String Paths has just been released on ECM Records. It is a compilation of significant compositions for strings written between 2002-2008 as well as a celebration of Dobrinka Tabakova's professional musical friendships of over 15 years.
Dobrinka Tabakova is also Composer of the Month June on Radio Monalisa.

Singer/violinist/composer Iva Bittová (Czech Repubic, 1958) has said: “The violin is a mirror reflecting my dreams and imagination. I believe there are fundamentals to my performance, such as the music’s vibration and resonance between violin and my voice.”
12 compositions, 42 minutes of idiosyncratic ‘folk’ music, contemporary composition, improvisation, any and all of these may apply from moment to moment.
More info here>>

Best known for her score for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Jocelyn Pook is an award-winning composer who writes music for film, television, theatre, dance and the concert platform.
She won the Jocelyn has won the British Composer Award in the category Stage Works for her soundtrack DESH.
PM001 - More information here>>

Armadillo (1990–2007) is one large-scale piece in four sections lasting approximately an hour. One might think of the image of a Mayan temple, with a large broad base rising pyramid-like to smaller structures at the top. Almost all of the music’s sound is from drums, in a full range from high to very low. The trio’s playing is virtuosic, precise and finely modulated in color and dynamics.
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion
Fredy Studer, drums
Joey Baron, drums
New World Records 80739-2

An Exaltation of Larks
This recording feature three recent chamber works:
- An Exaltation of Larks for String Quartet
- Scenes from the Poet's Dreams for piano quintet
- Light Refracted for clarinet, violin, viola , cello and piano

Jennifer Higdon on An Exaltation of Larks: The first time someone told me that a collection of Larks is called an “Exaltation”, I immediately thought, 'What a sound an exaltation of larks must make!'--How to capture the beauty of the idea of exalting and singing? A string quartet seemed perfect!

The Lark Quartet
Todd Palmer, clarinet
Blair McMillen, piano
Bridge 9379

Met haar tiende CD “Concert in Athens” keert Eleni Karaindrou terug naar de Athens Concert Hall, met een groep muzikale vrienden om zich heen zoals saxofonist Jan Garbarek, altvioliste Kim Kashkashian, hoboïst Vangelis Christopoulos en vele anderen.

Karaindrou komt op 24 januari naar Flagey in Brussel voor het concert van "Het stof der tijden" ("Dust of Time")! Dit is het resultaat van de laatste samenwerking tussen de componiste Eleni Karaindrou en de Griekse cineast Theo Angelopoulos, vóór diens overlijden op 24 januari 2012. Vanaf "Le voyage à Cythère" (De reis naar Kythira) nodigt dit concert-portret ons uit op een zuiver muzikale reis, waarbij beelden van muzikale en cinematografische harmonie door ons geheugen zinderen.

Karaindrou speelt op 24 januari samen met : Musiques Nouvelles l’Ensemble (Orkestrale Bezetting: 23 instrumenten), onder leiding van dirigent Jean-Paul Dessy, en Eleni Karaindrou zelf op piano solo. Tijdens dit concert worden dus voor een deel ook stukken gespeeld die op het nieuwe album van Karaindrou te horen zijn

Trio ÆroDynamic is a trio specializing in the performance of both contemporary and medieval avant-garde music.
Harma Everts, voice
Stephanie Brandt & María Martínez Ayerza, recorders

Their new release is The Garden with Countless Window - Voice and recorders in a different light with music by a.o. Katarzyna Arnhold, Elizabeth Gaskill and Aspasia Nasopoulou.
Lindoro 3012

Tansy Davies (Bristol, 1973) is an English composer of modern classical and avant-garde works. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Holloway College, won the BBC Young Composers' Competition in 1996 and has written works for the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra a.o.
Spine is the title of her new cd - one reaction from the press: It's hard to think of another British composer whose rise through the hierarchy of British music has been so rapid, fuelled by high-profile commissions. As this disc shows, her music is at its most compelling when it creates vivid textures, drawing on rock and pop idioms to give it edge and pungency' The Guardian
Spine - NMC D176

