Composer Edward Smaldone releases "Once and Again," a collection of chamber music including song cycles and instrumental works that encapsulate his openness to diverse sources of inspiration. Featuring performances by sopranos Tony Arnold and Susan Narucki, alongside prominent contemporary chamber musicians, Smaldone's aesthetic balances "classical" values of motivic and formal cohesion and development with "modernist" values of capturing an improvisatory sensibility, asymmetry, and irregularity. Dr. Edward Smaldone (b. 1956) is Professor of Music and Associate Director at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, City University of New York. He was the Director of the School of Music from 2002 – 2016. His composition teachers include George Perle, Ralph Shapey, Henry Weinberg and Hugo Weisgall. Smaldone is the recipient of awards such as the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as grants and awards from ASCAP, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo Corporation, the Charles Ives Center for the Arts, the Percussive Arts Society and the American Music Center. In 2016 he was named “Composer of the Year” by the Classical Recording Foundation at a ceremony at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in 2017 he was named a “Distinguished Alumnus” of the CUNY Graduate Center.

Pianist Ning Yu (Yarn/Wire, counter)induction) releases "Of Being," a compilation of three pathbreaking works by composers Wang Lu, Misato Mochizuki, and Emily Praetorius. Combining traditional virtuosity with a mastery over contemporary keyboard performance practice and extended technique, Ning Yu is an ambassador for significant piano repertoire that exists at the forefront of current aesthetic trends. Praised for her "taut and impassioned performance" by the New York Times, pianist Ning Yu performs with vigor and dedication for traditional and avant-garde repertoire of the 20th and 21st century on stages across the United States, Europe and Asia. Ning brings virtuosity and adventurous spirit to a wide range of music, both in solo performances and in collaborations with some of today's most distinguished creative artists. Ning has worked closely with esteemed composers including Steve Reich, Terry Riley, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Enno Poppe, and given dozens of premieres worldwide. In theater, Ning performed with Mabou Mines' Dollhouse - a critically acclaimed production directed by Lee Breuer. She can be seen in the production's feature-film version, produced by ARTE France. Ning has also collaborated with director Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project on the development of the Tony award-nominated play, 33 Variation.

Boston based Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, bass clarinet; Matt Sharrock, percussion) releases their newest recording documenting their extensive work commissioning new works for their instrumentation. On "Right now, in a second," the duo presents premiere recordings of music by Barbara White, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Emily Koh, Clifton Ingram, Crystal Pascucci, Stefanie Lubkowski, and Keith Kirchoff. Transient Canvas is on a mission to revolutionize the modern concert experience. Since 2011, their innovative performances have been praised as “superb” by the Boston Globe and “disarming” by Cleveland Classical, with the San Francisco Chronicle lauding “the versatile imagination they both display and inspire in others.” Bass clarinetist Amy Advocat and marimbist Matt Sharrock relish the creative potential of working with living composers, having amassed a varied repertoire of over 80 commissioned works in addition to working with hundreds of student composers from all over the world. They have released two albums on New Focus Recordings: Wired, “a must-add to any new music lover’s library” according to I Care If You Listen, and Sift, which KLANG New Music called “one of the more refreshing things I’ve heard in recent years.”

