Navona Records and the acclaimed ensemble Trio Casals proudly present Moto Bello, the next chapter in the moving series that brought 2015's Moto Continuo and Moto Perpetuo in 2013. Living up to it's name, Moto Bello, or "beautiful motion," is a collection celebrating the synergy of Trio Casals and the vibrant works of ten contemporary composers including Diane Jones, Beth Mehocic, David N. Stewart, Sidney Bailin, L Peter Deutsch, Giovanni Piacentini, Adrienne Albert, Clive Muncaster, Joanne D. Carey, and Bruce Babcock. Moto Bello is a journey through individual experience, international scenes, and philosophical pondering. Each piece is an exploration of movement and of the beauty in all forms of motion-dissonant and jagged, soft and freely flowing, or standing tentatively between the two. In some instances, the pieces are romantic and sweeping, as in Ondine, Nightfall, Palette No. 1, the beginning moments of Solo la Sombra. In others, the energetic experience is driven and leaping, as in Woman A/Part, Somewhere Between D and C#, Habanera, Lines, Hockets, and Riffs, and Imagined/Remembered. Moto Bello is a diverse tapestry of emotional, energetic, and imaginative listening experiences. Trio Casals demonstrates not only the imaginativeness of the composers, but also the group's technical prowess as they communicate the unique meaning and motion behind each composition. On Moto Bello, the ensemble exists as the dynamic storyteller of each composer's artistic statement, weaving each tale of beauty in motion with their own inspired story.

Shocking, gripping, and thought-provoking, Mara Gibson's new album SKY-BORN conjures a flurry of emotions through its moody music. In one moment, the busy strings create a fury of anxious, energetic sounds; the next, the strike of a lone piano chord paints a brooding soundscape. SKY-BORN is Gibson's second album, and the first to be released on Navona Records. She has worked at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance for over ten years and will also be teaching this fall at Louisiana State University this year. Gibson's album features compositions performed by UMKC fellow faculty members, the Cascade Quartet, violist Michael Hall, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen, and pianist Holly Roadfeldt. Gibson drew her inspiration from a variety of artistic mediums. The piano preludes, which are interspersed throughout the album, were inspired by paintings from Jim Condron (www.jcondron.com), each piece extracting a beautifully haunting soundtrack from a series of abstract art. Gibson also used poems as the foundation for her compositions. The eerie One Voice reflected the writings of the Michigan-based poet Hannah Ensor, while The Folium Cubed is Gibson's response to Luisa Sello's Let Clover Be Aid. Sky-born sets Emerson’s “Music” for four soloists, full of idealism and hope, in the ugliness, and in the reality, something we do not share enough. The 15-minute epic Blackbird carries the reader along a journey of grace and violence invigorated by Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, a poem by Wallace Stevens. Though influenced by literary works, SKY-BORN breeds nothing but visceral energy and harrowing emotion that resonates with the listener right down to the last note of the viola.

How can something as intimate as a musical moment shared between two people open up the door to endless possibilities? Discover the answer in Art for Two, a collection of works by acclaimed composer Arthur Gottschalk and performed by Italian woodwind extraordinaires Sauro Berti and Mario Ciaccio, accompanied by the skilled hands of pianist Naomi Fujiya. In each piece, the performers call listeners into the moment as they traverse art music inspired by sources from traditional Jewish hymns to Frank Zappa. The melodies of Berti and Ciaccio will carry listeners to some interesting and unexpected places. Italian bass clarinetist Sauro Berti has performed at major festivals from China to Mexico, and his command of the woodwind has earned him credit with the most notable orchestras in Italy and beyond. His counterpart, the award-winning saxophonist Mario Ciaccio, adds smooth flair - together, the two mesmerizingly work off of each other as the strains of their instruments sing together as one. In the first piece, Benny, Zoot, and Teddy, one can almost hear witty banter back and forth between the instruments. Two best friends strolling through a lively city scene as they converse immediately comes to mind. The album's concluding piece, Shalom, also features the two instruments in conversation, but this time with a different message. They are joined by a full choir to deliver a final word: "shalom," a Hebrew word meaning "peace." This message, balanced with the exchange of the woodwinds, sends listeners on their way, enriched with having joined the musicians on this journey. In Art for Two, each track brings listeners into a different shared conversation and experience. Enjoy the intimate dialogue between two musicians, and between the performer and you, the listener, as each song tells you a new, fascinating story.

