The phenomenon of legendary composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram defies easy definitions. Always ahead of his time in anything that he created, and immersed in jazz, folk, world music, film and theater music, as well as in contemporary classical music, he was praised by The Washington Post as "one of the most versatile and skilled musicians America has ever produced", while The Boston Globe hailed him as "the Renaissance man of American music", and The New York Times proclaimed him "multicultural before multiculturalism existed". Being first and being ahead of his time comes naturally to David Amram - a pioneer of the jazz French Horn who simultaneously amassed the highest number of performances of the Brahms Horn Trio, while fascinating the crowds at folk and world music festivals, writing several books, composing scores for films and plays, touring worldwide, collaborating with iconic figures like Jack Kerouac, Elia Kazan, Pete Seeger, Paquito D'Rivera and Tito Puente, and at the same time also making his mark as a celebrated prolific composer of classical music, having written over 100 works in the symphonic, operatic and chamber music genres. Amram's legacy is a huge collection of so many milestones and inroads, that have established him as not only one of the most eclectic composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, but also as a guiding light, role model and enormous source of inspiration for younger generations. This album presents selected chamber music compositions written by David Amram between 1958 and 2017, and includes four world-premiere recordings.

Bella Voce is the select women's ensemble at Baylor University. Organized in 2011 by Dr. Lynne Gackle, members of Bella Voce are music majors as well as non-majors, representing various disciplines from nursing to business. The ensemble performs a wide and interesting variety of choral selections, reflecting various style periods and genres from the vast choral repertoire featuring women's voices. Baylor Bella Voce has been featured on multiple releases and special concerts, as well as at the SW Division of the American Choral Directors Association, throughout the state of Texas, and nationally. On this, the ensemble's second album, the selections are a stunning and complex presentation of classic and modern pieces, from Mendelssohn to some of the most brilliant new choral composers on the scene today, sung by one of the finest women's ensembles in the nation, collegiate or professional.

Peace Worshippers represents the culmination of a collaboration between Amjad Ali Khan, the Titan of the sarod, straddling two centuries, universally venerated as one of the greatest living Indian musicians in any genre; his sons, disciples and widely acclaimed sarod virtuosi in their own right, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash; and the distinguished American violinist Elmira Darvarova, herself a historical figure as the first woman concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. This recording emerges from Amjad Ali Khan's deep and long abiding commitment to peace and tolerance both in the larger world as well as in the smaller communities of city, neighborhood, and the circles of family and friends - a commitment which has taken him to the United Nations and the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo as well as the greatest concert halls and performing venues around the world. This album is the fruit of an approach that these artists have championed in their trilogy of collaborative recordings, Soul Strings, then Amalgam and now Peace Worshipers - boldly sharing their respective traditions and genres with each other while keeping the integrity and character of those traditions intact and exploring the idiom and styles of the other with fearless, ferocious energy and generous enthusiasm. In this final volume, alongside the compositions of Amja Ali Khan, are works from regional folk traditions in India and Europe.

Since their revival in the latter portion of the twentieth century, these pieces have been performed a number of times. This particular recording, however, stands apart from the rest due to its impeccable attention to the performance practices of Mendelssohn’s time. These works are performed on a replica of an 1815 six-octave Streicher grand piano, which is very close to what was actually used by the young child prodigy. These musicians also follow Mendelssohn’s practice of utilizing the keyboard in the concerto tuttis as well as the solo part. The orchestra plays on gut strings with Tourte-style bows. The Piano Concerto in A minor was written for Mendelssohn’s sister, Fanny in 1822. The Sextet was written two years later, and is the first foreshadowing of the vigorous energy and shimmering textures which would soon mark Mendelssohn’s unique personal style.

Amalgam is a truly unique project from sarod virtuosi Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan along with Grammy-nominated American classical violinist Elmira Darvarova. The release follows the 2015 collaborative album “Soul Strings,” which was highly acclaimed by critics and fans alike. Most of the works performed on this release were composed by Amjad Ali Khan, the father of Amaan and Ayaan. Amjad is universally known and appreciated as a sarod guru, and a presence in the world of Indian Classical Music. The album also includes a solo work composed and performed by Elmira Davarova, which was inspired by her Bulgarian roots, and is a fascinating contrast to the classical Indian ragas also featured on the release. Joining classical traditions of the East and the West, this album of world premiere performances gives new meaning and life to the genre “World Music.”

