Reiko Füting’s features chamber works performed by members of NYC’s most celebrated contemporary ensembles, including the Int’l Contemporary Ensemble, Either/Or Ensemble, and the Mivos String Quartet. This collection of works illustrates Füting’s interest in the philosophical and artistic conception of memory, as well as the significant role past works of literature, music, and art play in shaping his compositional forms and musical material. Interspersed between the album’s longer works are vocal settings of haikus from Reiner Bonack. In addition to composing, Reiko Füting (b. 1970) is an avid performer who has appeared in Europe, Asia, and the US. Since 2000, Füting has been teaching composition and theory at Manhattan School of Music, where he serves as the chair of theory department.

“American Romantics II” is the second volume in a project initiated by conductor Reuben Blundell after he discovered several scores for string orchestra through the Fleischer Collection. These scores were all written by American composers during the last decades of the 19th century, both native born and recently immigrated. "American Romantics" presents the premiere recordings of these pieces, some of which draw on Americana melodies while others reflect the prevailing Central European compositional style of the day. Blundell’s recent release, “American Romantics, Volume I,” with the Gowanus Arts Ensemble, received glowing reviews, including Gramophone Magazine, and American Record Guide: “I was completely mesmerized by this lovely recording, one of the best I’ve heard in some time.” The album continues to be played regularly on WQXR and other stations across the US. He is a voting member of The Recording Academy (responsible for the GRAMMY Awards).

Michael Hersch releases "I hope we get a chance to visit soon", a follow up companion piece to his critically acclaimed monodrama, "On the Threshold of Winter." Scored for two sopranos (Ah Young Hong and Kiera Duffy) and ensemble, the work revisits a common theme for Hersch, cancer - in this case, the music embodies the struggle and grief over the loss of a close friend of his. His work described by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music... claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity," composer Michael Hersch is widely regarded as among today's most gifted artists. "so sincere in his darkness, and so sophisticated in his expressivity, that he can make the morbid magical" (New York Magazine)

... through which the past shines... is a collection of the current complete works for guitar, both solo and in ensemble, by composers Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting. The music is emblematic of both composers' sophisticated voices, grounded in the tradition while forward looking in nuanced and elegantly integrated ways. Vigeland, whose mentors included Morton Feldman and Lukas Foss and who directed the influential Bowery Ensemble in the 1980s, is an important link in the "New York School" of composers. As director of the composition department at the Manhattan School of Music for several decades, he had a profound influence on several generations of composers, including current MSM faculty member and East German native Reiko Fueting. All the performances on this recording of music by Vigeland and Fueting by guitarist Daniel Lippel (ICE, Flexible Music), John Popham (Longleash, Either/Or), and Vigeland himself are the byproduct of close working relationships developed over the last 17 years.

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.

Piano four hands ensemble DUO Stephanie and Saar (Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia) continue their series of recordings that challenge listeners to hear iconic works in new guises. Catalyzed by Beethoven's own arrangement of the famous Grosse Fuge op. 133, the duo presents Hugo Ulrich and Robert Wittman's stately transcription of the op. 130 string quartet to which the iconic fugue originally belonged, alongside Schubert's brooding F minor Fantasie, D. 940. Pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia collaborate as DUO Stephanie & Saar in dazzling performances filled with visceral excitement, elegance and artistic vision. The duo are founders and artistic directors of Makrokosmos Project, a critically acclaimed Oregon-based new music festival featuring dynamic American composers of our time. In its sixth year, the festival is entirely driven by community support. Some of the featured composers include Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe, John Luther Adams, Karen Tanaka, Michael Johanson and Alexander Schwarzkopf, among many others.

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.

Du Yun, hailed as a “significant voice” by the Financial Times as a composer of concert music, releases her first album on New Focus. Raised in Shanghai, China, Yun blends Chinese and English lyrics freely on the album. Recorded and produced in New York, Shanghai, and Montreal, Shark in You features Yun as a vocalist, composer, producer, and lyricist in 12 far ranging tracks, from dance electronica to Kurt Weill-inspired neo-cabaret. A founding member of the influential International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Du Yun has also received commissions from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and the Whitney Museum of Art. “This CD is a wild ride, well worth jumping aboard.” –Audiophile Audition

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.

