina 10/30/26 Christopher Jesina 10/30/26

OUT TODAY: Pianist Lukas Sternath Plays Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt – Debut Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Lukas Sternath Plays Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt
Debut Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS
Out Today - Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: Out Today

The debut album by ARD Music Competition winner and BBC New Generation artist Lukas Sternath, featuring works by Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt, is out today, October 23, 2026, on NO SILENCE RECORDS, the new label founded by Igor Levit, in collaboration with Sony Classical - listen here.

“A young man walks onto the stage and seems to conjure magic from the piano.” This was how one of Germany’s leading newspapers described an early performance by the Viennese pianist Lukas Sternath.

Sternath first came to international prominence when he won the 2022 ARD International Music Competition, taking home an extraordinary seven prizes. Yet almost as remarkable as his success was his decision to decline the accompanying offer of a debut recording. At just 22, he felt the time was not yet right. Rather than rushing into the studio, he chose to wait until the project felt truly his own.

That moment has now arrived. This October, Lukas Sternath releases his debut album on NO SILENCE RECORDS, the label founded by Igor Levit in partnership with Sony Classical.

Levit, Sternath’s teacher at the University of Music, Drama & Media in Hanover, Germany as well as a close mentor and friend, gave him complete artistic freedom in shaping the programme. The first disc brings together five Schubert songs in Liszt’s celebrated piano transcriptions alongside Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. The second is devoted entirely to Liszt, featuring Deuxième Année: Italie from Années de Pèlerinage, culminating in the vast and visionary Fantasia quasi Sonata: Après une lecture du Dante.

Sternath approached the recording with exceptional care and a clear artistic vision:

“I knew very early on that Schubert had to be part of my first album. His songs touch me more deeply than anything else he wrote. In them, I feel he is completely himself, in his sound world and musical language. Liszt’s transcriptions are extraordinary, and my aim has been to shape them so naturally that they retain the quality of the human voice.”

The importance of breathing in music is something Sternath has carried with him ever since his years with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Even today, he sings through the songs as he practises.

“It helps me to understand their vocal flow and to bring that sense of breath and phrasing into my playing.”

The result is a deeply personal album. These songs explore states of mind, emotional landscapes and ways of seeing the world, not least that of the performer himself. Running through the programme is the recurring figure of the wanderer, a theme with which Sternath feels a profound affinity:

“The feeling of being ‘a stranger wherever I go’ is one I know well. You are always searching, always moving forward, never quite arriving. Yet when I sit at the piano, I feel at home.”

Throughout Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage, Sternath remains closely connected to the spirit of song and the expressive power of language. Drawing inspiration from Petrarch’s poetry, he seeks to translate its meaning directly into sound. Rather than treating Liszt’s virtuosity as an end in itself, he understands it as the outward expression of an inner necessity, an emotional and spiritual eruption. What emerges is an interpretation shaped by curiosity and reflection: a continual process of questioning, discovering, discarding and, ultimately, letting go.

Release date: October 23, 2026 on NO SILENCE Records / Sony Classical, available on CD and digital formats.

Christopher Jesina 10/30/26 Christopher Jesina 10/30/26

OUT TODAY: Pianist Igor Levit Releases Resistance – New Album on His Label NO SILENCE RECORDS

Pianist Igor Levit Releases New Album Resistance
on His Label NO SILENCE RECORDS

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eroica in Franz Liszt’s Transcription
and Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon
Out Today - Listen Here

Album Release Date: Out Today

With his new album Resistance, released today, October 23, 2026, on his own label NO SILENCE RECORDS (in collaboration with Sony Classical), pianist Igor Levit turns his attention to two works that explore resilience and the exercise of political power. The program features Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica, in Franz Liszt’s piano transcription, alongside Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon, recorded with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under the direction of Antonello Manacorda. The spoken narration is performed by acclaimed actress Dörte Lyssewski. Listen to the album here.

At the heart of the album lies the story of a profound disillusionment. Beethoven originally dedicated his Third Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he admired as an embodiment of the ideals of liberty and progress. However, when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, Beethoven angrily scratched out his name from the title page. The Bonaparte Symphony became the Eroica, a work that continues to stand as a musical symbol of human determination and inner strength.

