Catalog

Throughout history, music has overcome culture and borders to bring people together through a universal language. Composer Shuying Li and Four Corners Ensemble present WORLD MAP, a collection of five mini-concertos for quintet, which takes listeners on a journey around the world, opening their ears to music’s evolution as an international unifier.

From Mozart’s concertos to Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung,” the flute has served as a versatile tool for conveying the spectrum of human emotion. On AERO, flutist Dieter Flury puts decades of study and a handmade golden flute by Yamaha to work to breathe life into works by contemporary composers and spark the imaginations of listeners.

Navona Records’ exhilarating PRISMA VOL. 3 unveils the diverse faces of contemporary orchestral music. Featuring the works of seven composers, PRISMA VOL. 3 follows up the success of the first two PRISMA installments with symphonic music that is both innovative and deeply alluring.

Can you satisfy God with one sound? This question was repeatedly posed to Lachlan Skipworth by his shakuhachi teacher during a three-year period of intensive study in Japan. It sparked a deep exploration of cross-cultural aesthetics that finds expression in this self-titled Navona Records album. At the beginning of each shakuhachi lesson, student and master begin by repeatedly playing a single note on the end-blown bamboo flute. This focuses their minds on core questions of technique: “have I made progress? Am I closer to mastery of this, shakuhachi’s most fundamental note?”

Introducing the album is Lee Actor’s Duo for Violin and Cello. The track, which won the Eva Thompson Phillips Award for Composition in 1979, is a short, textured, and powerful piece. In ABA form, the energy of the stringed instruments swings like a parabola from the height of sharp, angular rhythms down into deep and gentle expressions and builds up to a sharp, explosive climax.

Characterized by a unique style of instrumentation and experimentation with formality, VIRTUOSITY is the colorful expression of composer John Robertson's symphonic creativity. VIRTUOSITY combines a clarinet and a trumpet concerto, a symphony, and an orchestral fantasy based on a Maori love story – all on one album.

PARMA Recordings, together with the esteemed Croatian Chamber Orchestra, is proud to release BENEATH THE TIDE, a reflection on human emotion and experience through a collection of five concertos. As the title suggests, BENEATH THE TIDE looks under the surface, examining underlying human realities that rise to the surface with the arrival of life’s changes.

International folk dances and Western film scores meet in GENTLE WINDS, a richly tonal collection that is as pleasing to hear as it is to perform. With the melodic, songlike phrases that highlight each instrument equally, one can hear the joy emanating from every performer.

How can something as intimate as a musical moment shared between two people open up the door to endless possibilities? Discover the answer in ART FOR TWO, a collection of works by acclaimed composer Arthur Gottschalk and performed by Italian woodwind extraordinaires Sauro Berti and Mario Ciaccio, accompanied by the skilled hands of pianist Naomi Fujiya. In each piece, the performers call listeners into the moment as they traverse art music inspired by sources from traditional Jewish hymns to Frank Zappa.

An exploration of the unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments, Gregory Wanamaker’s LIGHT AND SHADOWS, WAVES AND TIME is comprised of eight compositions that collectively illustrate the composer’s ability to integrate various genre influences into a distinctive whole. His music has been lauded as “pure gold, shot through with tenderness and grace” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “achingly beautiful” by the Palm Beach Daily News.

Composer and Clarinetist Mark G. Simon makes his PARMA debut with his first-ever recorded album, GRECIAN URN. All selections were composed by Simon, and he is the clarinetist on every track.

Inspired by poetry and prose, composer Mark Volker’s latest release YOUNG PROMETHEUS is about reactions. From the philosophical reaction to the “Three Quotations" to the physical reactions in “Echoes of Yesterday," Volker creates an atmosphere that both conveys the optimistic and ominous.

WARRIOR MONKS is a collection of two clarinet concerti and a trumpet concerto by Carl Vollrath that span topics of war, solace, fascination, and reverence among many others. “And Bugles Sang” drew inspiration from the unique juxtapositions in Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” and explores the many ways the trumpet is used as a symbol throughout human history. At times the trumpet is brash and lyrical, expressing ecstasy; in other instances it is strident and rhythmic perhaps reflecting charges into battle; and yet in an instant it reappears low and mellow in what could be heard as a faux-lullaby. The virtuosity in this piece is not to be understated.

ASCEND, the latest collaboration between PARMA Recordings and the Society of Composes, Inc., is an enthralling showcase of leading composers and performers from around the world. Featuring fantastic ensembles, and with works that reference far-flung locations and historical events, this album journeys fascinatingly through time and space as it compiles a competitively selected sample of today’s best compositions.

Global guitarist and composer Giovanni Piacentini’s talents as a dual-threat musician are on full display on CHIAROSCURO, his debut album. He wrote all these works themed around his instrument of choice, and his playing appears on two pieces – Miniatures, for guitar and chamber ensemble, and a solo guitar performance on the title track. Yet, even on the tracks where he does not perform, the composer’s voice remains ever-present, namely in each work’s reverberant use of space.

FOREVER BEELER represents a sampling of composer Alan Beeler’s prolific output throughout his musical career, which is generally defined by his commitment to compositional craft and structural clarity. The works featured on this album also reveal a playfulness lying just under the surface of Beeler’s compositional perspective. This quality of Beeler’s music is most notable in the seven sonatas for piano, often accompanied by another instrument, included in FOREVER BEELER.

Sergio Cervetti returns with an exciting collection of works on his sixth Navona Records release, SUNSET AT NOON. A diverse composer, his works range from instrumental and vocal music to electronic compositions, often reflecting his South American, French and Italian heritage. His vocabulary draws from an early interest in twelve-tone and minimalism, and his current approach is flexible and free of constraint. With SUNSET AT NOON, Cervetti focuses on keyboard-based compositions for half of the album, with a foray into chamber music on the other half.

On his Navona release INFINITE LANDSCAPES, composer Elliott Miles McKinley presents Three Portraits and his String Quartet No. 7 – two adventurous works commissioned by renowned chamber ensembles.

Considered by American Record Guide as a composer who “approaches his pieces with respect and care,” Carl Vollrath presents the second volume of his clarinet and piano works on Navona Records, LINGERING LONGINGS: MUSIC FOR CLARINET AND PIANO VOL. 2. Expanding upon the first release in this collection, PAST RECOLLECTIONS: MUSIC FOR CLARINET AND PIANO VOL. 1, the composer continues to celebrate past events through musical narratives, tenderly and radiantly performed by clarinetist Michael Norsworthy and pianist Yoko Hagino.

The most recent recording of music by internationally renowned and critically acclaimed composer, Fredrick Kaufman, is a mystical journey through Kaufman's compositional explorations of the unknown, the natural order, and universal human experience. The two feature works are world premieres of his atmospheric choral & instrumental pieces that depict the cosmos in Stars & Distances and Seven Sisters.