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Divine Art Records Announces “Estrellita” from soprano Esther Rayo and pianist Peter Grünberg

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

30 July, 2025

Divine Art is delighted to announce a superb collection of sensuous classical Spanish language songs for voice and piano, from the sublime musical partnership of lyric soprano Esther Rayo and renowned pianist and conductor Peter Grünberg. This program of works was first heard in a series of concerts given by the San Francisco based teaching and performance organization LIEDER ALIVE! The album will be released on November 7, 2025.

The songs are by early 20^th century composers: Fernando Obradors, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Consuelo Velázquez and Manuel Ponce. Drawing from Spanish classical poetry and regional folk melodies, these vibrant song cycles offer appeal to art song aficionados and first-time listeners alike.

Born in California, and surrounded by Spanish music and language, this music is close to Esther Rayo’s heart. Her connection with these songs started when she was introduced to the music of Manuel Obradors while in college. Obradors offered the perfect starting point for her continued study and discovery of Spanish art song, and she was guided by the great 20th century sopranos Montserrat Caballé and Victoria de los Angeles, who kept this music alive.

Esther Rayo and Peter Grünberg — Peter Grünberg and Esther Rayo

While she was at graduate school in 2017, Esther was introduced to Peter by Maxine Bernstein, Founder and Director of LIEDER ALIVE! and they made an immediate musical connection around the works of Spanish language composers. LIEDER ALIVE! helped provide opportunities for Peter and Esther to perform this music together, alongside its standard mission of promoting German Lieder. Over the years they continued to study and learn more classical Spanish repertoire, resulting in this, their debut album together. And, even after all these years, they still feel they’ve only just scraped the surface of this wonderful repertoire!

The album opens with a selection from Manuel Obradors’ song cycle Canciones clásicas españolas, based on centuries of timeless traditional Spanish poetry and the work that first introduced Esther to this wonderful music. This is followed by Enrique Granados’ three colourful tributes to the local personalities and customs of 18^th century Madrid, 12 tonadillas en estilo antigo, and his Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor, (the Girl and the Nightingale), from his Goyescas, a solo piano suite inspired by Goya’s artworks. Bésame mucho, como se fuera esta noche la ultima vez (Kiss me as if tonight were the last time) was the talented 16-year-old Mexican composer Consuelo Velázquez’s passionate response to Guejas, and is a classic covered by singers from the Beatles to Bocelli.

Manuel de Falla’s beloved collection of popular Spanish songs, Siete canciónes populares españolas is followed by Xavier Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras, inspired by the melting-pot of European and African musical influences in the Antilles. The five folk songs Cinco canciones populares argentinas by Argentina’s most prominent 20^th century composer Alberto Ginastera, are particularly significant as Peter Grünberg has a special connection to Ginastera. The composer asked to meet him after a performance Peter gave in Geneva when he was in his early 20’s (Ginastera was 65 at the time), and invited him to play a sonata for cello and piano he had written for his wife Aurora Natola which was about to be premiered in New York. Ginastera was curious about Peter’s response as a pianist to his vital and direct music.

The album ends with Estrellita by the beloved and truly popular Mexican composer Manuel Ponce. The song has been a hit ever since it was first performed. Musically and emotionally, like so many of its companions in this collection, this title song possesses the brilliance, focus, and soaring clarity of una estrellita – a little star.

Recorded at St Stephen’s Church, Belvedere, California in mid-August 2024 with support from LIEDER ALIVE!

Album information:

‘Estrellita’

Catalogue No. DDX 21145
UPC No. 809730114526

Artists:

Esther Rayo (soprano)
Peter Grünberg (piano)

List of Works:

Manuel Obradors
- Canciones clásicas españolas
Enrique Granados
- 12 tonadillas en estilo antigo
- Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor
Consuelo Velázquez
- Bésame mucho, como se fuera esta noche la ultima vez
Manuel de Falla
- Selecciones de Siete canciónes populares españolas
Xavier Montsalvatge
- Cinco canciones negras
Alberto Ginastera
- Cinco canciones populares argentinas
Manuel Ponce
- Estrellita

Recorded at St Stephen’s Church, Belvedere, California in mid-August 2024

Engineer/producer: Matt Carr

Esther Rayo

Soprano Esther Rayo is most recognized for her passionate expression of Classical Spanish Repertoire, though her artistry spans Opera, Baroque, Oratorio, Sacred Music, and Art Song. A dedicated and versatile performer, she has been featured in performances with Circa1600, Sonoma Bach, and as a soloist with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Rayo made her Herbst Theatre debut representing Lieder Alive! at InterMusic SF’s Music Day and is celebrated for her collaborations with LaMusArt, supporting underserved Latino youth in East Los Angeles.

Ms. Rayo earned her Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Sonoma State University, studying under David Burnakus and Ruth Ann Swenson, and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from DePaul University, where she debuted the title role in Suor Angelica to critical acclaim. She made her European debut at Teatro della Fortuna in Fano, Italy, singing Puccini’s Tosca and Mimi in La Bohème.

Esther has received numerous awards and scholarships, including honors from the Jarvis Conservatory, NATS Vocal Competitions (Redwood Empire, San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay Opera League, DePaul University Kleinman Competition, San Miguel Institute of Bel Canto, and Musica nelle Marche in Italy.

Grateful for the release of Estrellita — this album with acclaimed pianist Peter Grünberg, Ms. Rayo’s recent and upcoming engagements include the San Francisco International Piano Festival, a return to San Francisco Music Day representing Lieder Alive! at Herbst Theatre, an all Puccini concert at Mission DoloresSan Francisco, and her recital debut at Rossmoor, Walnut Creek. Further engagements include featured soloist in Fanny Mendelssohn’s Hero und Leander with Sonoma County Philharmonic, and a recital and live recording, Sacred Joy, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere, California.

Peter Grünberg

Sydney-born musician Peter Grünberg has led a multifaceted career that spans several countries. For fifteen seasons, he was Musical Assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas at the San Francisco Symphony. During that time he worked on several Grammy-winning recordings, honed the performances of the SFS Chorus and many visiting soloists, and gave hundreds of pre-concert lectures. His performances as a piano soloist with the Symphony have often featured American music, from Gershwin and Copland to Ives and Adams.

He was appointed head coach at the Grand Théâtre de Genève at age 21. A few years later, as a result of preparing the first Australian performances of Berg’s Lulu, he was appointed Resident Conductor with the Sydney Symphony. In the 1990’s, he held the position of head of music staff at San Francisco Opera. During that period he conducted at Moscow Conservatory and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and led the San Francisco Symphony in a concert of opera excerpts. He performed at the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, and also at Tanglewood with Frederica von Stade and the flutist Matthieu Dufour.

He has a long history of presenting and performing song recitals, having collaborated with such artists as Tatiana Troyanos, Deborah Voigt, Laura Claycomb and Quinn Kelsey. Instrumental chamber music is also close to Mr. Grunberg’s heart: He has performed Beethoven and Mozart in Japan with members of the Vienna Philharmonic; with Peter Henderson at Sun Valley Summer Symphony he performed John Adams’s two-piano extravaganza Hallelujah Junction. With the New Century Chamber Orchestra he recently arranged music from Berlin in the 1930’s for a performance with Thomas Hampson and Daniel Hope.

Mr. Grünberg retains a connection with both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Opera, and is currently developing future collaborations with other young artist programs around the world. Grünberg continues to maintain an active life as a recitalist and chamber musician. Next season, he will be appearing with the young American violinist Benjamin Beilman in Sun Valley, and as artist-in-residence with LiederAlive! San Francisco, he will be performing again with soprano Esther Rayo and cellist Oliver Herbert in a wide-ranging program of music by Schubert.

About LIEDER ALIVE!

LIEDER ALIVE! offers frequent opportunities to experience German Lieder, multi-lingual vocal repertoire, and instrumental chamber music in a vintage environment, performed by highly accomplished emerging and established professionals. The purpose of LIEDER ALIVE! is to create an opportunity for deep transformation for the artists and for the audience at large. This important relationship of their supremely gifted musical artists with the patrons is keeping this canon of uniquely expressive and luminous art forms passionately ALIVE!

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Tags : Coming Soon, Divine Art

Divine Art Signs Australian Pianist Rob Hao

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

4 December, 2024

Divine Art is honoured to have signed the acclaimed Australian pianist Rob Hao, now resident in England. His debut album will feature premiere recordings of a selection of Piano Etudes by British composer Alison Kay and his own Palimpsest 571 – commissioned as a completion of the unfinished Schubert Sonata D. 571. Other works included are by Chopin, Schubert, Schubert-Liszt and a selection from Michael Finnissy’s English country-tunes – all exploring how composers re-imaginewider musical traditions and styles.

The recording will be made in London in February 2025 with a prospective release in the summer.