The JACK Quartet performs two works by Turkish born experimental composer Cenk Ergün on this EP release. Ergun's immersion in the worlds of electronic music and improvisation shape material that is intense in character, whether it is exploring vigorous or static textures. Hailed by The New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet”, the JACK Quartet is one of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing today. JACK has maintained an unwavering commitment to their mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. Over the past season, they have been selected as Musical America’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year”, named to WQXR’s “19 for 19 Artists to Watch”, and awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Curtis K. Hughes' "Tulpa" is a collection of his rhythmically incisive music heard in solo, duo, and ensemble settings, and culminating in the title work for ten players and guest soprano. The Boston based Hughes writes from a deep collaborative connection with his performers, crafting pieces that balance harmonic adventure with stylistic diversity, and political subtext with sardonic humor. The music of Curtis K. Hughes (b. 1974) is characterized by its rhythmic restlessness, its harmonic adventurousness and its often volatile mix of diverse stylistic elements and political subtexts. It has been described as "fiery" in the New York Times, "well crafted" in the Phoenix, and "colorfully scored" in the Boston Globe. A professor of composition at the Boston Conservatory since 2008, Curtis was a student of composers Lee Hyla and Evan Ziporyn, and is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, and of the New England Conservatory (NEC), which honored him in 2010 with its Outstanding Alumni Award.

Pianist Richard Valitutto releases "Noctures and Lullabies", a collection of works organized around themes of transitional states between light, dark, consciousness, and unconsciousness. Featuring premiere recordings of music by Nicholas Deyoe, Rebecca Saunders, Philip Cashian, Marc Sabat, Maura Capuzzo, and Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Valitutto's poignant performances and poetic curation make this a unique and compelling release, containing works that explore a new virtuosity engaged with the delicate management of the piano's resonant properties.

Composer Scott Wollschleger releases his second album with New Focus, "Dark Days", chronicling solo piano repertoire written between 2007 and 2020 and featuring his longtime close collaborator, pianist Karl Larson. Aspects of style that are heard on his first album "Soft Aberration" are present again, but now filtered through the introspective immediacy of the solo piano medium, as we hear coloristic harmonies, a penchant for using displaced rhythms and repetition to subvert phrasing expectations, and an intuitively driven approach to form and structure.

A 2021 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Choral Performance!

Philadelphia based contemporary vocal ensemble The Crossing, under the direction of Donald Nally, releases "Rising w/ The Crossing," an uplifting offering that serves as an offering of hope amidst a pandemic as well as a journey through the ensemble's projects over the last several years. Including music by Joby Talbot, Eriks Ešenvalds, Dieterich Buxtehude, Paul Fowler, Alex Berko, Ted Hearne, Santa Ratniece, and David Lang's hauntingly topical "protect yourself from infection," which sets texts from a 1918 U.S. government document, with the names of Philadelphians who fell victim to the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Described as “evocative” and “kaleidoscopic” (NY Times), composer Scott Wollschleger’s music is at times deconstructive, disembodied, and dystopic, but always infused with awe and wonder. Wollschleger probes timbre, instrumental relationships, and aesthetic implications to find transcendent moments in unique textures in this remarkable recording featuring performances by soprano Corrine Byrne, trumpeter Andy Kozar, violist Anne Lanzilotti, cellist John Popham, pianist Karl Larsen, Mivos Quartet, and Longleash trio. Scott Wollschleger is a Brooklyn-based composer of solo, chamber, and dramatic music. His distinct musical language explores themes of art in dystopia, the conceptualization of silence, synesthesia, and creative repetition in form. Wollschleger’s concert works have been performed across the United States and the world, including the International Music Institute at Darnstadt, the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, the Bang on a Can Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the MATA Festival Interval Series. His music is published by Project Schott New York.

Composer, trumpeter, arranger and bandleader Ben Bierman releases a collection of his music, Beyond Romance, that is a deeply personal statement and an amalgam of his wide breadth of musical experience. His song cycle Beyond Romance reflects influences from jazz, Broadway, cabaret and art song, and sets poignant lyrics about midlife relationships by Earl Shuman, performed elegantly by Broadway and jazz notables Hilary Gardner, Matthew Scott, and pianist Jeb Patton. Bierman's instrumental version of his Six Songs rounds out the disc, tying together his rich background accrued through years as a New York freelancer.

