In his second album for Warner Classics, cellist, vocalist, and composer Abel Selaocoe celebrates his South African heritage with traditional Bantu music played alongside cello-centric “Western Classical” baroque or baroque-inspired works. Much of the album features Selaocoe original compositions or arrangements on which he sings and plays both percussion and cello with a full band that includes string ensemble (the …

This album of world-premiere recordings is inspired by opera but without singing. As conductor Timothy Redmond says, it is “a distillation of the theatrical experience heard through the voice of the orchestra.” The repertoire includes Jonathan Dove’s Stargazer, subtitled “an opera for trombone and orchestra,” featuring virtuoso trombonist Peter Moore. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Thomas Adès’s opera …

Anthony de Mare’s landmark commissioning project, Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, reaches Volume II with a roll call of contemporary composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, film, indie, pop and musical theatre, including Jon Batiste, Stephen Hough, Meredith Monk, Max Richter, Conrad Tao, and de Mare himself. Sondheim, the ever-eloquent wordsmith, proclaimed he was “thrilled” with the music …

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony. The work is a triumphant ode to the power of the blues and the scope of America’s musical heritage. With a blend of influences from ragtime to habanera, the seven-movement work takes listeners on a sonic journey through America’s revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and a …

This new release features world premiere recordings of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s complete song cycle Songs in Flight. Drawing inspiration from 18th and 19th century print advertisements for the recapture of runaway enslaved individuals, Songs in Flight explores their untold stories with texts by poets Tsitsi Jaji, Crystal Simone Smith, and Tyehimba Jess. The work incorporates styles including spirituals, folk tunes, …

The theme for the latest album from the prolific virtuoso pianist-composer and polymath Sir Stephen Hough is nostalgia. This album centers the premiere recording of his first piano concerto, recorded by the composer with The Hallé under Sir Mark Elder. Its subtitle “The world of yesterday” deliberately places the work in a broader context of the pianist-virtuosi of yesteryear who …

Canadian pianist, composer, and recording artist Stewart Goodyear forges new territory with his new album, combining works by Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn with two of his own compositions, joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andrew Constantine. Goodyear’s original works are heard in their world premiere recordings and explore two very distinct thematic threads. Goodyear …

Pianist Roberto Prosseda, a champion of contemporary music, with the London Philharmonic conducted by Nir Kabaretti, present piano concertos from four Italian composers, two of which are premiere recordings. Written between 1900 and 2015, the works by Guido Alberto Fano, Luigi Dallapiccola, Silvio Omizzolo, and Cristian Carrara provide an overview of the piano concerto in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Italy. All …

Italian violinist Davide Alogna, a champion of Italian twentieth century repertoire, is the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra for a program of new works for violin and orchestra. Each work on the program is tonal, often cinematic, and around 5 minutes in duration, serving as an accessible introduction to the composer. The collection showcases eleven composers, several who are …

Featuring works by composers spanning multiple generations—from the late Gloria Coates to emerging talents Tom Metcalf and Joel Järventausta—the Kreutzer Quartet’s latest album highlights the quartet’s unique role as both interpreters and collaborators. Three of the featured compositions emerged during the global pandemic, reflecting resilience through artistic partnership. With themes ranging from water to profound social responses, the album showcases …

Singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright scored his epic Dream Requiem for orchestra, chorus, soprano and narrator. In June 2024, it received its world premiere in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the chorus and children’s choir of Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck with Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska. Dream Requiem combines words …

Recent guests in the WFMT studios, Cantus presents a collection of songs that what it means to connect in the modern world on their fourth release on Signum Classics. The program reflects upon the tension between technology and human longing for genuine in-person interaction. Citing the documentary Social Dilemma as an inspiration, ensemble bass Chris Foss says “the digital revolution …

Celebrated for his scores for film and television, Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel is also known for writing concertos for unusual instruments. Nickel’s newest release features his Concerto for Piccolo, dedicated to and premiered by Sarah Jackson, principal piccolo player of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The piccolo concerto is paired with the Concerto for four Wagner Tubas, the hybrid tuba-French …

Alexey Shor is an American composer who was born and raised in Ukraine. His seven-movement neoclassical Travel Notebook, Suite for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 offers personal impressions of places he has visited, with highly accessible music that is harmonically traditional and melodic. Shor’s Violin Concerto No. 4, composed during the Covid pandemic, is a restless, passionate, and romantic work, …

The three world premiere choral recordings on this album represent the commitment of Musica Viva NY’s artistic director, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, to perform new works by living composers. Joseph Turrin’s Crimson Roses Once Again Be Fair is the album’s centerpiece, boasting a movement for soloist and orchestra sung by the legendary American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who has announced this performance …

Joseph Ehrenpreis is a multi-instrumental guitar performer. His specialization includes the 8-string “Brahms Guitar,” an instrument invented by David Rubio and Paul Galbraith in 1994 that uses an endpin and a resonance box, boasting an extended upper and lower range. Ehrenpreis, a native of Skokie, currently a student at Yale University, describes it as “the love child of my two …

American composer Daniel Knaggs’s The Joyful Mysteries is a choral symphony of five movements which correspond to the “Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary” in Catholicism: The angel’s Annunciation to Mary, her Visitation of Elizabeth, the Nativity of Christ, his Presentation in the temple, and his Finding in the temple as a young boy. The libretto is drawn from Biblical texts …

Black Moon Trio (violinist Khelsey Zarraga, hornist Parker Nelson, and pianist Jeremy Vigil) is an ensemble committed to collaboratively affecting positive change in communities through chamber music. Founded in 2022, the trio champions underrepresented voices in their programming and commissions and aims to prove classical music is for everyone by engaging diverse audiences, youth, and artists of every type. Black …

The Grammy Award-winning and internationally acclaimed The King’s Singers present a combination of newly recorded works alongside reissues from their The Library series, taking a deep-dive into one of the most beloved and unique corners of their music library: the close-harmony arrangements. Selections include a whimsical arrangement of the Barber of Seville Overture, John Rutter’s arrangement of Kern’s “The Way …

The new album from Voces8 gathers night-inspired repertoire. includes two world premiere works from British composer and 2024 Classic FM Rising Star Lucy Walker, as well as US composer and regular collaborator, Taylor Scott Davis. Selections by contemporary choral composers Caroline Shaw, Kerensa Briggs, Dan Forrest, and Frank Ticheli share Voces8’s formidable platform with arrangements of songs by Ludovico Einaudi, …

Award-winning Spanish cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios returns with Seven, which features seven of her most recent chamber works, all in world-premiere recordings. Alongside works for solo cello or cello and piano, this recording features her Piano Quintet, a Chicago Symphony Orchestra commission for the distinctive combination of clarinet, violin, viola and cello. At the heart of this collection lies …

Composer Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is one of Europe’s leading names in contemporary music. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Nicholas Collon features some of the most recent orchestral compositions by Lindberg culminating with his new Viola Concerto, a performed by Lawrence Power as soloist. Lindberg was commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic to …

The gradual rollout of the National Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of symphonic works by Carlos Simon is completed with his Songs of Separation and Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra. Based on poems of Rumi, Songs of Separation (four) was commissioned by the NSO and features mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. Wake Up! was inspired by the poem “Awake, Asleep” by Nepali poet Rajendra …