In Johanna Doderer's Fatima, oder von den mutigen Kindern, the courageous Fatima defeats the evil Lord of the Castle in a wager and frees the dreams that he has held captive. Drawing on a story by Rafik Schami, Johanna Doderer created this children's opera in 2015 to fulfill a commission from the Vienna State Opera. Austrian composer Johanna Doderer studied composition with Beat Furrer and then later in Vienna with Klaus Peter Sattler and Erich Urbanner. Her catalogue ranges broadly from chamber music to orchestral work and operas. Presently, she is focusing her work in the field of opera. She regularly collaborates with musicians such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sylvia Khittl-Muhr, and conductor Ulf Schirmer. Her works have been performed at the Austrian Embassy, Washington, D.C., and the University of Arts Graz.

The evolution from Renaissance to Baroque musical style partly reveals itself in the process by which forms begin as vocal genres and end as instrumental ones. The ensemble (or instrumental) ricercar was a counterpart of the motet and is often characterized as a textless motet; the canzona began its life as an Italian keyboard or lute transcription of a French polyphonic song, a chanson, hence ‘canzona francese;’ English madrigals originally were transplanted Italian works. This transition is illustrated on this release by trumpet player Edward Carroll and organist Edward Brewer alongside the New York Trumpet Ensemble as they perform works by J.J. Mouret, R. Valentine, J. Wilbye, G. Gabrieli, and more.

The best musicians transcend styles and techniques. They deliver their hearts and souls, connecting on a primal level, one on one with each and every listener. Karen Carroll is just such an artist and one of the most universal artists to come on the scene since Nina Simone. Within one line she can lay down the grit of Howlin' Wolf stroked by the sass of Sarah Vaughan.