The music of Alan Beeler is frequently a compact, tightly focused one, presenting sharp contrasts of color and mood in the context of clear, direct compositional structures. Although noticeably influenced by artistic movements in Europe and America during the first half of the 20th century, Beeler’s musical voice is an identifiable one – crisp, bold, and pointedly quirky. The Sutton Songs sets the poetry by Dorothy Sutton, Beeler’s former colleague at Eastern Kentucky University. Angular melodies and tart harmonies are effectively juxtaposed against gentle, lilting duets in this 7-movement work. Symphony No. 3 is an orchestral and choral exploration of well-known Shaker hymns as experienced through Beeler’s own musical prism. The piece is an earnest, plaintive treatment of these cultural touchstones, given a reading filled with both force and grace by the orchestra and choir.+ Beeler’s works have a “rigorously mathematical underpinning … belied by their emotional vividness” (Lucid Culture)

American composer Fred Broer (b. 1942) has enjoyed a diverse career, including teaching, conducting, composing, and performing. Currently he is the Director of the North Shore Conservatory of Music at Enicott College in Beverly Massachusetts. For this album, Broer’s compositions for string quartet and piano solo have been chosen. These works are performed by the New England String Quartet, along with pianist Karolina Rojahn.

Jonathan Sheffer’s The Conference of the Birds is presented on this new release from Navona Records. Two versions of the work are recorded here: the first, with narrator Joyce DiDonato, and the second, without narrator. Performing this work is the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Sheffer.

Paula Diehl began her compositional career by studying music theory and composition first at American University and later at Temple University. After her studies, she developed her own, completely new compositional system, called “Separation,” after which this album is titled. A variety of Diehl’s works have been chosen for this release, ranging from works for small chamber ensemble to full orchestra. All of the pieces recorded on this album have been composed in the last 30 years.

Navona Records proudly presents Modes, the 30th edition of the celebrated Society of Composers, Inc. CD Series and the sixth SCI release. The album features a diverse array of compositions, with influences from around the world and experiences that are new and thrillingly avant-garde. The album's contributions span the globe, featuring exciting contemporary musical elements. Yip Ho Kewn Austin's A Mournful Cry incorporates the ancient Chinese zither instrument Guzheng, along with poetry from China's South Song Dynaty. Many other composers represent various cultures and bring their own unique blend of understanding and diverse compositions.

This new release from Navona Records includes a collection of settings by various composers, which have been set for voice and organ. Composers featured include Antonio Vivaldi, Gioachino Rossini, Joseph Haydn, Francis Poulenc, and more. This release features the premiere recording of Eli Tamar’s Priere de Saint Francois D’Assise.

Gavin Borchert of the Seattle Weekly Says, What Is Most Marvelous About These Songs Is the Absolute Naturalness of Murray's Way of Setting a Text - Flowing, Never Awkward, Neither Mannered Nor Simplistic. And There's Invariably Something Compelling Going on in the Surrounding Instrumental Frame.

Composer Jeffrey Stadelman presents three string quartets on Navona Records, each offering distinct perspectives on his career and versatile style of composition. Performed by the New England String Quartet, these works illustrate the composer’s intense, lyrical, and sensuous modes of expression. Stadelman’s music is described as “bold, dramatic and compelling” (Audiophile Audition), and “immediately arresting and instantly commands attention” (MusicWeb International) Seraphita (Canons), the composer’s most recent work on this album, is a nine-movement canonic elaboration of the tune from the first song of Arnold Schoenberg’s Four Lieder, Op. 22 (1917) One of the composer’s few programmatic pieces, Eastland, was prompted by the tragic story of the 1915 Eastland disaster, in which a passenger steamship capsized in the Chicago River, drowning hundreds. This is an expressively straightforward piece that “aims to take its sardonic attitude to existential extremes,” using long glissandos and other devices to suggest the implacability, banality and blindness of fate.

Forever Beeler represents a sampling of composer Alan Beeler's prolific output throughout his musical career, which is generally defined by his commitment to compositional craft and structural clarity. The works featured on this album also reveal a playfulness lying just under the surface of Beeler's compositional perspective. This quality of Beeler's music is most notable in the seven sonatas for piano, often accompanied by another instrument, included in Forever Beeler. Here, Beeler crafts engaging conversations between the players at his disposal - he employs a great deal of imitative writing and a more roaming style than in the more concise works on this album. A particularly clear example of Beeler's flui sense of style occurs in the second movement of his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, which is dominated by a subtle "swing" characteristic as well as the "cakewalk rhythm" popular in early twentieth century ragtime music. One of the most deeply intriguing works in Forever Beeler is the Three Early Pieces for Piano, which ranks among the first music Beeler formally composed and published. These short pieces exemplify the directness of Beeler's compositional voice, as they clearly develop and resolve a singula rmusical idea. In addition to being succinct, finely crafted piano miniatures, they stand as evidence to this album's unique offerings to listeners. It is extremely rare to have this kind of longitudinal representation of a composer's career available in an individual recording. The collection is even more valuable because, despite his indomitable and specific approach to composition, Beeler's oeuvre is filled with nuance, all of which stands out in Forever Beeler.

