Regan's well-crafted compositions show a serious, almost cautious, respect for the tradition... (Asian Music Journal). Vol. 2 of Regan's series of Selected Works for Japanese Instruments, presents a collection of works composed for traditional Japanese instrumentation. Through the combination of his traditional classical education and studies of Japanese music and culture, Regan explores the cross-cultural exchange between Eastern and Western traditions.

Francis E. Fairman III: Diurnal Thoughts

From Bow to String

Weber, C.M. Von: Clarinet Concertino, Op. 26 / Bottesini, G.

Meditative yet propulsive. Structured yet sprawling. Gossamer yet muscular. Inspired yet meticulously constructed. METHOD MUSIC by Lawrence Ball is all of these and more, a double album of highly adventurous electronic music by a master innovator of algorithmic composition. But this album possesses a unique and illustrious lineage that, despite the clear difference in style and genre, connects it to one of the most famous works in the rock music repertoire - the ideas behind METHOD MUSIC are both the outgrowth and the foundation of the legendary LIFEHOUSE project by Pete Townshend, the conceptualize and co-producer of the album, and presents a theoretical system of musical portraiture in which a listener's personal data is translated into a unique composition.

Dr. Kim S. Ellis is a native of Rockford, Illinois. She has been principal clarinetist with the Symphony of Southeast Texas since 1990 and is a Buffet Crampon USA performing artists. She is an active performer and clinician at conventions and clinics throughout the United States including the Texas Music Educators Assosication, Festival of Texas Composers, Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, College Music Society-South Chapter, Sarasota Music Festival, and the University of New Hampshire Chamber Music Festival.

Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes seems to have a penchant for thoroughness and completion. Known and praised for his complete recording of all J. S. Bach's sonatas and partitas, the European virtuoso has now taken it upon himself to embark on another quest for totality. This time, it is the six sonatas by Belgian violinist Eug�ne Ysa�e (1858-1931), presented on Bowes' new album, EUG�NE YSA�E: SIX SONATAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN. As one would expect from Bowes, they are played to passionate perfection. Ysa�e, hailed in his time as no less than the "King of the Violin", is a formidable figure to take on for any modern musician. He was famed not only for precision but more especially for a deeply affecting, quasi-supernatural power of communication. A man of immense generosity and largeness of spirit It is difficult to imagine any violinist adequately reproducing Ysa�e's compositions and this special aura. Doubly so if one considers the background of the Six Sonatas for Violin. They were written at a crucial point late in life. Plagued by illness and doubt and finding himself increasingly cut off from playing his beloved instrument as he would wish, this deep frustration found expression in this encapsulation of his art. In short, these works - all sketched out at white heat in a 24-hour period and hair-raisingly complex and difficult for the player - are an embodiment of the man. Thankfully, Bowes not only possesses the technical mastery to command every playing requirement; he also approaches these works with a great sense of empathy towards their creator. It is this attribute which affords him the rarest of insights into Ysa�e's violinistic mastermind. In fact, Bowes plays with such zest and clarity that the listener occasionally needs to be reminded that these are indeed sonatas for solo violin, not for an ensemble of two or three musicians.

Navona Records presents A NATIVE HILL from Philadelphia's professional chamber choir, The Crossing. This monumental unaccompanied work is the result of a collaboration with composer Gavin Bryars, whose previous work for The Crossing won them their first of two recent Grammy awards. With intimate knowledge of the individual voices and art of each singer, Bryars composed A NATIVE HILL to capitalize on the group's unique sound, personality, and esprit de corps. A NATIVE HILL is based on American author and environmentalist Wendell Berry's 1968 essay of the same name, which examines bucolic elements of rural life, suffused with deeper metaphysical and political implications. The new album is full of rich, complex vocal textures, dense chromatic clusters, and moments of profound simplicity, offering an opportunity to reflect on life's timeless questions.

