The Kansas City Symphony under the direction of Michael Stern joined by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and the Sphinx Organization’s vocal ensemble EXIGENCE (Dr. Eugene Rogers, director) present a landmark recording—the first commercial release devoted exclusively to the music of Joel Thompson.  The career of composer Joel Thompson has risen rapidly since the premiere of his breakthrough choral …

As a finalist of NBC’s The Voice in 2020, countertenor John Holiday’s fan base extends well beyond the world of classical music. His highly anticipated debut solo album reflects both the breadth of his artistry and the clarity of his artistic voice. Praised as one of the finest countertenors of his generation, Holiday brings together a thoughtfully curated program spanning …

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its music director Jader Bignamini present Carl Orff’s monumental scenic cantata Carmina Burana for soloists, chorus and children’s chorus, and orchestra. Recorded live in concert, DSO is joined by the vocal ensemble Audivi and the Detroit Opera Youth Chorus. Orff tasks the baritone with the majority of the solos — an athletic, high-lying, and lusty …

Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command, and interpretative depth, Canellakis has become one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. As Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Canellakis and the orchestra are joined by the Netherlands Radio Choir with soloists tenor Dmytro Popov, soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, and bass Alexander Vinogradov, for an all-Rachmaninoff program. …

On their eleventh album for Hyperion, The Gesualdo Six explore a more secular repertoire, drawing on music they have performed live since their formation in 2015. The program spans Renaissance works celebrating nature and love, alongside contemporary settings of texts by Christina Rossetti and Kathleen Jamie. Themes of childhood and innocence run throughout, interwoven with imaginative reworkings of traditional British …

Coinciding with the conclusion of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary season and the final performances with Ken-David Masur as music director, MSO Classics presents a live recording of Brahms’s German Requiem. The highly acclaimed performance conducted by Masur was recorded in spring of 2025 at the Bradley Symphony Center featuring the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus under the direction of Cheryl Frazes …

Leading the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan present a program exploring the concept of The American Dream. “I grew up in awe of America, but now my feelings are mainly nostalgic. With this repertoire, I want to express my admiration for the incredible creativity and tenacity of composers who shaped a musical language that was truly their …

The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford led by Mark Williams (Music Director and organist) present 13 premiere recordings of works by Nico Muhly written expressly for — and the majority commissioned by — the Choir. Comprising settings of the mass and canticles alongside anthems for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascensiontide, Trinity Sunday, and Remembrance, the collection sets a number of …

Mel Bonis (1858-1937) was a great musical talent and a sensitive soul, the child of a socially aspiring family who forbid their daughter to marry the love of her life. Forced into a utilitarian marriage with a respectable husband, she later had an affair with her first sweetheart after all — the stuff of a sentimental novel. Yet she was …

In 1558, two years after the last Carolingian emperor Charles V had stepped down from power, he realized his death was near and decided to have a rehearsal for his own funeral. This scene provides the starting point for Simon-Pierre Bestion’s imaginative assemblage of chants and hymns demonstrating Arabic influence in Spain, Requiem mass movements, and much more with his …

The latest release from tenor Nicholas Phan features his regular collaborator, the outstanding pianist Myra Huang, and The Jasper Quartet in world premiere recordings of works by Vivian Fung and Patrick Castillo alongside songs by Schubert, Ives, and Vaughan Williams. Timed to coincide with World Earth Day, the program explores humanity’s interaction with nature. Franz Schubert’s songs evoke images of …

The years 2023-2028 mark 200 years since the final five years of the life of Franz Schubert, leading up to the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death in Vienna on November 19, 2028. Paying homage to this important event, baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz created SCHUBERT 200: a multi-genre international project aimed at a new, young generation of …

Marking Earth Day, Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis releases her new album Terra Infirma featuring the titular work by Reena Esmail – a concerto for harp and percussion both performed by Kondonassis with the Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra conducted by Andrew Grams. Terra Infirma was directly informed by Esmail’s experience living in Los Angeles during the catastrophic fires of …

