• Requiem: For the Living

    Catalog #: NV6009

    Release Date: September 11, 2015

    21st Century
    Vocal Music
    Choir
    Orchestra

    From Verdi and Mozart to Stravinsky and Britten, the requiem has been a musical tradition used by many composers to remind us of life's indeterminacy. American composer Arthur Gottschalk's momentous masterwork, REQUIEM: FOR THE LIVING, an 8-movement, 45 minute work for full orchestra, chorus, and four soloists, including tenor Alberto Mizrahi and Grammy-nominated soprano Lauren Snouffer, resigns the fear of uncertainty by celebrating the rich narrative of Western art and culture.

  • Stars & Distances

    Catalog #: NV6011

    Release Date: November 13, 2015

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Vocal Music
    Choir
    Clarinet
    Orchestra

    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.

  • Astral Travels

    Catalog #: NV6015

    Release Date: November 13, 2015

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Saxophone

    With an innate sense of curiosity and a drive for knowledge, humans constantly push the boundaries of their physical and psychological environments, attempting to break through and discover the unexpected. On his debut Navona Records release ASTRAL TRAVELS, composer and double bassist David Arend explores several frontiers, including perceived boundaries between musical genres, earth and outer space, humanity and nature, and perception and reality.

  • Rojak Rocks

    Catalog #: NV6019

    Release Date: January 8, 2016

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Concertos
    Orchestra
    Piano
    Trombone

    For decades, John Rojak has been a staple in American brass music, performing with a number of chamber ensembles and orchestras such as American Brass Quintet, Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony; in Broadway shows including Les Misérables and The Producers; in big bands of Mel Lewis, Bob Mintzer, and Gerry Mulligan; and contributing to the pedagogy of the bass trombone as a faculty member of several institutions, including The Juilliard School, The Hartt School, and Aspen Music Festival and School. Needless to say he has taken the bass trombone and its repertoire to new heights in the classical, contemporary, jazz, and commercial genres.

  • Te Deum

    Catalog #: NV6021

    Release Date: July 8, 2016

    21st Century
    Liturgical
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    The lineage of Western concert music is one which brims with tradition and history, through teachers and pupils, listeners and performers, spanning centuries and continents alike. But one of the common threads which runs through this lineage is the urge by composers, performers, and audiences to all be part of a transcendent emotional experience through music itself.

  • Dream Vapors

    Catalog #: NV6025

    Release Date: February 12, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    Music can possess the power to take hold of our emotions, guiding us along an imagined journey that stirs our inner being, a concurrently unique and familiar experience. New York composer Rain Worthington writes music to captivate the listener, creating textural and lyrical worlds that are inhabited by various colors and tones. On DREAM VAPORS, her full-length solo debut on Navona Records, the composer offers a selection of her orchestral works, presenting intense dreams, intangible perceptions, and musically evocative elaborations.

  • Fresh Dimensions

    Catalog #: NV6026

    Release Date: February 12, 2016

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Violin

    The modern romanticism of composer Craig Morris is one simultaneously deeply personal and broadly meaningful. His albums DREAMS (2011) and CIRCLE OF LOVE (2015), both on the Ravello Records label, in large part deal directly with musical representations of universal emotional states and concepts.

  • Concerto For Soprano Saxophone & Orchestra

    Catalog #: NV6032

    Release Date: March 11, 2016

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestra
    Saxophone

    I met the Swedish saxophonist Anders Paulsson in the early 90s through my friend and mentor John Corigliano. Anders, always a very entrepreneurial sort of musician, was to be the focus of a 1996 concert on Swedish Public Television. Fortunately for me, the program included funding for a commission of a new concerto, and Anders kindly asked me to compose something for soprano sax and large orchestra.

  • Schumann | Dvořák: Concerti For Cello & Orchestra

    Catalog #: NV6034

    Release Date: June 10, 2016

    20th Century
    Concertos
    Cello
    Orchestra

    Composed almost 50 years apart, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor (1895) and Schumann’s Cello Concerto (1850) are closely linked in the pantheon of Romantic concerto literature.  Cellists of many generations have long looked at both of these pieces as essential components in their artistic development, and each has been recorded many times over by the titans of the instrument to showcase their technical mastery.

  • The Conference of the Birds

    Catalog #: NV6037

    Release Date: April 8, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    Depicting 12th-century Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar’s dramatic narrative, New York-based composer and GRAMMY-nominated conductor Jonathan Sheffer presents his orchestral work The Conference of the Birds, commissioned for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, on Navona Records. Attar’s poem of the same name is a journey of transformation and conviction, in which the birds of the world seek to find an illustrious leader, ultimately ending with new insight into their spiritual identities. The allegory portrays our own doubts, fears, and faults, how we confront these issues, and how we seek to understand identity and our relationships with other humans, the natural world, and what lies beyond.

  • Three Pastels For Piano & Orchestra

    Catalog #: NV6039

    Release Date: May 13, 2016

    21st Century
    Concertos
    Orchestra
    Piano

    On his Navona Records release THREE PASTELS FOR PIANO & ORCHESTRA, composer Carl Vollrath presents his three piano concerti, written between 2012 and 2015. Representing some of his most recent work, these concerti are connected to each other thematically, and in a way portray a different hue of the same color.

