The flute instrument is closely associated with the Prussian King Frederick the Great and his residence Sanssouci, as the Prussian king was a passionate flautist and numerous works were composed for him. For the recorder player Isaac Makhdoomi, it is a special challenge to transfer these works, which were actually composed for a transverse flute, to his instrument. The idea behind this was to bring new aspects and facets to the works originally composed for the transverse flute, which he actually succeeds in doing brilliantly.

SYMPHONY NO. 3 from composer Michael Kurek is a tribute to the history and natural beauty of England. The work is fundamentally Romantic, but is also influenced by Edwardian English music. The composer draws inspiration from personal memories, nature, poetry, and art; “Upon a Walk in the English Countryside,” recalls the composer’s emotional reaction to the lush, pastoral beauty of the English countryside. “Stonehenge” reflects the austerity and timelessness of that ancient monument, while “The Lady of Shalott” nods to Waterhouse’s colorful, pre-Raphaelite depiction of Tennyson’s famous poem. The symphony’s conclusion, “The Major Oak of Sherwood Forest,” celebrates the roughly 1000-year-old tree in Nottinghamshire and is perhaps the most climactic of Kurek’s works.

German jazz musician Nicole Johänntgen (*1981) is saxophonist, composer and workshop leader. She has won a total of 9 awards internationally and nationally. Among them the International Jazz Contest Monaco, the JTI Trier Jazz Award, the Seven Virtual Jazz Club Contest, the European Yamaha Saxophone Contest, the Young Soloist Contest in Fribourg. Then she received awards such as Lichtenburg Award 2023, Art Award 2022 Saarland, Sponsorship Award of Saarlandic Radio and Sparkassen Finance Group Saar and the first prize for the best composition of Jazzclub Moods in Switzerland. Nicole Johänntgen has played with stars like Daniel Powter (Bad day), Roger Cicero, Eric Harland, Aaron Parks, Nils Landgren and is on CD release tour with her band Nicole Johänntgen “Labyrinth”.

If you're a jazz fan in the Ann Arbor area, you know Paul Vornhagen. The saxophonist-flutist-pianist-singer has been a mainstay in the area for 40 years as the leader of his own bands as well as Tumbao Bravo while also playing with The Lunar Quartet, Kozora Quartet, and a few world-music-leaning ensembles.

The sixth recording in the Young Composers series – a collaboration with the National Youth Choir. The works featured on the recording are by Jamie Powe, Crystalla Serghiou, Áine Mallon and Cameron Biles-Liddell, the four National Youth Choir Young Composers for 2024. Their works are based around the creative theme of ‘Evolve’, which coincides with the refresh of National Youth Choir’s ensemble names earlier last year.

Under the title Amoroso pensamiento (a text by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the greatest writers in the world), we present a very special selection of works by great musical figures and texts by writers who contributed to the splendor of the Spanish Baroque. The Golden Age is called the "Golden Age" of Spain because philosophy, art, music and literature flourished between 1492 and 1681.

NYFOS Record’s latest release is Schubert / Beatles featuring baritone Theo Hoffman, pianists Steven Blier and Kunal Lahiry, and special guests soprano Julia Bullock and tenor Andrew Owens. First introduced to NYFOS audiences in NYC eight years ago as a thrilling live concert, this program pairs Schubert songs with Beatles songs on similar themes, and, in Blier’s words, “Lo and behold, the Holy of Holies sits comfortably next to the Oldie of Oldies.” Yesterday and Im Frühling are hymns to lost love, while Der Wanderer an den Mond and She’s Leaving Home tell contrasting stories of young people cast adrift into the world.

