Catalog

Saxophonist Jeffrey Siegfried explores new possibilities for his instrument's dynamic and versatile voice on SHADES from Ravello Records. The title work, Shades, composed by Sean Friar, is a dark and capricious piece, pairing bursts of musical complexity with unsettling stillness. The album also includes Candlewood by Gala Flagello and water-witching by Nicholas Cline, and and Homage to C.P. by Joan Arnau Pàmies, all of which were composed specifically for Siegfried.. The works are inspired by the natural and supernatural worlds; Siegfried aims to express the ineffable through saxophone techniques like multiphonics, which require careful control of the embouchure, fingering, and air-pressure. The resulting music is hauntingly beautiful and deeply compelling.

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.

Bruce Mahin's SHADOWS was originally released in 1991, and features adept performances by Elizabeth Curtis, Al Wojtera, Caryl Conger, Adam Mahonske, Mark Lortz, Kujit Rehncy, and David Shunway.

SIDEWALK MUSIC was originally released in 2002 and represents the composer’s quest “to write electronically-made music that communicates any number of different ideas or emotions.” The music on this release is an enticing exploration into the endless possibilities of expression through the manipulation of pre-recorded and electronic sounds.

James Dashow’s double album SONGS FROM A SPIRAL TREE—new from Ravello Records—collects many of Dashow’s vocal works into an abundant two-disk set. The album presents his compositions for voice, with instruments and electronic sounds, setting poems by Theodore Roethke, John Ashbery, John Berryman and Gian Giacomo Menon.

Phillip Schroeder's SONGS OF MY AFFINITIES was originally released in 2003, and was lauded as "gems of the American repertoire" (New Music Connoisseur) and "striking and beautiful" (Sequenza21).

Ravello Records presents SOPRANO SUMMIT from revered saxophonist Paul Cohen. Alongside his work as a performer, Cohen is known for his passionate scholarship, rediscovering long-forgotten saxophone works as well as arranging related music for the instrument. In this, his latest contribution, Cohen presents an album of music for the soprano saxophone in chamber and solo settings.

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.

Violist Shelly Tramposh has led an extensive career as chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher, and her varied experiences allow her to play her instrument with an effortless grace that can only be described as having SPREZZATURA. Tramposh, accompanied by Cullan Bryant—one of the most active collaborative pianists in New York—performs works by Paul Chihara, Paul Siskind, Benjamin Britten and Paul Hindemith with the emotion and intensity of each piece’s inspiration, whether it be the doldrums of illness and celebration of health in Chihara’s Sonata for Viola and Piano or Hindemith’s tumultuous sonata, written after being blacklisted by the Nazi party in Germany. Tramposh and Bryant form a masterful duo, and are able to capture the tone of each piece with virtuosic flourish and clarity.

Joyous and energetic, sad and lyrical, images of light and cascading colors-these varied striking moods can all be used to describe composer Kirk O'Riordan's six chamber works on his premiere Ravello Records release, STRANGE FLOWERS. The six pieces on the album tell a story together, captivating the audience with its accessible but nuanced sound.

Fresh from Ravello Records is the McCormick Percussion Group’s STRINGS & HAMMERS. In this latest offering, the MPG tackles a program of new and politically charged works. They are joined by the violin-bass-piano trio Strings and Hammers. Together, the ensemble of string and percussion players employs rhythm, eccentric timbres, and even their own yelping, whispering voices to express powerfully relevant themes.

SYNCHRONIES, James Dashow's second double album on Ravello Records, offers a selection of the composer's work for traditional instruments with and without electronic sounds. His approach to these two musical resources combines the intimacy and flexibility of beautifully designed chamber music with full scale sonorous constructions: some achieved by finely textured orchestrations of the classical instrumental ensemble, others by the symphonic use of rich electronic timbres that are characteristic of the composer's music. Dashow's unique sound is immediately recognizable, enhanced by his ground-breaking ideas on the spatialization of sound, where the location and movement of musical events in space are now fundamental elements of his compositional practice. The performers in these pieces are true virtuosi of contemporary art music; their artistry and subtle understanding of these works yield deeply expressive interpretations that resonate with both listeners and performers alike.

Amy Briggs brings to life a variety of tangos from different composers on TANGOS FOR PIANO. Proposed by composers from UC Davis, the disc features works from Laurie San Martin, Yu-Hui Chang, Pablo Ortiz, Ross Bauer, Yvar Mikhasoff’s International Tango Collection, Astor Piazzolla, and many more. The different backgrounds and compositional variety of each composer highlight the breadth and possibilities of the tango, which Briggs captures impeccably on the solo piano.

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.

THE FOUR SEASONS was originally released in 2008 and was lauded as “consistently absorbing” and “one of a new kind” (AllMusic). Featuring stellar performances from sixteen performers, THE FOUR SEASONS highlights Pierre Schroeder as a master of jazz-classical fusion.

THE LYRIC CLARINET, the new release on Ravello Records, showcases a collection of works, originally for voice, which are transcribed, arranged, and performed by international performing and recording artist F. Gerard Errante. Errante selected compositions from German, French, and North and South American composers that illustrate the affinity between the clarinet and the human voice.

THE MUSIC OF GUI SOOK LEE is the latest release from Ravello veterans the McCormick Percussion Group, featuring the works of South Korean composer Gui Sook Lee. The McCormick Percussion Group, directed by Robert McCormick, has recorded and released over two dozen CDs since its formation.

With THE PALEST ROSE, a collection of works for solo piano, chamber ensemble, chorus, and orchestra, Oregon-based composer Mark Vigil strives to appeal to the listener's heart, urging them to hear the music based on its beauty alone. This release serves as a retrospective of Vigil's varied works for a variety of configurations, and serves as an astute sampling of his compositional output as a whole.

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.

THE PRELUDES PROJECT is Holly Roadfeldt’s debut album on RAVELLO records, and features a complete recording of Chopin’s Op. 28 preludes for piano and a new set of twenty-six piano preludes written by American composer Kirk O’Riordan. In her performance of these works, Roadfeldt takes claim to one of the most iconic pieces in the solo piano repertoire, and also annoints O’Riordan’s new work as an impressive achievement among Classical music’s greatest sets of piano preludes.