Grammy-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion releases their newest recording of two landmark works by acclaimed French composer Philippe Manoury. Manoury's work is aligned with the modernist French tradition as articulated by Pierre boulez; his music is imbued with values shared with the world of research and marked by ambitious instrumental challenges. His works has been particularly informed by his expertise in electro-acoustic composition and real-time interaction between acoustic instruments and computer generated sounds. In these two remarkable acoustic works, Le Livre des Claviers and Metal, Manoury explores the rich world of tuned keyboard percussion instruments, a category he broadens to include low pitched Thai gongs and a fascinating set of six homemade instruments called sixxen, originally imagined by pioneer Iannis Xenakis. Xenakis specified some sonic parameters for sixxen, but gave no specific instrument designs. Notably, pitch is not a fixed parameter in the design specifications for sixxen, so it is up to the performers to build instruments that create an engaging pitch landscape. The sixxen works, therefore, are shaped by Manoury's compelling rhythmic writing and elegant sense of contour, and a listener might be tempted to muse on ways the piece would sound different, or the same, with another set of sixxen. While Xenakis' use of these instruments was somewhat brutal, in Manoury's hands, they also display a ritualistic, etheral side, sounding occasionally like clanging church bells from the worship house of an exotic theology. Two movements for thai gongs and marimbas, a marimba duo, and a vibraphone solo represent the rest of Le Livre des Claviers, containing precise, demanding music that nevertheless avoids the kind of dramatic resistance often associated with writing of this complexity. The dynamic between the rigors of the mallet percussion movements of Le Levre des Claviers and the sixxen movements amounts to a kind of refraction of Manoury's vision through a distorting lens, particularly as it pertains to pitch. Present throughout all of these movements and in Metal is a natural, unencumbered flow underlying Manoury's phrases, even in the most virtuosic passages. This is, of course, a testament to Third Coast's well documented expertise, but also suggests that an affect of detached effortlessness may be shared with or influenced by his work in the realm of computer music. Perhap sit is consistent with Manoury's role as a researcher - a detached observer nevertheless infused with a sense of wonder.

Composer Anthony Gatto releases his radio opera setting of Gertrude Stein's "The Making of Americans," a reworking of his original opera premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2008. Fusing aspects of minimalism, experimentalism, and a keen instinct for setting Stein's quixotic prose, Gatto has created a unique presentation for a work whose fundamental and poignantly relevant question is uttered early in the opening scene, "What is a normal American?" Born in Brooklyn, New York, Anthony Gatto has developed a diverse body of music, often informed by literary and visual arts, exploring alternative narrative modes and structures. His cross-media works include the music and libretto for Wise Blood, after the novel Flannery O'Connor. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Wise Blood (2015) presents the shattered war veteran Hazel Motes preaching the Church Without Christ from the hood of his car. Also commissioned by the Walker Art Center, his opera The Making of Americans (2008), based on the novel by Gertrude Stein, presents Stein's spectacular, universalist language celebrating generations of American families. "Soon now there will be a history of every one whoever was or is or will be living." and "Every one whoever was or is or will be living sometime will be clearly realized by someone."

Ambitious wind quintet Splinter Reeds presents a bracing program of new works written for the group by composers Sky Macklay, Matthew Schlomowitz, Caro Haxo, Eric Wubbels, Theresa Wong, and Yannis Kyriakides. All of the works display an envelope pushing impulse that stretches the boundaries of this traditional instrumental format, carving out new repertoire and provoking new aesthetic perspectives. This project was funded in part through grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the Amphion Foundation. Splinter Reeds is a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of InterMusic SF, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to small-ensemble music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In his insightful liner notes for Robert Honstein’s ‘An Economy of Means,’ pianist Timo Andres writes, “isolation can also be an end in itself, sparseness an aesthetic impetus.” From the opening flourishes of the title work for vibraphone, played here with bravura by Doug Perkins, we hear compositional patience and restraint. Honstein limits his materials with discipline, finding “hidden pathos in clean, well-lighted places,” another elegant turn of phrase from Andres’ essay. The most subtle of changes become the source of that pathos- an extra repetition in a running passage, a sideways turn harmonically for a brief moment, or the addition of vibrating material to the face of the vibraphone to create subtle, wave-like sounds as we hear midway in both the first and second movements. Grand Tour also explores the solo journey of a multi-movement piece, and does so with a similarly pare approach, despite its occasional virtuosic outbursts. The work is a travel log of sorts, an internal dialogue with the city of Venice, a city that certainly comes with its share of historical, and music-historical associations.

