Genre: Chamber

Composer Debra Kaye's debut Ravello Records release, AND SO IT BEGINS, catapults the listener into her deep universe of sound - an expedition down one New York City street and up another, through the warp and weft of interior landscapes, to Taos Mountain, on a journey through a dream, a dying, a love - as she blends her classical roots with traces of jazz, pop, world music, the pulse of city rhythms, and the expansiveness of spacious landscapes.

This album features works by composer Michael Sidney Timpson that combine three different "spheres of influence:" European avant-garde, American jazz and pop, and various Asian musical traditions. These spheres "collide" with inventive friction, often fuse to "reinvent" convention, and merge to "fertilize" the mind with inspirational seeds for further hybrid creativity.

On his Ravello Records release BALANCING ACTS, composer and sound designer Russell Pinkston showcases a selection of his compositions for acoustic instruments and electronic sounds. Most of these pieces combine the two, capitalizing on the absolute precision and unlimited sonic potential of electronic media, while still taking advantage of the spontaneity and expressivity of live performance. Several works feature interactive software written by the composer, which tracks a live performer and generates an electronic accompaniment in real time.

Composer Joseph Koykkar, described by American Record Guide as writing “music with a crystalline kind of clarity and rhythmic urgency that places him among the more exciting of contemporary composers,” presents his debut full-length release on Ravello Records DOUBLE TAKES AND TRIPLE PLAYS. Featuring works spanning a 20-year period in the composer’s career, this album exemplifies Koykkar’s practical approach to writing, dictated by the bounds and the interplay within chamber ensemble combinations, occasionally using computer-generated sounds.

The trumpet is a robust instrument which has been widely employed in several genres of music, from the jazz and free form music of Miles Davis, to the world and electroacoustic music of Jon Hassell. Trumpeter James Zingara continues to expand the performance repertoire of the trumpet with TEXTURES, his debut release on Ravello Records. Hinged on the 21st-century art music style of composition, the works in this collection, all written after 2002, strengthen the trumpet’s diversity and adaptability in settings with computer-generated sounds, syncopated rhythms, blues forms, and atonal harmonic structures.

Delivering a diverse cross-section of dynamically rhythmic and tonally expressive chamber works, composer John K. Leupold II presents his debut release on Ravello Records, EXASPERATING PERPETUATION. Described by the Washington Post as “an imaginative exploration of instrumental timbres,” Leupold’s music seeks to enhance the tonal possibilities of the instruments through the use of tension, personification, and imagery.

Works For Electronics & Piano Sidney Bailin composer "I write what is inside me," says Sidney Bailin. "To me, revealing the psyche’s vulnerable parts is the essence of serious art. With each piece I write, I am trying to tell my secrets." On his first Ravello release, 16-2-60-N-5: WORKS [...]

On their latest Ravello Records release THE POSTCARD SESSIONS, the Harrington/Loewen Duo offers a sampling of evocative, colorful works for saxophone that have become perennial favorites of both performers and audiences. The album is emblematic of the saxophone’s European ancestry, as well as the saxophonists’ commonplace imperative to arrange works for their instrument.

Leslie Odom’s debut solo Ravello Records album, SCENE RUSTIQUE, introduces rarely-performed solo works for oboe by five female composers of the twentieth century. The pieces range from light, vernacular-inspired dance pieces to neo-classical and neo-romantic works. The selections showcase the many abilities of the oboe from lush, lyrical melodies full of romance and interpretation, to more playful technical passages filled with syncopation and chromaticism.

Pittsburgh-based composer Philip Thompson presents SEPARATE SELF, his debut release on Ravello Records. Thompson writes that the release is “a reflection of the creative energy that comes from being deeply rooted in a vibrant artistic community.” True to this communal spirit, several of the pieces were composed in collaboration with artists from different disciplines – from robotics and dance with Separate Self to visual art with Nocturnes to film with the score to Will Zavala’s documentary Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public.