For Igor Levit, however, the symphony’s heroism resides less in political figures than in Beethoven himself: “Here is a man who is losing his hearing, who finds himself on the brink of suicide, and yet carries on. Through his art, Beethoven writes himself back into life.”

A key role in this story is played by Franz Liszt, whose piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies set new standards in the art of transcription. For Levit, Liszt’s version of the Eroica is far more than a mere piano arrangement: “In essence, he transforms the Eroica into an independent piano symphony.” The combination of orchestral power, technical challenge and visionary imagination makes the work one of the crowning achievements of the piano repertoire.

Set against Beethoven’s revolutionary spirit is Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon. Composed in exile in 1942 in the United States, the work sets Lord Byron’s condemnation of Napoleon while simultaneously turning its gaze towards the tyrant of Schoenberg’s own time: Adolf Hitler. Having himself fled Nazi persecution, Schoenberg created a powerful musical manifesto against dictatorship and oppression.

The result is a compelling programme that examines ideals of heroism, the abuse of power and the moral imperative of resistance. Across more than a century, Beethoven, Liszt and Schoenberg enter into a dialogue that feels more relevant today than ever.

Igor Levit – Resistance: Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” (Liszt Transcription) & Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon

Kammerakademie Potsdam; Antonello Manacorda, conductor; Dörte Lyssewski, narrator

Release date: Out Today on NO SILENCE RECORDS / Sony Classical, available on CD and digital formats.

Christopher Jesina 10/29/26 Christopher Jesina 10/29/26

OUT TODAY: Pianist Igor Levit Releases Erik Satie’s Complete Vexations – New Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Pianist Igor Levit Releases Erik Satie’s Complete Vexations
New Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS
Out Today - Listen Here

Worldwide Release Date: Out Today

One of the most radical compositions in music history
To be issued as an exclusive limited edition featuring an NFC bracelet, complemented by a vinyl selection

Today, October 23, 2026, pianist Igor Levit releases one of the most extraordinary projects of his career to date: a complete recording of Erik Satie’s legendary Vexations on Levit’s label NO SILENCE RECORDS (in cooperation with Sony Classical). Listen to the album here. Presented in a unique format and limited to just 840 copies, the edition centres on an NFC bracelet designed by jewelry artist Saskia Diez, providing access to the complete recording. The release also includes a vinyl edition featuring a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, as well as a page of sheet music from Vexations, signed by Igor Levit.

Satie’s Vexations occupies an almost mythical place in music history. Consisting of only a handful of bars, the piece is built around a brief and enigmatic sequence of notes which, according to the composer’s instructions, should be repeated 840 times. Depending on the chosen tempo, a performance can last anywhere between 13 and 20 hours. Believed to have been composed in the emotional aftermath of Satie’s short but intense relationship with the painter Suzanne Valadon, the work remained undiscovered until after the composer’s death and subsequently became a landmark of the musical avant-garde.

Through its radical simplicity, Vexations raises fundamental questions: what defines a piece of music? What role do performer and audience play? And how are our perceptions transformed by repetition and the passage of time? It is hardly surprising that the work later captivated composers such as John Cage, who organised the first public performance in 1963.

For Igor Levit, Vexations has long been part of his artistic thinking. He first performed the marathon work during the pandemic, when the exceptional circumstances of lockdown created new opportunities for experimentation. The purely audio recording now being released, however, posed an entirely different challenge.

“It truly felt like a torment for the first time,” says Levit. “The energy turned inward rather than outward. It was the most honest, most intense and also the slowest performance I have given so far.”

It is precisely here that the distinctive power of this recording lies. Free from the character of a live event and without any visual distraction, it focuses entirely on the music, on time, and on the act of listening itself. What appears to be a simple sequence of repetitions becomes an intense journey through concentration, perception and consciousness.

True to Satie’s spirit, the work resists any definitive interpretation. It tells no story, pursues no conventional dramatic goal and offers no obvious emotional point of entry. Instead, it opens a space for individual experiences and reflections. For Levit, this is exactly where the enduring fascination of the piece resides: “Conceptually, the work is revolutionary.”

