Ode & Ballade by Skye Consort & Emma Björling brings stories of medieval saints and sacred wells, fair maidens outsmarting presumptuous knights, beautiful or boisterous drinking songs, thieves meeting their fate, heartbreaking love songs, groovy dance tunes, and celebrations of the return of Spring. The album combines elements from world music and classical traditions to narrate poems, tales, legends, and sonnets from Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, France and more.

Skye Consort was formed in 1999 to bring an art-music aesthetic to folk music from different world traditions. They have performed and toured extensively with various collaborators and released seven full-length albums. In November and December of 2018, in collaboration with Emma Björling, Skye Consort created a new repertoire sourced from Scandinavian, Québecois, and Celtic roots. Skye Consort & Emma Björling won the OPUS award for Best World Music Album 2019.

Listen to Ode & Ballade wherever you stream your music.

Luminous Voices presents Brahms’"Ein deutsches Requiem" alongside contemporary pieces by Zachary Wadsworth in the album 'Fire-Flowers.'

Exploring themes of loss, grief, and hope, the album is led by Timothy Shantz. Laura Brandt (soprano), Jonathon Adams (baritone), Cheryl Emery-Karapita (piano), and Leanne Regehr (piano) collaborated to bring these pieces to life. Wadsworth's"Battle-Flags," is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Civil War experiences. Brahms’ iconic Requiem reflects personal tragedies and calls for empathy. The album concludes with"Fire-Flowers," where Wadsworth captures E. Pauline Johnson’s poem in a musical tale of optimism and renewal.

'Fire Flowers' will be available on January 12, 2024.

Step into a realm of musical enchantment with Luminos Ensemble's forthcoming album, "In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven." This collection of ethereal harmonies and transcendent melodies is a testament to the ensemble's dedication to innovation and artistic excellence. With a profound passion for small ensemble performance, Luminos Ensemble, under the guidance of Artistic Director Dr. Margot Rejskind, presents a transformative listening experience that engages both heart and mind. From the captivating shores of Prince Edward Island, composers like David Buley and EKR Hammell lend their talents to the album, infusing it with a unique maritime spirit.

The album's journey is an exploration of emotions and themes that resonate universally. Delve into the introspective "I am an Island that Dreams" and the contemplative "Trust," both composed by gifted artists from Prince Edward Island. These compositions, among others, weave a tapestry of sound that is both captivating and thought-provoking. Luminos Ensemble redefines the choral experience, forging connections between artists and audiences, and inviting you to actively partake in this musical journey. Available soon on Leaf Music, this album promises to enrich your sonic horizons and inspire your imagination.

Introducing "ISPICIWIN," the new album by Luminous Voices. The title track captures a collaboration spanning months and years, representing both a personal and collective journey. Andrew's compositions, infused with Cree text, evoke a range of emotions – yearning, hope, fear, and spiritual longing. The album features remarkable artists: Jessica McMann on bass flute and Walter MacDonald White Bear on Native American courting flute and guitar.

Alongside Antognini's "I am the Rose of Sharon," it includes works by Canadian composers from Turtle Island. Luminous Voices' exceptional performances and commissioned premieres enrich the collection. Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer/conductor/singer / sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic, and orchestral works. Jessica McMann, member of Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, is an Alberta-based, multidisciplinary Cree artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history, and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice.

Walter MacDonald White Bear’s music reflects his personal journey as a First Nations person in Canada. Luminous Voices, known for illuminating choral music, continues to captivate audiences through performances, recordings, and workshops. ISPICIWIN marks the fifth commercial recording for Luminous Voices and the third that the choir has released through Leaf Music. Join this odyssey where the music reflects an incredible array of talent from composers closely connected to Luminous Voices both in geography and in creative collaboration.

