On THE TOWER AND THE GARDEN, the multi-GRAMMY winning choir The Crossing and conductor Donald Nally ponder the fragility of the earth, the awe of nature, and the power of language to unite, or divide, society. Chicago's best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements. Little is known about de Lienas beyond the manuscripts, which, much to the undeserved discredit of the poor composer, occasionally include unflattering personal remarks scrawled in the margins. Perhaps that these insults on his appearance and personality stemmed from mere envy, for the music captured by his hand presents such skill, wit and zest that it can still be enjoyed a full four centuries after its inception. Not an easy feat by any means, and certainly facilitated by a spectacular performance of The Newberry Consort under the direction of director and soprano Ellen Hargis. Since the music on VESPERS was originally composed for use in women's convents, the bass voice is either sung up the octave, or replaced by bassoon or viola da gamba. The result is graceful, airy, ethereal, otherworldly. Easy on the ears not only for lovers of early music, and for these: a veritable treat.

Composer Jan Järvlepp’s FLIGHTS OF FANCY is available now through Navona Records. Fusing European and American musical traditions, the album pairs the excitement of rock and jazz rhythms with classical orchestral and chamber music forms. Turning his back on the avant-garde 20th century modernism he was trained in at the University of California, San Diego, Järvlepp’s focus has shifted to a postmodern, popular-music influenced style borrowing from a variety of cultures’ traditional music. Pierrot Solaire opens the album with an unusual combination of flute, violin, bass, percussion, and piano. Harnessing the early 20th century angst of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Järvlepp set out to compose a piece that was the mirror opposite of Schoenberg’s; teasingly subtitled “an antidote for anxiety-filled old German music,” the piece recombines popular and folk music to create a lively, energetic, and highly rhythmic piece. Trio. No. 2 captures the unique and often-neglected timbre of the piccolo playing in its lower register. Combined with rapidly bowed string harmonics, the piece is developed into three “flights of fancy”— Järvlepp’s term for flamboyant piccolo solos. The three movements place the piccolo in different musical contexts; the second movement features plucked cello and lyrical viola melodies, while the third takes on an aggressive rock music attitude. Tarantella marries contemporary popular music styles with a baroque tarantella. In keeping with postmodernism’s approach of reimagining historical tradition rather than discarding it, this piece features previously unheard combinations of the old and the new. Overture was composed in 1999 as a Laidlaw Foundation commission for the Ayorama Wind Quintet. Taking cues from the grandeur of Beethoven, Järvlepp employs loud, dramatic chords and memorable melodic phrases to create something wholly his own.

Navona Live is proud to announce the release of INDIANA COLLECTANEA, which celebrates and preserves composer Michael G. Cunningham’s residency at Indiana University School of Music from 1969-1973. This live recording of Cunningham’s work comes on the heels of his acclaimed album ECUMENICAL SPIRIT from Navona Live earlier this year. This latest release captures a significant moment in time, when Cunningham’s work helped channel the talents of 30 burgeoning musicians. In INDIANA COLLECTANEA, Cunningham expands his palette beyond traditional tonality, painting with chromatic, timbral, and rhythmic nuances. The work opens with Prisms, a four-movement piece in which dense tone clusters shift and refract among the strings like a kaleidoscope. This is followed by Polyphonies, a wild-eyed percussion piece that manipulates instrumental timbres to an exhilarating effect. As the album progresses, each piece is a surprise to the listener’s ears, with its unique assortments of instruments and sounds jolting the audience into new appreciation. The frenetic horns at the start of Concertant are further evidence of this. The penultimate track, Scenario, is particularly inventive, opening with a prelude of ethereal bells. Each musician is assigned to multiple instruments, showcasing both their own skills and that of their composer. Lastly, the album ends with the dramatic Noetical Rounds, which concludes with a soft, descending glissando into oblivion. Despite the decades that have passed since the performances on INDIANA COLLECTANEA, each piece is as startlingly fresh as it was the day of its performance. Listen to hear this collection of talented musicians pushed to their utmost by the challenging and thoughtful compositions of Michael G. Cunningham.