Pianist Jacob Greenberg connects two post-Wagnerian compositional lineages that are usually seen as divergent on this beautiful curated release -- Debussy's intuitively driven harmonic world and the Second Viennese School's rigorously systematic approach to pitch. He asserts that the unifying element lies in the sensuality of this music and his solo performances of music by Debussy, Berg, and Webern, along with a deeply moving performance Schoenberg's hidden gem of a song cycle "The Book of Hanging Gardens" with soprano Tony Arnold testify to his sensitivity to the textural richness that connects these aesthetic schools, despite their philosophical differences. Pianist Jacob Greenberg’s work as a soloist and chamber musician has earned worldwide acclaim. He is a longtime member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, with whom he has performed throughout the Americas and Europe. Hailed by the New York Ties as “a bold, powerful interpreter,” soprano Tony Arnold is internationally acclaimed as a leading proponent of contemporary music in concert and recording, having premiered hundreds of works by established and emerging composers. As the soprano of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she is a catalyst for dozens of groundbreaking projects.

John Glover's opera "Lucy" follows through a fascinating and thought-provoking story of a chimpanzee raised by a human family in Oklahoma in the 1960's as part of research into both human and primate behavior and psychology. Glober's poignant and emotionally sensitive piece explores not just the ups and downs of Lucy's childhood and relationships to her "parents" Maurice and Jane Temerlin, but also forces us to engage with questions of nature vs. nurture, what it means to be human, and the boundaries of the formatio nof human connection. Glover and librettist Kelley Rourke were initially inspired by hearing Lucy's story on the popular public radio program, Radiolab. They draw the material for the songs from Maurice Temerlin's memoir about the experience, Lucy: Growing up Human. Glover's effervescent style is perfect for the recounting of Lucy's everyday activities as they are transformed into profound observations on behavior, as well as capturing Maurice's dual role as father and documentarian of this unique experiment. The prevalence of familiar scenarios between children and parents as they are growing up is striking - in a particular powerful passage, Maurice relates his impulse to punish Lucy by striking her. Lucy, who has learned ASL (American Sign Language) by this time in her development, uses it to communicate with Maurice and eludes her punishment just as a human child might, with a cute appeal to her anry father. Lucy's Vocabulary, age 9.5 defly "sets" Lucy's words, with Wilkowske signing as the violin plays fragile harmonics over a sparse and innocent toy piano and cello accompaniment. By choosing a small ensemble configuration, Glover keeps our focus on the incremental, domestic discoveries of child rearing and avoids distracting bomast. Andrew Wilkowske delivers a heartfelt performance, capturing the nuance of Maurice's relationship to his daughter, and Redshift Ensemble provides colorful, expressive support. The release concludes with an interview with Robert Ingersol, a primatologist who knew Lucy and was featured in the documentary, Project Nim. Lucy is a story that may leave us with more questions than answers, about distinctions between humans and animals, our assumptions about child rearing, and our emotional attachments but Glover and Rourke's sensitive presentation is firm in its assertion that the questions that are raised have profound implications for our understanding of ourselves.

Detroit based Akropolis Reed Quintet releases "Ghost Light", a collection of works written for them that are in dialogue with various "ghosts" — histories that are manifest in personal, collective, and even organic contexts. Featuring music by Stacy Garrop, Michael Gilbertson, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Jeff Scott, and Theo Chandler, Akropolis' precise and dynamic performances are matched by their curatorial creativity and commitment. Celebrating over a decade of music making, the Akropolis Reed Quintet, with their “infallible musicality and huge vitality” (Fanfare), has sparked a revolution in wind chamber music. An untamed band of 5 reed players and entrepreneurs, the members of Akropolis are united by a shared passion: to make new music that connects and reflects real people.

