This album features major works by Mozart, Clementi, and Haydn, arranged for and played by virtuoso accordionist William Popp.

Enoch Arden is an important work by Richard Strauss that is unfortunately seldom performed. Set to words by Alfred Lord Tennyson, it was originally composed with a German translation of the text. Here, the original Tennyson text is untilized, and wonderfully narrated by Marina Sirtis, who was a star of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as counselor Deanna Troi.

Composer Stephen Dankner was the composer in residence with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2004-2007. Dankner has composed over 150 major works in all genres except opera.

This album features the last three piano sonatas by Beethoven. pianist Dainius Vaicekonis has an active performance career as soloist, collaborative artist, and piano professor in the US and Europe.

Sounds of COVID-19 is a musical translation of the genetic code of COVID-19, the virus of the 2020 global pandemic. Every segment of the virus is assigned musical pitches. In this way, the sounds reflect the sequence of the virus. When listening from beginning to end, the listener hears nearly the entire genome of COVID-19.

Composer William Ortiz was born in Puerto Rico, but raised in the U.S. Nonetheless, his Latino identification plays a major role in his music, which can readily be heard in this superb album of his works.

Violinist Rolf Schulte presents a program of great American violin works composed between 1947 and 2000. He is joined in two of them by pianist Ursula Oppens.

Based in the Philadelphia area, James Freeman has a long reputation as a superb pianist and conductor. Here he plays a great program of works by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, and Debussy.

Pianist Mira Gill is of East-Indian descent. Born in Salt Lake City, she is now based in New York City. The piano works of Samuel Barber are a specialty of hers, and it shows in these superb performances.

Korusa (Sujung Cho and Jacob Clark, piano) perform the Complete Piano Duets by Beethoven. This is great Beethoven literature that is heard far too infrequently, here presented in superb performances.

This album features great piano works by Prokofiev and Sibelius. Pianist Tatiana Shustova was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied there at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory. Moving to the U.S., she earned a Doctor of Music Arts degree at the University of Illinois. She is currently on the faculty of the Millikin University School of Music

This recording celebrates a magnificent era in four hand music. After the historic contributions of Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms, the duet mantle was passed to French composers. Breaking free from more classical duet settings, these artists produced four hand masterpieces that reflected the remarkable musical innovations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nuanced colors and a sophisticated handling of timbre, form, and harmony are the hallmarks of this imaginative and evocative time.

David Loeb, a remarkably prolific contemporary composer, composes works for a variety of solo instruments and ensembles. His numerous albums on the Centaur label have all been very well received.

Argentine violinist Tomás Cotik now resides in the U.S. He is a professor of violin at Portland State University. Here, he performs his own arrangements for violin of the J.S. Bach Six Cello Suites. This is, of course, some of the greatest of all of the solo cello literature, beautifully arranged for and performed on violin.

In the pieces under this title, I sought to convey the complexity of our relation with the Divine. Inner Temple is that sacred place in our soul, heart and mind which contains the most precious spiritual treasures of each of us, a kind of a personal Holy of Holies. The Day of Atonement for all Jews is the most important, somber annual Holiday, a day of reflection, during which we ask Almighty’s forgiveness (and people’s forgiveness) for all our transgressions, mistakes and misdeeds during the past year. The two movements of this composition are filled with ritualistic fervor, with intensity of the searching spirit, and the mystery of connection to the Divine through repentance. At the very end of the 2nd movement, there is a moment of light – a token of forgiveness.

–Alla Elana Cohen