Rob Hao is an Australian pianist and composer. His compositions and performances have taken him around Australia, the UK and across continental Europe, with his musicianship having been described as ‘absolute stillness’ to ‘stirring and impetuous’ (SoundsLikeSydney). Rob’s debut at the Sydney Opera House was detailed as ‘full of personality, authenticity and virtuosity’ (ClassikOn Australia) and he has since returned as both composer and performer to the Sydney Opera House and theMelbourne Recital Centre with his project Schubert Overwritten, as well as further performances around festivals in the UK, such as Aldeburgh, Manchester Festival of Song and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe. In recent seasons he has given regional and world premieres of over thirty works in both ensemble and solo settings. Rob’s work has also been broadcast on ABC Radio National as well as 2MBS Fine Music.

Rob was born in Auckland, New Zealand and raised in Sydney, Australia, where he studied piano with Ransford Elsley. He then moved to London and graduated fromthe Royal College of Music, specialising in both composition and piano where he also won first prize for both disciplines in the Contemporary Music Competition alongside prizes for song accompaniment. Rob has been generously supported in recent years by the Arts Council England, the Francis Routh Trust, Help Musicians, the Australian Music Foundation and the Finzi Trust.

Album Details

Label: Divine Art
Catalogue number: DDX 21140
Title: to be confirmed
Performer: Rob Hao (piano)
Works/composers:
- English country-tunes, nos. 2, 7 & 8 (Michael Finnissy)
- Etudes: Nos 10 (Orison II) and 11 (Lullaby) (Alison Kay)
- Nocturnes, Op. 62 Nos. 1 in B major, and 2 in E major (Frederic Chopin)
- Der Müller und der Bach (Franz Schubert, arr. Franz Liszt)
- Impromptu in A flat, D, 935 (Franz Schubert)
- Piano Sonata in F sharp minor, D, 571 (Franz Schubert – unfinished)
- Palimpsest 571 (Robert Hao)
Engineer: Adaq Khan

Coming Soon News

Tags : Coming Soon, Divine Art

Divine Art announces first recording of Nicholas Scott-Burt’s 24 Preludes

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

7 November, 2024

Divine Art Records is delighted to announce a forthcoming release comprising the 24 Preludes for Piano by Nicholas Scott-Burt, in its premiere recording, performed by Da-Hee Kim. The double album will be recorded in the first half of 2025 and will be scheduled for release in the autumn.

In his 24 Preludes for Piano, Nicholas takes a post-modern approach to the long-standing tradition of presenting a set of works in all 24 major and minor keys. Following in the footsteps of J.S. Bach, Chopin and Shostakovich, among others, he aims to represent the innate expressive qualities associated with each key, such as the exuberance of B flat major, the ambiguity of F sharp major, and the mournfulness of D minor. These qualities are explored through the use of traditional triadic forms, diatonic clusters, and the surrounding related tonalities which triangulate each key in question.

Scott-Burt’s writing embraces a broad range of styles, incorporating elements of neo-Romanticism, modernism, post-modernism, minimalism and jazz.

The works are structured in a sequence of alternate major and minor Preludes, rising by a tone then falling by a semitone from each key to the next. Each Prelude functions as a miniature while also combining to create a seamless integrated structure, greater than the sum of its parts. The pieces are arranged in four suites of six movements each, structurally equivalent to the four movements of a symphony.

In addition to the cycle of Preludes, the album will include Scott-Burt’s Minimalis 1 and Love Song and marks the Divine Art debut for both composer and pianist.

Korean by birth, pianist Da-Hee Kim trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and the University of the Performing Arts in Munich, and has been a prize-winner in numerous competitions including the Valletta International Piano Competition, and the Claude Bonneton International Piano Competition in Sète. She holds a doctorate in performance from the Peabody Conservatory, John Hopkins University in the US, and is a frequent performer of solo and chamber music in Europe and the USA. She has recently returned from a highly acclaimed recital tour in Paris, which included five world premieres of music by Dae Seong Kim.

Composer Nicholas Scott-Burt studied music at the University of Bristol gaining the degrees of BA (1984), MMus (1988), and PhD (2012). His teachers in composition included Derek Bourgeois, Robert Saxton, Raymond Warren and John Pickard. Principal works include music for choirs, orchestras, chamber ensembles and solo instruments: notably the Magnificat and the Te Deum, (1997 and 2022) for choir and orchestra, the Nativity Dances and Passion Dances for orchestra (1997 and 2000), Panegyric for orchestra (2012) and A Little Jazz Piano Sonata in C (2016). He is currently (2024) working on Sinfonietta – The Western Cape for the Stellenbosch and West Coast (Cape Town) Youth Orchestras.

Album Details

Title: Scott-Burt: 24 Preludes for Piano
Label: Divine Art
Catalogue Number: DDX 21248 (2CD, digital download and streaming)
Composer: Nicholas Scott-Burt
Performer: Da-Hee Kim (piano)
Works:
- 24 Preludes for Piano (duration ca. 90:00)
- Minimalis 1 (duration ca.15:00)
- Love Song (duration ca.5:00)

Coming Soon News

Tags : Coming Soon, Da-Hee Kim, Divine Art, Nicholas Scott-Burt

Métier to release Kreutzer Quartet album of music by Robert Saxton

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

29 October, 2024

A new album of music by Robert Saxton has been recorded by the renowned Kreutzer Quartet for Divine Art’s new-music label, Métier. Recorded between 2022 and 2024 by master engineer Adaq Khan, the album will be scheduled for release in the early spring of 2025. The CD and digital album contain Saxton’s String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 and a Sonata for solo violin performed by Peter Sheppard Skærved and enhances Metier’s growing collection of the works of this very fine composer.

Saxton’s third Quartet was commissioned by the South Bank Centre in London and completed in 2009. In five movements, it is (as often with Saxton’s music) somewhat impressionistic with movement titles such as ‘Departure and Return’, ’Winter Light’ and ‘Sea Ground’. ‘Quartet No. 4’, a substantial work of 30 minutes duration in seven movements, was commissioned by Peter Sheppard Skærved for the Kreutzers with funding from the Britten-Pears Foundation. The composer describes the work as a Creation/Life cycle from the first movement ‘Wavebreak’ with connotations of birth and nature, through to the finale ‘Daybreak’ which signals closure but also a seasonal cyclical process leading to re-birth. Throughout the work demonstrates Robert Saxton’s acute sense of nature, time and space and is impressively ‘visual’ in its soundscape.

The Sonata for Solo Violin ‘Reflections in Time’ was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Peter Sheppard Skærved and was completed in 2023. In five movements, it is inspired by Skærved’s drawings (he being a very fine visual artist as well as a prime violinist). Saxton says that the generally muted colours of the pencil drawings bring out aspects of his landscapes and seascapes which “inhabit a fascinating world between realism and abstraction”.

Robert Saxton was born in London in 1953. Guidance from Benjamin Britten and Elisabeth Lutyens was followed by study at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Prize in Holland at twenty-one and was Fulbright Arts Fellow at Princeton, USA in 1986. He is Emeritus Professor of Composition at Oxford University, Composer-in-Association at the Purcell School and Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music. His music is published by Chester/Wise Music, UYMP and Ricordi. Recordings are on Sony Classical, Hyperion, EMI, NMC, Divine Art/Metier, Nimbus and Signum.

Robert has been commissioned by the BBC (TV, Proms and Radio), LSO, LPO, ECO, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Antara, Arditti and Chilingirian Quartets, St Paul Chamber Orchestra (USA), and written for the Huddersfield, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Lichfield and Three Choirs Festivals. He has worked closely with performers including Teresa Cahill, Leon Fleisher, Clare Hammond, Tasmin Little, Steven Isserlis, Mstislav Rostropovich and John Wallace.

Recent works include the opera The Wandering Jew commissioned by the BBC; a song cycle for baritone Roderick Williams; Hortus Musicae, for pianist Clare Hammond; The Resurrection of the Soldiers, commissioned by the 2016 Presteigne Festival, the English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods; Shakespeare Scenes, commissioned by the Orchestra of the Swan and trumpeter Simon Desbruslais; A Hymn to the Thames for oboist James Turnbull and St Paul’s Sinfonia; Suite for violinist Madeleine Mitchell and pianist Clare Hammond; Fantasy Pieces for the Fidelio Trio; Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, premiered by ESO at Music at Oxford in March 2023 and released on CD in 2024; and Sonata – Reflections in Time for violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved. Latest commissions include a major organ cycle for Jonathan Clinch. Robert Saxton is married to the soprano Teresa Cahill.

The Kreutzer Quartet is acclaimed for its adventurous performances and recordings of works from our time and from the great quartet literature. Their fascination with musical exploration has resulted in cyclic performances and recordings of works ranging from Edvard Grieg, to Anton Reicha and David Matthews to Michael Tippett, Michael Finnissy and Roberto Gerhard, on the Métier, Chandos, Guild, Innova, Lorelt, Move, Naxos, New Focus, NMC, Tadzik and Toccata Classics labels. Composers who have written, or are writing, for them are too many to list! The Quartet has held residencies at York University and Goldsmiths University of London and has have given hundreds of workshops for young composers, in the UK and internationally. The Quartet has a truly international career, playing at venues ranging from the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Bergen Festspillene and Venice Biennale to Wilton’s Music Hall, their ‘home’ near the Tower of London, and the Aldeburgh Festival. This new album (and several more in preparation) continues a relationship with Métier which stretches back to 1998.

