This recording features highlights from the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra's tour of China, which included a performance at Beijing's Forbidden City concert hall. The recording was produced at the Central China Radio Studio and features collaborations with some of New Brunswick's top classical musicians including international concert pianist, Roger Lord, the Saint John String Quartet and the traditional fiddler Samantha Robichaud. Founded in 1965, the orchestra has approximately 80 members between ages 10 and 24 from across the province. The NBYO tours New Brunswick each year, and occasionally performs in other countries. The ensemble is funded by a Board of Directors as well as private, municipal, and provincial grants. The group is led here by conductor James Mark.

Described by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald as "one of the most radiant a capella choir CDs of this or any previous Christmas," Halifax Camerata's recording 'Songs of the Stable' has continued to be a treasure among classical music fans since it's initial release more than 10 years ago. The album was recently featured on CBC's nationally broadcast choral concert program and features a collection of Christmas music by Canadian composers. The Halifax Camerata Singers is Atlantic Canada’s premier chamber choir. Founded in 1986 by Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey, the Nova Scotia ensemble has distinguished itself by performing exciting choral repertoire that covers all periods and styles, with special attention to Canadian music. The auditioned choir is known for its high performance standards, claiming national recognition and the Healy Willan Grand Prize in the 2010 National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs.

The Saint John String Quartet continues to make their mark on the Canadian music scene with the release of their new album, Canadian Hits: Unplugged. This album represents a step outside of a string quartet's norm with 16 pop hits from Canadian icons, including Leonard Cohen, the Arkells, Joni Mitchell and The Tragically Hip. This is the sixth recording release by the Quartet, and follows in the inventive direction of the group's previous offerings. For more than 30 years, the Quartet has stood among Canada's leading chamber music ensembles. The stylistic and energetic troupe is highly sought after for special collaborations within different musical genres - a reflection of their versatility and flexibility.

Robert deMaine is an American virtuoso cellist who has been hailed by The New York Times as "an artist who makes one hang on every note.” He has distinguished himself as one of the finest and most versatile instrumentalists of his generation, performing to critical acclaim as soloist, recitalist, orchestral principal, recording artist and chamber musician. He is currently Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is in demand around the world as a soloist, chamber musician and clinician. This recording is a collaboration with New York conductor Joel Eric Suben and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra recorded at Reduta Conceret Hall in Olomuc, Czech Republic. It was in this spirit of personalized composition that Haydn wrote his Cello Concerto in C major, Hob. VIIb:1, for the Esterházy family. The piece was unknown to modern audiences until 1961, when a copy of the score was uncovered. Since that time, it has become a staple of the cello repertoire, championed by many of the world’s greatest cellists. Robert deMaine adds his name to that list with this lush recording. Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major, Hob. VIIb:2 was written for the Esterházy orchestra’s principal cellist Antonín Kraft, who is said to have had a beautiful singing tone, expressive phrasing, and an explosive technique, especially in the cello’s upper register. All of this is realized once again in this fresh performance from Robert deMaine.

Winners of the Grand Prize and Audience Prize at the 2014 Early Music America Baroque Performance Competition, Montreal based Infusion Baroque has produced a much anticipated debut album featuring five trio sonatas by CPE Bach. Infusion Baroque is in high demand among early music concert presenters throughout North America. They maintain a busy touring schedule, and plan to release many albums following the present release. Their performances have been described as “dynamic and alive” with a stage presence that is “poised and elegant.” Infusion Baroque is flutist Alexa Raine-Wright, violinist Sallynee Amawat, cellist Andrea Stewart, and harpsichordist Rona Nadler.