San José Chamber Orchestra 25th Anniversary

Navona Records proudly presents Flare, recordings by members of the Society of Composers, Inc. Now in it's 32nd installment, it offers a veritable cross-section of some of the most original voices in composition today. The album opens with 20-year-old Vaibhav Mohanty's Rhapsody No. 1 (2017), traveling through elements of Western classical composition, jazz, and Indian traditional music with such well-proportioned naturalness and ease, it bears all the telltale signs of an instant repertoire classic. Robert Strobel's Refugees, a dynamic piano composition reminiscent of Takemitsu, explores the human drama of displacement in profoundly thought-out rhythmic and melodic structures. Continuing with the musical tradition of the 20th century, Keith Kramer transcends Olivier Messiaen's harmonic heritage in his oboe/piano duo L'etere del Tempo. Rejuvenated by Matthew J. Jaskot perambulates a futuristic universe of musical expression in seven diverse piano variations, miraculously springing forth from a simple pentatonic melody. In contrast, Jonathan Graybill draws inspiration from ancient Cherokee mysticism and lends a mysterious voice to the black-capped chickadee in Tsigili'I, illustrating it's mythological association as a messenger of wisdom and truth. In Song of the Avadhut, Romanian composer Gabriel Malancioiu aims to affect human consciousness in an avant-gardesque duet between soprano and violin, influenced by the teachings of modern and ancient mystics. Jacob Thiede's When All Else Fails contrasts the sonorous texture of a tuba with the mathematical perfection of computerized sine tones. In Dreams Interrupted, Mark W. Phillips fuses jazz, blues, and classical elements into a rhapsodic tribute to the cultural heritage of Memphis TN.

MUSICAL IMAGES FOR PIANO: REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS VOL. 3 is the latest continuation of composer Mark John McEncroe's REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS series with Navona Records. Many of the pieces featured on this album are reductions of McEncroe's orchestral works, granting the listener fascinating insight into the mind of the composer. As devotees of McEncroe and his music will likely already know, he is a retired chef, and brings many of the aptitudes of that vocation into his work as a composer. In Volume 3, McEncroe presents the raw ingredients used to concoct some of his greatest orchestral pieces-this time, in their most raw, unmitigated forms. Movements In The Night and Echoes From A Haunted Past, for example, were both previously released on McEncroe's 2018 orchestral release, MY SYMPHONIC POEMS. Somehow, these pieces retain their towering grandeur despite now being performed on solo piano. As is so often the case with recordings of this caliber, the dynamic arrangements and superlative performances on all of the pieces on this album create cavernous spaces which free the listener's mind to hear the music beyond the piano itself. This album also features a movement from Natalie's Suite, a three-movement work for piano and orchestra originally performed by the Jan�cek Philharmonic for McEncroe's DARK CLOUDS IN LIFE. The music portrays the relationship between McEncroe and his daughter, Natalie. "Moving to the Light" is at once tumultuous and hopeful, a striking and beautiful representation of the complexities of the human experience. Performed by pianist Van-Anh Nguyen, REFLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS VOL. 3 captures in high fidelity the stark power of McEncroe's compositions in their most naked, unadulterated forms.

On Hymnus, the world renowned Jitro Czech Girls Choir under the direction of Jiri Skopal once again delivers refined, dazzling interpretations of the music that is so much a part of Czech culture. The album, which is the Choir's third release on Navona Records, includes 24 selections that range from Moravian and Silesian folk songs on which the Choir interprets the subtle call and response between bucolic lovers, to a series of compositions inspired by Latin proverbs on which intricate, multidimensional vocals underscore the significance of a simple word or phrase. While the album's tracks are assembled under specific groupings - Silesian Yodel Songs, The Replies of Silesian Songs, Moravian Folk Songs, and Proverbia - this merely delineates the source material. The unifying impact of the Choir's exquisitely crafted vocals elevates this album far above what might otherwise be an ethnomusicological exercise. For the most part, the choir performs without any instrumental accompaniment, save for several Moravian folk songs, on which a solo piano provides an additional layer of intricacy, and for the album's closing track, Hymnus. Combining the stirring instrumentation of kettledrum and organ with the Choir's uplifting vocals, Hymnus translates the positive, humanistic vision of John Amos Comenius, the 17th century educator, philosopher and theologian, into what serves as a superb melodious conclusion of this impressive recording. The Jitro Czech Girls Choir is a complex institution with a membership of around 350 young singers ranging between five and 19 years of age. Since being founded 35 years ago, the Choir has been lauded internationally for it's tonal brilliance, superb intonation, and distinctive rich blend of sound and energetic vitality. It is considered as one of the best children's choirs anywhere in the world, receiving multiple awards and medals.