Composer Hannah Lash writes music that is informed in equal measure by historical precedents, such as the Baroque inspired "Suite: Remembered and Imagined," as it is by a modernist examination of instrumental phenomenon, such as the dual meaning of the word "Pulse" as it pertains to bow changes as well as beatings in closely spaced sonorities. A virtuoso harpist in her own right, she joins the acclaimed JACK Quartet for "Filigree in Texture," a work integrating aspects of Middle Ages tapestry with early contrapuntal practice. Hailed by The New York Times as the "nation's most important quartet", the JACK Quartet is one of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing today. JACK has maintained an unwavering commitment to their mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. Over the past season, they have been selected as Musical America's 2018 "Ensemble of the Year", named to WQXR's "19 for 19 Artists to Watch", and awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Austro-Italian violinist Olivia de Prato has been an active performer in New York City's contemporary music community since moving there in 2005 As a member of critically acclaimed ensembles, the Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Signal, and Victoire, de Prato has been involved in commissioning, premiering, and recording countless new compositions, with a range of figures spanning the diverse landscape of new music. Streya is a document of some of that work, with a program of six beguiling pieces by figures from Manhattan School of Music faculty member Reiko Futing to avant-garde improviser extraordinaire Ned Rothenberg to Mannes School of Music faculty and composer/songwriter/bandleader Missy Mazzoli. The works and performances herein display de Prato's versatility as well as the flexible reach of programming in today's New York concert community. Samson Young's 'Ageha. Tokyo' deftly merges extended violin timbres with electronics and places the listener in a futuristic tech landscape. Lowrie's 'Streya' contains some of the most conventional violin music on the album. Ned Rothernberg leans on his background as a free jazz clarinetist to generate a through composed piece that retains a sense of spontaneity. The remaining works utilize multi-tracking possibilities, sampled keyboards, delay and distortion, and quality writing. This is all violin for a new age.

Pianist Omri Shimron releases a virtuosic and personal account of Rzewski's iconic hour-long solo work, The People United Shall Never Be Defeated! + Shimron draws from his own family history to construct a unique cadenza based on Zionist songs and draw a parallel between the Chilean-Marxist origins of Rzewski's chosen theme and other solidarity movements across the globe. + Based in Greensboro, NC, Mr. Shimron is an associate professor at Elon University in Elon, NC.

Oboist Jacqueline Leclair releases a collection of premiere works for English horn that covers a wide range of stylistic territory and explores the rich, penetrating voice of this beguiling instrument. Featuring music by Meera Gudipati, Hannah Kendall, Faye-Ellen Silverman, Jenni Brandon, Karola Oberm�ller, Lisa Bielawa, and Cecilia Arditto, Leclair's virtuosity, flexibility, and lyricism abound in these major contributions to the English horn repertoire. Oboist Jacqueline Leclair is Associate Professor of Oboe at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. She is a member of Ensemble Signal, and can frequently be heard performing solo and chamber music concerts internationally. She was a member of Alarm Will Sound for eight years until resigning in 2011. Dr. Leclair was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music (NYC) and was Assistant Professor of Oboe at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) from 2007 to 2012. During her last two years at BGSU she also served as the Director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.

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.

Violinist Movses Pogossian has assembled this illuminating collection of contemporary music from Armenia, "Modulation Necklace," revealing a vibrant repertoire whose aesthetics are as outward looking as they are grounded in their reverence of a centuries old culture. In his liner notes, Pogossian acknowledges the long shadow that the Soviet Union cast on Armenian composers during it's reign - this recording celebrates this generation's liberation from those constraints. The composer Tigran Mansurian played a pivotal role in connecting the threads of this Armenian new music tradition, both by literally introducing Pogossian to musicians involved in the project, but also in his courage and leadership to explore Western and later older Armenian sources for inspiration during the Soviet era. The performers heard here are drawn from Pogossian's Dilijan Chamber Music Series, the Lark Musical Society, as well as the flagship group of UCLA's Armenian Music Program, the VEM Ensemble.

In a historic first, critically acclaimed Guitarist Daniel Lippel brings these three beloved masterworks in their original keys to a classical guitar refretted in Baroque well temperament. They were written at & for the keyboard, where each key has its own unique Affekt. What a joy it is to finally hear them in all of their original key-colored glory. Composer/critic Kyle Gann has said, “Playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in today's equal temperament is like exhibiting Rembrandt paintings with wax paper taped over them.” The same may well be said of Bach played on the modern equal tempered guitar. "Aufs Lautenwerk" is a co-release with John Schneider's Los Angeles based MicroFest Records and available in digital format through their catalogue.