Saros
Dinner is West (2005) cello, piano - Wood, Water & Land (2006) marimba; Tenancy (2011) cello, piano; Dragonfly (2010) clarinet, viola, piano; Dickinson Songs (2006) soprano, guitar; A Collage of Memories (2005) violin, piano; Rhapsody (2009) piano
with:
Beata Moon, compositions and piano
Arash Amini, cello
Cyrus Beroukhim, violin
Patricia Davis, violin
Patrick Durek, guitar
Benjamin Fingland, clarinet
Lisa Flanagan, soprano
Jessica Meyer, viola
Wai-Chi Tang, marimba

www.beatamoon.com

muziek van Bertha Frensel Wegener-Koopman, Alphons Diepenbrock, Bernard Wagenaar, Louis Victor Saar en Anny Mesritz van Velthuysen
uitvoerenden:
Elisabeth von Magnus, sopraan
Jacob Bogaart, piano
Quirine Viersen, cello
NMI CD 1201

Sonates, Preludes, Fugues and Toccatas by Fanny Mendelssohn
performed by Joanne Polk, an exclusive Steinway artist.
Bridge Records - 9367

Kosmogonia - Piano Diaries of a Musical Alchemist
Mappa della Memoria; Three Sonatinas; Genesis and Kosmogonia for piano, vibrating gloves and electronics
Victoria Jordanova, acoustic and amplified piano

Hirundo Maris - Chants du Sud et du Nord
Arianna Savall: voice, Gothic harp, Italian triple harp
Petter Udland Johansen: voice, hardingfele, mandolin
Sveinung Lilleheier: guitar, Dobro, voice
Miquel Àngel Cordero: double-bass, voice
David Mayoral: percussion, voice

Hirundo Maris is Latin for “sea swallow” and, like that bird’s flight, harpist Arianna Savall’s quintet – part early music ensemble, part folk group – drifts on musical currents between Norway and Catalonia, and adds its own songs, created on the wing. Savall and co-leader Petter Udland Johansen have shaped a band with a bright, glistening timbral blend, capped by Arianna’s ice-clear voice, well-equipped to address songs of the north and the south. is Latin for “sea swallow” and, like that bird’s nomadic flight, harpist Arianna Savall’s quintet – part early music ensemble, part folk group – drifts on musical currents between Norway and Catalonia, and adds its own songs, created on the wing. Savall and co-leader Petter Udland Johansen have shaped a band with a bright, glistening timbral blend, capped by Arianna’s ice-clear voice, well-equipped to address songs of the north and the south.

ECM New Series 2227

Songs from the Edge - Music & Lyrics: Hazel Leach
performed by PLoTS
Simin Tander, vocals
Tessa Zoutendijk, violin
Esmée Olthuis, soprano & alto saxophones
Laia Genc, piano
More info here: JHM 208
Website Hazel Leach

Here, The Cliffs is a retrospective CD of Hilary Tann’s orchestral music from 1994-2004.
With the Heater and Small Birds
In the First, Spinning Place
From the Feather to the Mountain
Here, The Cliffs
From Afar
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Kirk Trevor, conductor
František Novotný, violin
Debra Richtmeyer, alto saxophone
More info here>>

Night of Light
Night of Light / Ikon / Full Moon Haiku / Cantus integritatis
Works for soprano and orchestra
with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Vit Micka, conducting
Alena Hellerova, soprano
Lucie Silkenova, soprano
Eliska Weissova, mezzo soprano
Navonna Records 5866

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN - Piano Solo Tonhalle Zürich
Live recording from April 11, 2011with the following works:

