The Guesthouse is about collaboration, inclusion, and the essence of welcoming which is the essence of an open door. It's my most ambitious project to date, sonically and compositionally. It involves so many incredibly talented people: some are in the front, playing music together with me, offering their insight, time, effort, and love, and some incredibly talented and hardworking people are behind the scenes, facilitating, allowing, and inspiring me to keep pushing forward. Musically speaking, the color palette on The Guesthouse is huge. It introduces many musical guests that I admire deeply: MARO, Immanuel Wilkins, Michael Mayo, and many more. It includes lyric writing for the first time, electronic instruments, guitars, trumpets, flutes, flamenco musicians, in-depth production work, my quartet, solo piano, odd meter explorations, improvisations, songs with no time, strings, two pianos conversing and more and more and more.. I dove as deep as I could into these deep waters. The result is my attempt to turn the creative chaos that lives in mind mind into one coherent artistic statement, always having a simple melody as a thread that tells the story of this collective. Shai Maestro Shai Maestro (b. 1987) is one of the most inventive and influential pianists of his generation. Since debuting with his own trio in 2011, he has developed a distinctive musical voice that is fluid, expressive, and profoundly lyrical. His artistry has made him a defining figure in contemporary jazz, merging improvisation, composition, and global influences into a sound that is both cinematic and deeply personal. Maestro began studying classical piano at the age of five and discovered jazz at eight through the recordings of Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson. At nineteen, he joined bassist Avishai Cohen's trio, co-writing the acclaimed Gently Disturbed and performing worldwide. In 2011, he formed his own trio, recording six albums that solidified his reputation as a singular voice in modern jazz. His years with ECM Records, under the guidance of Manfred Eicher, placed him among the lineage of pianists such as Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, and Chick Corea. With drummer Ofri Nehemya and bassist Jorge Roeder, he recorded his first ECM album "The Dream Thief", later joined by trumpeter Philip Dizack for the second - "Human", both expanding the expressive language of the modern jazz quartet. Today, Maestro continues to evolve artistically with a new quartet featuring keyboardist Gadi Lehavi, drummer Ofri Nehemya, and bassist Jorge Roeder. Gadi, the new wild card in the group, brings a distinctive energy and vision; his presence as another pianist opens fresh possibilities for dialogue, texture, and experimentation between two keyboards. This lineup functions as a powerful, cohesive engine driving Maestro's musical exploration, blending jazz improvisation with modern production into a sound that is organic, cinematic, and forward-looking. In 2025, Maestro signed a long-term partnership with the Paris-based label naive records, a defining milestone that opened an expansive new chapter in his artistic life. The collaboration with naive marked a moment of renewal and bold creative ambition, setting the stage for a period of profound exploration. The first fruit of this partnership was his solo piano album, Solo: Miniatures & Tales. Introspective and deeply personal, it revealed the most intimate side of Maestro's artistry; a work of quiet reflection, nuance, and restraint. This album stands in deliberate contrast to the broader, outward-looking vision of his forthcoming project, The Guesthouse, highlighting the duality at the heart of Maestro's creative world: the tension between introspection and expansion. In March 2026, Maestro will release The Guesthouse, a record that features Portuguese singer MARO alongside Immanuel Wilkins, and Michael Mayo. The album represents a bold leap forward, combining the sensitivity of modern jazz with electronic sound design and the harmonic depth of classical music. The Guesthouse creates a lush, cinematic space where boundaries dissolve, embodying Maestro's exploration of openness and collaboration.

SteepleChase Records proudly presents the debut album of drummer Matt Garrity, a long-standing figure in the New York jazz scene whose artistry has matured over three decades of collaboration with legends such as Joe Lovano, Vincent Herring, and Joel Forrester. Suits and Scotches captures the essence of Garrity's musical journey, featuring original compositions and fresh interpretations of jazz standards performed by his seasoned quartet, which delivers a cohesive and swinging set that reflects both tradition and innovation. Garrity's path diverged from the 1990s "Young Lions" wave, yet his commitment to the craft never wavered. After relocating to Woodstock, NY (originally from Ithaca, NY), he founded Barnstock, a vibrant performance space that has become a Hudson Valley jazz hub. Encouraged by bassist Ambrosio and connected to SteepleChase producer Nils Winther, Garrity finally steps forward as a leader and composer.

The compositional career of Robin Stevens, Welsh-born (in 1958), and Manchester-based, is divided into two periods, separated by a period of illness. The first mainly produced chamber music and works for the church that employed him; restored to health, he found an appetite for larger forms, writing three substantial concertos and a number of other orchestral works - all now recorded for Toccata Classics. This first album sets his expansive Bassoon Concerto, amid three shorter works, each of them revealing how his command of orchestral colour and melodic line can suggest landscapes and narratives. In the slow movement of the Concerto in particular, there are passages of deep feeling and intensity, but Stevens also has a healthy sense of fun, which often emerges unexpectedly to energise his music.