Aria - The Music of Michael Cohen

Composer Garth Baxter makes his Parma debut with a collection of his exquisite works for voice entitled Ask the Moon. This album is about the human condition and the pursuit of light in darkness. A setting of Sara Teasdale’s “Nights Without Sleep,” for voice and piano commences the album’s journey of introspection. Then there is Three Madrigals—“There is a Lady Sweet and Kind,” combines the elegance of the English art song with the character of a Stephen Foster folk tune; the performance of “The Silver Swan,” a dark Irish ballad of sorts, is evocative of the Leontyne Price recordings of Samuel Barber’s art songs; “Love Me Not for Comely Grace,” embodies its text, demonstrating the sweet, yet complicated burden of affections. Following is “Is This the Cost?” an elegiac exemplar of Baxter’s flair for dramatic writing derived from Act II, Scene II of his opera Lily (Lisa VanAuken, librettist). Four Views of Love begins with “When You Are Old,” a reflective setting of the classic Yeats text. Be prepared for an incredible climax that expresses fully the ranges of the piano and the human voice trailed by blissful catharsis. Closing the album is Skywriting, a cycle “drawing on words by Linda Pastan.” In the composer’s own words—“[Pastan’s] poems have so often touched me so deeply and in such a very personal way that it feels as if she has been listening to my thoughts. The title of the album, Ask the Moon, comes from the closing line of the final song, ‘Why are your poems so dark?’”

Mark John McEncroe, who started his musical training in his late 30's, had always exhibited a varied, profound interest in music – one that led him to work as a major music label manager over the course of two decades. No doubt that it was partially this section of his professional career which formed the basis of his personal compositional language. Unimpeded by the constrictions of a musical academic career, he developed a style which is unapologetically concrete and evocative. Live In Ostrava sets out with a work titled Symphonic Poem – The Passing, a piece which chronicles the renewal of attitudes and ideas; a process that may, at times, be painful, but remains an inevitable part of the human condition. There are wistful moments, too, but the outlook is quietly courageous: like someone who has made peace with his or her fate, The Passing concludes in a soft melancholia. While it draws on the same idea of the cyclicality of life, the initial mood in the following work, Symphonic Suite No. 1 – A Modern Medieval Tale, could not be more different. “Entrance of the King” is expectedly majestic and proud, at times even martial, as is “Strutting Peacocks – Hangers On at Court.” Ever present is the truculent struggle against humanity's universal inner demons. “Rising Discontent” evokes the quiet before a storm, which gets unleashed in a fortissimo tutti in “Peasants Uprising” – the latter intriguingly interspersed by a lone violin as if to remind the listener of the individual being amid a common destiny. “An Uneasy Truce” and “A New Way Forward” both seem to evoke the inner turmoil of grappling with compromise and an uncertain future. The final movement, “The Quest – A Search for Truth,” bears a transformative power reminiscent of that bestowed upon a soul which has found its true purpose. This finale in particular seems to ring true for the composer: while composing music may have been a late vocation for Mark John McEncroe, it is a vocation nonetheless.

This new release features pieces from celebrated contemporary composer Hayes Biggs. 'Pan-Fare,' the album's starting point, is a rare modern classical piece for steel pan and a motley, jazz-inflected ensemble. Fun, energetic, and brimming with rhythmic imagination, it is set against an original percussive backdrop provided by, among others, a vibraslap, a marimba, and a Chinese opera gong. The album's title track, 'When you are reminded by the instruments,' is inspired by a verse in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Like Whitman's poetry, Biggs's composition oscillates between the concrete and the fantastical, while the traditional classical instrumental grouping stands in stark contrast to the decidedly modern soundscape it creates. One of the most personal tracks on the album, 'The Trill Is Gone' is a dedication to Biggs's fellow composer and friend, the late Edwin London. This solo saxophone piece paints a memorable portrait of a character that, not unlike it's dedicatee, is equal parts nonchalant, mischievous and sophisticated. In the intimate 'E. M. am Fl�gel,' melancholic tenderness meets with moments of precipitous furor. Specifically written for Biggs's colleague - and the performer on this recording - Eric Moe, the piece includes quotations of Gregorian chants as well as a fragment from one of the Moe's compositions. Played to perfection, the piece is a true reflection of their friendship. This album holds quite a few surprises, and the Wedding Motet is certainly one of them. This choral work, inspired by Biggs's interest in liturgical texts, is steeped in the album's most obviously tonal musical syntax, harking back to the traditions of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Late Romantic periods. Ochila laEil, the composer's first choral piece set in Hebrew, develops a dialogue between a horn and the choir, mirroring the dynamic between cantor and congregation. With it's varied moods, it manages to distill the power and serenity of an entire oratorio into less than 14 minutes. In short, When You Are Reminded By The Instruments manages to shed light on Biggs's incredibly versatile musical output - light which, indeed, is well deserved.