1. To Whom It May Concern (Irène Schweizer) 10:48
2. Hüben ohne drüben (Irène Schweizer) 4:40
3. Scratching at the Tonhalle (Irène Schweizer) 4:52
4. Jungle Beat III (Irène Schweizer) 3:05 /
The Train and the River (J. Giuffre) 2:45 (5 : 50)
5. Homage to Don Cherry (Irène Schweizer) 3:59
6. Ida Lupino (Carla Bley) 3:49
7. Four in One (Thelonious Monk) 2:52
8. Bleu Foncé (Irène Schweizer) 4:18
9. Xaba (Dollar Brand) 4:25
10. Final Ending (Irène Schweizer) 5:51

More on Irène Schweizer here>>

Intakt Records 200/2012

Music 4

GG Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra
Music for Roy for mixed choir and chamber orchestra
Breathe for string orchestra
Sinequan Forte B for solo amplified cello with delay and chamber orchestra
with Goska Isphording, Bartosz Koziak, Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Ernst Kovacic
all works published by Music Center the Netherlands
DUX 0823

Laurel Firant’s cd Music for solo piano and violin and piano has just been re-released this week on the Ravello label in MP3 format. For more information click here>>
Radio Monalisa will be broadcastingTrancelation for solo piano on Wednesday, 15 February between 9 & 10 p.m.
Listen live!

The Eleanor Hovda Collection - 4 CD Box featuring four hours of her incomparable work
The 'sound around the sound'. Listening to the margins, where space, breath, and gesture open new territories where music might operate. Extended techniques join a Noh sensibility. Meet Eleanor Hovda's extraordinary, rigorous yet wispy, soundworld. Beloved of choreographers (including Baryshnikov and Nancy Meehan).
Performed by: Prism Players, Eleanor Hovda, Libby Van Cleve, Jack Vees, Relache, William McGlaughlin, Cassatt String Quartet, California EAR Unit, Jan Weller, David Gilbert, Elizabeth Panzer, Lee Humphries, Dan Coody & Jeannine Wagar, among others.
Innova 808 - The Label of the American Composers Forum

for Violoncello and Piano Vol. 4
music by Dirk Schäfer, Gérard Hekking and
Henriëtte Bosmans’ Trios Impressions + Sonata in A minor
Doris Hochscheid, violoncello
Frans van Ruth, piano
AudioMax 903 1703-6

Voices of the Rainforest
Works by Elisenda Fábregas, Libby Larsen, Chen Yi & Kate Waring
Aller-Zeitung review of the trio’s live performance earlier this year: "Enthusiasted audience listens breathlessly - Elisenda Fábregas' Voices of the Rainforest leads the three instrumentalists technically and harmonically together in a way that makes the audience listen breathlessly. The musicians with special sounds and breathing technics as well as knocking and pizzicato effects converted brilliantly the awakening birdcalls in the morning, the filtering light through the trees, the buzzing of the insects, the final breakdown of raindrops and the voices of the night into very lively pictures".
PH110390 - Hänssler Edition
The Meininger Trio

The Land That is Not - A fine combination of folk music en contemporary jazz!
Sinikka Langeland: vocal, kantele, compositions
Arve Henriksen: trumpet
Trygve Seim: tenor and soprano saxophones
Anders Jormin: double-bass
Markku Ounaskari: drum

ECM 2210

KADENZA
Seven Words for classical accordion, violoncello and strings
In Croce - for classical accordion and violoncello
Kadenza - for classical accordion
Et exspecto - sonata for classical accordion in 5 movements
Basque National Orchestra under José Ramón Encinar
Iñaki Alberdi, accordeon
Asier Polo, cello
ETCETERA - KTC 1433

Premiere Recordings of the Violin Concertos, Volume 2
Joanna Kurkowicz, violin
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lukasz Borowicz
Following a serious accident, Bacewicz concentrated on composition. Much of her music is written for violin, with seven violin concertos and five sonatas for violin and piano.
On this new release, Violin Concertos Nrs. 2, 4, and 5.
Chandos 10673