Ken Ueno's creative approach to composition shares an affinity with the percussion world; there is an underlying spirit of exprimentation, problem solving, and deconstruction as a path to innovation that guides them. This clear eyed perspective on the materials of sound and their possibilities makes percussion music an ideal forum to hear Ueno's work. The works on this recording share an interest in microtonality. Transformation of noise timbres into pitched material, and an investigation of instrumental possibilities.

Long overshadowed by her towering legacy as one of the 20th century's most influential music teachers, Nadia Boulanger's creative voice as a composer is rediscovered in La ville morte (The Dead City) - a haunting opera of passion, loss, and psychological intensity. Composed in collaboration with Raoul Pugno and based on a libretto by Gabriele D'Annunzio, the work was originally slated for it's world premiere in Paris in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I silenced it before it could be heard. More than a century later, this long-buried score rises from obscurity, where forgotten desires return to life against the backdrop of ancient ruins. Set in the crumbling city of Mycenae, the opera explores obsession, betrayal, and blurred boundaries, it's emotional landscape shaped by impressionistic orchestral textures and arioso-style intimacy reminiscent of both Debussy and Wagner. Here, Boulanger reveals a daring and expressive side that transcends her image as the stern guardian of musical tradition. This landmark recording marks the PENTATONE debut of soprano Melissa Harvey, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin, tenor Joshua Dennis, baritone Jorell Williams, the Talea Ensemble, and conductor Neal Goren. The orchestration-by Joseph Stillwell and Stephan Cwik under the supervision of David Conte-breathes new life into the long-silent score. A co-production between Catapult Opera and the Greek National Opera, La ville morte not only resurrects Boulanger's compositional brilliance but also secures her place in the modern operatic repertoire.

On 9 January 2026, conductor Shea Lolin presents Frisson, an exciting new album of music for woodwind orchestra and his third recording with the principal woodwind players of the Czech Philharmonic (Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year 2024). Frisson follows the release of the ground-breaking Twisted Skyscape, the first album devoted entirely to new music for woodwind orchestra, and Chromosphere, which focused on contemporary repertoire. Frisson marks Shea Lolin's 20-year involvement with the woodwind orchestra and celebrates it's evolution from the early eighteenth-century genre of Harmoniemusik - formal ensemble music for pairs of winds - to it's modern form. The album features a superb programme of arrangements for woodwind orchestra by Shea Lolin, all originally commissioned by the Bloomsbury Woodwind Ensemble. He expands Franz Krommer's exquisite Octet - Partita in F Major, Op. 57, and Richard Strauss's youthful Serenade, Op. 7, creating a broader sonic landscape while maintaining their essence. Also included is C�cile Chaminade's beloved Concertino, Op. 107, arranged for woodwind orchestra and featuring young Glaswegian flautist Fiona Sweeney, who makes her debut with the Czech Philharmonic on this release. Completing the album is More Gordian Knots by Guy Woolfenden OBE, a spirited reimagining of Purcell's music for The Gordian Knot Unty'd, written during Woolfenden's remarkable 40-year association with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Spanning 500 years from the exquisite simplicity of Thomas Tallis' perfect miniature O nata lux through Britten's jubilant Festival Te Deum to Cheryl Frances-Hoad's majestic O come let us sing unto the Lord, this album celebrates the hope and anticipation that comes with the beginning of a new day. Arise my love perfectly complements Magdalen's first album on CORO, Peace I leave with you, which celebrates music written for the end of the day.

For Jakob's Mirror, composer and saxophonist Robin Verheyen (b. 1983) sought inspiration far from home, retreating to the Albers Foundation in Connecticut to reflect on the life and work of painter Jakob Smits (1855-1928). Smits, who settled in the Belgian Campine and captured it's light and landscapes in a personal, timeless style, became a guide for Verheyen's own exploration of identity, memory, and belonging. Rather than translating Smits' canvases literally, Verheyen immersed himself in their atmosphere, while also listening to the music of Smits' era, including Flemish folk songs-one of which briefly surfaces in the score. Written for the Goeyvaerts String Trio and percussionist Robin Schulkowsky, the work weaves together European harmonic traditions, jazz's rhythmic vitality, and echoes of Verheyen's roots in the Campine. Jakob's Mirror is both homage and self-portrait: a meditation on landscape, light, and the enduring pull of home.

The largest part of the output of the Hamburg-born composer and writer Walter Niemann (1876-1953), a student of both Humperdinck and Reinecke, is piano music: an astonishing 1,000 or so pieces, divided into 189 opus numbers. Most of them are lyrical miniatures in a warm and approachable late-Romantic style, some evoking the music of the past - often with a touching degree of dignity and restraint, but also with an occasional flash of good humour. The range of moods here is surprisingly wide, from pieces recalling late Brahms, and a barcarolle evoking Offenbach, via light-hearted character-sketches, and evocative picture-postcards, to a warm-hearted and tender piano sonata.

Robert Schumann's romantic universe invites us to approach it through five pieces of chamber music in step with the composer's mood: by turns fanciful, testy, or jovial, it can also be meditative, tender, or melancholic. A beautiful union of the viola and the clarinet.