Internationally renowned baritone Elem Eley's fourth solo album, Forever Sing, is ddeply personal, rooted in his southern upbringing and the heartfelt expression of singing from the Psalms. For this album, Elem Eley chose beloved songs evoking memories of his youth, some that he has since called on in decades of performing around the world, and as Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. Meeting this challenge demands a collaborators of diverse skills: His partner for the first three albums, pianist JJ Penna, plays the Classical settings of Dvorak, Rubbra, Honegger, and Altman. Concert organist Noel Werner accompanies Eley in the two sets by Isadore Freed and Leo Sowerby, recorded in the historic 1836 sanctuary of his home church, Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ. The final set of three Gospel songs is arranged and accompanied on piano by the nationally renowned Dr. J. Donald Dumpson of Philadelphia; their session was emotional and exciting to witness, as these two personal friends and outstanding artists created a unique sense and sound of the Gospel musical genre, unique to their partnership and recorded here for the ages. Pure genius in every track, Affetto Records takes pride in presenting this multi-faceted collaboration o fmusic incredibly performed with depth and personal resonance.

Every song is a journey: a voyage of the human experience explored through the intersection of poetry and music. In fact, a song serves as a natural extension of the original poem that allows us to experience words in a new and insightful way. A composer of songs is then also a poet: a creator of profound meaning through text, meter, harmony, texture, and lyricism. The great English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) is a prime example. A great lover of poetry throughout his life, and friend to such great poets as W. H. Auden, it is difficult to think of another song composer who consistently chose poems of such high quality and breadth to set to music. Furthermore, Britten seems to fall in line as the rightful successor to Franz Schubert in the way he virtually composes the essence of a poem musically. On this recording by outstanding tenor Eric Rieger and renowned accompanist JJ Penna, we explore the Poet's Journey in three of Britten's most important song cycles, each of which is bound to the works of a great poet: Michelangelo, Thomas Hardy, and John Donne. In each work, we discover Britten's gift of lyricism, superb understanding of the voice, and exceptional pianistic capabilities. One finds a clear reverence to Henry Purcell through the use of florid, expansive setting of text and the use of ancient compositional techniques such as the ground bass. Britten skillfully combines these concepts with modern influences to create something unique and exciting. This album is, without doubt, one of the finest collections of Benjamin Britten's gift to the world of music.

HORN TRIOS by Brahms, Kahn, Koechlin and Dubois is an exciting album that brings together three renowned musicians in a splendid trio collaboration. Hornist Howard Wall has been for many years at the forefront of highly-respected horn players, not only as a long-time member of two of the world's preeminent symphony orchestras, but also as an avid chamber music instrumentalist and recording artist, praised for his "legendary low register" and "impeccable intonation and stellar virtuosity" by The Horn Call Magazine, which also noted that "every note is a gem" in recently released recordings of Howard Wall. Violinist Elmira Darvarova has been hailed as "marvelous, in the Heifetz tradition" (American Record Guide) and acclaimed for her "intoxicating tonal beauty and beguilingly sensuous phrasing" and "silky-smooth voluptuous tone" (The Strad, London). Pianist Shoko Inoue was lauded by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as "a pianist who immerses heart, soul and everything into her generous artistry, with supremely sensitive and evocative playing." This album brings thrilling and exhilarating interpretations of four gorgeous works for horn, violin and piano, one of which has been, for over 150 years, among the greatest ever masterpieces in the history of Western music, while two of the other works on this album - the glorious 1912 Trio Cantabile by Th�odore Dubois, and the boisterous 1922 Serenade Op. 73 by Robert Kahn are presented on this album as only the second-ever commercially-released recordings of these works. Charles Koechlin's eclectic suite Quatre Petite Pi�ces is a haunting and poignant quasi-impressionistic collection of four miniatures, that alternate, as in a kaleidoscope, contrasting atmospheric moods and degrees of sorrow and peaceful introspection. This marvelous album is an irresistible addition to the recorded repertoire, both for it's contents as well as for the verve and exultation of the interpretations of these outstanding artists.