Album details

Title: Saxton: String Quartets 3 & 4 (possible album title ‘Reflections in Time’)

Label: Métier

Catalogue number: MEX 77138

Composer: Robert Saxton

Works/artists :

String Quartet no. 3
String Quartet no. 4
- Kreutzer Quartet
Sonata ‘Reflections in Time’
- Peter Sheppard Skærved (solo violin)

Robert Saxton on Métier

Robert Saxton: String Quartets 3 & 4; Sonata for Solo Violin “Reflections in Time”

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Robert Saxton: Portrait

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A Garland for John McCabe

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Out of the Cool

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Northern Lights – modern British String Quartets

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20th Century British Piano Music, Vol. 3

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20th Century British Piano Music, vol. 2

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Coming Soon News

Tags : Coming Soon, Kreutzer Quartet, Métier, Peter Sheppard Skærved, Robert Saxton

Métier Records signs top violist Nathan Sherman for his solo debut album

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

16 October, 2024

Nathan Sherman‘s debut solo record, The Gentle Erasure of Time, to be released 21 February 2025 on the Métier label, is a collection of new commissions for solo viola and electronics. The record is a vivid tapestry of sound, a flow between the ghostly and mesmeric, to the intense and cinematic. The works by Nicole Lizée, Karin Rehnqvist, Jonathan Nangle, Linda Buckley, Benjamin Broening and Sam Perkin reflect on perspectives of motion, memory and beauty. Each work is a unique world of sound, focusing on the vibrant dialogue between the acoustic instrument and the electronic element.

Opening with the almost dangerous “Erasure of Time” by Jonathan Nangle, the album develops through moods and soundscapes with an incredible blend of foley effects and electronic synthesis over which the solo viola is brilliantly played as the main actor within the drama. Closing with Linda Buckley’s beautiful “The Thin Veil”, The Gentle Erasure of Time has to be one of the most successful contemporary recordings for solo viola in the way it blends modern electronic sounds with the acoustic instrument, demonstrating how effective these features and effects can be in the classical genre. This is an accomplished and exciting performance by Nathan Sherman, recorded with great technical skill and certainly an album to be enjoyed at great volume. Every work on this album is receiving its premiere recording.

American-born violist Nathan Sherman has been based in Dublin since 1999 and enjoys a career collaborating with other adventurous musicians. His curiosity and eclecticism allows him to present work ranging from Schütz and Purcell, to experimenting with heavy metal and aquariums. Nathan is a tireless commissioner and his commanding performances have brought him around the world. As founding member and Artistic Director of the acclaimed chamber group Ficino Ensemble, Nathan performs a vast amount of music and has released two albums. Nathan regularly plays with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Evlana and in duo with percussionist Alex Petcu. He is co-artistic director of the newly formed contemporary music group Stone Drawn Circles and a member of the experimental metal duo By a Sky.

Album Details

Title: The Gentle Erasure of Time
Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77136
Performer: Nathan Sherman (viola) with electronics
Works:
- The Gentle Erasure of Time (Jonathan Nangle)
- Turntaasm (Nicole Lizée)
- I Thought the Sea would Sing to Me (Karin Rehnquist)
- More Beautiful than it Has to Be (Sam Perkin)
- Memory Shifts (Benjamin Broening)
- The Thin Veil (Linda Buckley)
Recorded at Hellfire Studios, Dublin in April & May, 2024

Coming Soon News

Tags : Coming Soon, Métier

“In the Mirror”: a new album of works for cello and piano by women composers coming soon from Divine Art

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

27 September, 2024

Yoko Misumi & Heather Tuach © Tuach/Misumi

Divine Art is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of a new album of 20^th and 21^st century works by women composers, performed by cellist Heather Tuach and pianist Yoko Misumi.

“In the Mirror” is a selection of melodious cello and piano music by women composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. The 18 pieces were chosen by cellist Heather Tuach and pianist Yoko Misumi (of the Greenwich Trio) for their mellow, soothing, sonorous and contemplative qualities. Many of the titles, such as Peace, Vigil, Whispered Lullaby,Psalm and Nocturne, express the essence of the music. The collection includes a commission by Liz Dilnot Johnson – the title track ‘In the Mirror’ – and new arrangements for cello and piano by Dobrinka Tabakova and Jessie Montgomery.

Canadian cellist Heather Tuach was until recently a long-standing member of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Highlights with the FSQ include concerts at Kings Place, Wigmore Hall and Conway Hall (London), performances at the Ryedale Festival (North Yorkshire), cruises on the Aegean Sea, live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune,’ and residencies at the University of St Andrews (Scotland), Cambridge University (England) and Bucknell University (Pennsylvania). Since Heather joined the FSQ, it has toured throughout Britain as well as Canada, USA, Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Denmark and South Africa.

Heather pursues a range of interests. She plays in the Roskell Piano Trio. She has appeared as a soloist at the York Late Music Festival and Ryedale Festival (England), the Festival de l’Abbaye du Pin (France) and on Martin Randall Travel’s ‘Bach Journey’ (Germany). Heather was the soloist in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Academy of St. Olave’s Orchestra (York) and Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. In her home province of Newfoundland, she has given recitals at the Tuckamore Music Festival and Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s) and performed in numerous concerts in her hometown of Corner Brook, where she is the artistic director of the Wintertide Music Festival. www.wintertidefestival.com. She has previously featured in two highly-acclaimed albums for Divine Art and Métier {see below}.

Heather first studied cello at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She then attended McGill University (Montréal), where she was awarded a Master of Music. Following this, she went on to study for a year at the International Menuhin Music Academy (Switzerland). Finally, she attended Stony Brook University (New York), where she was awarded a Doctorate in Musical Arts in 2009. Her cello professors have included Colin Carr, Moray Welsh and Antonio Lysy and chamber music coaches have included Marcel Saint-Cyr and the members of the Emerson Quartet. Heather’s cello was made by the Yorkshire luthier Roger Hansell in 1993.

Born in Kyoto to a musical family, Yoko Misumi started piano lessons at a very young age showing even then her talent and musicianship. At age 14 she was already a prize-winner of the Kyoto Piano Competition. After graduating from Kyoto Music High School, she moved to London to continue her studies with Nina Sereda and Martino Tirimo. Yoko has appeared as a soloist with conductors such as James Judd and Barry Wordsworth. She gave performances in Kyoto Concert Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Adrian Boult Hall. She has participated in master classes with Stephen Kovacevich, Menahem Pressler, Bernard Greenhouse, Dietrich Banhoeffer, Neal Larrabee, Elisabeth Dvorak-Weissmar, Kiri Te Kanawa, Ralph Kirshbaum, Rivka Golani, William Aide, Norma Fischer and Dmitri Alexeev.

Yoko is the recipient of many prizes and awards; including First Prize in the John Longmire Beethoven Competition and Second Prize in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Intercollegiate Competion. Yoko is also the pianist in the Greenwich Trio; she is now in demand as a chamber musician and an accompanist, having performed in Japan, New Zealand, USA and Europe. She has previously recorded for Meridian and Denmore and this is her first recording for Divine Art.

Album Details

Title: ‘In the Mirror’
Label: Divine Art
Catalogue number: DDX 21123
Artists:
Heather Tuach (cello)
Yoko Misumi (piano)
Works:
- In the Mirror (Liz Dilnot Johnson)
- Peace (Jessie Montgomery)
- Whispered Lullaby (Dobrinka Tabakova)
- Nocturne (Jennifer Higdon)
- Halcyon (Jocelyn Morelock)
- Psalm (Ester Mägi)
- Lalai (Barbara Heller)
- When Music Sounds (Jean Coulthard)
- Sarabande (from Cello Sonata) (Jean Coulthard)
- Vigil (from Divertimento) (Elizabeth Maconchy)
- Lonely Mere (Margaret Hubicki)
- Aria (Ivy Parkin)
- Three Pieces (Nadia Boulanger)

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Intricate Web: Music By Liz Johnson

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Music from Armenia for Cello and Piano

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Tags : Coming Soon, Divine Art

Divine Art signs Invencia Piano Duo for “Poetic and Religious Harmonies for Two”

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

3 September, 2024

The critically acclaimed Invencia Piano Duo have joined Divine Art and their first album for the label will be scheduled for release in the first half of 2025. The album is titled ‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies for Two’ – with reference to Liszt’s ‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies’.

The new album aims at enriching the piano duo/duet repertoire by arranging solo pieces that simply require more than two hands to play, whether it be Totentanz by Liszt, La valse by Ravel, Vers la flamme by Scriabin or Triana by Albéniz. These works have been arranged for four hands by composer/pianist Andrey Kasparov and premiered by the award-winning Invencia Piano Duo, founded by Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn.

Additionally, there are two new works by Andrey Kasparov: Fantasy on Lutheran Chorales for piano duet and Cadenza for LvB for piano duo. All the works and arrangements on this recording take full advantage of the possibilities both duet and duo provide.