Bringing together a complete recording of Satie’s groundbreaking masterpiece with an NFC bracelet specially created by Saskia Diez, Vexations becomes an unprecedented listening experience at the intersection of music, performance and object art.

Igor Levit
Erik Satie: Vexations

Exclusive LP-format edition featuring an NFC bracelet designed by Saskia Diez, a 180g vinyl record containing a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, and a sheet of music signed by Igor Levit. NO SILENCE RECORDS / Sony Classical.

Christopher Jesina 10/23/26 Christopher Jesina 10/23/26

Nov. 13: Anna Lapwood Releases Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost on Sony Music Masterworks – New Single Out Today

Anna Lapwood Unveils Her Most Ambitious Album Yet
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Featuring The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony
Anna Lapwood’s Transcription of Howard Shore’s Iconic Soundtrack

One Day (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean)
New Single Out Today

Worldwide Album Release Date: November 13, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

Acclaimed organist Anna Lapwood returns with her new album, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, set for release on Friday, November 13, 2026 on Sony Music Masterworks, one that will whisk you away into a vividly realised world of fantastical characters, dark forests, looming mountains and tempestuous seas. Pre-order the album here.

New single One Day (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean) is out today - listen here.

One of the most gifted artists of her generation, Lapwood is famed for introducing the organ to millions of new fans through her interpretations of both classical and contemporary works. On this new record – her most ambitious to date – she dives into two of the most iconic film soundtracks, Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings and Hans Zimmer’s Pirates of the Caribbean, reimagining them as major works for organ and using them to showcase the Steinmeyer organ of Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim.

Ahead of the album, the first two tracks – Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All and The Shire/Concerning Hobbits, both taken from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Organ Symphony – arriving, Friday, September 11, and feature Lapwood singing in Elvish. Elsewhere on the album, Lapwood is joined on Rivendell and Song For Justice by the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir, conducted by Johanna Bjørkhaug.

The album grew out of a chance encounter in a New York City coffee shop, when a young girl called Katherine requested Concerning Hobbits from The Lord of the Rings. That ignited a spark which would eventually become Lapwood’s largest transcription project yet: The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony.

Lapwood says: “It has been the most extraordinary journey delving into JRR Tolkien's world in more detail, and into Howard Shore’s incredible scores. I knew that if I was going to do it, I would need to go all in! When I wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean Suite a couple of years ago it was my largest scale (and hardest!) transcription I had ever written. I feel like everything I learned from that informed The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony, which is by far the biggest project I’ve ever worked on and has completely transformed how I think about the organ. It has been such a beautiful process and has made me fall in love with the organ all over again!”

Transcribing everything by ear, Lapwood enlisted the help of fellow The Lord of the Rings fans to choose which movements to include, exploring Howard Shore’s motivic development while maintaining a clear sense of the story’s narrative arc. She also had the opportunity to speak with Howard Shore himself, who offered suggestions along the way. “Howard and his team have been so kind and generous with their time and support during this whole process, and I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to ask their advice!” she says.

Demonstrating her talent in concert halls around the world and drawing a huge and loyal following on social media, Lapwood shot to fame on TikTok and now has over 4 million followers across all platforms. She has been hailed as a sensation by the media, covered by major titles including The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The New York Times with Tatler hailing her “the Taylor Swift of classical music”. “Social media has helped make me who I am as a performer” Lapwood has previously explained, “in that it’s made me realise that I’m allowed to be myself onstage. Now I actually feel like I’m the freest version of myself when I’m performing - and that’s a rather lovely thing”.

Lapwood trained at the Junior Royal Academy of Music on the piano, harp, viola, and violin. Naturally shy, she found music was one of the ways she could most easily communicate. At school in Oxford, she played 15 different instruments, four of them to Grade 8 standard. In 2012, she became the first woman in Magdalen College, Oxford’s 560-year history to be awarded an organ scholarship.

