Aug. 24: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by New Marlborough Meeting House – Performing Music of J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and Keith Jarrett
Aug. 24: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by New Marlborough Meeting House – Performing Music of J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and Keith Jarrett
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by New Marlborough Meeting House
Performing the Music of J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and Keith Jarrett
Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 4:30PM
New Marlborough Meeting House
154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road | New Marlborough, MA
Tickets and information
“a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” – The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
New Marlborough, MA – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be presented in concert by New Marlborough Meeting House (154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road) on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 4:30pm. Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform J.S. Bach’s fifteen Inventions and Sinfonias, Philip Glass’s Etude No. 2, and Keith Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo (transcribed by Uwe Karcher).
Simone Dinnerstein first gained widespread recognition in 2007 with her debut album featuring J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, and has since become increasingly celebrated for her interpretations of contemporary works, particularly those of Philip Glass. She has performed and recorded Glass's Piano Concerto No. 3, which the composer wrote specifically for her in 2017, and NPR Music praised her recording, noting that “Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness.” Her New Marlborough program thoughtfully bridges centuries of keyboard music, beginning with Bach’s pedagogical masterworks. In his preface to his Sinfonias, Bach described these pieces as, “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.” The program moves from Bach to Glass's meditative Etude No. 2, and concludes with Keith Jarrett's Encore from Tokyo, which embraces Baroque conventions through a descending repeating bass line while building harmonically adventurous and wide-ranging improvisations around it.
Simone Dinnerstein recently released her newest album, Complicité – her first all-Bach recording in over ten years. Shortly after its release, it reached over 1 million streams on Apple Music. In addition to Dinnerstein, the album features Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with the string ensemble Dinnerstein 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 full 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, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times) and a praised interpreter of Philip Glass, is presented in concert by New Marlborough Meeting House. Dinnerstein will perform a program featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and Keith Jarrett.
Concert details:
Who: GRAMMY-nominated® Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by New Marlborough Meeting House
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and Keith Jarrett
When: Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 4:30pm
Where: 154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Rd, New Marlborough, MA 01230
Tickets and information: nmmeetinghouse.org/music
Aug. 23: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by Maverick Concerts as Soloist with Caroga Arts Ensemble Conducted by Alexander Platt
Aug. 23: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by Maverick Concerts as Soloist with Caroga Arts Ensemble Conducted by Alexander Platt
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Featured Soloist with Caroga Arts Ensemble
Presented by Maverick Concerts
Performing Piano Concerto No. 3 by Philip Glass
Conducted by Alexander Platt and Directed by Kyle Price
Saturday, August 23, 2025 at 6pm
Maverick Concert Hall | 120 Maverick Rd | Woodstock, NY
Tickets and information
“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” – The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Woodstock, NY – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is presented by Maverick Concerts at Maverick Concert Hall (120 Maverick Rd) on Saturday August 23, 2025 at 6pm. Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, is the featured soloist with the Caroga Arts Ensemble, conducted by Alexander Platt and directed by Kyle Price, in a performance of Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The concert also includes Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for Strings (“Basle”), Robert Manno’s Adagio for Strings, and Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.
Simone Dinnerstein is well known for her distinctive musical voice and increasingly so for her interpretations of music by Philip Glass. She has performed and recorded Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which he wrote for her in 2017, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. NPR Music reported of her recording of the piece, “Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness.” She is deeply familiar with this concerto, having performed the work over fifty times, all around the world, from Havana, Cuba to London, England.
On returning to perform with Alexander Platt and Caroga Arts Ensemble, Dinnerstein says:
“It is always such a wonderful experience to play in the Maverick’s very special space. It is a true community of devoted music and nature lovers. I am delighted to collaborate again with the fantastic musicians of the Caroga Arts Ensemble, on a work that is very meaningful to me.”
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. Shortly after its release, it reached over 1 million streams on Apple Music. 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 by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” is presented by Maverick Concerts as the featured soloist with the Caroga Arts Ensemble, conducted by Alexander Platt and directed by Kyle Price. Dinnerstein will perform Piano Concerto No. 3 by Philip Glass, which was composed for her. The concert also includes Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for Strings, Robert Manno’s Adagio for Strings, and Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Caroga Arts Ensemble Conducted by Alexander Platt, Directed by Kyle Price
Presented by Maverick Concerts
What: Performing Philip Glass’s Concerto No. 3
When: Saturday, August 23, 2025 at 6pm
Where: Maverick Concert Hall, 120 Maverick Rd, Woodstock, NY
Tickets and information: www.maverickconcerts.org/event/maverick-chamber-orchestra-concert-with-simone-dinnerstein-piano-and-the-caroga-arts-ensemble-maverick-saturday-nights/
Aug 13: BBC Proms Presents UK Premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Cello Concerto Featuring Johannes Moser & Conductor Eva Ollikainen - Live Radio Broadcast
Aug 13: BBC Proms Presents UK Premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Cello Concerto Featuring Johannes Moser & Conductor Eva Ollikainen - Live Radio Broadcast
Photo of Anna Thorvalsdottir by Anna Maggy, available in high resolution here.