The Invencia Piano Duo has won high critical acclaim for compelling interpretations of a vast and diverse repertoire. Hailing from Armenian and Ukrainian families, Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn were educated at the Moscow State Conservatory before moving to Indiana University’s School of Music in Bloomington to pursue advanced studies. They presently make their home in the United States and serve on the faculty at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Additionally, they are artistic co-directors of the Norfolk Chamber Consort. Kasparov and Lutsyshyn are critically acclaimed recording artists and both members of the duo are recipients of prestigious awards. Lutsyshyn was a prizewinner at the Vienna Modern Masters Third International Performers’ Recording Awards Competition in 1997 and the William Kapell International Piano Competition in College Park, Maryland in 1990. As a result of the latter, she made her début at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Kasparov won the Albert Roussel Prize at the Orléans International Piano Competition in 1998. In 1994, he gave the première of the newly discovered edition of Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, revised by the composer himself. In addition to his career as a pianist, Kasparov is an active composer whose works have been published by Kompozitor in Moscow and recorded by the Atlantic Music Artist Agency in Kiev, among others. His awards include a prize from the Sergey Prokofiev International Composition Competition in Moscow in 1997 for his Piano Sonata No. 2. In 2014, the Invencia Piano Duo won in the Best Classical Category of the Veer Magazine Music Awards.

The duo’s discography includes a 4-volume series of the piano duet works by Florent Schmitt for Grand Piano Records, and albums for Albany and Naxos.

Album Details

Title: “Poetic and religious Harmonies for Two’
Label: Divine Art
Catalog number: DDX 21122
Works:
- Totentanz (Liszt; arr. Kasparov)
- Fantasy on Lutheran Chorales (Kasparov)
- Evocación (Albéniz; arr. Kasparov)
- Triana (Albéniz; arr. Kasparov)
- Vers la flame (Scriabin; arr. Kasparov)
- Cadenza for LvB (Kasparov)
- La valse (Ravel; arr. Kasparov)
Performers: Invencia Piano Duo
- (Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn)

To be recorded by Matt Twyford at the the Diehn Center for Performing Arts, Norfolk, Virginia soon.

Coming Soon News

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Lance Hulme © North Carolina Central University

Métier Announces a Double-Album Release from Composer Lance Hulme

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

19 August, 2024

Divine Art Recordings Group (Métier Records division) is delighted to announce a new double CD release of compositions by prize-winning U.S. American composer Lance Hulme.

Hulme’s music has featured on two previous releases for Métier including “The Street Has Changed” of which Fanfare Magazine wrote “This piece is incredibly haunting”… ”spellbinding”. This monumental new release contains compositions with a wide variety of expression written for a spectrum of ensembles and performers: orchestra, symphonic wind orchestra, large chamber ensembles, solo violin, electronics and more. Performers include some of the finest musicians in the United States and Europe including the composer himself.

Lance Hulme is a musician with a wide variety of experience which is reflected in the “wide range” (Know the Score) of his musical voice. Influences from his jazz background, orchestral repertoire, popular music and modernist music “weave a rich expressive texture.” (Die Rheinpfalz Zeitung) “reflect[ing] the ambience and musical approach of the North American musical tradition. Compositional eclecticism, a conscience, playful and uninhibited attitude with tradition and the crossover between ‘serious’ and vernacular music. All these elements are to be found as well as the most advanced structural and aural techniques” (Die Rheinpfalz Zeitung).

Hulme’s music has won many awards including Grand Prize, International Witold Lutoslawski Composition Competition, 1st Prize, ASCAP/Rudolf Nissim Prize, Grand Prize, International Trumpet Guild Composition Competition and awards from the Composición Musical Cuitat de Tarragona, Citta di Trieste Orchestra Competition and the Ladislav Kubik Composition Competition. His composition “An Eternal Flame”, which appears on this release, was awarded First Prize, 2021 Malta International Composition Competition. Notable performances and commissions include Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Southern German Radio, the State Theater of Baden, the State Orchestra of Magdeburg, West German Radio, the Karlsruhe University Chorus, the Raschèr Saxophone Orchestra, Quattro Mani, the Henschell Quartet and others.

Dr. Hulme heads the composition and theory program at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina where he is also director of the ‘À la carte’ concert series. He is presently completing an opera to be premiered in November of this year and preparing recordings of his piano etudes “Bandaloop Dances”. His music is published through Donemus Publications. More information can be found at www.lancehulme.com.

Album details

Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77212
Title : ‘Leaps and Bounds’
Composer: Lance Hulme
Works:
- Siren’s Song
- Wildcat
- Slapdash Redux
- JethroZen
- Bonfire Bacchanal
- Anna’s Candle
- An Eternal Flame
- Sax Attractor
- Appalachian Advent
- Setting the Diamond
- Leaps and Bounds
Performers:
- Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
- Mikel Toms (conductor)
- Wildcat 9 Saxophone Orchestra
- Lance Hulme (conductor)
- University of Maryland Wind Symphony
- Michael Votta (conductor)
- Popocatapetl Percussion Duo
- Erika Boysen (flute)
- John Covach (electric guitar)
- Susan Fancher (soprano saxophone)
- James Douglass (piano)
- Ida Bieler (violin)
- Clara O’Brien (mezzo-soprano)
- Timothy Holley (cello)
- + Ensemble conducted by Lance Hulme

Lance Hulme on Métier

Moon Marked – modern music for trumpet

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Ghost Dialogues: Music for Trumpet

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Musici Ireland to release debut album on Métier

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

19 August, 2024

Musici Ireland proudly presents their debut album with Métier – a captivating collection of chamber works by living Irish composers, each recorded for the first time. Among the featured works is the newly commissioned “EARTHRISE,” a powerful Concerto for viola and chamber ensemble by Liam Bates, commissioned by violist Beth McNinch, adding an important new work to the viola repertoire. The album also includes the evocative “Her Charms Invited” by Ian Wilson, the ethereal “Fiol String Trio” by Linda Buckley, Deirdre McKay’s intricate “Mr Shah,” and the haunting “Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again” by Deirdre Gribbin.

Recorded in November 2023 at Grouse Lodge Recording Studios in Ireland, this release showcases the extraordinary talents of musicians from Musici Ireland including violinists Mia Cooper, Ioana Petcu-Colan and Siobhan Doyle; violist Beth McNinch; cellists Katie Tertell and Niamh Molloy; bassist Dominic Dudley; wind players Conor Sheil, Peter Ryan and Meadbh O’Rourke; and harpist Dianne Marshall.

The recording has been expertly produced by Jonathan Allen, a veteran of Abbey Road Studios with over two decades of experience and a distinguished career that includes Grammys, Gramophone Awards, and a BAFTA sound award for his work on the soundtrack of Les Miserables.

This album is a significant addition to the contemporary chamber music repertoire, celebrating the vibrancy and creativity of Ireland’s musical landscape. Divine Art CEO Stephen Sutton has expressed his joy at this new project:

“It’s wonderful to be working with this most excellent of chamber ensembles and presenting a whole set of premiere recordings. Our Métier label has been building a very strong relationship with artists and composers from Ireland and this album will surely be one of the highlights of the coming year.”

Musici Ireland, founded in 2012 as a chamber music collective, has evolved into a groundbreaking multidisciplinary production house, pushing artistic boundaries and creating impactful new works. With a core group of internationally renowned artists—including directors, choreographers, dancers, and composers—Musici Ireland is the only ensemble in the country dedicated to developing and presenting original theatrical and multidisciplinary productions with music at their heart. Their journey began with hundreds of classical performances across Ireland, earning a strong reputation on the national and international stage. Since 2021, they have expanded our vision, integrating socially aware themes into their work and exploring innovative ways to engage with audiences. Original productions, like the acclaimed “A Mother’s Voice,” blend activism and artistry, bringing powerful stories to life through immersive experiences. This pioneering spirit has taken the ensemble to prestigious venues and festivals, including their recent American debut at the Contemporary American Theater Festival and performances at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. As artists-in-residence at the Belltable/Limetree Theatres in Limerick, Musici Ireland continues to explore new creative territories, developing works that challenge and inspire. Musici Ireland stands as a unique force within the Irish arts scene, dedicated to producing innovative, socially relevant, and musically-driven experiences that resonate deeply with audiences.

Album Details

Title: ‘Earthrise’
Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77133
Composers/works:
- Fiol (Linda Buckley)
- Before the Moon Shattered and Shone Again (Deidre Gribbin)
- Mr. Shah (Deirdre McKay)
- Her Charms Invited (Ian Wilson)
- Earthrise (Liam Bates)
Performers: Musici Ireland
- Meadhbh O Rourke (flute)
- Conor Sheil (clarinet)
- Peter Ryan (horn)
- Iona Petcu Colan, Mia Cooper & Siobhan Doyle (violins)
- Beth McNinch and Ed Creedon (violas)
- Katie Tertell & Niamh Molloy (cellos)
- Dominic Dudley (double bass)
- Dianne Marshall (harp)
Recorded on November 21-23, 2023
For release in spring 2025

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“The Devil’s Dream” — Music by Seán Doherty announced by Métier

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

18 July, 2024

The British new-music label Métier (part of the Divine Art Recordings Group) has built a strong relationship over the last few years with composers from the Republic of Ireland including the September 2024 release of ‘The Tyndall Effect’ with music by Graínne Mulvey and the impending appearance of a chamber music album by Musici Ireland. This connection will be strengthened further by the release in early 2025 of a superb album of music for string quartet (all premiere recordings) by Seán Doherty, several with the addition of voice or traditional Irish instruments.