So many of us wonder about the big picture questions in life. Why are we here? What is the best I can do in my lifetime? Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac, with lyrics by astrologer Benita Rainer, presents a cosmic rumination for meditation upon these great questions. These songs guide you through the labyrinth of the Cosmos, which, as perfectly attested to in "As above, so below," is also the labyrinth of your mind; as what is without has it's genesis in what is within. Let yourself relax down into what are the key feature blueprints of your life's sun sign. The twelve songs in the Cosmic Wheel cycle cover a universal span, from each sign's deepest motivation for love, to each soul's most heartfelt desire for spiritual expression. Journey with Aries, the first primal force of the calendar year, to Taurus' expression of security, and onward to Gemini's mercurial desire for freedom. Experience the depths of Cancer's protection, the instinctual and strident soul creativity of Leo, the amazing Virgo the virgin's cosmic genesis, and Libra's search for harmony. Scorpio will take you to depths you've never experienced, and, with Sagittarius, you will shoot for the stars. Catch Capricorn's goat - if you can - and Aquarius' wide-ranging humanity, before experiencing the final resolution of the human spirit with Pisces, the completion of the cosmic wheel. Perfect for times when purpose is lost and goals are hard to find, these twelve quintessential musical mandalas will bathe you in cosmic anchor points. Find out what are the intrinsic motivators of your loved ones, and allow each track to revive the lost purposes of your own tribe or village. We are all different, and yet we all share these inner truths as expressed in Margaret Brandman's transformative melodies.

Composer Eric Klein immediately engages the listener with the mysteriousness of “Nettles,” a quartet for piano, violin, cello, and clarinet. This track’s rhythmic dexterity hints at Klein’s background as a film/media composer, foreshadowing the complexity of the dark, ethnographic “Myth of Tomorrow,” an exploration of the keyboard percussion instruments and the distinctive aspects of the harp. The first movement of the energetic “Hoboken Suite” transpires when flute and free-bass accordion engage in a battle of sonorities, highlighted by the warm depth of strings and bass clarinet woodwinds. It is a cliffhanger with no resolve, and still none is given even in the haunting opening of Movement II, when the tempo is dramatically cut in half. In the similar realm is the rhapsodic “Dream Fragments” a sonata for piano—each hand, at times, so independent one might wonder if two pianos are in effect. “1899” is a pensive survey of the Americana themes of Klein’s predecessors directed by the reminiscent harmonies of the atmospheric woodwinds and vibraphones that have been catalysts for the album so far. Following is “Parallels,” a “tonal and atonal hybrid,” a play on anxiety and confusion. Perhaps the most unexpected gem of this incredible album is the guitar duet “Four Journeys.” There is a subtle dance with modal mixture, providing exquisite chord progressions and arrival points reminiscent of the sweetest of Renaissance madrigals. When the dust settles, it is with a startling jolt.“Hidden Places” is the icing on the cleverly syncopated cake. Klein’s work is smart and sophisticated, accessible even to the untrained ear, and a cool, clever blend of things both old and new.