UK Premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s
Cello Concerto at the BBC Proms
Before we fall
Performed by Cellist Johannes Moser & the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Eva Ollikainen
Broadcast Live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds
A 2025 BBC Proms Top Pick by Gramophone Magazine
Wednesday, 13 August 2025 at 19:30
Royal Albert Hall | Kensington Gore | London
Tickets & Information: www.bbc.co.uk/events/ewxd2m
Broadcast Information: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002gr8h
“[Thorvaldsdottir] has carved her own corner in contemporary music by creating symphonic works of sustained brilliance” – The Times
“Thorvaldsdottir’s new cello concerto, Before We Fall, is a banger, sonically and intellectually” – San Francisco Chronicle
London, England – Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s highly anticipated cello concerto, Before we fall, will have its UK premiere at the BBC Proms on Wednesday, 13 August 2025 at 19:30 at Royal Albert Hall, performed by cello soloist Johannes Moser and the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Eva Ollikainen, and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds. The program also includes Varèse’s Intégrales, Ravel’s Boléro, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The new concerto is written for Moser and co-commissioned by the BBC Proms, San Francisco Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Icelandic premiere, 4 September 2025), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Finnish premiere, 16 January 2026), and Odense Symphony Orchestra. This is Thorvaldsdottir’s third premiere at the BBC Proms, following the UK premiere of METACOSMOS in 2019 and the world premiere of ARCHORA in 2022.
The San Francisco Symphony gave the world premiere of Before we fall in May, with the San Francisco Chronicle reporting, “Thorvaldsdottir’s new cello concerto, Before We Fall, is a banger, sonically and intellectually. . . Moser played throughout with both thrilling splendor and fierce intimacy. . .Thorvaldsdottir’s sound world, both delicate and massive, is like no other. . . in [Dalia] Stasevska’s hands, [it] induced a trancelike sense of being outside of time.” Moser and Ollikainen will next perform the concerto with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at Harpa in Reykjavík on 4 September 2025, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (where Thorvaldsdottir is the 2025-2026 Composer-in-Residence) will give the Finnish premiere on 16 January 2026 with Moser and Chief Conductor Jukka-Pekka Sarasate.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s striking sound world has made her “one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music” (NPR). The Guardian reports, “Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s natural instrument is the symphony orchestra, but in her hands it is reborn as a natural organism.”
Her unique command of the orchestra on vivid display, the concerto carries Thorvaldsdottir's signature “combination of power and intimacy” (Gramophone) yet also distinctively expands her oeuvre. A cellist herself, Anna writes of the new piece:
“The core inspiration behind Before we fall centres around the notion of teetering on the edge, of balancing on the verge of a multitude of opposites. The musical structure flows between lyricism and a sense of distorted energy – two main forces that stabilise this entropic pull. Driven by the strong sense of lyricism that permeates the piece, the work also orbits a forward-moving energy that connects and balances the opposites in different ways. The stable fundament – a grounding power of sustained harmonic presence – communicates with ethereal and distorted sounds, together providing the earth for the essence of the solo cello, the structure upon which it stands and within which it moves. The cello, both alone and deeply connected to the orchestral elements in its expression, generates the atmospheric progression of the world it inhabits, yet continuously on the verge of falling outside the reality it is building for itself.
As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music or what the music is ‘about,’ as such. Inspiration is a way to intuitively tap into parts of the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the music I am writing each time. It is a fuel for the musical ideas to come into existence, a tool to approach and work with the fundamental materials, the ideas and sensations, that provide and generate the initial spark to the music – the various sources of inspiration are ultimately effective because I perceive qualities in them that I find musically captivating. I do often spend quite a bit of time finding ways to articulate some of the important elements of the musical ideas or thoughts that play certain key roles in the origin of each piece but the music itself does not emerge from a verbal place, it emerges as a stream of consciousness that flows, is felt, sensed, shaped and then crafted. So inspiration is a part of the origin story of a piece, but in the end the music stands on its own.”
Her other large orchestral works AERIALITY (2011), METACOSMOS (2017), AIŌN (2018), CATAMORPHOSIS (2020), and ARCHORA (2022) continue to receive country and local premieres as well as repeat performances throughout the world, and are all recorded on the Sono Luminus label.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s most recent season included performances of her music across at least twenty countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and Wales. The current schedule of performances of Anna’s music is available on her website.