Composer Tomás Gueglio releases "Duermevela," a collection of solo and ensemble works that reflect his interest in microtonality, extended technique, and blending musical lineages and styles. Metaphors central to his recent work are private languages, the slippery logic of dreams, and states of disorientation and intoxication. Tomás I. Gueglio Saccone is an Argentine composer currently based in Chicago. His music has been described as ‘touchingly harmonic’ (Chicago Classical Review) and of ‘an exquisite weight’ (Peter Margasak - Best of Bandcamp). In his creative work, Tomás strives to devise unique and surreal sound worlds through purposefully blending a variety of musical lineages and styles. His music has been performed across the Americas and Europe by renowned ensembles and soloists like Ensemble Dal Niente, eighth blackbird, MEI, Pacifica and Spektral string quartets, Nuntempe, Latitude 49, Marco Fusi and Ben Melsky.

Violin duo String Noise (Pauline Kim Harris and Conrad Harris) team up with composer Eric Lyon, Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, and the International Contemporary Ensemble for this wide ranging release of Lyon's Giga Concerto and his re-imagined versions of four of Brahms' op. 105 songs for violin duo and drumset. Lyon's exuberant Giga Concerto revels in quotation, stylistic diversity and orchestral color, and the Brahms' songs provide a thought provoking counterpart and a springboard for creative synergy between three versatile musicians. String Noise is a classical, avant-punk violin duo comprised of violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris. Since its inception in 2011 at Ostrava New Music Days, they have expanded the two violin repertoire in over 50 new works to include larger collaborations with multimedia art, electronics, video projections, opera and dance.

Composer Anthony Gatto's releases "Wise Blood," his operatic setting of Flannery O'Connor's iconic novel about a crisis of faith, patriotism, and painful transformation. The pace and syntax of southern preaching colors much of Gatto's text setting, while at other times his approach suggests the pace and tenor of radio drama. Choosing a wind and brass heavy orchestration, Gatto's sound world for "Wise Blood" draws on Coplandesque Americana elements, experimental musical theatre, and post-modernism, frequently relying on a grotesque distortion of conventional elements from these styles to express the power of doubt to erode one's sense of security in bedrock principles.

Composer/guitarist Brendon Randall-Myers, in collaboration with electric guitar quartet Dither, releases "dynamics of vanishing bodies," a 37-minute piece deploying a full gamut of techniques. Several alternate tunings, retuned during the work, a battery of effects and looping devices, and feedback all figure prominently in this powerful and deeply personal work. Brendon Randall-Myers is a Brooklyn-based composer and guitarist with an affinity for complex, cathartic, endurance-based music at various intersections of rock, experimental, theater, and classical. Described as “fiercely aggressive but endlessly compelling” (The San Francisco Chronicle), "intricate and dynamic" (I Care If You Listen), "massive in its impact" (Sarasota Herald-Tribune), and “an exhilarating blast of energy” (Chicago Classical Review), his music aims to induce trance/flow states via repetition and amplification, inspired by experiences on 20-mile runs and performing in punk and metal bands. Brendon has written for classical musicians - pianists (Miki Sawada), string quartets (Friction Quartet), chamber ensembles (Exceptet), and orchestras (Chicago Symphony, Omaha Symphony) - as well for cross-genre/experimental groups like Bang on a Can, Dither, and Bearthoven. His work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, New York State Council for the Arts, the Guitar Foundation of America, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and ASCAP.

The City of Tomorrow releases Blow, a collection of three works for wind quintet, anchored by the premiere of a multi-movement work written for them by Hannah Lash. Guided by their virtuosity and commitment to polished interpretation, the album is an exploration of finely crafted compositions that take advantage of the rich colors of the instrumentation in all of its permutations. Wind quintet The City of Tomorrow features adventurous and experimental music in their programming, bringing instrumental virtuosity and an openness to extra-musical components to their performances. The centerpiece on Blow is an ambitious, newly commissioned work for the ensemble by Hannah Lash, bookended by riveting pieces by Franco Donatoni and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Running through the repertoire is a thread of the collective and the individual, as each piece highlights soloists in the ensemble along with a chorus of ensemble textures. The album highlights the ensemble’s unified interpretative vision and powerful performing style.