Intimate. Cosmic. Two words that describe not only my ideal musical vision—music that invites us into an experience with the warm; welcoming touch of the familiar; only to then show us the universe—but also the piano trio ensemble itself; which is somehow both very small (three musicians!) and very grand; symphonic even. I am thrilled to have my four piano trios represented on this album; along with a handful of piano trio subsets that I felt complemented these works. I have long been fascinated by music’s ability to transport us; to serve as a bridge to places that lie beyond the scope of everyday experience and language. For me; music offers a glimpse into an emotional and spiritual reality quite distinct from the ordinary; "objective" world. Perhaps unsurprisingly; the theme of childhood—a time of life where these hidden realities are more likely to manifest; in the form of the fantastical—pervades almost every work on this album. Sometimes the connection is explicit; as in the album’s closing work; A Simple Secret (2019); which takes its title and inspiration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince; a novella I have had the privilege of musically interpreting several times in my career. This gentle piece is a loose adaptation of themes I composed for the film score to Charles Officer’s documentary; Invisible Essence. Over the course of the piece’s six minutes; the violin and cello engage in a ritual of friendship that echoes that of the Fox and the Little Prince in Saint-Exupéry’s fable of childlike wonder; culminating in the Fox’s "simple secret": “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” In my solo piano piece The Dreamer (2017); fantasy is conjured through more abstract means; a single; repeated E-flat provides the foundation for a dazzling kaleidoscope of sound; a metaphor for the sleeping consciousness that dreams entire worlds into being. By the end of the piece; the E-flat has dissipated into a cloud of ethereal filaments. Still more abstract is my Piano Trio No. 1 (2004); an early work whose sparse; mostly serene language was inspired by the sense of meditative awe found in the films of Hayao Miyazaki. On occasion; my affinity for the fantastic takes a surrealistic turn. Composed during the third year of my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto; Timescape Variations (2003) offers an early glimpse into this language. The piece is a theme and variations on A Musical Offering; in which Bach’s restlessly chromatic theme is subjected to a variety of "temporal" variations—stylistically warped episodes that recall Schnittke; though the Brahmsian finale betrays my Romantic side. A darker kind of surrealism—influenced in part by Michael Ende’s short story anthology; Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror)—emerges in the violin and piano duo If Life Were a Mirror… (2020). Commissioned by violinist Lynn Kuo and finished just weeks before the onset of the pandemic; the title posits a question: To what extent is the world around us a reflection of who we are—our dreams; our anxieties; our nightmares? My response was to construct a phantasmagorical labyrinth; littered with musical artifacts that reflect one another like a hall of mirrors. Some of these artifacts take the form of musical quotations from well-known classical pieces; others are almost-quotations; tip-of-the-tongue references without a specific anchor. Memory plays an antagonistic; slippery role throughout; indeed; a literal memory slip is built into the piece (listen for the violinist’s frustrated collapse several minutes in!). The question of whether there is a reality in this piece; beneath (or beyond) what we have already heard before; is up to the listener to decide. In late 2020; I wrote a set of pieces called Intuitions; which were intended to be played by musician partners who occupied the same social "bubble." One of these ("Intuitions No. 2") was written specifically for cellist Rachel Mercer and her partner; violinist Yehonatan Berick. Conceived as an exploratory dialogue between the two instruments; the piece unfolds like a somewhat unpredictable dance that flickers between multiple stylistic traditions; passionate and playful in equal measure; but one where the partners are always in step. The piece was inspired by; and ultimately dedicated to; Yehonatan and Rachel—and the dance they created together. Yehonatan passed away—suddenly and unexpectedly—shortly after "Intuitions No. 2" was completed; leaving behind a grief-stricken musical community; family; and partner. The centrepiece of this album—the large-scale piano trio Under a Veil of Stars—was commissioned originally by the AYR Trio; which at the time was composed of Angela Park; Yehonatan; and Rachel. Yehonatan’s passing altered not only the constitution of the trio; but the music itself—its materials; structure; and purpose. What began as another fantastical journey became; instead; a tribute to a man; whose legacy of inspiring others I have tried to do musical justice to. It is a memorial painted not in sombre hues (although there are certainly sombre moments) but in vibrant; life-affirming colours. It is a work that embraces lyricism; virtuosity; passion; otherworldliness; and—eventually—a kind of grace that I can attribute only to Yehonatan’s guiding spirit. The trio is structured in three movements which—taken as a whole—suggest a broad life cycle that chronicles childhood; adulthood; and old age. The first movement ("I. The Stars Are Never Still") is based on a short story I wrote in 2021 for my friend’s one-year-old daughter; about a girl who chases (and catches) stars. The music explores the spirit of wonder and adventure associated with childhood; with shimmering textures evocative of sky brimming with stars; as well as the bittersweetness of surrendering something precious to the will of the universe. By contrast; the second movement ("II. Land of Poison Trees") is a distinctly grown-up meditation on resentment and revenge. A fantastical rumination on William Blake’s poem "A Poison Tree," the movement’s scherzo-and-trio form houses a cauldron of musical snakes—queasy string pitch-bends; explosive dissonances; and a driving; propulsive piano part. Brief lyrical episodes and an eerie; "classical" coda suggest the pretense of civility; which often masks the rage beneath. Rabindranath Tagore’s poem "Sail Away" provides the impetus for the third movement; "III. In That Shoreless Ocean…." This movement reflects an earnest (and at times despairing) attempt to grapple with death; with grief; and finally with the possibility of transcendent reunion. The movement spotlights the cello; both in its opening lament; and in the pastoral; Beethovenian chorale which—after a series of exhausting; oceanic crests and troughs—arrives like sunlight upon the shores of a new world. Under a Veil of Stars is dedicated in loving memory to Yehonatan Berick.