Other highlights for Anna include serving as the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich’s Creative Chair for the 2024-2025 season. Since 2015, the orchestra has invited a composer to hold this position each season, including, formerly, Arvo Pärt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Toshio Hosokawa, among others. From September 2024 to June 2025, a wide variety of Anna’s music was performed, ranging from string quartets to large orchestral pieces. The season-opening concerts featured ARCHORA, conducted by music director Paavo Järvi. Two of Anna’s orchestral works received their Swiss premieres – CATAMORPHOSIS at the Sonic Matter Festival Zurich conducted by André de Ridder and METACOSMOS conducted by Eva Ollikainen. During the 2025-2026 season, she is Composer-in-Residence with the Helsinki Philharmonic.
Additionally, Anna continues her two-year period as one of ten CHANEL Next Prize winners. The biennial prize is awarded to ten international contemporary artists who are redefining their chosen discipline. Each artist embodies CHANEL’s mission to advance the new and the next and receives €100,000 in funding, allowing them to fully realize their most ambitious artistic projects. The NEXT Prize was established in 2021 as part of the CHANEL Culture Fund, CHANEL’s global initiative to accelerate the ideas that advance culture, extending the House’s century-long legacy of cultural patronage.
The 2024-2025 season also brought a new album featuring Anna’s chamber work Ubique, which was released worldwide on Sono Luminus on February 28. The 45-minute piece was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Pnea Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, and Kurt Chauviere for Claire Chase’s Claire Chase’s Density project. The world premiere was given in May 2023 at Carnegie Hall, performed by Claire Chase, flutes; Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, cellos; Cory Smythe, piano; and Levy Lorenzo, live sound. The same musicians have recorded the new album, and will perform its West Coast premiere at the Ojai Festival in California on June 7. Anna writes of the piece, “Ubique lives on the border between enigmatic lyricism and atmospheric distortion. Through a combination of sounds, pitches, and textural nuances, low deep drones envelop lyrical materials and harmonies that breathe in and out of focus throughout the progress of the piece. The flow of the music is primarily guided by continuous expansion and contraction — of various kinds and durations — as it streams with subtle interruptions and frictions but ever moving forward in the overall structure.” Listen here.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. Her work is frequently performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Her “detailed and powerful” (The Guardian) orchestral writing has garnered her awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Nordic Council, and the UK’s Ivors Academy. Anna was Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2018-2023, and was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD from the University of California in San Diego, and is currently based in the London area. All of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s orchestral music and many of her other works are recorded on the Sono Luminus label, and featured on Apple Music’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir Essentials Playlist. The music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir is published by Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group. For more information: www.annathorvalds.com/bio
Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists,” German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Tokyo NHK Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Järvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel. His recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, Lutosławski, Dutilleux, Tchaikovsky, Thomas Olesen and Fabrice Bollon (electric cello), which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d’Or. Johannes is renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre to all audiences, and his passionate involvement in commissioning new works for his instrument. He performs on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694 from a private collection. For more information about Johannes Moser: www.johannes-moser.com/biography-english
Sept 5: ECM New Series Releases New Arvo Pärt Album - And I heard a voice
Sept 5: ECM New Series Releases New Arvo Pärt Album - And I heard a voice
ECM New Series Releases
Arvo Pärt: And I heard a voice
Vox Clamantis
Jaan-Eik Tulve, conductor
Featuring: Nunc dimittis; O Holy Father Nicholas; Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen; Für Jan van Eyck; Kleine Litanei; And I heard a voice...
ECM New Series 2780
Release Date: September 5, 2025
Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis and their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve have established themselves among the leading interpreters of Arvo Pärt’s music over a quarter-century of close collaboration with the composer – a relationship that builds on the almost half a decade long artistic partnership between Pärt and producer Manfred Eicher.
Of the ensemble’s ECM New Series recording The Deer’s Cry, the BBC Music Magazine wrote that “the level of artistry necessary to achieve the kind of living, breathing performance given here by Vox Clamantis is a rarity ... This grippingly authentic and superbly sung collection may now be the finest single-disc introduction to Pärt’s music.”
And I heard a voice, recorded in Haapsalu Cathedral, Estonia, and released as Arvo Pärt turns 90 on September 11, 2025, shows that the rapport between choir and composer, rooted in a shared feeling for both ancient plainchant and contemporary music, continues to deepen.