Saxophonist Clio Theodoridis and pianist Jonathan Nemtanu present their debut album, Nostos, named after the ancient Greek word for "return" or "homecoming." The album traces a musical and personal odyssey shaped by movement between cultures, places, and musical traditions. From Suite hellenique by Pedro Iturralde, rooted in Greek heritage and Mediterranean colour, to Recit et Lied, Op. 31 by Canadian composer Mathieu Lussier, the program reflects a life lived between past and present, departure and arrival. Works by Fazil Say, Suite for Saxophone and Piano, Op. 55, and Alexis Ciesla, Ocres rouges, further occupy musical crossroads between East and West, tradition and innovation, forming a cohesive program that highlights the expressive range of the saxophone-piano duo. Born in Athens and now based in Quebec, Clio Theodoridis is recognized for the finesse and depth of her playing across the classical saxophone repertoire. Pianist Jonathan Nemtanu combines an active career as a chamber musician with cultural leadership, and is noted for his musical dialogue and artistic vision. Together, they perform as Duo Aster.

Gottschalk: Piano Works

Skye Consort & Emma Björling perform a mix of traditional music from Québec, Sweden, Norway, and Celtic music. Each musician brings their own interpretation to these traditions, creating this awesome collaboration, consisting of voices, fiddle, nyckelharpa, cello, and cittern. The result is an assortment of whirling polskas, groovy reels, passionate love songs, breathtaking hymns, and original compositions. Skye Consort met during a La Nef project in 2017 and with the serendipitous cancellation of a flight decided to form a band. Skye Consort has been accompanying singers since 2000 and has recorded 5 albums with singers such as Matthew White, Shannon Mercer and Michael Slattery. Emma Björling, on lead voice and shruti box is an award-winning Swedish singer, composer, arranger, active in the renowned Scandinavian bands Kongero and Lyy.

OH Canada: A Young 150!, is the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra’s (NBYO) celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. The NBYO’s celebration pays tribute to Confederation and the accomplishments of a great history, but also to a future to be built from all the genius, optimism and hope of our youth. The centrepiece of the celebration is a song commissioned by the NBYO, for orchestra, soloist and choir, by Canadian composer Howard Shore, winner of three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and four Grammy Awards, and one of the most celebrated composers in the world. The song ‘Sea to Sea’ is performed by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra with internationally renowned soprano Measha Brueggergosman and a special Canada 150 Choir.

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.

Resonance is the debut album of Canadian cello-marimba duo Stick & Bow. These classically trained musicians present original arrangements that span a wide spectrum of musical styles, from Bach to Radiohead. This album transforms the listening of familiar works in refreshing and unexpected ways while introducing the audience to daring new music from active composers. The energetic duo Stick & Bow was formed by the encounter of Canadian marimba player Krystina Marcoux & Argentinian cellist Juan Sebastian Delgado in the vibrant city of Montreal. Classically trained musicians, they strive to present a wide spectrum of musical styles, ranging from rock to gypsy-jazz, Baroque or tango. Their eclectic repertoire features original arrangements of some of the most celebrated works in history, showing the potential of their instruments combined. In their creative process, they unite musical narration with humor and storytelling in which the powerful arrangements for cello & marimba transform the listening of familiar works in refreshing and unexpected ways. Stick & Bow is also strongly committed to the music of our time, commissioning works that are daring yet accessible from composers such as Luis Naon, Camille P�pin, Luna Pearl Woolf, Jason Noble & Marcelo Nisinman.

For close to two decades the Saint John String Quartet has captivated the hearts of listeners with their concerts, radio and television appearances and popular recordings. Their list of successes includes an ECMA for “Best Classical Recording” and in 1995 they presented the first chamber music concert on the World Wide Web Internet. The Quartet’s active concertizing schedule finds them touring Canada, the USA, and abroad to Japan, China, and Hong Kong. The group can often be heard on CBC Radio and on two other albums entitled Hidden Treasures and Saint John String Quartet. Acclaimed by critics for her floating, high pianissimos, soprano Sally Dibblee enjoys success in opera houses and concert halls throughout North America. A New Brunswick resident, Sally continues to perform in Maritime summer music festivals and is frequently heard on the CBC.