Acclaimed piano four-hand duo Dana Muller and Gary Steigerwalt come together once more for In Your Head, a collection featuring the work of six composers that highlights both fresh compositional talents and earlier successful works. Each piece demonstrates the unique synergy between the two performers. With twice the hands, twice the talent, and twice the interpretation, the piano is pushed to dynamic and sonoric extremes. Compositions on In Your Head span over five decades, but each is brought to new life by the skilled hands of Muller and Steigerwalt. The duo, who have performed extensively across the Western Hemisphere, found inspiration for this compilation in the success of Lewis Spratlan's Dreamworlds, a piece which they had commissioned in 2015. Using the piano as a canvas, the two paint a psychological landscape exploring the mind within different people, scenarios, and even locations. Sometimes dissonant and flustered, as in 'Mind Games II. Panic,' and other times eerie as in 'The Silent Hearth' which captures the memories echoing like firing synapses inside a dilapidated concert hall, each piece resonates with the complexity of mental activity. Throughout In Your Head, Steigerwalt and Muller compel listeners to zero in on the thoughts of the panicked soul, the trapped bureaucrat, the obsessed dictator, and the mind control of the lucid dreamer. As you follow along, perhaps you'll ask yourself - whose psyche most resonates with me?

With Exhaling Space, Alejandro Rutty and his cast of remarkable performers create one hour of fresh, captivating music combining Latin and world music styles with the classical tradition. With tracks like the futuristic tango Martian Milonga and the meditative More Music for Examining and Buying Merchandise, Rutty composes the album like a breathing exercise, taking in an anxious pace in one movement, and then in the next, letting the melodies exhale gently through the piece. The North Carolina-based composer is renowned for his original blend of South American styles, astonishing rhythms, and lyrical melodies with powerful evocative intensity. Rutty's compositions explore ambitious philosophical queries ranging from the break-neck swells of excitement to the calm delicacy of wonder. Exhaling Space gracefully navigates experimentation and tradition. Works like Transparent Sun interweave piano and violin beautifully, building tension between the two instruments into an engaging conflict like staging a debate within your mind. The title track also inhabits a classically-infused world, yet the rhythms weave in South American tropes as if they were transported into a fourth dimension. Simply put, Exhaling Space is not merely a background soundtrack to your day. Allow yourself to give in to it's demand for attention; your breath will be taken away.

Composer and Clarinetist Mark G. Simon makes his PARMA debut with his first-ever recorded album, Grecian Urn. All selections were composed by Simon, and he is the clarinetist on every track. "Anniversary Sonata" commemorates the 50th wedding anniversary of the composer's parents. "Angel Music," is a bright, yet sympathetic Broadway-style ballad with running eighth-note phrases marked by sentimental modulations, inspired by the congeniality of the composer's parents, his father's vocation as a minister, and the G.K. Chesterton quote, "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." Concluding the sonata is the progressive "Pleasant Hill," a sweet treasure that could easily be set to words to conclude what is the lounge-style, popular work with innate chamber music tendencies. "Un Buen Piola Porte�o" is a tango/fantasia for clarinet and piano and fabulous in every way - from the transformative qualities of the clarinet's voicing through different octaves to the smooth, indelible, charismatic melody of the tune itself, fleshed out with the glittering harmonies of the piano. In "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Simon and Meir add soprano Linda Larson to their combo. In this setting of four of the five stanzas of the John Keats poem, in which the poet describes his visits to the British Museum, Simon reincarnates Keats' experience noting that "The poem's very existence to the power of art to affect people's lives." "Thou Still Unravished Bride," is reminiscent of an Argento song-delicate and complex, yet unforgiving. "Heard Melodies" is a torrent of surface emotions transpired into a popular folk tune. "Coming to the Sacrifice," is a haunting but spirited dance concluded with an extended instrumental fugue-in homage to J.S. Bach's own Musical Sacrifice (BWV 1097). "O Attic Shape," is an elegy directed to the Grecian Urn itself through which a harrowing soprano outcry lauds the Urn for it's beauty.

