• A varied collection of contemporary works for violin. • Violinst Jacob Murphy and pianist Jameson Cooper are supported by a group of superb additional musicians.

Taneyev can be considered a point of connection between the generation of Russian composers from that of Tchaikovsky (with whom Taneyev studied) to that of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. This album features his complete song opuses for voice and piano. Award-winning soprano Marcía Porter made her New York solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005. An active recitalist, the soprano has performed in numerous venues throughout the United States, Italy, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. Porter has sung at such prestigious international festivals as the Prague Proms, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Ravinia Festival, and the Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival. Renowned dramatic mezzo-soprano Janet Hopkins, a 16-year veteran of the New York Metropolitan Opera, continues to thrill audiences on her concert tour of symphonic stages across America. Recent performances include The Defiant Requiem (Verdi Requiem) at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, El Amor Brujo (South Carolina Philharmonic), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Bowling Green Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky) and Alexander Nevsky (West Shore Symphony Orchestra, MI). A native Texan, the young tenor Hugo Vera is described as possessing a “truly heroic voice” that is both “beautiful and brilliant.” Increasingly in demand and a recent addition to The Metropolitan Opera artist roster, Mr. Vera has performed 34 roles and 20 choral orchestral works with distinguished companies in the US as part of his musical and artistic development of the full lyric and spinto tenor repertoire. Christian Elser (Band Leader: Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) co-founded Glow Lyric Theatre in 2009, and has served as its Executive Director and resident Music Director/Conductor ever since. He is also Associate Professor of Music at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC, where he is Voice Division Director and Director of the PC Opera/Musical Theatre. Bass-baritone Jacob Will made his New York Philharmonic debut as soloist in the American premiere of the “Messa per Rossini,” a performance televised live nationwide. An experienced concert artist, Mr. Will has appeared with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladamir Ashkenazy and with the Cabrillo Festival under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. He has sung with the San Francisco Symphony in the “St. Matthew Passion,” with the International Bach Festival of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in the “St. John Passion” and with the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra in Frank Martin's “Le mystère de la Nativité.”

"•Lutz Kirchhof (b. 1953) is one of the great lutenists performing today. • This present recording includes works by John Dowland, Esaias Reusner (1636-79), Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and David Kellner (1670-1748). • Mr. Kirchhof's repertoire, which includes works from the present day, encompasses all the music written for the lute."

Ayres and Ballads of the British Isles is a program of wonderful works for soprano and violin, featuring works by Rebecca Clarke, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Corgliano, and Gustav Holst. Margaret Astrup and Eric Lewis are the sensitive performers. Dr. Margaret Astrup is well known for her interpretations of contemporary American music. She has premiered works by Seymour Barab, Otto Luening, Ruth Schonthal, Judith Zaimont, Richard Auldon Clark, David Sampson, Jorge Martin, and numerous other contemporary composers. With the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, she has performed Knoxville, Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber (also broadcast on WNYC), Collages by Ruth Schonthal , Cosmos Cantata by Seymour Barab and Kurt Vonnegut and songs by Otto Luening, William Grant Still, Seymour Barab and Richard Auldon Clark. In New York she has appeared in many contemporary American operas for which she has received critical acclaim in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The London Financial Times and the New York Daily News. A native New Yorker, violinist Eric Lewis earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in violin performance at the Manhattan School of Music. With encouragement from his teachers, violinist Rachmael Weinstock and world-renowned violist Lillian Fuchs, Mr. Lewis served as U.S cultural ambassador to the former Soviet Union during the Glasnost era of the 1980's, performing throughout that country until its dissolution in 1990. The Manhattan String Quartet’s recording of the Shostakovich Quartet Cycle was the only chamber music to be named by Time magazine in its best of 1991 classical list. He retired from the Manhattan Quartet in 2013 after 45 years as founder and first violinist.

Preethi de Silva continues her survey of the complete keyboard music of C.P.E. Bach for Centaur, here featuring Six Collections of Keyboard Sonatas and Free Fantasias, along with some Rondos for Fortepiano, for Connoisseurs and Amateurs, Third Collection, Wq. 57, for solo keyboard. Sri-Lankan born fortepianist, harpsichordist, composer and Founder /Director of Con Gioia, Ms.de Silva is a specialist in this literature. The Journal of Early Music (Oxford) recognized her for her “profound understanding of [C.P.E.] Bach’s idiosyncratic language.”

Dinos Constantinides has gained substantial recognition in recent years as a composer of substantial stature. This album features concertos by Constantinides for varied instruments.

Classical Music

There is an amazing abundance of great songs from Finland, Sweden and Norway. This album features a collection of these works, composed over a span ranging from the second half of the 19th century to 1960. Soprano Mimmi Fulmer has made a specialty of this repertoire.

A superb collection of works for vocal ensemble from Bologna, CA. 1500s performed by the Speculum Ensemble.

Classical Music

Roy is a vocal instructor and director of the Opera Theater at the University of Louisiana- Lafayette. Roy received his master’s degree in voice from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where Lim received his doctoral degree.

Purple Ego is a brilliant new jazz album performed by the Domino Ensemble, with guitar, drums, double bass, clarinets and electronics. There are nine original works by Jorge Variego, a member of the ensemble, and arrangements of one work each by Faure and Tansman. The Knoxville, Tennessee-based Domino Ensemble is a multifaceted ensemble exclusively dedicated to the promotion, performance, and commission of new music. Through workshops and performances of new and commissioned compositions by young student composers, the Domino Ensemble serves as a unique bridge between young creative artists, their communities, and future audiences.

Classical Music

Rauzzini (1746-1810) is perhaps best remembered as the soprano castrato who gave the Premiere of Mozart' opera, Lucio Silla, and as the singer for whom Mozart composed Exultate jbilate. He was also a superb composer, though, and this disc offers perhaps the finest collection of his music available.

Classical Music