Since composer, conductor and musicologist Alicia Terzian founded Grupos Encuentros in 1978, the six-person group has garnered international acclaim for it's success at bringing the music of avant-garde Argentinian and Latin American composers to the world. On 40 Years of Contemporary Music, the group combines compositions from such well-known Latin American composers as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Alberto Ginaslera, and Terzian herself with works by an international array of composers that ranges from Anton Weber to Luciano Berio to Franz Schreker to Pierre Boulez. Grupo Encuentros consists of mezzo soprano Marta Blanco, pianist Claudio Espetor, flutist Fabio Mazzetelli, clarinetist Matias Tchicourel, violinist Sergio Polizzi and violoncellist Carlos Nozzi. The program presented on 40 Years of Contemporary Music originally premiered at the annual Encuentros International Festival in Buenos Aires and truly highlights the brilliance of these award-winning musicians, who have earned high praise from such media outlets as the Los Angeles Times, where they were lauded as "deeply serious and challenging." Over their 40 year-long career, the group has performed at dozens of prestigious venues, including London's Royal Albert Hall and New York City's Merkin Auditorium. 40 Years of Contemporary Music transcends cultural boundaries with such selections as Villa-Lobos' Choro No. 7, which unites the sounds of Amerindian primitivism with the polkas and waltzes of suburban dance halls in Brazil. Emphasizing her status as a renowned ethnomusicologist, Terzian dedicates her composition Yagua de Uca to the Chinguano and Chanel peoples, who belong to a lost indigenous northwestern Argentinian culture. O King was composed the same year as the assassination of Martin Luther King, a tragedy which deeply affected it's Italian composer Luciano Berio. Grupo Encuentros founder Alicia Terzian has composed over 80 compositions for orchestras, orchestras with soloists, and chamber orchestras with and without soloists, musical theater, and multimedia. She travels the world giving seminars on composition and contemporary chamber music at universities and is often invited to participate on juries at international compositions.

John Alan Rose presents Ineffable Tales, an album of four of his ensemble compositions, recorded at Reduta Hall in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In addition to renowned soloists Jungwon Choi, Moni Simeonov, the recording features the composer's wife Sing Rose and the composer himself. The album also features the Moravian Philharmonic under the direction of Miran Vaupotic. Rose stuns from the outset with his imaginative piano concerto "Tolkien Tale," a programmatic fantasy with clear Eastern European folk elements. In the first movement "Setting out on a great adventure," the listener, perhaps on a journey with famed hobbit Bilbo Baggins, is introduced to playful syncopations and pentatonic explorations - perhaps in homage to folk explorations of Bartok, Brahms, Dvorak, and Prokofiev. The warm "Lullaby," the second movement, is a short interlude, a breathtaking look at tandem possibilities for keyboard instruments and woodwinds. Concluding the work is "March," a continuation of the fanciful literary journey with musically atmospheric projections of things encountered along the way. Next is "Old Father Time" for cello and orchestra, a nostalgic, yet timeless work demonstrating the composer's mastery of the neo-Romantic style and the complexities of storytelling through music. The two-minute violin introduction to "25,000 Years of Peace" is modern, seemingly improvisational and likewise experimental. The violinist somehow replicates the hollow breaths heard in folk woodwinds. It is meditative and almost religious. Direction is unclear. But then the grand orchestra enters and the listener is transported to the Western frontier in an Ives-like montage of New World folk tune, Native American chant, and Shaker hymnsong. Listeners will enjoy "Ticket to the Theater" featuring soprano, Sing Rose and the dark comedic narration of actor Tyler Bunch. This album is brilliant in every way and is the work of a very thoughtful composer. Ineffable Tales makes the future of the orchestral canon quite bright. Quite bright indeed!

Composer Mark John McEncroe's latest album, Musical Images for Piano, presents a theater of the mind, performed with a delicacy that is both melancholic and nostalgic. Rather than attempting to shatter musical boundaries, McEncroe focuses on the introspective, letting the listener's stories and memories give the music it's own unique life. Divided into two volumes titled "Reflections" and "Recollections," Musical Images for Piano is performed solo by pianist Yoko Hagino. McEncroe draws his inspiration from the setting of his Japanese garden, but beyond that, the composer does little to share his own stories. Instead, he encourages the listener to create an atmosphere where they can turn inward to give the compositions depth by associating them with their own memories. Like paintings, McEncroe's compositions begin simply with a title. "Daybreak," the opening song in the second volume, the tender slur of melody brings to life a moment of renewal, almost as if you can hear the sun rising for a new beginning. On "Natalie's Theme," the melody wafts along sorrowful tones. The composition characterizes someone that feels familiar, knowing everything about her through song. The pace of both "Reflections" and "Recollections" volumes provide plenty of space to take a step back from the current moment and dream about places and moments that once seemed forgotten.