Catalog

MAGIC MIRROR, the second volume of composer Marty Regan's series of Selected Works for Japanese Instruments, presents a collection of works composed for traditional Japanese instrumentation with a Western-trained ear. Through the combination of his traditional classical education and intensive studies of Japanese music and culture, Regan explores the cross-cultural exchange between Eastern and Western traditions, blending the two into a dynamic sound that pushes the Japanese instruments to the very brink of their musical boundaries.

With works described as "an inspired creation" (Music & Vision), "original and quite brilliant" (Fanfare), and "immensely poetic" (Tempo), Jonathan Little has planted himself as a luminary contemporary composer. On POLYHYMNIA, his first release on Navona Records, Little is able to transform traditional influences into rich, intense, and finely structured music that lives up to his reputation.

FINE MUSIC, VOL. III is the third compilation of the Navona Records Fine Music digital series. This installment features the works of Lawrence Siegel, Sergio Cervetti, Tony Piccolo, Adrienne Albert, Daniel Perttu, Gerhard Stabler, Jane O'Leary, Jim Scully, Meira Warshauer, Piffaro, John Carollo, William Vollinger, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Lawrence Ball, and Benjamin Yusupov. This collection both highlights some of Navona's choicest tracks and offers a preview of things to come.

Swiss composer Martin Schlumpf is a man of many talents. From his early practice of jazz bass and classical cello to academic writings on composition to formal education on clarinet, piano, conducting, theory, and composition-not to mention the decades of experience as a perform across a variety of genre - Schlumpf proves that the jack of all trades can be the master, as well. With SUMMER CIRCLE, Schlumpf combines his myriad influences to craft expressive, complex chamber pieces that marry the sophisticated intricacies of jazz with the studied nuance of modern classical.

Meditative yet propulsive. Structured yet sprawling. Gossamer yet muscular. Inspired yet meticulously constructed. METHOD MUSIC by Lawrence Ball is all of these and more, a double album of highly adventurous electronic music by a master innovator of algorithmic composition.

With FIRE & TIME, Navona presents a compilation by six American composers of orchestral works united by an expansive and sublime musical vision. With programmatic influences ranging from Jungian philosophy to musings on ancient Korean art to descriptions of contrasting mountain vistas, each piece on this album asks us to not only reflect on our collective past but our communal future as well.

SOUND SPECTRUM features works for piano, soprano, and orchestra by composer Allen Bonde. Bonde draws from his personal experiences and feelings to craft beautiful pieces with a wide range of styles: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, a cohesive work cast in traditional harmony; Three Elizabethan Songs and Three Elizabethan Songs Revisited, a set of works blending simplicity and sophistication; Symphony No. 1, a kaleidoscopic orchestral piece with astounding instrumental color; Rose Window, a musical representation of the breathtaking Rose Window at Mount Holyoke Chapel; Sonus I, a 12-tonebased and freely composed piece in variation form; Four Shakespeare Songs, a fresh take on the Bard's work stylistically reflective of the 1920s; You Were The One, based on the sensitive poetry of Mary Jo Salter; and Encore Blues, a one-take improvised celebration of the recording sessions. Often performing the works himself as pianist, and in collaboration with the "Bonde Family," his oeuvres provide warmth, intimacy and compositional diversity with each piece.

CLAVIATURES is a collection of new works for piano and chamber ensemble from contemporary composers. These works by Asherov-Kalus, Scully, Tribble, Fletcher, Nagorcka, and Stölzel explore the notions of being human and observing the world around us with reflection, curiosity, and appreciation. This recording contains eight original and inspired pieces performed with talent and panache by musicians from around the world: pianists Karolina Rojahn, Lukáš Klánský, and Robert Pherigo; violinists Ondrej Lébr and Ann Marie-Brown; violist Neil Casey; clarinetist Doug Graham; flutist Lisa Hennessey; and cellist Lawrence Figg.

DIURNAL THOUGHTS is a collection of four previously unreleased works for orchestra by composer Francis Fairman. Fairman, who was born into a prolifically musical family and began his studies at a very young age, is able to translate his vivid imagination and vision directly into his music. His compositional style and musical experience allow him to craft pieces that reflect their visual inspirations, as we hear in The Fox, Diurnal Thoughts, and New York Taxi.

EMERGE is a two-disc album featuring the works of Boston-based composer Keith Kramer. Kramer's constant search for new modes of expression through music nestles itself into his music, and each piece represents another discovery in his search. His exploratory journey has helped him create a prolific catalog of music, ranging from the subtle and restrained to the ferocious and demanding.