Then, when she was just 21, Lapwood became the youngest person ever to hold the position of Director of Music at Oxford or Cambridge, leading the choirs at Pembroke College, Cambridge. She stepped down in 2025, after nine years in the role to pursue a full-time career as a concert organist. She has performed with pop stars like RAYE and Florence & the Machine, opened for Ludovico Einaudi at the O2 arena, and has even given Tom Cruise an organ lesson at the Royal Albert Hall, where she is the Official Organist.

A lover of storytelling through the instrument, Lapwood introduces a new element on this album, singing in Elvish throughout The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony. “I’ve never done anything like this before, but for me it was very important to the project. The Lord of the Rings isn’t just a story you read; it’s a world that you enter” she explains. “I really feel like I’ve lived it for the past year, as though I’ve been living in Middle Earth. I knew Howard Shore was a genius before I started this project, but the more you look at it and the more time you spend with his music, the more extraordinary it is.”

Lapwood has worked hard to shift the narrative around both the organ and classical music. With Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, she is keen to promote the intrinsic value of film music. “This is the music I played in my school orchestras, when I was growing up; it’s the music that made me want to compose,” she says. “It is incredible, intelligent, beautiful music, and I think it is deserving of so much respect! I’ve tried to treat it with that respect in creating this album, showing just how virtuosic if can be. Film music isn’t some secondary art form; it is essential to the success of the stories we know and love. For me, film music is the music that makes my heart sing.”

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost Tracklist:

1. I. Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
2. II. The Shire/Concerning Hobbits (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
3. III. A Knife in the Dark (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
4. IV. Rivendell (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
5. V. The Ring Goes South (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
6. VI. The Three Hunters (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
7. VII. The Grace of Undómiel (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
8. VIII. The Lighting of the Beacons (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
9. IX. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
10. X. A Far Green Country (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
11. XI. The Black Gate Opens (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
12. XII. For Frodo (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
13. XIII. The Crack of Doom (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
14. XIV. The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony)
15. Song For Justice
16. I. Hoist the Colours/Davy Jones (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean)
17. II. Jack Sparrow (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean)
18. III. One Day (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean)
19. IV. Drink Up, Me Hearties, Yo Ho! (Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean)
20. Romantic Flight/Test Drive (from How to Train Your Dragon)

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/

Christopher Jesina 10/16/26 Christopher Jesina 10/16/26

OUT TODAY: Acclaimed UK Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Songs Without Words EP on Sony Classical

Acclaimed UK Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Releases Songs Without Words EP on Sony Classical
Out Today - Listen Here

Album Release Date: Out Today

Thoughtfully curated by the artist, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason’s new EP, Songs Without Words – out today, listen here, brings together music by Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Camille Saint-Saëns and Nina Simone, continuing Jeneba's passion for championing overlooked voices and tracing the evolution of the Songs Without Words tradition across generations, musical styles and genres.

To acknowledge the origins of the genre Songs Without Words, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has chosen Felix Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words in G major, Op. 62 No. 1 Andante espressivo. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) and his sister, Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn (1805-1847) were among the first composers to write ‘Lieder ohne Worte’, Felix Mendelssohn writing eight volumes of six songs, which became hugely popular.

Continuing her commitment to championing music by black women composers and bringing their often-overlooked repertoire to a wider audience, Jeneba returns to African American composers, Florence Price (1887-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), both of whom were featured on her debut Sony Classical album, Fantasie. For Songs Without Words, she has chosen two rarely recorded works by Price: Song Without Words in G major ‘Pleading’ (c. 1928) and the lyrical yet dramatic Song Without Words in A major (1932). These sit alongside Bonds' The Bells, the second movement from her Spiritual Suite for Piano and based on the spiritual Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells, which Bonds developed into an elaborate piano piece.

Jeneba also showcases the Theme from Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns, famously performed by Nina Simone in the artist’s own arrangement of this work as a solo piano piece during her 1963 debut solo concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In a fitting tribute to Nina Simone, Jeneba recently performed this work while making her own debut at the Hollywood Bowl.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, of whom Gramophone wrote: “her future will surely be dazzling” and who impressed BBC Music Magazine with her “sparkle and self-possession”, made her mark in March 2025 with her acclaimed debut album on Sony Classical, Fantasie, featuring works by Frederic Chopin, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Claude Debussy and Alexander Scriabin of which International Piano magazine noted “…This is a debut recording of exceptional bravura and insight… Already she compels attention” . This much in-demand young artist and member of the supremely talented Kanneh-Mason family of musicians, followed it in December 2025 with an exceptionally fine self-curated EP, Jane Austen’s Piano, exploring the musical world of fellow pianist and world-famous author, Jane Austen, released for the 250th anniversary of the writer’s birth.