The genre of solo concertos has become increasingly important for Peter Ruzicka since the 1990s. In his oeuvre, it mediates between the dramatic forms of music theater and orchestral or ensemble works. The four compositions on this CD were created over a decade: AULODIE in 2011, STILL in 2016 (included as the final movement in the Chamber Symphony in 2021), the second concerto for viola or violin and large orchestra in 2020 and 2021 (expanded to include a chamber choir in the violin concerto). DEPART and EINGEDUNKELT were written when cultural life was at a standstill due to the COVID pandemic. For both, remembering acts as an elixir of life, and in both, Paul Celan once again takes center stage in Ruzicka's music. In DEPART, the title and form refer to the poet, "who knew how to name the wounds of the 20th century like no other" (P. Ruzicka), in EINGEDUNKELT his poetry forms the center.

ATMA Classique, Ensemble ArtChoral and Mécénat Musica are proud to present Art choral, vol. 6: Moderne with Ensemble ArtChoral under the direction of Matthias Maute. Volume 6 surveys modern choral repertoire from 20th and 21st century composers, including Canadian Andrew Balfour (Præter rerum seriem), Americans Samuel Barber (Agnus Dei), Aaron Copland (Help Us, O Lord), and Morten Lauridsen (O magnum mysterium), and English composer Edward Elgar, among others. The album features outstanding works in the modern choral repertoire, some of which have become a reference point for any choir open to contemporary music.

Guitarist and composer Stein Urheim has been a prominent artist in the HUBRO catalog for more than ten years. In addition to releases under his own name, he has contributed to albums by Erlend Apneseth, Benedicte Maurseth, a duo with Jørgen Træen, and most recently, the critically acclaimed "Barefoot in Bryophyte" with Mari Kvien Brunvoll and Moskus. On January 31st 2025, HUBRO will release "Speilstillevariasjoner". For these recordings, Urheim invited a group of highly distinctive musicians to collaborate, resulting in his most original and uncompromising album to date. The outcome is experienced as both poetic, atmospheric and mind-expanding.

Didier Rotella’s "Zone Grise" unfolds in a space of perpetual transformation, where sound navigates between density and purity, acoustic and electronic, structure and fluidity. Catharsis combines hybrid instruments and spatialized textures to evoke a dramatic journey of evolution and renewal, while Fragrances draws inspiration from perfume composition, blending musical elements into a rich, multi-layered tapestry. Mogari reflects on ritual and humanity through augmented instruments and poetic gestures, tracing a spiritual passage from lament to resolution. Each piece reveals Rotella’s ability to craft intricate, ever-shifting soundscapes that invite reflection on balance, motion, and the ephemeral nature of musical expression.

Doktor Faust was left incomplete at the time of Busoni’s death. Intended as his masterpiece, the opera’s genesis was complex and long. Based on Goethe’s tragic play, the story of Faust’s pact with the devil is well known but the opera’s structure represents Busoni’s unique conception, cast in two Prologues, a beautiful orchestral Intermezzo and three scenes. Exploring ideas of rationality and metaphysical doubt as well as the concepts of artifice and pretence inherent in operatic performance, the result is one of the most creative and unsettling of Busoni’s works.

For years, the artists Peter Herbert and Wolfgang Mitterer have been linked by a professional and friendly bond. Peter Herbert, the busy jack-of-all-trades, who says he prefers playing in a duo rather than alone, and Wolfgang Mitterer, who always creates the necessary sensation for some brutal sounds. The first conscious perception of Mitterer's brilliant playing style - according to Peter Herbert - was at a concert by the legendary band The Pat Brothers (Linda Sharock/Wolfgang Puschnig/Wolfgang Reisinger/Wolfgang Mitterer). Since then, Peter Herbert has harbored the desire to record an album with Wolfgang Mitterer as a duo, as both are at home in jazz and improvisational music. Several collaborations followed over the decades, but the duo album had to wait until today.

November, Doug's 19th release, is filled with the colors of Autumn. It takes us through the month in New England, from darker and colder days to the first snow and the precious warmup of an Indian Summer before winter sets in. It includes 13 meticulously crafted original compositions, emotively performed in Doug’s signature style.

This album is a brilliant example of how the saxophone can interact with a string ensemble. The original compositions offer moments of lyrical beauty, complex harmonic interplay and moments of quiet introspection that speak for Peter Lehel`s maturity both as composer and improviser.