Eclipse - Orchestral works by Mirjam Tally (Sweden, 1976)
featuring: Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra,Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eric Ericson’s Chamber Choir and soloists Mari Targo (violin), Monika Mattiesen (flutes), Jaan Varts (electric guitar)

Sound is central in Mirjam Tally’s creations. Her music is a flow of playful contrasts where a sense of humor and poetic use of sound are blended.
Eclipse - CD MT0001
www.mirjamtally.com

Light and Shadow - Modern Orchestral Works is a new release including:
Tracing a Dream by Rain Worthington
Finding the Murray River and Sleep, Child by Rebecca Oswald
Boundaries and Interiors by Adrienne Albert

with a.o. Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra
and conductors Ovidiu Marinescu, Vit Micka and Marshall Haddock
Navona Records Records
NV5847

VOICE/THE TRIO PROJECT
Hiromi, piano keyboards
Anthony Jackson, contrabass guitar
Simon Philips, drums
Telarc CD 32819
More about Hiromi here>>

Songs of Ascension
This major new work features Monk’s compositions, visual elements developed in collaboration with renowned artist Ann Hamilton
live music performed by Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, string quartet and chorus.
Check out the video preview here>>
ECM New Series 2154

Double CD with The Six Piano Sonatas by Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté (1899-1974)
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Canadian Music Centre CMCCD 16611

Transatlantic Tales
This recording is a symbol of cross-ocean friendship between composer Faye-Ellen Silverman and guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann and includes two pieces commissioned by Zimmermann and his Corona Guitar Kwartet. All the works feature guitar and range from works for solo guitar, guitar quartet and works for voice with guitar.
TROY 1250 (Albany Records)

In 2008 Manhattan Stories was released, a cd which, according to composer Faye-Ellen Silverman ”comes from the life-long love affair with the borough of my birth — Manhattan — in the city of New York. Here many of my friends live, and here the compositions on this CD originate. Each piece tells its own story.”
Performers: Lisa Albrecht, trombone; Mary Barto, flute and alto flute; Andrew Bove, tuba; Kari Jane Docter, cello; Bruno Eicher, violin; Ann Ellsworth, horn; Jeanne Corinne Goffi-Fynn, soprano; David Jolley, horn; Michael Lipsey, marimba; Jo Williamson, mezzo-soprano.
TROY 1055 (Albany Records)
This month tracks from these two cds will be broadcasted by Radio Monalisa.

Les Ales del Vent (De vleugels van de wind)
Poesies de Màrius Torres / Música de Maria Rosa Ribas
14 liederen op gedichten van Marius Torres voor zangstem en begeleiding van verschillende instrumenten.
Columna Música 1CM0244
Op 30 mei wordt het werk Sweet Angel of Death, voor sopraan en strijkkwartet uitgezonden via Radio Monalisa

Premiere recording of she comes to shore
Lee Piu Ming has been hailed as the most 'unique genius to touch a keyboard in Canada since Glenn Gould’.
This album reveals the artistry of someone who has clear influences from classical music, jazz and sonic exploration.
All solos on this album are improvised
The Bay-Atlantic Symphony
Lee Piu Ming, piano
Innova 796

American Weavings - music for viola and organ
Carol Rodland, viola
Catherine Rodland, organ
Two of the compositions featured on this new cd are viola solos by Augusta Read Thomas
These works, Incantation and Pulsar, will be broadcasted on Monday, March 28th on Radio Monalisa.
Crystal Records 839
www.crystalrecords.com

Elena Kats-Chernin:
Wild Swans Concert Suite
Piano Concerto No. 2
Mythic
with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Ola Rudner, conductor
ABC Classics CD 476 7639

Jennifer Higdon (New York, 1962) has become a major figure in contemporary classical music and makes her living from commissions, completing between 5-10 pieces a year. These works represent a range of genres, from orchestral to chamber and from choral and vocal to wind ensemble. Recently released on cd is The Singing Rooms, a violin concerto with an equally important part for chorus and was sparked by a request from violinist Jennifer Koh.