The University of South Dakota Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. David Holdhusen proudly presents LUX AETERNA, a new album of choral works from Navona Records. As its title suggests, this collection employs the power of music to shed light into the lives of listeners. Beautifully performed by the elite group of vocalists carefully selected from the university’s student body, the album evokes a variety of musical genres, vocal colors, and historical styles, taking listeners on a spiritual journey through life’s tribulations to ultimate redemption. LUX AETERNA is a meditation on universal human themes that listeners will find richly meaningful.

“Alexandre Tansman was one of the most important Polish composers of the 20th century. He enjoyed an excellent reputation as a composer, conductor and pianist. His guitar works, mostly commissioned for Andrés Segovia, were an important element of his compositional output. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Marianne Tansman, the composer's daughter, for providing me with the master's manuscripts. In my interpretations I have always tried, within the limits of technical feasibility, to keep to the original version of the works without editorial changes.” (Tomasz Zawierucha) Tomasz Zawierucha has been teaching at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar and the Vorarlberg State Conservatoire, Austria. He is also a Visiting Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. In 2014 Tomasz Zawierucha was appointed Professor for Guitar at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.

Peter Greve may be seen as a prime example for music as a late vocation – though it's hard to believe when one hears how deeply his creations root in the bon ton of contemporary musical academia. THE PALACE OF THE DREAMKING offers a cross-section through Greve's eclectic and wildly experimental body of compositional work. The Palace of the Dreamking is, essentially, program music taken to the 21st Century. Greve, who received musical training in his youth, spent his working life as a chemist, and eventually returned to music full-time in his retirement, chose to conduct this scenic rhapsody himself: and it was a good decision. For who could understand a creation better than the creator himself? The title of the following Partita may lull some listener into the false security that they are in for a Baroque feast: not so. Greve instead prefers to demolish hardened expectations by freely expanding the very notion of a partita, scoring it not for a single instrument, but for 11-person brass ensemble in three movements. Just as experimental is Give us Peace, an "Invocation for organ and mixed choir." A work commissioned for the 100th anniversary of a local Dutch church organ, it is profoundly, aptly titled. Based on a quote by St. Peter in the New Testament, it is also conceptually tied to similarly-spirited associations of other major religions. Trio, scored for clarinet, violoncello and piano, was written in memoriam of Greve's good friend's late wife. It is an idiosyncratic, occasionally lyrical, sometimes wistful, sometimes mellow, sometimes cheerful piece of work, which ends with a terpsichorean final movement. Magic Winter draws upon Scandinavian folklore and chronicles the harsh fate of a group of trolls trying to survive the grim Arctic winter. THE PALACE OF THE DREAMKING ends with a tribute to Francis Poulenc, Aria, a work scored for organ and trumpet. No direct musical citations are used; but the spirit of Poulenc lingers over this conclusion like a benevolent spirit.

Hot on the heels of her first Navona Records release, award winning composer Monika Gurak keeps the fire burning with SCENES FROM A LIFE, an album of original and personalized works for piano and vibraphone. Infused with wit and whimsy, Gurak’s 15 Humoresques deliver a lighthearted quality to the album’s first half, featuring pianists Scott Downing and Emma Collette Moss with vibraphonist Michael Davidson. When it comes to emotion and expressive quality, Gurak leaves no stone unturned, as she allows significant timestamps in her life, unique anecdotes, and her background to resonate through her compositions. Gurak’s stories are told clearly through the piano, fostering an intimate and intriguing listening space.

Transcriptions for string quartet by the composer or someone else was common practice in Mozart’s time. In that light this string-version of Mozart's Requiem is nothing special. What makes it special, is the circumstance of the original Requiem itself. It is known that Mozart left the majority of the work incomplete, and that on request of Mozart's widow, his pupil Süssmayer did the finishing job. Where one's work ends and the other starts, no-one knows. This 'skeleton-version' of the Requiem, however, fully preserves the eloquence of Mozart's music and therefore perhaps proves that the Requiem contains more of the masters own composing than we can objectively establish. But incomplete as the Requiem is, Mozart's universal genius radiates through the notes in any version. And if anyone can bring the radiation to the surface in this version, no one better than the Kuijken Kwartet.

