The American Revolution is a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series that explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence. In production for more than nine years, the November release of the documentary on PBS is scheduled to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the start of the war, which began in the spring of 1775, more than …

Acclaimed Swedish clarinetist and conductor, Martin Fröst presents his new album dedicated to the music of J.S. Bach. Although Bach never encountered the clarinet, this has proved no barrier for Martin Fröst, who has returned to Bach’s music time and time again throughout his illustrious career. Fröst had already devised and performed programs entitled Beyond All Clarinet History (B.A.C.H.), which …

Based in Auckland, the Jade String Quartet has maintained a strong presence in New Zealand’s chamber music scene, committed to commissioning, performing, and recording music by New Zealand composers, alongside masterworks from the string quartet repertoire. Their new album features three string quartets by Anthony Ritchie, for whom the string quartet is a preferred form to express his personal thoughts. …

Black Moon Trio’s sophomore album is an immersive journey into the heart of the natural world, where the trio is joined by author/scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, a decorated professor and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Together, they explore the relationships between humans and the environment in a program that weaves together music and spoken word. The album features …

Ensemble Galilei is a small ensemble specializing in a wide range of music for their particular instrumentation, and includes Isaac Alderson (uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, tenor saxophone), Jesse Langen (guitar), Kathryn Montoya (recorders, whistle, shawm), Jackie Moran (banjo, bodhrán, egg shaker), and founder Carolyn Surrick (viola da gamba). They celebrate their 35th anniversary with a double-album recorded over the …

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brilliant” and “superb,” SAKURA Cello Quintet (Stella Cho, Michael Kaufman, Yoshika Masuda, Zachary Mowitz, and Peter Myers) explores great music of the past through dazzling arrangements on familiar works, and continually expands the five-cello repertoire through commissioning new works. The group’s name, SAKURA, is a tribute to their mentor, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, whose …

Cellist Susanna Mendlow presents her debut solo album that offers a unique musical tour of select styles, guiding the listener through a blend of original arrangements, works infused with traditional folk idioms, and contemporary premieres. It features music by Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Noam Faingold, Julia Adolphe, Astor Piazzolla, and Felix Mendelssohn — much of it never-before recorded for cello and piano. …

Countertenor Reginald Mobley’s Grammy-nominated (and Opus Klassik award-winning) album Because explored the roots of American music blending jazz, soul, blues, and classical genres. Collaborating with Chicago-based lutenist/guitarist Brandon Acker and double-bass and gamba player Doug Balliet, Mobley’s new album features English lute song by Purcell, Dowland, and Eccles, alongside song arrangements by Virginia-born guitar virtuoso, abolitionist, and composer Justin Holland …

Accordionist Théo Ould became, at the age of 24, the first accordionist to be shortlisted as a “Newly Discovered Talent” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards. Le Monde raved: “Served by a masterly technique (an unbelievably supple left hand and an inexhaustible wealth of phrasing), Théo Ould’s interpretations show a personality expressing itself naturally in terms of the …

New York City-based period instrument ensemble Sonnambula’s debut album on Avie Records traverses music by several Renaissance composers who were forced to conceal their identities for social, religious, or ethnic reasons. Yet their music transcended the disorder surrounding them, flourishing in the intersection of beliefs and styles. The program features works by William Byrd and Richard Dering, two Catholics composing …

Ember – a trio comprising harpist Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi, and cellist Christine Lamprea – releases its debut album celebrating both historical and contemporary women composers while addressing the cultural significance of the contributions of women in classical music. The program showcases three compelling works: French harpist and composer Henriette Renié’s groundbreaking Trio in B-flat Major (1901), the first …

Rising American violinist Karisa Chiu — Cedille Records’ 2021 Emerging Artist Competition Finalist — and renowned Chinese pianist Zhu Wang unite for Chiu’s debut album, HOME. Influenced by her Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, and Korean and Chinese family roots, the recording reflects the various interpretations of “home” in the 25-year-old violinist’s life. “This album is not only a story of …