Seán Doherty © Divine Art/Seán Doherty

The chamber works of Doherty have been described as ‘unfailingly gripping’ (Irish Times) and ‘wonderfully imaginative, colourful’ (Irish Examiner). In these works, he blends Irish traditional and classical music to thrilling dramatic effect. The works explore themes of death and mourning, as well as major events in Irish history: the Great Famine, the Easter Rising, and the Troubles. A sensation with live audiences, this is the first studio recording of these works.

This album brings together leading performers from Irish traditional and classical worlds. The Sonoro Quartet is one of the premier string quartets of their generation. Based in the Netherlands, they were chosen as the European Concert Hall Organisation’s ‘Rising Stars’ for the 2023–24 season. Irish soprano Sylvia O’Brien is a renowned interpreter of contemporary Irish music, having performed numerous prestigious international premieres, as well as works by many composers who have written specifically for her voice. Mark Redmond is an important exponent of the uilleann pipes, the Irish bagpipe, who, with his extensive performing and recording career, has introduced the instrument to new audiences internationally. They are joined by other exceptional traditional musicians: Lauren O’Neill, Molly Tobin, Robert Harvey, and Doherty himself.

This album is a striking portrait of one of Ireland’s leading young composers. The recording has been made in 2023 in Dublin by engineer Richard Duckworth, who is a lecturer in music technology at Trinity College, Dublin.

Seán Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, where he was educated at St Eugene’s primary school and Lumen Christi College. He read music at St John’s College, Cambridge, and was awarded a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin, on submission of a thesis entitled ‘Solfaing: The History of Four-Syllable Solmization to the Present Day’. Doherty is currently a lecturer in music at Dublin City University. He is a member of the acclaimed Irish choir New Dublin Voices.

Doherty has won the Feis Ceoil choral composition four times, the Choir & Organ Magazine composition competition twice, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival ‘Young Composers’ Bursary’ twice, the Jerome Hynes composition award, the St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh composition competition, and the Fragments composition award in association Historic Scotland. His music has been performed by an appreciable number of orchestras, ensembles and soloists. Six of his songs were featured in the highly acclaimed Métier album “Ghost Songs” (MSV 28599). Seán Doherty’s setting [of” Lola Ridge’s “Under-Song] is a little miracle (Fanfare)

Album details:

Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77135
Title : ‘The Devil’s Dream’
Composer: Seán Doherty
Works:
- The Devil’s Dream (String quartet)
- Lament for the Poets (with soprano)
- No Go (with uilleann pipes)
- Drochshaol (with uilleann pipes, Irish harp and concertina)
- Paddy’s Rambles through the Gravel Walks (with fiddle, uilleann pipes, Irish harp and flute and concertina)
Performers:
- Sonoro Quartet (all works)
- Sylvia O’Brien, soprano
- Mark Redmond, uilleann pipes
- Lauren O’Neill, Irish harp
- Molly Tobin, concertina
- Robert Harvey, Irish flute
- Seán Doherty, fiddle
Recorded in Dublin May 2023
For release Jan or Feb 2025.

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Celebrating Collaboration – a new album from Métier

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

9 July, 2024

Works written for the Kreutzer Quartet and Roderick Chadwick by Gloria Coates, Tom Metcalf, Sadie Harrison and Joel Järventausta

The Kreutzer Quartet is celebrated for decades of collaborating with composers. These range from many world-renowned figures, including Hans Werner Henze, Judith Weir, George Rochberg, David Matthews and Poul Ruders, to hundreds of young artists, many of whom begin work with the quartet in the countless workshops that they give in Europe, Asia and the Americas. This new album consists of four pieces, in a mix of live and studio performances, by composers of different generations: from the late Gloria Coates, whose celebrated work with the quartet began in the 1990s, to Tom Metcalf and Joel Järventausta, still in their 20s.

Collaboration became ever more precious for everyone during the Covid-19 pandemic: music-making was threatened, and collaboration, in performance and recording, became newly vital and regained its potency, as can be heard here. Three of the works here were workshopped, completed and recorded under lockdown restrictions.

Common themes ran through the works which emerged at that time. One of these was the idea of water, of the river. It pours through the music of Joel Järventausta and Tom Metcalf. Sadie Harrison was in the midst of writing pieces for the quartet, based on the River Thames, when George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis – her immediate, powerful reaction can be heard here.

And, of course, all collaboration ends. In the summer of 2023, Gloria Coates died, completing her extraordinary journey with all the musicians heard on this recording. This joyful performance of her final work for the Kreutzers marked the last time that they all worked together, celebrating her birthday on stage in London.

The Kreutzers have had a long a fruitful relationship with Métier Records going back to the 1990s, and have become a cornerstone of the new-music scene in both recording and concertising, and have several more recordings in progress.

Album details:

Title: ‘Something So Transporting Bright’
Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77132
Artists: Kreutzer Quartet (Peter Sheppard Skærved & Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins; Clifton Harrison, viola; Neil Heyde, cello) with Roderick Chadwick – Piano
Works:
- Piano Quintet (Gloria Coates)
  The Multiple Burdens of Injustice (Sadie Harrison)
- Pixelating the River (Tom Metcalf)
- On Blue (Joel Järvenausta)
Recorded 2021-2: Recording engineer Adaq Khan
To be released: late 2024 early 2025 (exact date to be confirmed)

Kreutzer Quartet Recordings on Métier

Robert Saxton: String Quartets 3 & 4; Sonata for Solo Violin “Reflections in Time”

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Something So Transporting Bright

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Edward Cowie: Three Quartets and a Solo

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The Michael Finnissy Collection

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Michael Finnissy: Six Sexy Minuets Three Trios

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Mihailo Trandafilovski – Diptych

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Quartet Choreography

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Orfordness: Music by David Gorton

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Grieg and Finnissy Piano Quintets

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Elliott Schwartz: Tapestry

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Trajectories – Music by David Gorton

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Greatest Hits of All Time

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Northern Lights – modern British String Quartets

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Peter Maxwell Davies Chamber Music

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Wilfred Josephs – Clarinet Sonatas and Quintet

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Schwartz & Rochberg: “Variations”

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Sadie Harrison: Taking Flight

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Catalan String Quartets

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Gerhard: String Quartets

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Finnissy: Music for String Quartet

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Wilfred Heaton: The Reluctant Composer – Coming to Divine Art in 2025

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

3 July, 2024

Sheffield-born composer Wilfred Heaton (1918-2000) is a household name in the brass band world, where some of his early worlds enjoy ‘classic’ status. After his death a ‘hidden’ side of his creativity came to light when manuscripts of orchestral and instrumental music were discovered in which he used to call his “unregarded corner”. With this release, Murray McLachlan and friends shed new light on the work of this reluctant genius with premiere recordings of instrumental music and songs spanning some six decades, including the first performance of his monumental Piano Sonata composed in the early 1950s.

Heaton spent half his life-time not composing all. Yet he was highly skilled, a gifted child from a very poor background, who had all the tools to be one of the top composers of his day. He said on the phone to Paul Hindmarsh, his biographer and producer of this album, just before he took ill for the last time that he felt the impulse to compose from before his teens, and that “I suppose the impulse never leaves you”. Yet he set his face against composing from his mid 30s, having promised himself that if he couldn’t escape from the “incarceration” of the band world, he would give up composing altogether. He did not find the London composing scene congenial when he tasted it, and for many reasons, stopped new work altogether, relying on recycling and re-purposing what he’d already written.

Having trained as a brass instrument repairer, he changed tack in the 1950s and spent the second half of his life as a teacher and professional conductor based in Harrogate (he was very well respected in Yorkshire). He was also a brilliant pianist (having obtained his LRAM performance diploma at 18). Heaton could have earned his living as a pianist and conductor, had he not been so reluctant and lacking in self-confidence. Hopefully this new album will bring Heaton new admirers from outside the brass band community.

The performers on the album are among the elite of North West England’s talent and will bring out the brilliance of Heaton’s writing to full effect.

