Release Date: May 11, 2018
Catalog #: NV6156
Format: Digital & Physical
21st Century
Chamber
Piano Trio

Moto Bello

Diane Jones composer
Beth Mehocic composer
David N. Stewart composer
Sidney Bailin composer
L Peter Deutsch composer
Giovanni Piacentini composer
Adrienne Albert composer
Clive Muncaster composer
Joanne D. Carey composer
Bruce Babcock composer

Trio Casals
Sylvia Ahramjian violin
Ovidiu Marinescu cello
Anna Kislitsyna piano

Navona Records and the acclaimed ensemble Trio Casals proudly present MOTO BELLO, the next chapter in the moving series that brought 2015’s MOTO CONTINUO and MOTO PERPETUO in 2013. Living up to its name, MOTO BELLO, or “beautiful motion,” is a collection celebrating the synergy of Trio Casals and the vibrant works of ten contemporary composers including Diane Jones, Beth Mehocic, David N. Stewart, Sidney Bailin, L Peter Deutsch, Giovanni Piacentini, Adrienne Albert, Clive Muncaster, Joanne D. Carey, and Bruce Babcock.

MOTO BELLO is a journey through individual experience, international scenes, and philosophical pondering. Each piece is an exploration of movement and of the beauty in all forms of motion—dissonant and jagged, soft and freely flowing, or standing tentatively between the two. In some instances, the pieces are romantic and sweeping, as in Ondine, Nightfall, Palette No. 1, the beginning moments of Solo la Sombra. In others, the energetic experience is driven and leaping, as in Woman A/Part, Somewhere Between D and C#, Habanera, Lines, Hockets, and Riffs, and Imagined/Remembered. MOTO BELLO is a diverse tapestry of emotional, energetic, and imaginative listening experiences.

Trio Casals demonstrates not only the imaginativeness of the composers, but also the group’s technical prowess as they communicate the unique meaning and motion behind each composition. On MOTO BELLO, the ensemble exists as the dynamic storyteller of each composer’s artistic statement, weaving each tale of beauty in motion with their own inspired story.

Listen

Hear the full album on YouTube

Artist Information

Diane Jones

Composer

Diane Jones’ music has been performed by The Relâche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, Trio Casals, and Flautet. She has been commissioned by Mélomanie, the Society for New Music, and the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and she recently completed a commission from the Syracuse International Film Festival to score the 1919 silent film, “The Doll,” screened during the 2019 festival with a live ensemble.

Beth Mehocic

Composer

Dr. Beth Mehocic was the Composer-in-Residence, Music Director, and Full-Professor for the Dance Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and wrote over 100 works for orchestra, concert band, chamber music, dance ensembles, theater, and film. Her works have been performed throughout the United States, Japan, China, Korea, and Europe, and she had works performed in several Las Vegas Hotels including The Mirage, Caesar’s Palace, and the Las Vegas Hilton. Several of her works have been recorded for PARMA Recordings.

David Nisbet Stewart

Composer

David Nisbet Stewart is a composer, pianist, and organist. His career began in academia and migrated into computer technology from 1979 onward. His style of composing also changed as he pursued a new occupation. He believes that leaving academia for the business world was a great benefit to his art. Music is the business of entertainment; the composer must satisfy, even delight, the paying audience. His compositions connect with the listener’s ear and heart.

Sidney Bailin

Composer

Sidney Bailin started composing when he was 6. His first piece was in three-part counterpoint, a fact that he still cannot explain. Imitative counterpoint remains a defining characteristic of his music, perhaps because of his early exposure to species counterpoint, which he learned formally at the age of 10.

L Peter Deutsch

Composer

L Peter Deutsch is a native of Massachusetts, now living in Sonoma County CA, and British Columbia, Canada. He writes primarily for small instrumental or a capella vocal ensembles, spanning styles from devotional to romantic to jazzy, and from Renaissance to early 20th century. Works to date include four choral commissions; releases through PARMA Recordings include music for chorus, string quartet, woodwind and brass quintets, piano trio (featuring work with Trio Casals), and full orchestra.

Giovanni Piacentini

Giovanni Piacentini

Composer, Guitarist

Featured in the Los Angeles Times in 2021, Giovanni Piacentini is a composer, performer, educator, and advocate for the music of others. Recently praised as “paying homage to the important cultural heritage of music in the west” by Forbes magazine, his original music has been described as “able to encapsulate tiny, winsome worlds as if passing through a gallery of paintings” (Winnipeg Free Press), and as “stunningly beautiful with accessible compositional language”(The Clarinet Magazine). Piacentini has established himself as a significant voice in Latin American classical music.

Adrienne Albert

Composer

Award-winning composer Adrienne Albert (ASCAP) has had her chamber, choral, vocal, orchestral, and wind band works performed throughout the United States and around the world. Having previously worked as a singer with composers Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, and Gunther Schuller among many others, Albert began composing her own music in the 1990s.

Clive Muncaster

Composer

Clive Muncaster was born on January 24, 1936. At the young age of 15, he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music where he studied violin, piano, composition, and conducting, and earned his Royal Academy of Music Licentiate Diploma (LRAM). In the 1960s Chandos Music published some of his compositions, which received many broadcasts in England and Germany.

Joanne D. Carey

Composer

Joanne D. Carey studied composition with Lou Harrison, Tikey Zes, and Alan Strange at San Jose State University where she earned B.A. and M.A. degrees (1979, 1986). She spent a decade (1983-1993) as a visiting composer at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) during which she composed three computer-generated pieces.

Bruce Babcock

Composer

Applauded by Aaron Copland, inspired by Desmond Tutu, and mentored by Hugo Friedhofer and Earle Hagen, Bruce Babcock has spent his working life composing music for the musicians of Los Angeles. Successful in both film and television, and the concert hall, he is known for vibrant, sonorous, expressive pieces that immerse audience and performers alike in an inclusive and exuberant celebration of the musical art.

Trio Casals

Ensemble

Since making a highly-praised debut at the 1996 edition of the Pablo Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Trio Casals has delighted audiences with spectacular virtuosity, engaging enthusiasm, and exquisite musical elegance. Consisting of pianist Anna Kislitsyna, violinist Alexandr Kislitsyn, cellist Ovidiu Marinescu, Trio Casals has released several commercial albums with PARMA Recordings and Navona Records to critical acclaim, from the beloved MOTO series to A GRAND JOURNEY and more.

Ovidiu Marinescu

Cellist, Composer

Ovidiu Marinescu, a native of Romania, is active as a cellist, conductor, composer, and educator. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninov Hall, Holywell Room in Oxford, Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, and many other venues around the world. He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Helena and Newark Symphonies, Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Philharmonic, Limeira Symphony in Brazil, Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain, and most orchestras in Romania.

Anna Kislitsyna

Pianist

Pianist and harpsichordist Anna Kislitsyna made her solo debut at age 10 with the Omsk Symphony Orchestra. She remains in high demand as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and educator. Recent season highlights include five new album productions with PARMA Recordings and two release concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, performing Haydn and Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Helena Symphony and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, and returning to the Omsk Philharmonic as a soloist to give the inaugural performance on the new harpsichord.