Alice Ping Yee Ho, City Opera Vancouver, and Leaf Music are proud to present Chinatown, a sweeping opera that tells the collective story of thousands of Chinese immigrants who left their homeland between the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries in search of a better life for them and their families. The first opera in Hoisanese and English and the first to fuse authentic Chinese folk dialects and cultures into the world of English opera, Ho’s Chinatown is a tribute to the legacy of the people who toiled under the promise of prosperity, and instead received abuse and hardship. Chinatown revolves around the intertwining lives of Saihin and Xon Pon, two young men from Hoisan county in South China who have come to Canada in search of prosperity. We follow their story as they meet, work together, endure hardships and have families of their own. A collaboration between composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, librettist Madeleine Thien, and Hoisanese translator Paul Yee, Chinatown brings together decades of lived experience from thousands of Chinese immigrants in an intimate and emotionally arresting musical and dramatic soundscape. Ho says the opera is intended to be an artistic depiction of the realities facing early 20th century Chinese immigrants. “This album represents an important work that tells the stories and experiences of early Chinese immigrants. It’s clear by the standing ovations and positive reviews that the opera Chinatown is a beautiful and moving story of racism, resilience, and family. I hope this album will inspire the audience the same way as it was imagined in the theatre - the experience of an epic journey of music and drama, both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.”

Wanderlust is a voyage around the world of folk and the traditions that emerged from each countries’ unique blend of traditional music. Ranging from the rolling hills of Romania to the jagged cliffs of Newfoundland, flutist Lara Deutsch and guitarist Adam Cicchillitti have compiled a survey of folk music naturally suited to the flute and guitar. Drawing on the roots of folk traditions from around the world, the duo gracefully navigates a plethora of styles through their own unique identity as predominantly classical players.

Lovers and Mourners: Variations and Sonatas from 17th-century Germany, offers a comprehensive glimpse into the lives of virtuoso composer-performers Johann Jakob Walther, Heinrich Biber, and Johann Georg Pisendel. The Composers featured on Lovers and Mourners drew upon the “stylus phantasticus,” a 17th-century Italian idiom whose features were marked by jagged shifts of affect and intended to display the player’s technical command and expressive abilities.

Bandy nimbly guides the listener through a labyrinth of variation sets and themes, simultaneously reproducing faithful interpretations of the music while injecting his own unique touch. Lovers and Mourners boasts a brief, yet intense survey of one of the richest chapters in the history of the virtuoso composer-performer.

Around Baermann sees historic clarinet specialist Maryse Legault spotlight the early 19th century clarinet virtuoso Heinrich Baermann, who was one of the most important yet overlooked clarinetists in the history of the instrument.

Born in Potsdam in 1784, Heinrich Baermann honed his skills under the tutelage of virtuoso clarinetist Josef Beer, who was a key figure in the development of the clarinet and its repertoire. B Baermann went on to tour extensively and significantly impacted the clarinet's role in classical music, particularly in France. Around Baermann is Legault’s tribute to Baermann; a giant in his field and one of the more important developers ofthe clarinet’s style, technique, and repertoire.