Composers search for inspiration in the past- they study and learn from their predecessors, often borrowing ideas and taking them in new directions. The two praeludia by Dietrich Buxtehude, both composed in the stylus phantasticus (fantasy style) serve as a basis for us to follow some such musical borrowings. Buxtehude's compositional style had a direct influence in J.S. Bach and his successors. New ideas grew out of the stylus phantasticus, influencing later composers such as Franz Liszt and Petr Eben, who heralded the past and proclaimed the future by writing new forms of the praeludium inspired by Buxtehude's style. Gayle Martin is Associate Professor of Music at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, where she is University Organist and teaches organ performance, musicianship, choral conducting, introduction to conducting, and music history. She also directs the Elliott Chorale, and coaches the early music group, Opella Nova.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Canada’s entry into the First World War in 1914, the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra embarked on a journey of remembrance through music and reflection. Keeping Faith is the theme for this commemoration tour, with special 2014-2015 performances in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, throughout New Brunswick and in our nation’s capital, for the official opening of the Canadian War Museum’s new permanent exhibition, The Home Front, 1917. Our “Keeping Faith” visual wordmark, presented in English, French, German and Czech, was commissioned by the NBYO to honour and respect the countries and cultures visited on the commemoration tour. As the centerpiece of the Commemoration Tour, the NBYO commissioned an orchestral work, “A Dream of Dawn,” by Canadian composer Kevin Lau. One of Canada's forefront emerging composers, Kevin Lau, whose music has been commissioned by numerous orchestras across Canada, including an original full-length score for the National Ballet of Canada, currently serves as Affiliate Composer of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Lau describes the commission as a grateful commemoration of a generation who served and sacrificed. "My intention", said Lau, "is to compliment the reflections of those pondering war in all its paradoxical facets, to recognize the horrors of human conflict while affirming our profound search for harmony in ourselves and abroad”. What better path than by harnessing the genius, hope and promise of our youth, to build the world of which their century-old counterparts could only dream – a dream of dawn.

International concert pianist Roger Lord has been described by The China Daily as "the Piano Prince of Canada." This recording features twenty-one "treasures," short pieces that Lord has uncovered throughout his many travels in China. Hailing from Moncton, New Brunswick, Roger Lord won the First Prize in piano in the Canadian National Festival of Music as well as in the Canadian Music Competition. His various concertos have taken him to some of the world’s greatest cities, and he has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He first travelled to China in 1999 and gave his first concert in the city of Qingtao in Shandong Province. He has since been to China nearly thirty times and has performed in most regions and important cities. He holds a Doctorate in Music and is now Professor of Piano at the Universite de Moncton in Canada.

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.”

This new release is the debut album of soprano Maureen Batt, and features a rare recording of Schubert’s “Op. 52 Lady of the Lake” song cycle and a newly commissioned work on the same epic Walter Scott poem by Nova Scotian composer Fiona Ryan. Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake is set during an uprising of the Highland clans against the Lowland Scots who are loyal to King James V. The story focuses on Ellen Douglas, a young woman who lives in exile with her father, an outlaw who has fallen out of favor with the royal court and fled to an island in Loch Katrine with his daughter. Today, the work is not that widely known but in the nineteenth century it was a bestselling book throughout Europe. It was translated into several languages, including German which Schubert used for his song texts. Fiona Ryan writes about her contributions to this album: “I draw upon Scottish (and Nova Scotian) folk music traditions in my songs. Some movements are very obviously influenced by Scottish folksongs…and others draw inspiration from rhythmic patterns, ornamentation, and droning sounds found in Scottish bagpipe music. In a way, this project is about bringing people and ideas together… Although this is a story of a different and dangerous time, it gives an affirmative answer to the eternal question of whether people who are enemies can eventually reconcile.”

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.

Luminous Voices - a professional chamber choir based in Calgary Alberta, presents their third full-length album under the artistic direction of Timothy Shantz. Recorded at the Bell Concert Hall at Mount Royal University, Sea Dreams was composed by Peter-Anthony Togni and features guest artists: Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet/ Katie Partridge, soprano / Oliver Munar, tenor / Sarah Hahn-Scinocco & Sarah MacDonald, flute. Sea Dreams reflects the relationship between the ocean and the sea as a life metaphor, with its implicit suggestion of journeying, inward emotions and ever uncertainties. A continuation of Togni’s recent works, in which choral writing is blended seamlessly with unusual accompanying instrumental support. The framing movements of the work draw on texts from T.S. Elliot’s Four Quartets, with the middle movement employing the words of the Marian hymn “Alma Redemptoris Mater”.

