• The Last Musician of Ur

    Catalog #: NV5891

    Release Date: November 1, 2012

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    In April 2003, the earliest stringed instrument ever found, the Gold Lyre of Ur, was damaged by looters at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. In 2004, British harpist Andrew Lowings constructed an authentic and playable replica, and enlisted the help of composer Michael Mauldin to promote the project. Moved by the instrument's legacy and the narrative possibilities of the project, Mauldin composed The Last Musician of Ur for orchestra and harp, crafting a flowing narrative following the last musician to play the historic instrument as she is torn between inescapable destruction and the hope of timeless, international peace.

  • Convergence

    Catalog #: NV5892

    Release Date: November 1, 2012

    20th Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Piano
    Wind Ensemble

    Observing the landscape of contemporary classical, one might assume that the art music community has shifted its focus away from the melodic, harmonious, and accessible. CONVERGENCE, an album of works by David Nisbet Stewart and George Gershwin, presents just the opposite: imaginative, expressive works that appeal to performers and audiences alike.

  • Gallery

    Catalog #: NV5893

    Release Date: November 13, 2012

    20th Century
    Orchestral
    Stage Works
    Orchestra

    GALLERY is a collection of works by composer Michael G. Cunningham, containing three of his narrative ballets and the Gastein Masterwork. The ballets Nyadina, based on a Balanchine film ballet; She, based on the 1887 Haggard novel; and Chrysalis at Mardi Gras, based on the Saint Joseph story resembling Cinderella contain a narrative, choreographic flow with emotional and fable-like undertones.

  • Messenger

    Catalog #: NV5896

    Release Date: January 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Electroacoustic
    Orchestra
    Piano

    Composer Jeffrey Stadelman's unusual, arresting, exacting musical voice has evolved over 25 years, amounting to a complex musical practice that suggests no obvious counterpart. MESSENGER, an all-Stadelman release on Navona, includes a variety of his orchestral, instrumental, and electroacoustic works.

  • The Music of Sparky Davis

    Catalog #: NV5897

    Release Date: January 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Solo Instrumental
    Orchestra
    Piano

    About 100 years ago, classical music made a jagged turn away from the harmonic structures that had comprised its underpinnings for several centuries. This departure was early-on dubbed atonalism, and opposed the functional harmony that prevailed during the great musical flourishing of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Composer Sparky Davis, who takes a "modern, not modernistic" approach to writing his music, continues this forward movement, expanding the vocabulary of music to include non-traditional elements and adding to the functional uses of long-established note combinations.

  • Pacific Ridge

    Catalog #: NV5898

    Release Date: January 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Percussion
    Piano

    Santa Barbara-based composer Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) is a fixture in the Californian classical music community, having received commissions and performances from orchestras and ensembles throughout the state and worked throughout her career to advance the musical community.

  • Al Combate

    Catalog #: NV5902

    Release Date: February 1, 2013

    Baroque
    Orchestral
    Vocal Music
    Orchestra
    Voice

    AL COMBATE, the debut release from the Chicago Arts Orchestra (Javier José Mendoza, Artistic Director), highlights New Spain as a mecca of baroque and galant music through a handpicked selection of works from two of eighteenth-century colonial Mexico's most prolific and influential composers, whose music explores the period's transatlantic cultural flow from Europe to New Spain: Ignacio Jerusalem, a master of the galant style who brought modern European styles and techniques across the Atlantic; and Santiago Billoni, whose harmonic experimentation and erudite voice helped shape late baroque repertoire.

  • Cross Connection

    Catalog #: NV5903

    Release Date: March 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    String Quartet

    CROSS CONNECTION features the works of Henry Wolking and James Scott Balentine, two composers whose works perfectly complement each other through musical studies of crossed paths and human togetherness. Both composers works consider the meaning of life, love, and music, and the relationship between each: Gone Playin', a spirited musical riff on epitaphs and their connection of life and death; The Old Gypsy, a Hungarian-influenced piece for string quartet that reflects on the perpetuity of musical themes and influences; and Dun Eideann Blogh, a recollection of times past with friends and family.

  • Imaginary Symphony

    Catalog #: NV5904

    Release Date: March 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Orchestral
    Choir
    Flute
    Orchestra

    New York-based Anthony Piccolo leads a vibrant and varied career as composer, choral director, pianist and conductor. Drawing on decades of performing and composing experience, he crafts clear and colorful scores in a variety of genres.

  • Dances Of Eternity

    Catalog #: NV5907

    Release Date: April 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Large Ensemble
    Orchestra

    DANCES OF ETERNITY presents a group of orchestral works by composers who explore music's potential to capture the more overlooked aspects of human experience. Ranging from representations of optimism and energy to the surging power of nostalgia, to lighthearted frolics and the eternality of life, DANCES OF ETERNITY asks the listener to ponder life, death, and everything in between.