The Rosebud String Quartet was formed in 2013 at the inaugural Rosebud Chamber Music Festival, an annual summer chamber music showcase in rural Alberta. Comprised of principal players from the Edmonton Symphony and the orchestras of the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet of Canada, the RSQ is one of Canada’s most dynamic ensembles with a unique voice and a deep love for the music of Haydn. This recording brings together three great, late works by the acknowledged masters of Viennese classicism, Mozart and Haydn, and on it displays the Rosebud String Quartet's remarkable chemistry and depth.

Halifax-based record label Leaf Music is pleased to announce the release of cellist Robert DeMaine and pianist Peter Takács’s double album of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello. Set to be released July 8 2022, this stunning collection showcases Beethoven’s unprecedented textures and formal innovations found in his sonatas for cello and piano. DeMaine is a master of Beethoven’s conversational tone and technical flourishes, playing with “lapidary technical precision, and a persuasive identification with the idiom of the music at hand,” While Takács showcases the composer’s experiments in harmony and form with his noted ability to communicate musical interpretations.

The turn of the 18th century was an exciting time for music publishing in Northern Europe. Music printers in England and the Netherlands were turning out copious sheaves of fine music for amateurs and connoisseurs alike, often surpassing in production quality even what was coming out of France and Italy. This was, on the one hand, due to the sheer readability of music printed from engraved copper and pewter plates instead of moveable type, and on the other to the craze for concertos as well as solo and trio sonatas by famed Italian masters.

The Ten Sonatas for 2 violas da gamba and continuo by a “Mr Carolo” fall into this last category. Although his name sounds Italian, our Mr Carolo is a real mystery, and no one really knows who the elusive composer was or who (else) may have written these ten sonatas for bass instruments. Indeed, the title page of the original undated printing by the Amsterdam firm of Estienne Roger bears no given name but does expand on the instruments that can be used, stating the works are equally suited to two bassoons or basses de violon.

-From the liner notes by Jacques-André Houle

Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble Vocal-Arts Québec, under the direction of Matthias Maute, present George Frideric Handel’s Messiah featuring Karina Gauvin. Although it is certainly not the first recording of The Messiah, it serves as an opening act to new beginnings; a breath of fresh air after the isolation and empty concert halls caused by the pandemic. These Messiah excerpts feature Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, known especially for her interpretation of Baroque music, and the recipient of the prestigious award of “Soloist of the year” award by the Communauté internationale des radios publique de langue français. The recording also features the flute part from Mozart’s arrangement of The Messiah, honoring the two giants, Handel and Mozart, of the classical compositional world. Opening the album is composer Jaap Nico Hamburger’s Hope and Belief, which served as the title track for Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble Vocal-Arts Québec Mini Concerts Sante, and closes with Matthias Maute’s piece “O magnum mysterium,” which “attempts to grasp something of the elusive mystery of music.”

Juno nominated chamber choir Luminous Voices along with Spiritus Chamber Choir presents twelve works by Ukranian composer Artem Vedel (1767-1808). Considered one of Ukraine’s ‘Golden Three’ composers of the 18th century, these masterpieces of Ukrainian Classical Choral Music include twelve sacred choral concerti & Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Under the direction of Dr. Timothy Shantz and with support from the Ukrainian Music Society of Alberta, the works of Vedel continue to be associated with the boisterous wave of national rebirth, imbued with a connection and influence of national folklore.

Sonate a Quattro are the brilliant compositions from Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, written during the summer of 1804 at the young age of 12. These works, at the time, were commonly performed by wind quartet and it wasn’t until 1954 when the original manuscripts were discovered in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. showing their original arrangement for string quartet. The world premiere recording of Rossini: 6 Sonate a Quattro features two of Canada’s most respected and beloved performers - Mark Fewer (violin), and Joel Quarrington (bass) - and two of North America’s rising stars - Yolanda Bruno (violin), and Julian Schwarz (cello) and produced by JUNO award-winning producer John D.S. Adams. These performances, from November 2017, were recorded in collaboration with the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance using the newly released (2014) Critical Edition published by the Fondazione Rossini Pesaro.