DIVERGENCE is a collection of violin concerti written by three living composers. These works by Nicholas Sackman, Scott Michal, and William Thomas McKinley follow the traditional frameworks of the concerto with the individual stylings and influences of each composer worked into each piece; Sackman’s Concertino for Violin and Orchestra features delicate melodies surrounded by punchy rhythms, Michal’s Encomiums pays homage to three great masters of counterpoint, and McKinley’s Concert Variations takes a Mozart-like theme and gives it a 20th century fantasy variation treatment.

RASPBERRY MAN is an Enhanced EP featuring two works for narrator and instrumental ensemble by composer William Vollinger. The first, Raspberry Man, draws its inspiration from a man who made a loud raspberry noise at passersby outside a bar in New York. The second, Emmanuel Changed, draws from the change Vollinger witnessed in a troublesome chorus student.

AXIOM is the second Navona release of and the 26th addition to the Society of Composers, Inc. CD Series, featuring compositions from Michael Boyd, Joo Won Park, Israel Neuman, Liviu Marinescu, Jay C. Batzner, and Peter Van Zandt Lane. The scholarly and musical experience of each composer and the selective process SCI uses for each release create a compilation that ensures representation of the highest quality work in a variety of compositional styles.

Richmond-based composer Elliott Miles McKinley's STRING QUARTETS features three of the composer's string quartets, commissioned by the Martinu String Quartet from Prague. These works span the first decade of the 21st century and show a progression of McKinley's compositional skill, marking him as an innovative composer early in the new millennium.

GOOD NEWS FALLS GENTLY features the works of Chicago-based composer and oboist Patricia Morehead: Disquieted Souls, inspired by pre-Christian Celtic legends of goddesses and the supernatural; The Handmaid's Tale, motivated by the chilling, futuristic writing of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood; It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers, a reflection on modern times and the proclivity towards bad news; Ladders of Anxiety, an abstract work inspired by colorful medical charts that taps into our inner anxieties; and Good News Falls Gently, a setting of the poetry of Chicago-based writer Regina Harris Baiocchi that portrays an intense spiritual faith from a feminist perspective.

HEAVY PEDAL is an all-organ disc featuring the compositions of Tadd Russo, Curt Cacioppo, Ron Nagorcka, Wilhelm Middleschulte, and Michael Summers performed by organists Michael Kraft, Robert Gallagher, David Scott Hamnes, Brink Bush, and Karel Martinek. As the title implies, the pieces on this disc are on the heavier side of classical music, reaching climaxes with real stopping power.

ASTRAL VINYL is a collection of the compositions of composer, arranger, performer and producer Stephen Barber. Barber's remarkably original music draws an inner conversation free from constraints to create eclectic works that invite emotional involvement and provide fresh perspectives towards music. The works on this disc range from a piece for string quartet to a fanfare for brass ensemble to a piece for soprano, piano and steel drum trio, all of which are uniquely and brilliantly imaginative.

DEVISADERO features the original compositions of New Mexico-based composer Christopher Shultis. Through woodwinds, percussion and piano, Shultis is able to vividly describe the New Mexican wilderness and the significance of its beauty. Shultis' compositions invite the listener to experience not only the sound of the music, but what we see and think, and especially, how we breathe, as well.

Saxophone Concerto is the latest release from renowned composer Lee Actor, featuring five compositions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2009), which exploits the considerable dramatic and expressive possibilities of the saxophone; Dance Rhapsody (2010) for orchestra, which consists of several strongly rhythmic dance sections interspersed with two slower, nonrhythmic interludes; Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (2007), a work of compact dimensions, consisting of three movements; Opening Remarks (2009), a brisk, upbeat, 6-minute work for orchestra designed as a concert opener; and Celebration Overture (2007), a joyous and invigorating piece with instrumentation similar to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Actor's music is filled with rhythmic drive and shows a superb ear for orchestral color, and he is able to create music that catches the ear and draws the listener into a world of emotion and drama.

Light and Shadow is an all-new collection of modern orchestral works from composers Adrienne Albert, Daniel Perttu, Rain Worthington, Rebecca Oswald, Russ Lombardi and Tadd Russo. The works on this disc range from a musical depiction of the imagery of war to the representation of the impressionistic logic of dreams to a bold, tonal piece inspired by a property dispute. With all tracks shorter than nine minutes, this collection offers a succinct and powerful view into the world of modern orchestral composition.