In their newest release, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and Jupiter, the ensemble led by lutenist Thomas Dunford, present a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell. Repertoire includes Dowland’s Lachrimae and vocal works from his First and Second Book of Ayres, as well as selections from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen. Baritone Huw …

The Telegraph Quartet presents the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series with a new album examining the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably …

Led by gambist/conductor Robin Pharo, the French period instrument Ensemble Près de votre oreille (Close to your ear) makes its debut on the Harmonia Mundi label with a program of sacred vocal work and viol consorts with harp by William Lawes. The brilliant heir to William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, Lawes wrote contrapuntal 5- and 6-part works of immense complexity …

Reuniting all seven of the Kanneh-Mason siblings – Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu – the family’s second joint album features new arrangements of classical works and folk songs, with the centerpiece being Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, a beloved family favorite the siblings grew up listening to together. River of Music shares how the Kanneh-Masons’ love of music has …

Violinist Joshua Brown is an alumnus of the Music Institute of Chicago, recipient of a 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and 2nd Prize-winner and Audience Award-winner of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He presents his debut solo album of violin sonatas by Robert Schumann with pianist Paolo Giacometti. “The struggle that Schumann so openly expresses through his music …

In the latest installment of their series devoted to British 18th-century music, the musicians of period-instrument ensemble La Rêveuse take us to London 1760. Handel had just died and George III acceded to the throne. During his reign with his queen Charlotte, both discerning musicians, musical life in the British capital was to enjoy an exceptional revival. Virtuosos and composers …

The Dover Quartet presents Antonín Dvořák’s “American” quartet paired with music by Pura Fé Crescioni and Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate. “While the three works contrast each other substantially in style, expression, and historical context, they all share the common influence of music native to North America. Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and Pura Fé Crescioni both find inspiration from the traditional music of …

The fourth album in Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax’s Beethoven for Three series features Shai Wosner’s arrangement of the Symphony No. 1, as well as the “Ghost” (Op. 70, No. 1) and “Gassenhauer” (Op. 11) piano trios. In this series, the three beloved artists perform the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, giving audiences …

Composer, pianist and singer Helene Liebmann was a contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, born into one of the wealthiest and oldest Jewish banking families in Berlin and a distant relative of the Mendelssohns. She was an artistic personality who achieved a certain renown in her time and was highly respected as a serious artist. Her name was mentioned in music …

Chicago-based Duo FAE (violinist Charlene Kluegel and pianist Katherine Petersen) pay tribute to three pioneering women composers whose work and lives defied the social confines of their time. Featuring Cécile Chaminade’s Trois Morceaux, and sonatas by Dame Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach, these chamber works for violin and piano stand as acts of bold artistic and political expression. Anchored in …

This album comprises three works by three composers of three different nationalities performed by Finland’s Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra led by artistic director Malin Broman (who is also an accomplished violinist). The Sea Sketches by Welsh composer Grace Williams opens the program, inspired by the beaches of Glamorganshire and by its seascape. Grażyna Bacewicz’s Fourth String Quartet is played here in …

Mandolinist Avi Avital explores the music of Italy, Iberia, and the Black Sea interweaving folk and Western classical musics from the past and present. Avital is joined by his ensemble Between Worlds and renowned musical ambassadors (Flamenco singer Marina Heredia from Spain, singer Alessia Tondo from southern Italy, and the Georgian choir Ensemble Rustavi) to bring centuries-old traditions and compositions …

The debut solo album of French cellist Juliette Herlin — noted for having given the first performances since 1919 of a lost cello sonata by Camille Saint-Saëns — pairs her with Canadian pianist Kevin Ahfat. This repertoire features original works for cello and piano (Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Debussy’s Cello Sonata, etc.) as well as song transcriptions, exploring the subtle connections between …