Songs Without Words Tracklist:

1.          Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte V, op. 62: I. Andante espressivo
2.          Florence Price: Song Without Words in A Major
3.          Margaret Bonds: Spiritual Suite: II. The Bells
4.          Florence Price: Song Without Words in G Major (Pleading)
5.          Camille Saint-Saëns: Theme from Samson and Delilah (arr. Nina Simone)

Christopher Jesina 10/15/26 Christopher Jesina 10/15/26

OUT TODAY: Violinist Esther Abrami Releases Amour – New Album on Sony Classical Featuring Abrami's Own Large Scale Composition

Acclaimed Violinist Esther Abrami Releases New Album Amour

Album Marks Major Artistic Milestone For Abrami
Presenting Her First Own Large-Scale Composition
Out Today on Sony Classical - Listen Here

Worldwide Release Date: Out Today

Today, October 9, 2026, celebrated violinist and social media sensation Esther Abrami releases her new album Amour on Sony Classical – listen here.

Marking a major artistic milestone, Amour is the first album where Abrami presents an original own large-scale composition at its core: a self-written nine-part suite. Conceived as an intimate and deeply expressive exploration of love in all its forms, the work captures the full spectrum of emotions, from tenderness and passion to longing and heartbreak, and stands at the heart of a project that blends original music with newly reimagined works for violin and orchestra.

“With Amour, I wanted to explore love in all its forms – not just the joy and beauty, but also the vulnerability, the longing, the anger and the pain that often comes with it. Writing my own suite of nine movements allowed me to express a range of very personal emotions, while the other pieces on the album reflect how universal these feelings are across time and genres. Love is something that we all experience, for the best and the worst but at the end, that’s what connects us all. I hope this album resonates with anyone who listens to it”, says Esther Abrami.

Beyond the central suite, Amour brings together a diverse selection of iconic classical works about love, each newly arranged for solo violin and orchestra. A particular highlight of the album is Nino Rota’s Romeo and Juliet: Love Theme, featuring the celebrated mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti. Viotti’s vocals add a captivating dimension to the piece as she engages in a duet with Esther’s violin. The programme further includes epic versions for violin and orchestra of Céline Dion’s All by Myself and Georges Bizet’s Carmen: L’amour est un oiseau rebelle from ‘Habanera’. New arrangements of Francis Poulenc’s Les chemins de l’amour, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Melodie), and the virtuosic intensity of Tomaso Antonio Vitali’s Chaconne in G minor add even more musical colours to this collection of works centred around love. The album also features a new version arranged by Esther Abrami of Charlie Chaplin’s Désillusion amoureuse from the movie The Circus, a poignant composition that reveals the legendary filmmaker’s deeply expressive musical voice.

Throughout her career, Esther Abrami has been known for her ability to connect classical music with a wide and diverse audience, bringing fresh perspectives to the repertoire. With ‘Amour’, she reaches a new artistic dimension, uniting her work as a composer with her unique voice as an interpreter, thus shaping a musical language that is unmistakably her own.

This new chapter in her career follows a period of exceptional success. Since the release of her album ‘Women’ in April 2025, Esther Abrami has become one of the most visible young artists in classical music. Especially in her home country, France, she has appeared on major television programmes, performing for millions of viewers and captivating audiences through a series of highly successful concerts. Her book ‘La musique est (aussi) une affaire de femmes’ has quickly become a genre bestseller and will be released in English and German in September under the title ‘Music is (also) a Women’s Affair’. In recognition of her artistic impact, she will receive an Opus Klassik Award 2026, the most important classical music prize in the German speaking world.

‘Amour’ features the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Irene Delgado-Jiménez and will be available for streaming and digital download in stereo and the immersive format Dolby Atmos. The album will also be released as CD and a limited-edition 2x Ecorecord InkPlosion Colour LP–available here.