Cellist Seth Parker Woods, Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago, presents a new album exploring identity, intimacy, and human connection with music by André Previn, George Walker, Tania León, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The album’s title is drawn from Toni Morrison’s poetry – setting the tone for a program that elevates the everyday into something resonant and revelatory. “I’m still on …

Decca Classics presents a recital by soprano Lise Davidsen and pianist James Baillieu recorded at the Metropolitan Opera in September 2023. Their program reflects the full spectrum of Davidsen’s range, moving effortlessly between opera, song and musical theatre. Davidsen demonstrates her mastery of the music of Richard Strauss with four songs: “Allerseelen,” “Befreit,” “Zueignung,” and “Morgen.” Opera highlights include  “Dich, …

The all-women a capella ensemble Lyyra (the only one of its kind based in the United States) presents their debut album with a genre-defying program that showcases the multifaceted beauty of upper voices. Created by VOCES 8, Lyyra’s members are Anna Crumley, MaryRuth Miller, Elizabeth Tait, Ingrid Johnson, Aryssa Leigh Burrs and Cecille Elliott, representing a wide range of specialisms …

Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion have emerged as superlative interpreters of Bach. They continue their exploration of the composer’s major works with this new recording of the St. John Passion. With their exemplary articulation and dynamic flexibility, the Pygmalion chorus is at the center of this striking drama. Raphaël Pichon’s precise direction restores the Passion’s original dramatic arc, instilling …

Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars present world premiere recordings of works written for them by Nico Muhly. Phillips says that Muhly “immediately understood our particular sound and a succession of masterpieces followed, each as powerful as the last.” The title work is a setting of Jeremiah’s Lamentations, interspersed with contemporary interviews with people from the Windrush generation of Caribbean …

The Grammy-winning Los Angeles-based chorus Tonality presents the world-premiere recording of Running From, Running To, an eight-part suite reflecting on the life and death of Ahmaud Arbery, the young Black man whose killing on February 23, 2020 while jogging sparked a national outcry. Composed by Founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake, Running From, Running To is scored for chorus, soloists, …

The first album in The King’s Singers’ Head Space series, aims to connect choral music with calmness and reflection. Inspired by compline, the Catholic night service, it features plainchant, including “In manus tuas Domine” and “Salva nos Domine vigilantes,” emphasizing breath-led pacing. The album also includes four of Orlando Gibbons’s wordless song settings (two of which include an additional voice …

For two decades now, Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 have been dedicating concerts and numerous recordings to the work of Jan Dismas Zelenka, the long-underrated composer from their homeland. To mark their 20th anniversary, Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 present another work from Zelenka‘s extensive sacred vocal oeuvre: the solemn Missa Circumcisionis, for the feast of the Circumcision …

The Amsterdam Sinfonietta under the direction of violinist Candida Thompson and the Netherlands Chamber Choir led by Martina Batič present an innovative program of Baltic and English works recorded live in concert. The program is bookended by two performances of Arvo Pärt’s meditative work Spiegel im Spiegel, the first with cellist Tim Posner, and the original version for violin (Candida …

Emily — No Prisoner Be is a 24-part song cycle by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Written for Grammy Award-winning artists Joyce DiDonato and genre-defying ensemble Time for Three. Emily is a powerful meeting of voices across centuries—each one distinct, yet in perfect harmony. With music which feels at once familiar and new, brimming …

Jordi Savall presents the world premiere recording of a new performing edition of Mozart’s unfinished “Great” Mass in C minor, K. 427, restored and completed with historical rigor and musical sensitivity. Basing their score on Mozart’s own compositions and sketches, Savall and his fellow conductor/musicologist colleague Luca Gugliemi have fashioned a new version that The Times says “goes some way …

Tenor Zachary Wilder is the descendant of a large family of Jewish immigrants, musicians who fled their small Lithuanian shtetl of Panevezys to escape the persecution of the brutal pogroms in the late 19th Century. Emigrating to America, the Steinfelds settled and flourished in their new home of Brooklyn. In Brooklyn Suite, Wilder reimagines his great, great uncles’ home gatherings …