A spectacular tribute to Hungarian-born composers, from the brilliant, award-winning performers — Grammy-nominated violinist ELMIRA DARVAROVA (first and only woman-concertmaster of The Metropolitan Opera) and pianist THOMAS WEAVER (professor at Curtis Institute of Music), the album “FROM LISZT TO LIGETI” brings an exceptionally vivid narrative linking historic milestones in the legacies of a number of superb Hungarian-born musicians — composers and performers, who have so enormously contributed to enriching the world’s cultural treasure-trove.

Liszt, Joachim, Bartók, Kodály, Hubay, Goldmark, Ligeti — they have all bequeathed us masterpieces to behold and cherish, throughout several centuries of showcasing, shaping, preserving, and amalgamating national traditions and global influences through the prism of their own personal creative gifts.

This album is a charismatically kaleidoscopic retrospective that traces the historic perspective of how uniquely innovative artists such as Bartók and Kodály built the cornerstones of their oeuvre by exploring, embracing, critically analyzing, and then reshaping Liszt’s ideals. It also explores how Ligeti followed on the heels of Bartók and Kodály with his own ethnomusicological research, creating, still in his student days, a little-known Duo that he kept editing and crystallizing throughout his life and various periods of transforming and modernizing, but then later returning to conventionally established expressive means. Additionally, it delves into how Joachim — as a muse to numerous music giants, such as Brahms, Liszt, Dvorák, Bruch, Robert and Clara Schumann — influenced and caused cataclysmic events without which the history of music would not have been the same.

In addition to the best-known Hungarian-born composers Liszt, Bartók, Kodály, and Ligeti, the inclusion of Joachim in this album as a co-author (not just dedicatee) of Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12” (in its version for violin and piano) makes sense historically not only because Joachim in his transcription radically transformed Liszt’s composition but also because Joachim famously contributed to the creation of numerous gems by some of the greatest-ever composers, such as the violin concertos by Dvorák and Bruch (who published these works after Joachim helped in creating them) and Brahms’ First Piano Concerto (bearing Joachim’s handwritten corrections which elicited “thank-you” letters from Brahms, during the 4 years Brahms took to write that concerto).

The inclusion in this album of the Hungarian-born composers Hubay and Goldmark is also well-justified, bringing up yet other interesting dimensions to the album’s narrative. The album’s deeply-considered collection explores the affecting lyrical gift of Goldmark, who, as the largely self-taught son of a synagogue cantor, followed his ingrained melodic instincts from growing up without riches among 20 siblings, to becoming Vienna’s leading composer (after the deaths of Brahms and Bruckner), teaching Sibelius, and writing a mind-blowing violin concerto, a symphony championed by Sir Thomas Beecham and by Leonard Bernstein, and several operas, one of which was produced at The Metropolitan Opera in 1885, and three of which were presented in Vienna during Mahler’s leadership of the Court Theatre.

Hubay’s unparalleled contribution as a historical “cross-roads” figure is also well-defined in this album, not only because of who he was — the son of an elite musician (who conducted the Budapest premiere of Wagner’s “Lohengrin”), a student of Joachim, a department head at Brussels’ Royal Conservatory (succeeding Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski), a chamber music partner of Liszt and of Brahms (performing with Brahms the world-premiere of Brahms’ D Minor Violin Sonata, and the world-premiere of Brahms’ Third Piano Trio), composer of numerous concertos, symphonies, and operas (one of which was embroiled in a scandal reported 100 years ago by The New York Times), and the teacher of many illustrious star-violinists who became muses to Bartók, Kodály, Ravel, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Rebecca Clarke (among these violin prodigies were Bartók’s girlfriend Stefi Geyer, Eugene Ormandy of The Philadelphia Orchestra fame, and Joachim’s great-nieces Jelly d’Arányi and Adila Fachiri, who not only inspired Bartók and many others but also spear-headed the search for Schumann’s long-suppressed violin concerto, “cancelled” and hidden by its dedicatee — their great-uncle Joachim).