This album brings together Johannes Brahms' two masterful sonatas for cello and piano, works often regarded as "veiled symphonies" for their symphonic breadth within the chamber music form. Written over two decades apart, these sonatas showcase Brahms' profound love for the cello-an instrument he studied in his youth-and his deep engagement with musical traditions stretching from Bach to Beethoven. The E minor Sonata, Op. 38, conceived as an homage to Bach, unfolds with striking intensity, combining Romantic expressiveness with contrapuntal rigor. It's expansive first movement, dance-inspired minuet, and fugal finale embody Brahms' ability to blend historical influences with fresh emotional resonance. The F major Sonata, Op. 99, composed during a highly fertile summer by Lake Thun in 1886, reveals a very different Brahms: fiery, impassioned, and boldly lyrical. Written for cellist Robert Hausmann, the work opens with stormy piano tremolandi and soaring cello lines before moving into a tender, hymn-like slow movement. A dramatic scherzo brimming with rhythmic energy and a playful yet triumphant finale close the sonata, capturing both Brahms' intellectual depth and his more exuberant side. Contemporary critics may have disagreed on it's merits, but the F major Sonata has since stood as a cornerstone of the cello repertoire. In this recording, cellist Livia Stanese and pianist Wenjiao Wang bring their artistry and international experience to Brahms' sonatas, illuminating their balance of structural mastery and heartfelt intensity. Their interpretation underlines the works' timeless appeal: music that is both deeply rooted in the traditions of the past and unceasingly alive in the present.

Spanish Renaissance polyphony has a reputation for florid, intricate contrapuntal textures and dark colours. Sebasti�n de Vivanco (c. 1551-1622), born in �vila but active for most of his life in Salamanca, stands apart from his contemporaries: his music explores a much wider range of colours and techniques than that of, say, Victoria. In his more experimental and dramatic motets, some of which are heard here, he points the way towards the new Baroque. But, in the calm sobriety of his Requiem, now reconstructed and recorded for the first time, he honours the Iberian tradition of unhurried chant-driven polyphony, all the more moving for it's uncluttered clarity and exquisitely lovely chordal sequences.

This fifth volume of the orchestral works of the late-Romantic Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896-1967) brings two works deeply bound up with his native Solothurn, in the north-west of the country. His Fastnachts-Sinfonie, or 'Carnival Symphony', is an expansive symphonic poem predicated on local legend and folk tradition, embracing both frolic and feeling. The Third Symphony - in which one can hear traces of Bruckner, and Richard Strauss - celebrates the rolling hills and endless skies of the Bucheggberg, where he loved to go walking, and where, the freewheeling music would suggest, his heart found freedom.

Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone. Katie writes: 'Youkali, It is the land of our desires, It is happiness, it is pleasure... But it is a dream, a folly, There is no Youkali! This song was my first encounter with Kurt Weill, more than twenty years ago, and that yearning, mesmerising tango has been a constant companion ever since. The sentiment behind 'Youkali' touched me deeply, and seemed to echo Weill's own search for a place of personal and artistic freedom, a German Jew forced into exile in 1933 owing to the rise of the Nazi regime. He moved around the world, and with each new country came a reinvention of himself and some more miraculous musical shape-shifting. 'Youkali' is Weill's 'Somewhere over the rainbow', an idea that resonates strongly with me, and seems painfully relevant to us all as I write this, in 2025, yet again living in a world at war. My performances of Weill's songs have always centred around 'Youkali' and Weill's search for a place to belong and to be free. I have wanted to make this album for many years, and am thrilled finally to have had the chance to do so with such a special team of collaborators and friends. It is my tribute to Kurt Weill, the chameleon, in all his glory, and a tribute to us all in our search for kindness, love, and peace.'

With this album, Trio Fibonacci takes us on a journey through the meditative and deeply human universe of Ludovico Einaudi, a master of contemporary minimalism. His works, built around repetitive motifs and subtle harmonic variations, open up a space for contemplation and pure emotion. Many of the pieces presented here have been specially adapted by Trio Fibonacci for duo or trio, bringing new vibrancy and emotional depth to the music while remaining true to the spirit of the composer. With a total runtime of 71 minutes, Timeless Horizons guides listeners through Einaudi's most iconic pieces, including: "I Giorni" - a poignant elegy inspired by Malian folklore "Experience" - a powerful meditation on time and memory "Nuvole Bianche" - a serene and soothing classic "Una Mattina" - made famous by The Intouchables "Petricor" - evoking the scent of the earth after rain But there is much more: 13 pieces in total. The album blends Einaudi's signature repetitive motifs and subtle harmonic shifts with the Trio's expressive and fluid playing style. These arrangements offer a rare intimacy, drawing the listener into a world of silence, longing, and awakening. Trio Fibonacci made it's debut in 1998, with the press reporting that "to hear them is to enter into the world of miracles" (Le Devoir, Montreal).