Amour - Track List

1. Désillusion amoureuse (Charlie Chaplin)
2. – 10. Amour Suite (Esther Abrami)
11. Romeo and Juliet: Love Theme (Nino Rota) – feat. Marina Viotti
12. All by Myself (Céline Dion)
13. Carmen: L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Bizet)
14. Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs, Op. 41: Lento (Fibich)
15. Les chemins de l’amour (Poulenc)
16. Orpheo and Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Gluck)
17. Chaconne in G minor (Vitali)

* City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Irene Delgado-Jiménez

Christopher Jesina 10/15/26 Christopher Jesina 10/15/26

OUT TODAY: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Releases New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks

Pioneering Composer and Pianist
Alexis Ffrench
Out Today - Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: Out Today

New York, NY – Today, October 9, 2026, pioneering pianist, composer and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench, releases his new album 24 – listen here. Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 unveils as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day.

Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk – through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.

Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten-days of near-total immersion on an array vintage of grand pianos, upright pianos and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.

Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”

Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “what do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.

2026 also marks the 20th anniversary of Ffrench’s seminal debut album Piano Diaries. With each piece evoking the pull of a series of intimate and reflective moments, the record fuses cinematic simplicity with an emotionally direct and highly accessible composition that welcomes all listeners to step directly into Ffrench’s intimate and atmospheric world.

One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums and Gold-selling status in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”

Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, scooping an ARIA Award for his Apple Music show Classical Connections, hosting brand-new Classic FM series “Music to Live By”, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting masterclasses with schools & charitable organizations or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.

Refusing to be penned in by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward – with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.

With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the in numerous possibilities held inside one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.

Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 Out Today
Listen to 24 here

About Alexis Ffrench

Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.

Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.

A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.

Alexis Ffrench Socials
Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | YouTube

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/.

Christopher Jesina 10/14/26 Christopher Jesina 10/14/26

Nov. 6: Il Volo Announces Our Christmas – New Sony Album Celebrating The Magic Of The Holiday Season

Il Volo Announces New Sony Album Our Christmas
Celebrating The Magic Of The Holiday Season

The Album Will Accompany the Tour Across Italy’s Leading Arenas
Throughout The Month Of December
Il Volo - Christmas Nights

Worldwide Album Release Date: November 6, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

During the final evening of the concert event Uno Per Tutti, held in the prestigious setting of the Esedra at Palazzo Te in Mantua, Il Volo announced Our Christmas, the new album celebrating the magic of the holiday season.

The album will be released on Friday, November 6, 2026 via Epic Records / Sony Music Italy and is now available for pre-order in CD and White LP formats here.

Recorded with the accompaniment of a full orchestra, Our Christmas brings together the unmistakable voices of Piero Barone, Gianluca Ginoble and Ignazio Boschetto with the power and elegance of symphonic music.

The project gives life to a special album that evokes the atmosphere, emotions and musical traditions of Christmas through the trio’s unique interpretations: from timeless classics such as White Christmas, Astro del Ciel, Adeste Fideles and Amazing Grace, to iconic songs including Feliz Navidad and It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas, as well as solemn and deeply moving renditions of Schubert’s and Gounod’s Ave Maria.

The new album will take center stage during Il Volo - Christmas Nights, the tour that will see the trio return to perform live in Italy’s leading arenas throughout December, presenting their Christmas repertoire alongside the most beloved hits from their career.

Produced by MT Opera & Blues and Friends & Partners, the tour will kick off on December 7 at the Unipol Forum in Milan, before continuing on December 12 at the Nelson Mandela Forum in Florence, December 17 at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, December 19 at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, and December 20 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna. Tickets are available via TicketOne.