Full press release to follow
August 29: ECM New Series Releases Rolf Lislevand's new album Libro primo
August 29: ECM New Series Releases Rolf Lislevand's new album Libro primo
ECM New Series Releases
Rolf Lislevand: Libro primo
Works for archlute and chitarrone by Johann Hieronymous Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Bernardo Gianoncelli and Diego Ortiz
ECM 2848
Release Date: August 29, 2025
“Il libro Primo”, a writer or a musician's first volume of works, can often hold the most inspired and radical creations of an artist. This recording is dedicated to the works of Italian composers for lute in the first half of the 17th century, largely published in their first printed books. – Rolf Lislevand (from the performer’s note)
On his newest recording for ECM’s New Series, lute virtuoso Rolf Lislevand turns to the revolutionary Baroque literature for archlute and chitarrone, interpreting the works of some of the most significant 16th-17th century lute composers. In striking solo performances, the Norwegian lute player explores the progressive nature of pieces by Johann Hieronymous Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Bernardo Gianoncelli and Diego Ortiz. The modernity of this music’s melodic and rhythmic sensibility throughout can be surprising, not only substantiating Lislevand’s deeper dive into this repertoire, but also revealing a broad idiomatic reach that can still sound highly contemporary today.
“The new style marked a departure from traditional Renaissance polyphony,” Lislevand writes in the performer’s note accompanying the disc. The so-called nuove musiche gave “rise to unusually dissonant and bold harmonic idioms as well as an altogether newfound ability to express the emotional content of text accompanied by previously unheard notions of rhythmical intricacy.”
In a way, the album can be understood as a continuation of his last New Series recording, 2016’s La Mascarade, which saw him approach the works of Louis XIV court composers Robert de Visée and Francesco Corbetta in a programme that BBC Music Magazine called “a hauntingly beautiful musical chiaroscuro”. Turning its focus from France towards Baroque Italy, Libro primo too deals with the juxtaposition of light, bright sounds with obscurer, darker-toned shadings, respectively linked to the archlute and the chitarrone. As the repertoire and musical forms evolved during the 17th century, so did the instruments, with the newly invented lutes reflecting the contrast and tension between light and dark – the chitarrone (or theorbo) being inhabited by a somber, bass-heavy sound, while the archlute has a bright, overtone-rich character.
Lislevand takes historically informed liberties in his interpretations throughout the programme, improvising frequently, as was custom at the time, and even contributes his own personal study of the challenging Passacaglia form with his “Passacaglia al modo mio”. Delving deeper into the musical fabric of the time, he also decided on a different tuning for the archlute than is commonly used today, “giving the music an adventurous timbre, more in line with the nuove musiche.”
The Toccata was among the principal new forms in Baroque lute music, of which Kapsberger was a pioneer. Lislevand interprets several of his Toccatas here, delivering them with lyrical precision but also playful spontaneity, as he improvises connecting interpolations. The same improvisatory approach graces Foscarini’s Tasteggiata, which Lislevand transcribed from the Baroque guitar to the archlute, adding harmonic ideas and setting it in a rondeau form.
Two Recercardas by the Spaniard Diego Ortiz make up the only pre-17th century portion of the music included here. Their qualification for this otherwise strictly Italian Baroque programme is an unexpected inner-musical connection to the century younger pieces by Kapsberger. “In two different timelines,” Lislevand explains, “both composers employ unique rhythmical fantasy and skill in order to achieve expressivity.”
“As Baroque composers were contemporarily within their own time, playing their own compositions and improvising in performance according to the idiomatic set of tools available back then, so are we performers contemporarily within our own time today,” says Lislevand. “Caught in an ongoing creative process, we can’t help but incorporate ourselves into the flow of history by approaching the music from a constantly evolving point of view.” Thus, the Norwegian lute virtuoso, with his own expressive approach, brings this four centuries old music thoroughly into the present.
Recorded at Moosestudios, Norway between 2022 and 2023, and mixed in Munich in 2024, the album was produced by Rolf Lislevand and Manfred Eicher.
Sept. 25: Cellist Tamar Sagiv Performs at National Sawdust Album Release Concert Featuring Music from New Album Shades of Mourning
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
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
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
Sept. 26: Ensemble Galilei Releases Special 2-CD Album There I Long to Be on Sono Luminus – Featuring Early, Traditional, and Original Music
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
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
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 Releases New Album of Bach's Cello Suites on Sony Classical
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
July 12: Newport Classical Presents GRAMMY®-winning Soprano Karen Slack in African Queens – An Evening of Music and Storytelling
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
July 16 at Lincoln Center: Anthony Cheung's the echoing of tenses
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
Aug. 8: Cellist Tamar Sagiv Releases Shades of Mourning on Sono Luminus
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
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'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.