The choice of Hubay’s well-known czardas “Hejre Kati” for inclusion in this album reflects the evolution and role of that genre in the history of Hungarian musical traditions — from the early roots of czardas stemming from verbunkos (used even by Haydn), to its controversial misappropriation by dilettante performers whose inflectional performing style was confused and misinterpreted by Liszt as original Hungarian folk melodies, to more tasteful artistically expressed concert-stage compositions (like Hubay’s “Hejre Kati”), to the eventual dethroning and demythologizing of the czardas by Bartók and Kodály, who discovered, revealed, and incorporated the true authenticity of their home country’s original folk music.

The album selections follow Bartók’s evolving from the student-composer of a traditionally-profiled, Romantically-influenced Andante and the mature creator of “15 Hungarian Peasant Songs” and “Rhapsody for Violin and Piano No.1” (embodying his scientific and artistic mission to reveal the exquisitely-uncontroverted authentic beauty of ancient folk melodies) to the transfigured innovator who elevated and transformed old rustic traditions, fusing them into new and progressive forms and rhythms, reaching out to impressionism and jazz (as depicted in Bartók’s “Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm No. 6”), and paving the way for Ligeti’s experimentalism, which, through multiple “back and forth” constructing and de-constructing, reflected Ligeti’s never-ending search for artistic inspiration (this album presents the, recorded here only for the second time, recently-discovered Duo for Violin and Piano, which Ligeti never submitted for publication but continued returning to, and working on).

The unusually meticulous album notes cover the multi-dimensional, serendipitous, and cross-pollinating nature of essential events and legacies, which endure and continue to fascinate us.

J. S. Bach’s Preludes / Toccatas / Fantasias & Fugues for organ are among the peak artistic achievements of the human race. The combination of harmonic and melodic beauty, visceral force, and intellectual ingenuity is unparalleled by any other solo instrument’s repertoire. Organist Eric Plutz realized that a compelling single program of these masterpieces could be formed by performing them in diatonic order – one for each key: A, B, C etc. In Western music that sequence is known as ‘The Gamut,’ a term that came to mean a "complete range.’ This program, therefore, aligns with Bach’s own deep sense for order while traversing the complete range of Bach’s vision, from tenderest melancholy to the depths of despair, from bold challenge to ecstatic victory. These peaks and valleys are nobly served by the dazzling colors of the Princeton University organ as well as the full historic and acoustic resonance of the Princeton University Chapel itself (the third largest college chapel in the world).

Composers are often tasked with creating from a void, an emptiness. The blank page is an easel. The parts of a structure of a piece of music – melody, accompaniment, line, harmony, tension, and release – must take shape to reach the listener’s ear. Sometimes, instead of starting with an empty sheet of staff paper, a composer creates something which is pollinated by another source. Perhaps it is a folk song, a poem, a melody, or an even larger work, such as a full-length opera. New works are then realized. In the case of this two-cd set, an East South African folk tune receives new life as a romantic piano ballade. A sonnet of Petrarch resurfaces centuries later as a dramatic declaration of love, through a solo piano work. The repertoire on these discs traces Kristin Ditlow’s own growth as a pianist and musician. Each work marks a chapter of her development and artistry to the present. The song transcriptions are pieces that have been played countless times with vocal partners: the operatic works are works that she has coached or conducted. Her passionate pursuit of travel is also a thread which weaves throughout the discs: the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor spiritual arrangements are works that she became acquainted with as a high school choral accompanist: meeting her husband while on tour in China in 2012: the Mongolian Shepherd Song is her arrangement of a traditional folksong from the Chinese Mongolian community, a work introduced to her by her husband in China originally for erhu and pipa (traditional Chinese instruments) accompaniment but transcribed for violin and piano. Kristin Ditlow has spent five summers performing, teaching, and coaching in Hungary and the Bartók selections all harken back to those times in the Hungarian countryside. Pianist, coach and conductor Dr. Kristin Ditlow dedicates her musical career to collaboration and connection. She has been seen in concert throughout North America, Mainland China, and Western Europe as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and conductor. The set of music pieces in this album is representative of her “Passages” in her career.