OUR CHRISTMAS
TRACKLIST

Angels We Heard on High
Amazing Grace
Adeste Fideles
Astro del ciel
Ave Maria by F. Schubert
Feliz Navidad
O Holy Night
Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Ave Maria by. C. Gounod
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas
White Christmas

IL VOLO - CHRISTMAS NIGHTS

12/7/2026 – Milano @ Unipol Forum
12/12/2026 – Firenze @ Nelson Mandela Forum
12/17/2026 – Roma @ Palazzo dello Sport
12/19/2026 – Torino @ Inalpi Arena
12/20/2026 – Bologna @ Unipol Arena

IL VOLO
www.ilvolomusic.com
www.instagram.com/ilvolomusic
www.facebook.com/ilvolomusic

Christopher Jesina 10/5/26 Christopher Jesina 10/5/26

Oct. 23: Pianist Igor Levit Releases Erik Satie’s Complete Vexations – New Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Oct. 23: Pianist Igor Levit Releases Erik Satie’s Complete Vexations

Pianist Igor Levit Releases Erik Satie’s Complete Vexations
New Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Worldwide Release Date: October 23, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

One of the most radical compositions in music history
To be issued as an exclusive limited edition featuring an NFC bracelet, complemented by a vinyl selection

On October 23, 2026 pianist Igor Levit will release one of the most extraordinary projects of his career to date: a complete recording of Erik Satie’s legendary Vexations on Levit’s label NO SILENCE RECORDS (in cooperation with Sony Classical). Presented in a unique format and limited to just 840 copies, the edition centres on an NFC bracelet designed by jewelry artist Saskia Diez, providing access to the complete recording. The release also includes a vinyl edition featuring a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, as well as a page of sheet music from Vexations, signed by Igor Levit. Pre-order is available now.

Satie’s Vexations occupies an almost mythical place in music history. Consisting of only a handful of bars, the piece is built around a brief and enigmatic sequence of notes which, according to the composer’s instructions, should be repeated 840 times. Depending on the chosen tempo, a performance can last anywhere between 13 and 20 hours. Believed to have been composed in the emotional aftermath of Satie’s short but intense relationship with the painter Suzanne Valadon, the work remained undiscovered until after the composer’s death and subsequently became a landmark of the musical avant-garde.

Through its radical simplicity, Vexations raises fundamental questions: what defines a piece of music? What role do performer and audience play? And how are our perceptions transformed by repetition and the passage of time? It is hardly surprising that the work later captivated composers such as John Cage, who organised the first public performance in 1963.

For Igor Levit, Vexations has long been part of his artistic thinking. He first performed the marathon work during the pandemic, when the exceptional circumstances of lockdown created new opportunities for experimentation. The purely audio recording now being released, however, posed an entirely different challenge.

“It truly felt like a torment for the first time,” says Levit. “The energy turned inward rather than outward. It was the most honest, most intense and also the slowest performance I have given so far.”

It is precisely here that the distinctive power of this recording lies. Free from the character of a live event and without any visual distraction, it focuses entirely on the music, on time, and on the act of listening itself. What appears to be a simple sequence of repetitions becomes an intense journey through concentration, perception and consciousness.

True to Satie’s spirit, the work resists any definitive interpretation. It tells no story, pursues no conventional dramatic goal and offers no obvious emotional point of entry. Instead, it opens a space for individual experiences and reflections. For Levit, this is exactly where the enduring fascination of the piece resides: “Conceptually, the work is revolutionary.”

Bringing together a complete recording of Satie’s groundbreaking masterpiece with an NFC bracelet specially created by Saskia Diez, Vexations becomes an unprecedented listening experience at the intersection of music, performance and object art.

Igor Levit
Erik Satie: Vexations

Exclusive LP-format edition featuring an NFC bracelet designed by Saskia Diez, a 180g vinyl record containing a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, and a sheet of music signed by Igor Levit. NO SILENCE RECORDS / Sony Classical.

Christopher Jesina 10/5/26 Christopher Jesina 10/5/26

Oct. 23: Pianist Lukas Sternath Plays Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt – Debut Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Oct. 23: Pianist Lukas Sternath Plays Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt

Lukas Sternath Plays Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt
Debut Album on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Worldwide Album Release Date: October 23, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

The debut album by ARD Music Competition winner and BBC New Generation artist Lukas Sternath, featuring works by Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt, will be released on October 23, 2026 on NO SILENCE RECORDS, the new label founded by Igor Levit, in collaboration with Sony Classical.