The Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and conductor Reuben Blundell release "American Discoveries", a continuation of their series of promoting previously unrecorded orchestral repertoire unearthed at the Fleischer Collection in Philadelphia. This collection features music by three composers whose work deserves to be more widely known: Priscilla Alden Beach, Linda Robbins Coleman, and Alexandra Pierce. The Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1946 to provide music for the First Presbyterian Church of Lansdowne. Belgian-born conductor and publisher Henri Elkan led the orchestra from 1955 until his passing in 1980. One of the most distinguished community orchestras in the world, the LSO performs a regular season of five concerts at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center, and other various projects. Led by its sixth Music Director, Reuben Blundell, the orchestra continues its traditions of musical excellence, service to the community, and promotion of area talent.

New York based new music collective counter)induction celebrates its 20th anniversary with an album that features premiere recordings of works written for the group by its member composers, Kyle Bartlett, Douglas Boyce, Jessica Meyer, and Ryan Streber. First recordings of Diego Tedesco's "Scherzo," also written for the ensemble, and Alvin Singleton's rarely heard "Ein Kleines Volksleid," round out this album from an ensemble that has steadfastly held course over two decades, championing compositional craft and aesthetic integrity in their programming and performances. Hailed by The New York Times for its “fiery ensemble virtuosity” and for its “first-rate performances” by The Washington Post, c)i has given critically-acclaimed performances at Miller Theatre, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Trumpeter Andy Kozar (loadbang) releases "A Few Kites," a collection of electro-acoustic works written for him that reflect the diversity in this essential medium. Featuring works by Paula Matthusen, Ken Ueno, Quinn Collins, Scott Worthington, Jeffrey Gavett, Heather Stebbins, Eve Beglarian, and Tyler Harrison, Kozar's versatility and virtuosity is in consistent display across this engaging release. A native of Pittsburgh, Andy Kozar is a New York City based trumpeter, improviser, composer and educator that has been called a 'star soloist' by TimeOutNY, noted for his 'precise trumpeting' by New York Classical Review and has been said to be ‘agile as he navigated leaps and slurs with grace...he shifted between lyricism and aggression deftly’ by the International Trumpet Guild Journal. A strong advocate of contemporary music, he is a founding member of the contemporary music quartet loadbang which has been called ‘inventive’ by the New York Times, ‘cultivated’ by The New Yorker, and ‘a formidable new-music force’ by TimeOutNY.

Composer/vocalist Kate Soper teams up with longtime Wet Ink Ensemble colleague, composer, and electronic musician Sam Pluta in this bracing collection that explores the ever-shifting hierarchy between text-driven and music-dominated vocal work. Soper's characteristically clever approach to setting text is balanced by Pluta's ever inventive and sensitive marshaling of his unique arsenal of electronic textures. Writers set here include Franz Kafka, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, George Berkeley, and Parmenides.

Kate Soper is a composer, performer, and writer. Her work explores the integration of drama and rhetoric into musical structure, the slippery continuums of expressivity, intelligibility and sense, and the wonderfully treacherous landscape of the human voice. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has been a featured performer with ensembles including the LA Philharmonic New Music Group, the MIVOS quartet, and the American Composers Orchestra. As a writer of fiction and non-fiction, she has been published by McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Massachusetts Review, and PAJ. She is a co-director of the Wet Ink Ensemble.

Inspired by Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Calvino's deconstructive analysis of the classic Roman recasting of Greek myths, John Aylward's Celestial Forms and Stories establishes musical analogs to Ovid's way of depicting the world. Featuring musicians from Klangforum Wien in chamber formations, Celestial Forms and Stories encapsulates the transformative nature of myth, constantly being reimagined and reinterpreted over generations and retellings. Aylward writes: “The entire nexus of Greek mythology is in constant need of new analysis and artistic interpretation lest it become stale and unable to reflect the ‘universal contiguity’ Calvino so aptly recognizes. Even Ovid’s stories were not his own, but rather the myths of the day retold under his own artistic renderings. And so perhaps Ovid is one of the first to abide by the old adage that the act of writing is to rewrite the already written. I would like my Celestial Forms and Stories to be received also as an act of rewriting these myths that Ovid immortalized, in my own way, and through my own revelation of transformation.”

“The pieces on this album were prepared and recorded in isolation, when the world changed and the prospect of collaboration became impossible. I chose pieces where I was in dialogue with myself, where I was monologuing dramatically, and where I was delivering advice to anyone who cared to listen.”

Clarinetist Alicia Lee releases "Conversations With Myself", a collection of works for solo clarinet with and without electronics, chronicling a year of artistic activity in isolation. Works by Pierre Boulez, Dai Fujikura, Isang Yun, Unsuk Chin, and Hideaki Aomori make for a program that highlights music by composers of Asian descent and Boulez' iconic work exploring the dichotomy between live performance and pre-recorded material.

David Liptak, longtime composition faculty member of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, releases a compilation of his music for wind ensemble, written for and inspired by the august group at his institution. Featuring soprano Tony Arnold in the four movement Folgore's Months based on 14th century Italian sonnets, Liptak's broad sources of inspiration and sensitivity to lyricism and orchestration pervade this release. David Liptak’s music has been described as “luminous and arresting,” “richly atmospheric,” and having “transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering lightness.”

Liptak's compositions have been performed throughout the United States and abroad by orchestras and chamber music groups including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, EARPLAY, the Ying, Cassatt, and JACK String Quartets, the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the 20th-Century Consort, baritone William Sharp, soprano Tony Arnold, and many other soloists and ensembles. In 1995 Liptak was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize, given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of distinguished achievement in the field of chamber music composition. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, both in 2002, and he is the 2006 recipient of the Lillian Fairchild Award from the University of Rochester.

Composer Eric Nathan's releases the ambitious cycle of works "Missing Words", featuring performances by some of new music's most prolific ensembles: International Contemporary Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, American Brass Quintet, Hub New Music, and Neave Trio, as well as cellist Parry Karp and pianist Christopher Karp. "Missing Words" balances structural impulses befitting the epic scope of the set with Nathan's carefully considered approach to details of orchestration, harmony, and pitch.