Album details:

Title: Wilfred Heaton: A Reluctant Composer
Label: Divine Art
Catalogue number: DDX 21138
Composer: Wilfred Heaton
Works:
- Piano Sonata (performing edition by Paul Hindmarsh)
- Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 2
- Pilgrim Reflections for piano (arranged by Paul Hindmarsh)
- Little Suite for flute and piano*
- Four Vignettes for clarinet and piano** (arranged by Paul Hindmarsh)
- Hay Harvest for soprano and piano***
- The Dove’s Answer for soprano and piano***
- O Fortune for unaccompanied soprano***
- The Chief Glory for soprano and piano*** (arranged by Paul Hindmarsh)
- Welcome for Me for high voice and piano***
Artists
- Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano) ***
- Alex Jakeman (flute)*
- Ronald Woodley (clarinet)**
- Murray McLachlan (piano)
- To be recorded at Stoller Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester in August 2024
Recording engineer: James Cardell-Oliver
Producer: Paul Hindmarsh

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Métier Records Announces Second Album of Music by Liz Dilnot Johnson

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

5 December, 2023

Critics were lavish in their praise of ‘Intricate Web’ – an album of chamber music by Liz Dilnot Johnson (Métier MSV 77206, released May 2017): “An exciting album full of interesting music, musically vibrant, and ultimately satisfying.” (MusicWeb International); “Liz Johnson’s music really resonated with me. I can, therefore, do no less than give this issue my top recommendation.” (Fanfare).

The range of choral works on her new album spans the enormous output across the composer’s life, performed with great flair by Ex Cathedra directed by Jeffrey Skidmore. The second half of the album presents one of Johnson’s large-scale choral works, When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees, winner of the Ivors Composer Award for community and participation (2022). Setting words from the traditional Requiem Mass, along with words from the English Prayer Book, these choral movements encompass a world of music from a simple call and response song to complex and emotionally driven music that takes the listener on an emotional journey, moving from darkness into light.

The first half of the album presents some of Johnson’s earliest works including O Vos with spirals of sopranos unfurling, defined by the Fibonacci Series, written as part of a collaboration with mathematician Prof. Ian Stewart. More recent pieces that have been commissioned and premiered by Ex Cathedra, with whom Liz is composer-in-residence, include Blake Reimagined, a lockdown work originally composed for remote choir (later released on Youtube)* with soloists including Carnatic singer Debipriya Sircar with Jazz and Soul singers Margaret Lingas and Gabriella Liandu. Four of Johnson’s carols include the playful eco-carol A Wild Midwinter Carol, the acerbic Magi (her earliest work), the eight-part advent motet Gentle Flame and the tender lullaby For This Babe. The Windhover, setting Gerard Manley Hopkins’ extraordinary poemis a tour de force, scored for baritone solo for the expressively powerful voice of Lawrence White with 10-part choir, summoning up the wild kestrel at dawn.

Award-winning British composer Liz Dilnot Johnson lives on the Malvern Hills in Herefordshire. Johnson’s richly diverse music includes danceworks, films, opera, vocal and orchestral works, delicately layered and complex chamber music and a wealth of luscious choral that is performed all over the world. Her debut album Intricate Web (2017) was met with wide critical acclaim: ‘magnificent’ (The Chronicle Review), ‘sometimes challenging, musically vibrant, and ultimately satisfying’. (MusicWebInternational).

When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees won the Ivors Composer Award 2022 for Community and Participation involving over 100 performers including Ex Cathedra a children’s choir, professional soloists and refugee groups. ‘She has an extraordinary intuition for knowing what works’ (Jeffrey Skidmore, OBE). Johnson’s debut double album Intricate Web (2017) features the prize-winning Sky-burial performed by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet with vocalist Loré Lixenberg ‘a master-class in writing for voice and for string quartet’ (MusicWebInternational). The multiple award-winning music video Can You Hear Me? includes music from Johnson’s large-scale cantata I Stand At The Door for mezzo-soprano, baroque violin, choir and baroque orchestra with words by Greta Thunberg, Kurt Masur, the Book of Revelations, David Hart and the composer herself.

In 2024 there will be four CD releases of Johnson’s music: the full album of selected choral works performed by Ex Cathedra – the choir with which Liz is Composer-in-Residence; The Space Between Heaven and Earth for basset horn with piano commissioned and recorded by Ronald Woodley; Inflorescence for soprano saxophone with piano commissioned and recorded by Kyle Horch; and In The Mirror – a set of pieces for cello and piano commissioned and recorded by cellist Heather Tuach. New commissions include works for the English Viol Consort, for the York Late Music Festival and a fifth major quartet for the Fitzwilliam String Quartet (supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation).

Works (all composed by Liz Dilnot Johnson)

When a Child is a Witness
Blake Reimagined
The Windhover
For Hester
O Vos
Gentle Flame
For this Babe
Magi
A Wild Midwinter Carol

Artists:

Debipriya Sircar (vocalist)
Margaret Lingas (soprano)
Gabriella Liandu (mezzo-soprano)
Laurence White (baritone)
James Keefe (piano)
Rupert Jeffcoat (organ)
Ex Cathedra
Jeffrey Skidmore (director)

Recorded summer 2023, scheduled for release circa June 2024

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Coming to Divine Art: Tales of the Glens – Piano Works by Irish Composer Philip Hammond

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

14 August, 2023

Divine Art Records is delighted to welcome to its roster the fine pianist Anthony Capparelli, who has recorded Tales of the Glens – a collection of piano works by Irish composer Philip Hammond. The works recorded, through thematic reference, musical inspiration, and use of traditional melody, centre in focus on the Glens of Antrim, one of Ireland’s most beautiful regions. They delve into the history, people, landscape, and folklore, taking the listener on a journey to this magical place. With his extensive oeuvre for the instrument and prominence as a composer in Ireland, Hammond’s rich colour palette and deeply pianistic writing delights the ear with a lush world of textures befitting this theme. The album contains three premiere recordings of Hammond’s solo repertoire which include works based on traditional harp melodies originally collected and transcribed by Edward Bunting (the Bunting versions are also included here). Finally, the centrepiece of the album is an innovative multi-movement work for pianist and storyteller titled Tales from the Sea of Moyle. A collaboration between Anthony Capparelli, Philip Hammond, and two of Ireland’s most renowned bearers of the storytelling tradition, Liz Weir MBE and Colin Urwin, this work tests the boundaries of collaboration between art forms. Each story is set along the Antrim coast and delivered by the commanding voices of Weir and Urwin, offering the listener guidance, and sometimes warning, on their journey.

Anthony Capparelli is a pianist originally from Wisconsin, USA. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician in six countries, and has an extensive background in teaching and collaborative piano. He has a wide range of musical interests, and as a soloist currently works with modern repertoire that ties in his upbringing in folk and Irish traditional music. As a chamber musician, he has toured across the Midwestern area of the USA and also in Ireland and the UK. Anthony has worked and performed in masterclasses with prominent ensembles such as the Elias String Quartet, Kronos Quartet, the JACK quartet, and with pianists Orion Weiss and Emanuel Ax. In his work with vocalists, Anthony has performed in masterclass for Dietrich Henschel, Dale Duesing, Lawrence Brownlee, Eric Owens, Charlotte Margiono, Martin Wölfel, and with members of the Lorelei Ensemble. He has a deep love for the operatic and art song repertoire and has trained for a year at the International Opera Academy (BE) in 2021/22 as a pianist-repetiteur where he worked on multiple productions.

As a soloist, Anthony has performed in six countries, and in concert with the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, the St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He is passionate about bringing music to audiences that have limited access to it, and has taught piano and performed recitals in small rural pubs, hospitals, senior care homes, and prisons. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa under the tutelage of Dr. Ksenia Nosikova and received his Postgraduate Soloist Diploma at KASK/Conservatorium (BE) studying with Daan Vandewalle. He now lives in Gent, Belgium.

Tales of the Glens (DDX 2115)

Composer: Philip Hammond

Artists: Anthony Capparelli (piano); Liz Weir (reader*), Colin Urwin (reader*)

Works

If to a Foreign Clime you Go (Bunting and Hammond versions)
An Irish Lullaby (Bunting and Hammond versions)
Old Truagh (Bunting and Hammond versions)
The Little and Great Mountain (Bunting and Hammond versions)
The Fair Woman (Bunting and Hammond versions)
The Lamentation of Owen O’Neill (Bunting and Hammond versions)
Open The Door Softly (Bunting) / Modulation (Hammond)
Aoife Og (Hammond)
Forgotten Longing (Hammond)
Tales from the Sea of Moyle (Hammond) *
Album duration 79:47
Recorded in Iowa, USA 2023

Release date: early 2024 (exact date to be confirmed)

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Coming Soon from Métier: Chamber and Vocal Music by Samuel Andreyev

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

12 July, 2023

Samuel Andreyev’s chamber, orchestral, vocal and solo works have been performed, recorded and broadcast throughout the world. He is now working with Métier Records, Divine Art’s new music division, for a new album of chamber and vocal works titled ‘In Glow of Like Seclusion’ – also the title track, a setting of texts by J H Prynne.

The CD and digital album is to be released worldwide on November 10, with a double-LP vinyl version to follow in the New Year. The music is incredibly varied, from the sparse resonance of the Sonata da Camera, the ‘cartoon music’ (as the composer puts it) of Vérifications, characterized by primary colours and strong instrumental timbres; the Sextet in Two Parts which in contrast focuses on minute timbral shadings; and of course the cantata for solo voice and ensemble which is the title track of the album.