Infusion Baroque draws new audiences to early music through a truly captivating concert experience, deftly combining seasoned musicianship with theatrical elements. Described as “dynamic and alive” (Early Music America) with “polish, energy, and finely-honed style… merrily breaking established traditions” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), the four women of Infusion Baroque enthrall audiences across North America with their creative and interactive programming. Their debut album 1747: C.P.E. Bach was released in 2017 and reached #3 on iTunes Canada Classical chart. Infusion Baroque's second album is the debut recording of six rare quintets by Georg Anton Kreüsser. Joyful and elegant, these pieces for flute, violin, viola, cello, and basso continuo feature the instruments engaged in a lively musical conversation that are sure to delight and charm listeners.

Savour the creative talent heard through these hand-picked selections of Christine Walevska, cellist extroadinaire, who continues to touch her audiences worldwide with her timeless, polished, eloquent, sensuous, engaging and dramatic musicality. Christine is known for her numerous recordings with Philips Records, and for her countless concertos worldwide. In 1975, she became the first American concert musician to perform in Cuba under the regime of Fidel Castro. Music Critic Antonio Hernandez wrote in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that Christine was the “goddess of the cello,” a name which she is still called today. “She is still the only cellist who takes my breath away…” (Arthur Rubenstein) “She parallels on the cello the single persuasiveness of Fritz Kreisler on the violin…” (Patterson Greene, Los Angeles Music Critic)

In honor of Remembrance Day and the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands, Canadian composer Jaap Nico Hamburger presents two symphonies recorded in November 2019. While these two works address serious and challenging themes, they are simultaneously filled with hope and optimism. “Remember to Forget” is both a chamber symphony and an opera without words, inspired by the biography of one of the great composers of our time, György Ligeti. "Children's War Diaries" is a symphony for chamber orchestra in five short movements, inspired by a visit to the Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem and the overwhelming starkness of the Children’s Memorial and the blazing Jerusalem sunlight.

Roots’ is Ventus Machina's second full length album. The track list includes eight arrangements by Ventus Machina's clarinetist James Kalyn, including Canadian folk hits by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchel and Gordon Lightfoot; tunes by local bluegrass legend Ray Legere; and traditional songs that have been chosen by the members of Ventus Machina to represent their heritage and first musical influences. Guests on the album include bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player Ray Legere, clarinetist Andrew George and percussionist Joel Cormier. Formed in 2011, the New Brunswick-based woodwind quintet Ventus Machina quickly became a major player on Canada’s east coast classical music scene. Their flexible and dynamic style of performance—often presenting themed programs that at once engage, entertain, and educate—continues to attract and delight increasingly diverse audiences. Classically based and uncompromising in artistic quality, Ventus Machina makes regular excursions into other genres including jazz, opera, Latin and pop, challenging themselves and surprising their audiences.

Known for her spirited and luminous sound, Baroque flute player Alexa Raine-Wright shares her eloquent interpretations with audiences across North America in solo, chamber and orchestral performances. This debut solo recording brings to light a collection of rarely heard works by Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697–1763), a composer with one foot planted firmly in the Baroque, and the other foot pointed toward the Classical style. Equally at ease on the Baroque flute and recorder, American/Canadian Alexa Raine-Wright has shared her passion and talent for early music with audiences across the United States and Canada in solo, chamber and orchestral performances. Winner of several national and international competitions, Alexa was awarded the $10,000 Devonna & Amos Gerber Grand Prize as well as the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra Prize at the 2016 Indianapolis International Baroque Competition. ​Alexa is a founding member of the ensemble Infusion Baroque, winner of the Grand Prize and Audience Prize in the 2014 Early Music America Baroque Performance Competition in Chicago. She is also a member of the celebrated recorder quartet Flûte Alors!, Canada’s only recorder quartet.

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.