On September 2, 1998, 229 passengers and crew members lost their lives in the Swissair Flight 111 plane crash into the Atlantic ocean near Nova Scotia. Composer Matt Frey, who identified with the Swissair tragedy due to his own brush with a plane malfunction, explores human relationship to air travel while also commemorating the lives lost in the chamber opera ONE-ELEVEN HEAVY. Using recollections from reporters on the scene, interviews with family members including words from the pilot’s wife when she arrived on the scene, and even the original Air Traffic Control recordings from the crash, Frey depicts the story in four parts. Beginning with the ATC recordings, the voices of soprano Jenny Ribeiro and tenor Karim Sulayman rise to the surface, painting the image of the scene as the radio recordings describe it starting to happen. Filled with a sense of anxiety and coming undone, the text tells the story in reverse chronology. The opera builds to the point of no return where plane alarms can be heard and voices and instruments meet for a tumultuous climax. The album concludes with a chilling epilogue featuring ocean sounds and ATC recordings as those on the opposite end started coming to the realization that Swissair 111 had gone down. “The Swissair passengers never got to tell their story. For them I wrote ONE-ELEVEN HEAVY.” Frey’s album achieves that and more, presenting an intellectual, emotional, and powerful opera that both commemorates the lives lost and adds to the rich catalog of the contemporary chamber opera.

Up-and-coming composer Peter Dayton makes his Navona Records debut with the release of Notes to Loved Ones, an album of works for piano and strings. Dayton's style of composition is heavily influenced by people with whom he is fascinated and their works of art. These influences are the driving forces behind Notes to Loved Ones. Fantasy for viola and piano, is contemplative and collected. The composer, himself, likens it's thematic content with "the continuity of a changing dream." The string quartet Morceaux des Noces, is reflective of the Americana in early 20th century composition. Sonata "Los Dedicatorias," for violin and piano is tentative, with the juxtaposition of the highest part of violin's range against the warm, middle tones of the piano. Messiaen lovers will enjoy Variations for string quartet, which is reminiscent of Quatuor pour la fin du temp and the ethereal qualities within it. About the rhapsodic Sonata for cello and piano Dayton reflects: "I drew upon [Shostakovich's] emotional geography of cattiness and sarcasm as well as tragedy and pensive calm."

Australian Bruce Crossman blends East and West in his new release HEAVEN TO EARTH BORDER HOUSE on Navona Records. With his modernist approach to musical construction and style, he effortlessly integrates traditional Western, Korean, and Chinese instruments and philosophies into a coherent, enlightening whole. HEAVEN TO EARTH BORDER HOUSE uniquely features two kinds of zithers: the Korean gayageum as well as the Chinese guzheng, and the largest Korean bamboo flute, the taegum. These instruments are alternatingly grounded by Western percussion, the piano and a haunting soprano. The subject matter of the musical pieces is ethereal: Allegoric titles such as Garden of Fire, Fragrant Rain Clouds of Love, and Strange Invisible Perfume reveal the fragile poetry expressed in the music – oscillating between the sensual and the spiritual.

Around the world, millions of readers eagerly await the impending release of the new thriller ‘Origin’ by Dan Brown, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ According to Brown, the initial spark of inspiration for his highly anticipated novel struck him when he first heard a provocative piece of classical music entitled Missa Charles Darwin — a piece composed by award-winning composer Gregory W. Brown, who also happens to be the author’s brother. The composition is featured at a crucial moment in the ‘Origin’ narrative.

Missa Charles Darwin, was written for Grammy-nominated New York Polyphony and is structured on the standard liturgical Mass. Brown painstakingly translated DNA sequences and markers into musical phrases set to texts by Charles Darwin.  In doing so, Brown simultaneously commemorates the scientist’s genius while interrogating the relationship between faith and reason.