REVIEW:

In his notes prefacing the recording, guitarist Daniel Lippel acknowledges the validity of many different approaches to Bach performance practice, and assures his listeners that his own approach, while certainly distinctive, is in no way meant to make a definitive argument–“after all,” he continues, “I am playing an instrument that didn’t exist when the music was written.”

The instrument in question is a guitar invented and built by German luthier Walter Vogt; its fingerboard (as you can see in the CD cover photo) consists of movable (sliding) frets, allowing each note to be adjusted to a very specific tuning, in this case a temperament devised during Bach’s time by one of the composer’s students, Johann Kirnberger. Unlike today’s system of equal temperament, Kirnberger’s “well-tempered” structure (this one known as Kirnberger III) adjusts certain intervals to allow all keys to be played “in tune” while celebrating each key’s distinctive “color”–thus, E-flat major will have a quality different from A major.

If you happened to first listen to this recording unaware of the above details, you may, as I did, notice something special about the sound of this guitar, about the character of the chords and melodic lines–a full-bodied, pleasing resonance, and an especially vibrant quality overall. Of course, much of this could just be due to the nature of the instrument itself, and to Daniel Lippel’s clear, even execution and particularly well-managed fingering technique. But no doubt the unique resonating properties of strings differently tuned to conform to key-specific relationships also is a significant factor–anyone who’s spent time tuning and re-tuning and playing various keyboard and/or plucked-string instruments will confirm this. Even singers in a cappella ensembles are very aware of these key differences.

I’m not sure how many guitarists would devote the effort to mastering the technique required to play on a fingerboard virtually remade and fraught with dozens of slight but potentially disorienting alterations, but Lippel has done it, and the whole experience for the listener is pure delight. Lippel treats these three Bach works–usually heard these days on guitar, but originally either for lute-harpsichord or lute or some other keyboard instrument–with a style that keeps melodic lines flowing yet allows some breathing room for expressive phrasing.

The difficulties of playing these works on the lute–or guitar–are notorious, but unless you’re a serious student of this repertoire, all you will notice here is how easy and natural Lippel makes everything sound. And speaking of sound, it couldn’t be better in its detail and in the way we are situated relative to the instrument–just the right distance to fully appreciate the marvelous tone, and to enjoy the satisfying few moments of a richly-resonant chord as it dies away.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Vernier)

Violinist David Bowlin releases a program of works for solo violin, with and without electronics, alongside select chamber works. Featuring works by close colleagues Du Yun, Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin as well as music by luminaries Mario Davidovsky, George Walker, and Martin Bresnick, Bird as Prophet is a poignant snapshot of a performer who at once embodies the virtuoso tradition and brings those prodigious talents to the music of our time. Violinist David Bowlin has won critical acclaim for his performances of a wide range of repertoire from The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and many others. First-prize winner of the 2003 Washington International Competition, Bowlin has performed with such leading artists as Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Robert McDonald, and members of the Juilliard, Emerson, and Brentano string quartets. His solo performances include premieres of violin concerti written for him at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and in recent seasons he has performed concerti at Miller Theatre in New York, the Aspen Music Festival, and with the La Jolla Symphony. On air he has performed in broadcasts for WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, Vermont Public Radio, and nationwide on NPR’s Performance Today.

Chicago based ensemble Fonema Consort releases this beguiling collection of music by the Ecuadorian composer Juan Campoverde. This collection of works highlights his innovative compositional approaches to music for voice and guitar in both solo and ensemble settings, featuring soprano Nina Dante and guitarist Samuel Rowe alongside their fellow Fonema members. Consort: a group of instrumentalists and singers performing together. Fonema: the smallest unit of speech, which distinguishes words according to their sonic quality. These concepts define the essence of Fonema Consort as they commission, perform, and record new music that explores the possibilities of the human voice in an avantgarde chamber setting. Known for their “enthusiastic embrace of daring new music” (Chicago Reader) Fonema is driven by a fascination with pieces that foster rich interplay of voices and instruments and that are characterized by deep expressivity. The ensemble is highly committed to presenting works by Latin American composers to US audiences and encouraging musical exchange between these regions. Fonema Consort was founded in 2011 by singer Nina Dante and composers Pablo Santiago Chin and Edward Hamel. Since its founding, the ensemble has premiered over 50 works, and traveled widely across the US and increasingly in Latin America.