  • Sensations – Wind, Waves, Birds & Fire

    Catalog #: NV6041

    Release Date: May 13, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Piano
    String Orchestra

    Australian composer, music educator, and pianist Margaret Brandman presents her debut Navona release SENSATIONS, featuring several of her celebrated compositions, each one presenting a unique musical experience and sensation. The Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra skilfully performs the orchestral portion, opening with the joyful Love Brings Change (Adagio for Strings). Pianist Lucie Kaucká joins the orchestra for Lyric Fantasy, an emotional and accessible two-movement work with contrasting moods for piano and strings.

  • Separation

    Catalog #: NV6044

    Release Date: June 10, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Vocal Music
    Choir
    Orchestra

    The clichéd trope of the isolated artist toiling over their work in a virtual vacuum, alone and against the trends of the day, is not a new one. But in the case of Paula Diehl, it is as true as it comes. It isn’t an easy task to be a composer, a job which (to paraphrase Aaron Copland) holds few material rewards, and often even fewer good notices in the paper the next morning – it requires an inner strength and conviction in order to persevere through the challenges, be they artistic, financial, or social.

  • An Orchestral Journey

    Catalog #: NV6047

    Release Date: August 12, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    A composer equally accustomed to writing for orchestra, opera, film, theater, chorus, and chamber ensembles, Brian Wilbur Grundstrom’s voice includes a strong affinity for long melodic lines, distinctive tonal harmonic vocabulary, engaging rhythms, skillfully executed counterpoint, and dramatic imagery, all of which are reflected in the five orchestral works which span fourteen years on his debut release with Navona Records, AN ORCHESTRAL JOURNEY, to create a visionary and lyrical expedition that is quite accessible and easily travelled for the listener.

  • Sparks

    Catalog #: NV6050

    Release Date: July 8, 2016

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    SPARKS, a compilation of orchestral miniature works by several composers, offers a sampling of much of what post-modern, contemporary orchestral music has to offer, and is most interesting to consider in contrast to nineteenth century orchestral transitions. Miniatures, in their brevity, defy the conventional bias that orchestral music must conform to the characteristics of large symphonies. More generally, the works on this album suggest a wide range of influences unique to contemporary postmodernism. These include the aesthetics of midcentury composers, as well as film scores and non-classical genres.

  • Dashing

    Catalog #: NV6055

    Release Date: September 9, 2016

    21st Century
    Holiday
    Orchestra

    Navona Records is delighted to present DASHING, a festive album for the holiday season featuring brand new works and arrangements of holiday favorites by several outstanding composers, with performances by The Stanbery Singers, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra.

  • Three Century Suite

    Catalog #: NV6066

    Release Date: November 18, 2016

    20th Century
    Orchestral
    Orchestra

    2016 marks the 50th anniversary of composer Deems Taylor’s death (1885-1966), an opportune time to revisit his music by releasing his previously unrecorded piece Three Century Suite. This piece, in the form of a Baroque dance suite, is delightfully accessible, full of beautiful melodies, exquisite harmonies, and marvelous orchestration. Three Century Suite was performed once before, in Interlochen, Michigan, in 1961, conducted by A. Clyde Roller.

  • The Spectra Series

    Catalog #: NV6077

    Release Date: January 13, 2017

    21st Century
    Solo Instrumental
    Vocal Music
    Choir
    Orchestra
    Piano

    In 2008, PARMA Recordings acquired Capstone Records, the highly respected New York-based classical label founded by composer Richard Brooks in 1986, with the intent of shepherding the company and its music into the digital era. This album was originally released on Capstone and is being re-released by PARMA Recording's Navona Records.

  • Tchaikovsky

    Catalog #: NV6079

    Release Date: February 10, 2017

    Romantic
    Orchestral
    Orchestra
    Violin

    While speaking on Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Op.21, Pyotr Tchaikovsky posited that his colleague “does not strive after profundity, but carefully avoids routine, seeks out new forms, and thinks about musical beauty more than observing established traditions.” Acclaimed violinist Moonkyung Lee endeavors to emulate this approach on her Navona debut TCHAIKOVSKY – WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, in which she presents several performances of beloved Tchaikovsky alongside the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Miran Vaupotić.

  • Dark Clouds in Life

    Catalog #: NV6082

    Release Date: March 10, 2017

    21st Century
    Orchestral
    Solo Instrumental
    Orchestra
    Piano

    A persistent goal of Mark John McEncroe is to create compositions that elicit an emotional response, as is echoed in the titles of his works. This is particularly true of the Australian composer’s Navona debut DARK CLOUDS OF LIFE, a conceptual release focused on overcoming addiction and depression, challenges McEncroe has personally struggled with. His sessions in Ostrava, Czech Republic with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Helen Kennedy produced a cornerstone suite and three addendums that capture the essence of the record’s stated purpose.