“For some listeners Missa Charles Darwin might seem inherently subversive,” adds Gregory W. Brown, “but that can be part of the conversation. It doesn’t take anything away from religion to also celebrate Charles Darwin.”

All of Gregory’s proceeds from this release are being donated to musical education charities including Chorus America, American Choral Directors Association, and the International Society for Music Education.

Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing brings to life the striking works of six contemporary composers in this Navona Records release, with performances that are unique and awe-inspiring. The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. Many of its over seventy commissioned premieres address social, environmental, and political issues.

Fresh from Navona Records comes PARMA recording artist Lindsey Goodman’s ETEREO, a multi-composer album featuring the internationally acclaimed flutist in solo, duo, and trio settings. Goodman’s virtuosic performances unleash the breadth of dynamic and tonal possibilities the flute offers, making for a riveting listener experience. The album opens with Josh Oxford’s intervallically complex Bluez... in which Goodman’s breath accompanies frantic jazzy melodies, rife with overblown harmonics and vocal harmonizations akin to throat singing. Next comes Bruce Babcock’s Soliloquy which soars and flutters, at once insistent and inquisitive. For Marsyas and Gadfly by Jason Taurins, Goodman performs a series of arrhythmic dances, punctuated by instrumental bends and shrieking cries. Steven Block’s sweet soulless solstice also explores the physical limits of the instrument, replete with ethereal harmonics. After that comes Mara Helmuth’s Butterfly Within, a four-movement work in which Goodman explores a new sonic landscape, full of extra-musical sounds and spine-tingling aural sensations. In Watercolors of the Master Who is Accustomed to Paint with Oils by Alla Elana Cohen, Goodman is joined by piano; her piercing exclamations are marked by uncertainty but gain a footing and grow joyful as the work progresses. “In memoriam” from Three Duos for Alto Flute and Cello by Peter Castine is marked by soft, droning chord clusters, with the interjection of a toy piano midway. Lastly, in Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas by Jennifer Jolley, the rapid stabs of the trio give way to an explosive repartee, making for an upbeat conclusion to the album. In ETEREO, flute virtuoso Lindsey Goodman captures the dramatic thrill of her stage performances. With flare backed by impressive technical ability, Goodman releases the fiery potential energy stored up within her instrument. Listeners who wish to challenge their assumptions and expand their appreciation for flute music need look no further than ETEREO.

Navona Records presents E PLURIBUS UNUM, an album of solo piano works performed by internationally acclaimed pianist Liza Stepanova, praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache.” It features recordings of eight renowned composers including Lera Auerbach, Anna Clyne, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kamran Ince, Pablo Ortiz, and world premiere recordings by Chaya Czernowin, Badie Khaleghan, and Eun Young Lee. Born out of the political climate of 2017, E PLURIBUS UNUM is an artistic response to the immigration policies implemented by the American government around that time. Stepanova devised a program featuring American composers with immigrant backgrounds, and by doing so she “offers a small glimpse of the immense contributions they make to American musical life.” The colorful mosaic of E PLURIBUS UNUM does just that, in music that reflects the composers’ roots and is an embodiment of the motto E Pluribus Unum – “Out of many, one.” Some of the works address the urgency of historical, cultural, and political calls for justice. "La Bestia” and “Rain Outside the Church” from Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya’s piano cycle The Way North, which “capture the emotional, physical, and psychological struggles of the unnamed narrator as he makes his way north in search of a better life,” according to the composer. Iranian-American composer Badie Khaleghian offers Tahirih the Pure, inspired by the courage and strife of Tahirih, a prominent figure in 19th-century Middle Eastern history and Baha’i faith who believed in an adaptation of cultural ideologies that led her to fight for equality for the women of Persia. In E PLURIBUS UNUM, listeners encounter a confluence of voices, narratives, and ideals, realized by the sensitive and highly-capable hands of Liza Stepanova. Even now, three years after the project’s inception, the message behind this album resounds.