Navona Records proudly presents PRISMA VOL. 4, the fourth installment in the acclaimed PRISMA series showcasing the best of American contemporary composition. Brian Belet's three-movement string orchestra work Stellar Nebulae starts off the album. The multi-layered I. Emergence is aptly contrasted with the calm II. Contemplation, before culminating in the animated finale of III. Expansion. The structure is classical, the tonal language modern, but with influences reminiscent of Baroque concertos. Mara Gibson strives to paint an impression of a small island's ecology in Secret Sky. Completely novel and original in it's concept, this work is based on the migratory patterns of birds on Beaver Island MI. A similarly nature-themed inspiration is the background of Rain Worthington's Shadows of the Wind. It graphically evokes the changing silhouettes of leaves and branches cast on walls during a storm, mirroring the workings of the human subconscious. Next up is Angel Sanchez' symphonic poem � Laura, a three-movement dedication to a beloved woman. I. La petite Princesse is a feisty characterisation of the heroine, II. La mer et les �toiles aptly portrays the beauty of the dedicatee's beloved sea and stars, while III. Feu is an uninhibited declaration of passion. There is an air of martiality to Adrienne Albert's Courage for Winds, it's beginning centered around a recurring snare drum beat. Commissioned by the Inland Empire Youth Wind Symphony Commissioning Consortium, it reflects the battle against adversity in a tonal language that is decidedly American. John Franek's Mithridates epically closes the album with a punch of Dvor�kian opulence: it's unbridled energy remains profoundly reminiscent of the highly dramatic Slavic musical tradition of the late 19th Century.

This album In Times of Torment includes chamber works by Yves Ramette written during the World War II period. The works included are String Quartet Op. 20, Poems of Francis Carco, Violin Sonata No. 1, Violin Sonata No. 2, and Cello Sonata. Performing these works are violinist Vit Muzik, cellist Carmine Miranda, pianist Karolina Rojahn, and baritone Erik van Heyningen.

Ripples: Modern Chamber Works With Percussion

Navona presents WINDOW PANES, a cross section of works by compositional veteran Elizabeth R. Austin. The collection is the first to comprise a lifetime of the American's works into one album: and as the title insinuates, it is an album full of interwoven associations, subconscious reminiscences and intense melodic reflections, with decades of labor condensed into an hour of listening. But WINDOW PANES isn't just an album; it's a musical biography. In 1959, Austin won a scholarship after Nadia Boulanger had heard her Three Rilke Lieder, featured here (the piano accompaniment played by Austin herself). But there are more recent works, too, such as her Symphony No. 1, Wilderness, originally recorded in Poland in 1991, and Symphony No. 2, Lighthouse, recorded in the Czech Republic in 2005. Strikingly, despite the decades between these works, the quality of the individual pieces has remained constant. In spite of their vast differences in complexity in terms of instrumentation of formal structure, one impressively finds the early exactly on par with the later symphonies. Occasionally, times and places have influenced the pieces, such as An American Triptych, which incorporates elements of jazz and blues into a distinctly contemporary blend. For the Five Sonnets from the Portuguese, the traditional lyrics aren't an obstacle to the modern zeitgeist: indeed, they are so timeless that they would neither be out of place at a modernist concert in 1910's Vienna, nor a contemporary music recital in America today. But perhaps the work hinting closest at Austin's own, personal nature is Puzzle Preludes. Ironically, it's subtitles suggest it to be a set of preludes based on classical composers, but quite mischievously defies this expectation. It is here that Austin's own voice is heard most clearly.

The Shakespeare Concerts Series, Based Out of Boston Ma, Combines Classical Music with the Works of One of the Most Significant Literary Figures in Western Civilization, Making It Well Suited for Enthusiasts, Students, and Academics of Either Art Form. This Collection Features Works By Joseph Summer, Thomas Linley, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Michael Tippett. The First Four Albums of the Shakespeare Concerts Series, Shakespeare's Memory (2013), the Fair Ophelia (2013), Goddesses (2014), and Orpheus with His Lute Made Trees (2015) Are Available on Navona Records. Album Includes Web-Application That Features Study Scores, Liner Notes, Biographies, Bonus Tracks, and More.

Navona Records proudly presents renowned composer Ruth Lomon's Shadowing, her debut album on the label. The release showcases her remarkable skill in writing for the piano, pushing the instrument's timbre and color to its limits to create animated sound worlds such as those of the title work, Shadowing. Lomon writes of the colors in the pieces: "'Shadowing' means to have such a light touch, such a light tread, that one can move freely through the forest, observing without being observed...It is the equivalent of manifesting and then becoming like smoke, and then manifesting again..." Lomon incorporates more radical colors - such as prepared piano - in Five Ceremonial Masks, which is inspired by masks used by the Navajo people in their Yeibichai Night Chant ceremonies. Native American imagery also appears in the second movement of Esquisses, "La Fête," in which the rhythmic and melodic properties of the music are inspired by the Turtle Dance as seen by Lomon at New Mexico's Taos Pueblo. The first movement of Esquisses, "Les Cloches," incorporates overtone partials and change-ringing patterns of European flared tower bells, creating a distinctive pianistic color, culminating in the introspective, balladic "Memoires de..." to conclude the piece.