Jan J�rvlepp's first Navona release, CONCERTO 2000, presents a tonal concerto, scored for orchestra - one might think Wagner or Mahler when listening. Except that Wagner and Mahler might not quite have agreed with the directness of his tonal language: for J�rvlepp's work unabashedly aspires to appeal on a popular level. J�rvlepp began to play guitar and cello as an adolescent and even studied composition in San Diego - where he didn't quite see eye-to-eye with his instructors. Unimpressed with the dissonance and lack of coherence in Modernist music, the young man turned his back on those teachings the day he left University, and instead began to create music in a style he felt was more fitting: a curious melange of folk elements, neoclassical structure, large instrumental setups, clear melodic lines, accessible harmonies, and pop music rhythms. J�rvlepp has stayed true to this style to this day. The listener who expects a daunting epic in face of an awe-inducing title such as CONCERTO 2000 will therefore be surprised to instead encounter lighthearted, bubbly music able to put a spring in your step. J�rvlepp's deceptively fine brushstroke bears a secret power: that of whisking the listener on a world tour within the span of three symphonic movements. I. Caliente! Would be just as fitting a soundtrack for a film set in Mexico, or perhaps Spain, during a more romantic, heroic age than ours. The calm II. Nocturne is reminiscent of a mysterious urban scene, perhaps in Paris, London or Warsaw; it's the musical equivalent of a walk in nightly fog. The whole concerto concludes with the fittingly-titled III. Fire, Ice and Vodka, a spirited collision of the Champagne Aria, Hungarian-esque folk dances, and the kind of merriment one is likely to find among a group of slightly-intoxicated Russians (but sans the melancholy).

An axiom is a self-evident truth. Everything on this album represents different aspects and shades of truth. On their debut recording, Axiom Quartet probes the soul and delivers a deeply satisfying statement on truth and inner fulfillment. Each track is a whirlwind journey of soul-searching expression. From the bravado of "Insight" into the confounding swirl of "Hindsight," and on to the profoundly elegant "Pur Ti Miro," this recording turns tempo and style on a dime leaving the listener exhilarated. While "Insight" is the exhilarating realization of truth, "Little Lies" bends truth. Axiom Quartet's arrangement of the Fleetwood Mac classic is a refined, yet provocative update that feels surprisingly at home in a chamber setting. An understated dignity adds depth to country-folk standard "Wagon Wheel," with a delicate banjo dancing under the Quartet's strings. In "Everything Means Nothing to Me" an artist painfully expresses the truth in his heart while Billie Holiday begs a lover to not tell her the truth in "Don't Explain." "Axiom" is a work about seeking truth and reason, only to have had the answers present from the beginning. Karl Blench wrote all of the arrangements and original compositions for this album. There are small moments of music, also original compositions of Karl Blench, between each of the longer sections of this album. They blend and blur the ideas of the music that comes before and after them to portray the grayer tones of truth. Known for creating and performing programs that mix traditional string quartet repertoire and transcriptions of works from a variety of genres, Axiom Quartet introduces audiences to extraordinary music from different genres and creates new fans of the classical repertoire.

Spectra 2 unveils the works of six composers, each of whom tells a unique, memorable story. First up is Elizabeth R. Austin's 'B-A-C-HOMAGE,' an intricately constructed tribute to the German Baroque composer. Based on Bach's name and his "Air on G" respectively, the first and second movements reflect upon the clarity of his work through the lens of Austin's decidedly modern tonal language. John Alan Rose's 'Sleepy Hollow Suite' for piano mesmerizes with a timeless appeal that bridges centuries: aesthetically gratifying and inventive all at once, Washington Irving could fittingly have imagined this as a soundtrack for his eponymous story. 'Bells and Grass,' composed by Juliana Hall, brings five poems by Walter de la Mare to life with only a soprano and an oboe. A related theme could be discerned in Ryan Jesperson's 'Icarus,' a riveting duo for alto saxophone and piano. Like the eponymous mythological character, it starts out soaring, but undergoes a considerable transformation, culminating in a spectacular fashion. There is nothing random about Frank Vasi's saxophone quartet 'Random Thoughts': the four-movement work is so refreshingly tonal, as well as rhythmically and harmonically engaging, that it wouldn't be out of place in an upscale jazz venue. The quirky 'Picasso's Rag' sounds exactly how one would imagine it according to the title - only better. Nancy Tucker brings the album to a close with two of her playful, upbeat compositions. 'Escape of the Slinkys' imagines the life of named perennial childhood toy with bewildering depth of imagination. 'Grasshopper's Holiday,' an unapologetically catchy guitar piece, evokes images of road trips and carefree summers with such cheerful drive that one might find it difficult to stop listening to it on repeat. With it's variegated selection, Spectra 2 packs a veritable punch in just about one hour of music - music composed in Connecticut, but with an artistic appeal that easily transcends the borders of the Constitution State.