  • Spellbound

    Catalog #: NV5911

    Release Date: May 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Large Ensemble
    Orchestra

    From mythic origin stories, to the Elizabethan stage, to the modern cinema, the human experience is bound in storytelling that has the power to captivate minds and inspire creativity. Like a good story, the composers featured on SPELLBOUND transport the listener across landscapes only limited by the imagination. These new works for orchestra behave as narrative arches, allowing tension and emotion to build and release to a euphoric conclusion or a haunting realization.

  • Mood Indigo

    Catalog #: NV5913

    Release Date: May 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Piano

    Erik Lotichius, a composer unafraid of melody and accessibility, combines the sounds of traditional classics with those that took the 20th-century audiences by storm - in the composer's own words, his work presents "Bach, the Blues and the Beatles" in a spectacular, enthralling combination of genre and style.

  • Torrid Nature Scenes

    Catalog #: NV5915

    Release Date: May 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Stage Works
    Orchestra

    TORRID NATURE SCENES, an album of chamber works from Australian composer Nicholas Vines, presents a series of musical landscapes that instill both anxiety and ebullience in the listener. Through his innovative use of woodwinds, voice, and chamber ensemble, Vines - a composer lauded for his "crackling style" (NewMusicBox) and called "compellingly original" (Boston Phoenix) and "both humorous and unsettling" (WGBH) - asks us to consider representations of nature fueled not by a passing glance of a wondrous vista, but by a series of creative engines wracked with self-burning energy, profound fury, and breath-filled life.

  • Fine Music, Vol. 4

    Catalog #: NV5916

    Release Date: May 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Oboe
    Orchestra
    Saxophone

    FINE MUSIC, VOL. 4 is the fourth compilation of the Navona Records Fine Music digital series. This installment features the works of David Nisbet Stewart, Brian Noyes, Jonathan Little, Daniel Perttu, Curt Cacioppo, Santiago Billoni, Alejejandro Rutty, Joanne Carey, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Summer, Roger Bourland, Kjell Magne Andersen, and Jan Van der Roost.

  • Sirius

    Catalog #: NV5919

    Release Date: June 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    Belgian-native Jan Van der Roost leads a prolific career as a composer, writing works that span a variety of genres and styles, from oratorios and symphonies to lieder cycles and wind band chamber pieces. Van der Roost's unique style has ushered international renown, with his works recorded and performed worldwide, in addition to his guest professorships across four continents.

  • Shifting Treks

    Catalog #: NV5922

    Release Date: July 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    A protégé of Rogers, Carter, Sessions, Britten, and Finney, Sydney Hodkinson emerged as a highly regarded composer and professional in his own right early on, serving as artist-in-residence, director, and educator across the United States and Canada, including at the Eastman School of Music where he catapulted the renowned Musica Nova into the public spotlight through innovative artistic direction and programming.

  • Guernica

    Catalog #: NV5924

    Release Date: July 1, 2013

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Cello
    Orchestra
    Piano

    Hailed as "convincing, emotional, passionate and vivid" (The Musical Review) and "destined to enter the ranks of the standard classical repertoire" (New York Times), Fredrick Kaufman resonates with worldwide audiences through impassioned and prolific compositions that go beyond mere interpretation. He thoroughly digests inspiration, internalizing and individualizing his ideas to create moving and impactful works that do more than simply relay a message. Kaufman's music captures feeling and emotion, reaching the listener with convincing sincerity.

  • Resolve

    Catalog #: NV5934

    Release Date: January 1, 2014

    20th Century
    Orchestral
    Clarinet
    Orchestra

    RESOLVE, the latest release on Navona Records from two-time Grammy® Award-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, showcases three Paul Hindemith clarinet-focused works, two of which are premiere recordings for Stoltzman.

  • Journeys after …

    Catalog #: NV5938

    Release Date: February 1, 2014

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    Journeys after..., the debut release on Navona Records by Welsh composer Brian Noyes, features two orchestral works that reference the life and works of John Clare-a Northamptonshire peasant-poet from the early 19th Century. Inspired by Clare's Journey Out of Essex - a poignant account of his escape from a mental asylum and his 80-mile walk home looking for his imaginary love, Noyes has sought to reflect the poet's real and illusionary worlds as depicted in his evocative text.

  • Foundations

    Catalog #: NV5939

    Release Date: February 1, 2014

    21st Century
    Liturgical
    Orchestral
    Vocal Music
    Choir
    Orchestra

    Excerpts from the Bible, text from the Middle Ages, and traditional instrumentation (organ, orchestral, and choral) form the basis of six composers' inspired works on FOUNDATIONS to create stirring, new contemporary classical music. By connecting to the roots of historical texts and musical conventions - in some cases the foundations of our collective cultures - these pieces present a modern spin on traditional materials, sounds, and forms.