World Premier Recording of The Singing Rooms by Jennifer Higdon
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Robert Spano
Jennifer Koh, violin
Telarc - 32630

Konstantia Gourzi (1962, Greece), is een belangrijke pionier van hedendaagse muziek. Ze is oprichtster van verschillende nieuwe ensembles en ze is professor aan de Hochschüle fur Musik und Theater in München.
Op haar nieuwste cd Conjuctions - Synápsies 7 werken waarin zij een brug slaat tussen tradionele muziek en de hedendaags manier van uitdrukken.
De uitvoerende zijn: Apollon Musagète Quartett, Vassilis Agrokostas (psalmist) , Michalis Cholevas (tarhu, saz, ney), Christian Elsässer (piano) and Konstantia Gourzi (conductor)
NEOS 11035

Chaya Czernowin (Israel, 1957) - MAIM (water) 2002-2006
This cycle includes the following works for 5 soloists, live electronics & orchestra: Maim zarim maim Gnuvim (strange water stolen water), The memory of water & Mei mecha’a (water of dissent)
Recorded live at the Konzerthaus Berlin in March 2007 during the MaerzMusic Festival of Contemporary Music by the Berliner Festspiele
MODE 219

Haar echte naam was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, haar bijnaam was: de Inca Prinses. Yma Sumac begon haar carrière als zangeres bij de Compañia Peruana de Arte, een groep van 46 dansers, zangers en musici. De groep toerde door Zuid-Amerika. In 1946 verhuisde Yma Sumac naar New York.
Zij produceerde een aantal legendarische lounge-opnames van Zuid-Amerikaanse volksliederen, gerelateerd aan de Inca-cultuur. In 1950 begon haar succesvolle samenwerking met Capitol Records, er werden albums uitgebracht in verschillende stijlen, zoals mambo dance, Peruaanse folksongs, alles in een aantrekkelijke jazzy Hollywood stijl met begeleiding van geweldige orkesten.
De combinatie van haar unieke stem, haar exotische uiterlijk en haar extravagante persoonlijkheid maakte Yma Sumac razend populair bij het Amerikaanse publiek. Ze kreeg filmrollen en werd in 1955 Amerikaans staatsburger. In 1960 begon Yma Sumac aan een wereldtournee die 5 jaar zou duren. Prins Bernard en Koningin Wilhelmina waren enorme fans van Yma Sumac. Tot aan het eind van haar leven trok Yma Sumac volle zalen.
Yma Sumac - Karibe Taki - TL 1351

Het Nederlands Muziek Instituut (NMI) organiseert samen met de Vrienden Nederlandse Muziek een seminar rond de Nederlandse componiste Anna Cramer (1874-1968).
Er zijn lezingen over het leven en werk van deze componiste die een aanzienlijk oeuvre heeft geschreven dat van bijzondere kwaliteit is. Het NMI heeft enkele jaren geleden al een eerste bundel met liederen van Cramer uitgegeven. En de aanleiding voor de vervolguitgave van nog eens twee liedbundels ontstond nadat dirigent Stephan Pas een concertserie initieerde met een nieuwe orkestratie van enkele liederen van Cramer, en de CD-opname die daaruit voortvloeide.

Datum: zaterdag 20 november 2010
Tijd: 13:00 tot 16:30 uur
In de aula van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag
aanmelden via: info@nederlandsmuziekinstituut.nl of 070-3140721

Lees meer over Anna Cramer hier>>

'Resonant Light'  van Arlette Ruelens
Uitgave: Les Productions d'OZ 
composities van Annette Kruisbrink
Raga Suite; Carnatic Interlude; Tendresse; Una Palabra de Consuelo-Variations on Opou Episkiasi I Haris Sou; Ahimsa; Preludio a un Momento di Silenzio
Luisterfragment
Bestel hier>>