Born in Canada, Samuel Andreyev settled in France in 2003. After completing his studies in composition, electronic music, analysis and orchestration at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and at IRCAM, he was awarded a 1-year residency at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, Spain. Upon returning from Spain, he settled in Strasbourg, on the border between France and Germany.

Nearly all of Samuel Andreyev’s works are available on CD, including three portrait CDs on Kairos Records (Vienna) and Klarthe (Paris), with two more currently in preparation (as of 2023).

With his YouTube channel and Podcast, Samuel Andreyev presents lectures on musical topics, as well as long-form interviews with prominent musicians as varied as Brian Ferneyhough, every member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Linda Catlin Smith, Hugues Dufourt, Adam Neely and countless others. He has twice been a featured guest on the Jordan Peterson Podcast, in addition to appearances on Vox, The Symbolic World, Classical Chats and many others.

Samuel Andreyev’s music has been featured in portrait concerts in Bern, Geneva, Toronto, Paris, Kyiv, Strasbourg, Montréal, Tours, and many other cities. Andreyev is a laureat of the Henri Dutilleux Prize (2012, for ‘Night Division’), and the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs (2020, for ‘Vérifications’). He is also Vice President of the music council of the Fondation Prince Pierre (Monaco).

His works are exclusively published by Edition Impronta (Mannheim).

In Glow of Like Seclusion

MEX 77119 & MEL 12402 (double audiophile vinyl)

Release dates: CD/Digital – 10 November 2023; LP – Jan/Feb 2024

Works:

Sonata da Camera
Sextet in Two Parts
Vérificatons
In Glow of Like Seclusion*

Artists:

Peyee Chen (Soprano) *
Ensemble Proton Bern
Luigi Gaggero (conductor)

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Divine Art to release new Album of Thomas Pitfield Songs with James Gilchrist

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

5 July, 2023

Early 2024 will see the release of a new album of songs by Thomas Pitfield, performed by tenor James Gilchrist with pianist Nathan Williamson.

To be recorded at the Menuhin Hall, Cobham, Surry on 4^th and 5^th November, for release spring 2024. All the songs are receiving their first recording. The album production is generously supported by the Pitfield Trust.

Bolton-born composer Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999), taught composition at The Royal Manchester College of Music, where his admiring pupils included John McCabe, Ronald Stevenson, John Ogdon, Peter Donohoe, John Golland and David Ellis. He was multi-talented, being also an artist, poet, furniture maker and wood carver. He wrote and published three fascinating volumes of autobiography. In addition he was a committed vegetarian and pacifist.

Pitfield was basically a miniaturist as a composer, but larger works, all recorded, include two piano concertos and concertos for recorder and for violin. His songs vary from the frivolous and the folksy to to the lyrical and dramatic, and past performers included Pears and Britten, Owen Brannigan and Honor Sheppard. A large and lavishly illustrated volume about Pitfield’s life and work, “Endless Fascination”, with contributions by his many admirers, is shortly to be published by the Manchester firm of Forsyth Brothers Ltd., who also publish the songs.

Tenor James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time music career in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. His extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with renowned conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, Masaaki Suzuki and Richard Hickox.

A master of English music, James has performed Britten’s Church Parables in St Petersburg, London and at the Aldeburgh Festival, Nocturne with the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and War Requiem with the San Francisco. Recent highlights have included the role of Rev. Adams in Deborah Warner’s award-winning production of Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Opéra National de Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Equally at home in the baroque repertoire, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St John and St Matthew Passion feature prominently in James’ schedule. Indeed, he is celebrated as perhaps the finest Evangelist of his generation; as one review noted, “he hasn’t become a one man Evangelist industry by chance”.

James’ impressive discography includes recordings of Albert Herring (title role) and St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See , and critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles for Orchid Classics. More recently he has released Solitudeand Songs of Travel for Chandos Records, both alongside Anna Tilbrook, and 100 Years of British Song , a three-part recording project focussing on ’The Art of British Song’ in collaboration with pianist Nathan Williamson for SOMM Recordings. His most recent release, Inn Stetter Hut, is a recording of 16^th Century viol music recorded in collaboration with the Linarol Consort for Inventa Records. His previous recordings for Divine Art include a programme of songs by John Jeffreys with Anna Tilbrook (“The Far Country” DDA 25049) and vocal items by Nicholas Marshall, David Dubery and Antony Hopkins.

Nathan Williamson is an accomplished pianist and composer; he gives solo recitals of repertoire from the Germanic Classical and Romantic tradition, as well as 20th-century and contemporary music, with a particular focus on British and American composers. Nathan has performed at many of the world’s leading venues and festivals and worked alongside numerous living composers in performances of their work.

His recordings for SOMM Recordings and Lyrita Recorded Edition, both solo and collaborative, have been widely acclaimed. Since 2016 Nathan has also been a member of the renowned new music ensemble Piano Circus.

Songs of Thomas Pitfield (Final Title Not Determined) (DDX 21119)

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Divine Art Announces 2024 Release of A Questing Soul: Music for Violin and Piano by Robin Stevens

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

25 May, 2023

Following the release of four critically acclaimed albums in as many years, the Divine Art label’s survey of the chamber music of British composer Robin Stevens will culminate, in spring/summer 2024, with A Questing Soul, comprising Robin’s most significant works for violin and piano. The music on this album spans almost thirty years, the two most substantial pieces – both duos – being the earliest: the tumultuous, single-movement Fantasy Sonata of 1985, and the epic, four-movement Sonata Tempesta of the following year. These are both products of the composer’s late twenties, marked by soaring lyricism and invigorating, pungent harmonies.

The remaining duos on the disc cover a wide stylistic range, from the jazzy Scherzo in Blue to the freshly melodious An Interrupted Waltz; from the turbulent Say Yes To Life, which stretches tonality almost to breaking-point, to the uncompromisingly atonal, yet deeply moving, Cri de Coeur. This generous selection also contains two miniatures for unaccompanied violin, and five for solo piano: in these works, humour and quirky playfulness abound, providing a perfect foil for the passionate intensity of the ambitious duo sonatas.

The performers on this release are the wife and husband duo Christine Townsend (violin) and Stephen Robbings (piano), both graduates of the Royal Academy in London. As a duo they are regular recitalists throughout the south of England. Christine’s freelance career includes being a guest leader of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, and Stephen, a celebrated Chopin player, is on the staff of Winchester College. Christine will be a welcome new addition to the Divine Art company’s almost 1000-strong roster of principal artists while Stephen previously contributed virtuosic performances of contemporary music for oboe and piano with Christopher Redgate (Métier MSV 28508).

A Questing Soul: Music by Robin Stevens for Violin and Piano (DDX 21121)

Composer: Robin Stevens
Artists: Christine Townsend (violin); Stephen Robbings (piano)
Recorded at hallé St. Michael’s, Ancoats, Manchester, UK
(session in July and October 2022, April 2023 and a last session on 13 December 2023)

Robin Stevens

Born in Wales in 1958, and growing up in a musical family in the south of England, Robin’s lyricism and his love of harmony may be traced to his years as a treble and (once his voice started to break) an alto singing in church choirs. Initially a first study cellist, at sixteen he performed the Elgar Cello Concerto, complete, with the Dartington College Orchestra. At eighteen he began the Joint Course at the Royal Northern College of Music (which he didn’t particularly enjoy) and Manchester University (which he did), graduating with honours in 1980. A year later, whilst completing an MA at Birmingham University, Robin wrote a String Quintet, his first major composition. Then followed five years working on the staff of a church in York as Music Director and Pastoral Worker, where he wrote a good deal of sacred vocal music, after which Robin taught for three years, heading up the Music Department of a Senior School in West Yorkshire. His fortunes took a serious dip in 1990 when he contracted ME, a debilitating illness from which he only recovered in 2007, after which, whilst continuing to compose, he earned his living as a personal tutor, mainly teaching nine- and ten-year-old children.

A committed Christian, Robin continues to be involved in church music, as cellist, keyboard player, vocalist and composer/arranger. In 2018 Robin was the grateful beneficiary of a considerable family legacy which has enabled him to embark on the project of recording all his major compositions with some of the foremost musicians in Britain. His works include a Te Deum for choir, soloists and orchestra; Mourning into Dancing for symphony orchestra; Brass Odyssey for brass band and six percussionists; concertos for bassoon, for cello, and for viola; two string quartets; a Sonata for Solo Cello; and Fantasy Sonata and Sonata Tempesta for violin and piano. Unsurprisingly, Robin has also written a large quantity of cello miniatures, including a meditative online collection entitled An Inward Journey, which he performs himself. Robin has also recorded two albums of songs, Fire and Inspire, and Whispers in the Wasteland.

Beyond his musical activities, Robin is a regular at parkrun in Wythenshawe, Manchester; tries to cycle rather than drive; is a voracious reader, especially of thrillers and biographies; preaches every couple of months at St. Mary’s Church, Sale; loves giving dinner-parties; and, despite his best efforts, remains Christendom’s most reluctant bachelor.