Pianist Sang-Hie Lee performs original works written for two pianos, by internationally recognized composers Gerald Chenoweth, Eun-Hye Park, Lewis Nielson, Daniel Perlongo, and Paul Reller, in ARS NOSTRA: BUT NOW THE NIGHT. Along with collaborating pianist Martha Thomas, the pieces showcase the instrument as a “super piano”, unveiling textures and new combinations of sounds not accessible with a soloist.

Composer and guitarist André M. Santos showcases his chamber works on his debut Ravello Records release SOUNDS OF A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE. Santos wrote each of the pieces featured on the album for fellow musicians and friends, resulting in a kaleidoscope of diverse personalities and styles. To this end, the sounds in his pieces indeed inhabit a different universe—his colorful chamber works bring together unexpected and intriguing combinations of instruments and timbres.

Composer Scott Brickman demonstrates the diversity of his inspirations and musical interests on his third full album on Ravello Records, NINETY-SIX STRINGS AND TWO WHISTLES. Drawing on a sea of influences, from Baroque dance suites, to the compositional methods of Arnold Schoenberg, to punk rock, the mixture of popular and historic references broadly typifies post-modern American music composition.

Chilean-American composer Miguel Chuaqui presents beautifully crafted works for small chamber and solo instruments on his Ravello Records release CONFABULARIO. The American Academy of Arts and Letters says of Chuaqui “His music shows qualities attributable to his Latin-American roots; although he is not a ‘genre’ composer. He is a clearly integrated personality, which exhibits a unique and convincing sensibility.”

Ravello Records presents ANIMATED SOUNDS, a multimedia release from composer Gheorghe Costinescu. The album showcases works by Costinescu from a varied and illustrious career spanning more than half a century. The first half of the release is purely musical, with pieces such as the virtuosic Sonata for the Piano and Essay in Sound, performed by pianist Stephen Gosling, and the expressive Voices Within, performed by violinist Vesselin Gellev.

First released in 2002 on Capstone Records, Phillip Schroeder’s TURNING TO THE CENTER is a subdued, atmospheric tour de force of songs written primarily for an ensemble of baritone voice, clarinet, and keyboards. Featuring texts by Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Rumi, the three song cycles on this release offer atmospheric and varied writing for the expected baritone, clarinet, and keyboards with occasional forays into the unexpected sound worlds of synthesizer and added percussion.

Exciting new Ravello Records release I DREAM AWAKE consists of chamber music composed by new PARMA composer Bill Whitley. Whitley’s music is characterized by meditative and trance-like qualities inspired by various forms of meditation practice, and, above all, the artistic installations of Alexander Calder. Indeed, Whitley’s music seems to be primarily concerned with depicting and embodying experiences, whether they be sensory, natural, spiritual, or human experiences.

Composer Steve Rouse constructs unique and indelible sound worlds on his album MORPHIC RESONANCE, his first release with PARMA Recordings. The album is a revue of Rouse’s chamber music from the last two decades and beyond, and the works featured on MORPHIC RESONANCE demonstrate Rouse’s powerful gifts to create compelling and idiosyncratic musical statements.

Juxtaposing the loud and abrasive with the soft and subtle, the McCormick Percussion Group balances tumult and tender in KID STUFF. Led by director Robert McCormick, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the percussion orchestra re-imagines original compositions from five key contemporary classical composers.

Orlando Cela demonstrates his ingenious ability to navigate complexities of postmodernism in chamber music and the avant garde with this rich recording of flute and piccolo treasures for the curious ear. Operating with a creative vision inspired by Frederic Chopin that “simplicity is the final achievement,” Cela invites the listener on a journey of experimental music beginning with Besingrand’s “Le soupir du roseau dans les bras du vent” in which the flutist explores the unexpected possibilities for creating sound with his instrument. Cela furthers the investigation with “Winter Variations,” by Lou Bunk (“featuring John Cage”), investigating, too, the possible extremes in lower dynamics.