Very often discussions regarding the composer Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) places him in comparison with J.S. Bach. If one has heard of Graupner, it is usually the bit of trivia that he was offered the Leipzig Thomaskirche cantor position before Bach. Of particular interest, however, is the vastness of extant material Graupner composed. There are scores for over 1,400 of Graupner’s church cantatas. Forty-seven of these are for solo bass voice with a variety of instrumental pairings. One can assume that the majority of these works were written for the bass (and composer) Gottfried Grünewald (1665-1739), whom Graupner knew in Leipzig and with whom he worked at the opera in Hamburg. Grünewald served as the vice-capellmeister in Darmstadt under Graupner from 1713 until his death. In addition to the forty-seven solo bass cantatas, Graupner also wrote seventeen duet cantatas for soprano and bass. Alongside the staggering number of cantatas, Graupner composed a wealth of instrumental music including keyboard works, more than 100 sinfonias, and a canon with 5,626 inversions.

The sheer volume of this relatively unexplored repertoire is thrilling but also overwhelming, making categorization of Graupner’s overall musical style problematic. This recording, featuring cantatas and instrumental works composed between 1720 and 1745, offers the listener an introduction to Gaupner and an important, if small, piece in the larger puzzle that is Graupner’s life and work. It premieres Graupner to a wider music world largely ignorant of this talented and nearly unknown Baroque composer by baritone Michael Hix, Chair of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico, praised by critics for his “expressive voice” and “commanding stage presence”, and whose research has brought Christoph Graupner to light through this album.

“We Praise Our God” captures the daily and uniquely beautiful rhythm of chapel worship at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, an Anglican seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, founded in 1842. Each day of the academic year begins with Morning Prayer and Holy Eucharist. The day ends with Evensong, the music taken from The Hymnal 1982 and the Nashotah House Plainsong Psalter or the New Nashotah House Anglican Chant Psalter. Once a week, on Thursdays, the day begins with sung Matins in the morning, followed by a community music rehearsal when new music and a brief singing lesson are offered. Thursday’s Solemn High Eucharist in the evening is usually attended by the wider community of student and faculty families. This album attempts to recreate the experience of the “Alleluia, Sing” LP recording of the early 1970s, from the opening track of Nashotah’s beloved bell, Michael, to new settings of the Mass Ordinary used in the chapel, along with compositions by Nashotah faculty. The album was primarily recorded from live services during the celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary on March 24 and 25, 2022.

All-star professional choir The Thirteen was best described by National Public Radio commentator M. D. Ridge: “to talk about the remarkable abilities and sound of the individual singers would… be like trying to say which whitecaps on the ocean reflect the sun most beautifully, or which leaves on a tree dance most gracefully with the wind… I stand in awe.” Described as having “a tight and attractive vocal blend and excellent choral discipline” (American Record Guide), The Thirteen draws its artists from among the finest ensembles in the world, including Chanticleer, Seraphic Fire, Apollo’s Fire, Conspirare, I Fagiolini, Opera Philadelphia, Boston Early Music Festival and Trinity Wall Street. “Voice Eternal” presents a virtuosic program of music by Tudor-era composers that explores musical upheaval during the English Reformation through music that is at times epic, intimate, majestic and joyful. With works by Thomas Tallis, King Henry VIII, John Farmer, Thomas Weelkes, Robert Fayrfax, Walter Lambe, and William Cornysh Jr., this release from The Thirteen makes this powerful music come alive for today’s audiences.

Widely recognized as one of the world’s best horn players, Philip Myers also inspired as well as commissioned most of the pieces on this historically significant album with world premieres of horn music by American composer Phillip Ramey, whose works have been performed by such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and whose Horn Concerto (with Philip Myers as soloist) was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for their 150th anniversary. This release presents world premieres of works for solo horn, for two horns, and for horn in different combinations with piano and/or violin, stunningly performed by hornists Philip Myers and Howard Wall, whose long-time partnership as New York Philharmonic musicians extends into fantastic chamber music collaboration, also including splendid contributions by pianist Virginia Perry Lamb and violinist Elmira Darvarova (a former Metropolitan Opera concertmaster). Some of the works are newly recorded, while others are only now receiving their premiere recording after first performances over twenty years ago, with the Trio Concertant recorded live, and the Dialogue, and the Sonata-Ballade restored from archival material. All of the works on this release are magnificently performed contributions to the horn repertoire.