Robin Stevens Recordings on Divine Art

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Divine Art announces a special new multi-channel recording from Burkard Schliessmann: “Live and Encores”

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

23 May, 2023

Burkard Schliessmann's FAZIOLI F278-3482 — FAZIOLI F278-3482 © Burkard Schliessmann

German pianist Burkard Schliessmann has been receiving glowing accolades everywhere for his concert performances and recordings, for his virtuosity and also for his individual and highly-considered interpretation of the great music from the late Baroque and Romantic eras particularly. Following five previous albums all of which have been exceptionally well received, and a recording of Fantasies by Robert Schumann (being recorded in Berlin in June), he has just completed a new recording called ‘Live and Encores’ which offers the opportunity to present different interpretations in single take recordings of a wide range of repertoire. The double Album displays a variety of stylistic elements from Bach to Mendelssohn (whose early Romantic work was highly influenced by Bach) through the High Romanticism of Schumann to Chopin, whose single waltz here represents the pinnacle of Romantic pianism.

As well as exceptional performances we can expect phenomenal sound. The recording was made on 3-5 April 2023 at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy in 5-channel Dolby Atmos high-definition audio and will be offered in a range of digital formats as well as hybrid multichannel SACD. The instrument used is a Fazioli F278 which Schliessmann has purchased. The recording was made ‘live’ in front of a specially invited audience and thanks to the amazing support of the Fazioli family will also be presented in concert in Venice in the near future.

Burkard Schliessmann is an official Steinway Artist and is regarded as one of the most influential pianists of the modern era. He has received numerous prizes and awards of

merits for his piano interpretations, as well as being an esteemed teacher, with classes all over the world, principally in the USA. He is also a professional scuba diver and an Ambassador for “Protecting our Ocean Planet” – a program of Project AWARE Foundation.

Burkard Schliessmann: “Live and Encores“ (DDC 25755)

Format (physical): Hybrid 5-channel SACD/Stereo CD (2 discs)
Format (digital): Dolby Atmos surround sound; Apple Digital Master; HD, SD and MP3 options
Artist: Burkard Schliessmann (Fazioli F278)
Producer/tonmeister: Matteo Costa
Piano technician: Job Wijnands (Fazioli)

Burkard Schliessmann on Divine Art

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Divine Art Announces Sixth Album from Swedish Impressionist Composer Jonathan Östlund

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

12 May, 2023

Following four previously released and highly praised albums for Jonathan Östlund, and the fifth, “Elysian” appearing on July 14 this year, Divine Art is now preparing his sixth, to be titled ‘Rêverie’. This album, unlike the previous ones, is more focussed in terms of genre, featuring only chamber works, but all demonstrating the composer’s highly developed gift for Impressionist sound-painting. Acclaimed for his imaginative and accessible music, he has been championed by some of Europe’s best musicians. Among the plaudits for his previous albums, he was described as ‘the 21^st Century’s Debussy’ (Jan Hocek, His Voice); “this is music of filigree beauty” (Colin Clarke, Fanfare). The new album, which is to be recorded in late June, will be no less magical and will be scheduled for release in the winter, between November and February.

Rêverie (DDX 21120)

Works

Rêveries
Empyrean Nocturne
Fantaisie Chatoyant sur deux ‘Clair de Lune’
Fantaisie sur un cantique Français
Sognando l’al di là
Waiting for Pierrot
Winds’ Wander and Vigil (suite in 9 movements)
Zaubernacht

Artists

Myriam Hidber-Dickinson (flute)
Lisa Brakhman (violin)
[to be confirmed] (viola)
Mariona Tuset (cello)
Evgeny Brakhman (piano)
Eva Simó (piano)

Jonathan Östlund received his BA and MA in Composition at LTU, in Sweden, and has so far completed more than 150 works, including several orchestral works, and two concertos for violin.

His achievements include CD-releases, publications and performances with the London Schubert Players in the U.K., France and Romania throughout 2010 and 2011, as part of the ‘Invitation to Composers’ project. In 2012 he won the Public Choice Award for his Cello Sonata, premiered by A. Zagorinsky and E. Steen-Nokleberg, and was awarded 1st Prize in the Leicester Symphony Orchestra’s Composers’ Composition for his ‘Celebration Fanfare’, which was premiered during the Orchestra’s 90th Season Gala. Various premieres followed in 2013, in the U.K. and France.

The year 2014 brought Jonathan’s music to the Cadogan Hall stage with ‘Lumières’, a programme presenting ten of his chamber works, in various constellations, performed by E. Pameijer, B. Waldmann and the Cellini Quartet. That same year, his Cello Sonata received a Russian premiere, and he was a Winner in the 2015 IBLA Grand Prize, with one of his orchestral works [the extended version of which became ‘Nocturnia’, and is featured on his third album, ‘Mistral’].

His first double CD, ‘Lunaris’, was released in 2016 to critical acclaim, a year in which further premieres took place in the U.K. and in Switzerland. In 2017 Östlund’s Piano Concertino was premiered in Athens, Greece, and Y. Revich together with M. Esnult premiered a violin and piano piece in Vienna, Austria.

His second double CD, ‘Voyages’, was released in 2019, featuring (among others) Walter Gatti, Evgeny Brakhman, Sasha Grynyuk, and Alicja Smietana. His third album release, ‘Mistral’, released in 2020, includes the recording of his Concerto No. 1 for Violin & Symphony Orchestra among other mesmerising works in varied instrumentation, and was followed by the release of his fourth album, ‘Imago’, a tour-de-force double album, in February 2022 and a further superb double album, ‘Elysian’ to be released in July 2023.

Jonathan Östlund on Divine Art

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Divine Art Announces Two Groundbreaking Woodwind Recordings

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

2 May, 2023

Announcing Chromosphere: Symphonic Colours of the Woodwind Orchestra and Twisted Skyscape both featuring the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble conducted by Shea Lolin with producer Christopher Hussey.

Chromosphere (DDX 21117)

Divine Art is honoured to present five world premiere recordings of new music performed by the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble conducted by Shea Lolin featuring the world-class instrumental playing of the principal woodwind players of the Czech Philharmonic and recorded in the glorious acoustic of the Dvořák Hall at the Rudolfinum in Prague.

Following the success of their groundbreaking 2015 album, Twisted Skyscape (to be re-issued by Divine Art in 2023, DDX 21118), conductor Shea Lolin and composer/producer Christopher Hussey have returned to Prague to record with the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, carefully curating an album of premiere recordings spotlighting the woodwind orchestra, capturing its kaleidoscopic colours and symphonic potential in order to deepen and broaden appreciation of the medium’s power.

A large chamber ensemble of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and saxophones in various sizes, the woodwind orchestra has a highly adaptable and magical tonal palette—it can be, in turn, boldly vibrant and delicately beautiful, thrillingly powerful and hauntingly tender, earnestly solemn and joyously comical.

The recorded repertoire reflects a spectrum of musical styles that exist in 21st-century concert music, ranging from the familiar and instantly singable to the more avant-garde, but always possessing an accessible and inviting musical narrative. Chromosphere is a landmark album, comprising exciting new and re-imagined pieces by leading composers in the genre and demonstrating the unique soundworld of the woodwind orchestra.

Works

Keiron Anderson Alice in Wonderland
Judith Bingham Mozart’s Pets
Charlotte Harding Bright Lights
Kamran Ince Domes
Christopher Hussey Child of the Wandering Sea

Twisted Skyscape (DDX 21118)

This groundbreaking album was the first of its kind devoted entirely to new music written for the woodwind orchestra. It features outstanding performances by the principal woodwind players of the Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Shea Lolin, and includes four world premiere recordings.

Philip Sparke Overture for Woodwinds
Gary Carpenter Pantomime
Christopher Hussey Dreamtide
Adam Gorb Battle Symphony
Christopher Hussey Twisted Skyscape

“A fantastic way to delve into the colourful world of the woodwind orchestra, with music which is varied but always approachable”
—Classical Music Magazine

SHEA LOLIN conductor

Shea Lolin studied a classical music degree in the early noughties and has worked in almost every area of the classical music industry from performing and conducting to managing several organisations and companies. With wind music taking centre stage, highlights over the last twenty years include working with the regeneration of east London in the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games, setting up and running several orchestras and recording with the Czech Philharmonic, Janáček Philharmonic and the London Woodwind Orchestra. Shea has worked with several cross-discipline musicians for hundreds of projects big and small whilst commissioning some of the best contemporary composers to write new works for various combinations of instruments.

Being a resourceful freelancer, Shea had always incorporated audio and visual materials for the music industry. This began to grow in recent years fuelled by social changes culminating in a surge in demand as the global pandemic took hold. Very recently he has undertaken aerial imaging work in Chernobyl, a production with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic along with the British composer Dr Martin Ellerby, produced an album of wind orchestra music with the Pro Arte Wind Symphony with Keiron Anderson, and several live and recorded projects with Paul Bambrough and the Purcell School. Some of this work has opened the door to larger commercial projects. His website is at shealolin.co.uk

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