Catalog

Orlando Cela demonstrates his ingenious ability to navigate complexities of postmodernism in chamber music and the avant garde with this rich recording of flute and piccolo treasures for the curious ear. Operating with a creative vision inspired by Frederic Chopin that “simplicity is the final achievement,” Cela invites the listener on a journey of experimental music beginning with Besingrand’s “Le soupir du roseau dans les bras du vent” in which the flutist explores the unexpected possibilities for creating sound with his instrument. Cela furthers the investigation with “Winter Variations,” by Lou Bunk (“featuring John Cage”), investigating, too, the possible extremes in lower dynamics.

Steven Kemper makes his debut on Ravello Records with his electroacoustic album MYTHICAL SPACES. Kemper combines acoustic instruments and electronics to create meditative compositions that explore the connections between real and imaginary worlds. Kemper writes that “myths represent traces of our collective imagination, and similarities between myths from different cultures point to a shared human experience.”

First released in 2010, JUPITER DUO showcases music for cello/piano duo, solo piano, and for solo cello by Alla Elana Cohen. She and cellist Sebastian Baverstam make up Jupiter Duo, and have performed together for many years since Baverstam was 12 years old. They perform Cohen’s highly expressive music with an unbridled intensity, and have a reputation for having a close musical connection.

Juxtaposing the loud and abrasive with the soft and subtle, the McCormick Percussion Group balances tumult and tender in KID STUFF. Led by director Robert McCormick, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the percussion orchestra re-imagines original compositions from five key contemporary classical composers.

New from Ravello Records is DECADE ZERO, a compilation of works for instruments and electronics by Christopher Biggs. The works integrate traditional instruments with live electronic processing and sound files. Biggs’ compositions focus on environmental, political, and scientific extra-musical concepts relevant to today’s world. Featuring the Western Brass Quintet, the title track, Decade Zero explores the last period in time when humanity can take decisive action to combat climate change without facing irrevocable changes to our world.

Ken Walicki is an American composer and director of the Composition Program at California State University, Fullerton. He is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic and engaging music, often using innovative instrumentation. Walicki was one of the first composers to use turntables in his music. Walicki conveys the effects of globalization and increasing dependency on technology with CYBERISTAN, a Ravello Records release. Each piece contains its own environment and its own space. The natural acoustic sounds juxtaposed against man-made sounds of electronic instrumentation supports a dichotomy of two worlds vying for supremacy but inevitably merging into one homogenous identity.

Composer Steve Rouse constructs unique and indelible sound worlds on his album MORPHIC RESONANCE, his first release with PARMA Recordings. The album is a revue of Rouse’s chamber music from the last two decades and beyond, and the works featured on MORPHIC RESONANCE demonstrate Rouse’s powerful gifts to create compelling and idiosyncratic musical statements.

Exciting new Ravello Records release I DREAM AWAKE consists of chamber music composed by new PARMA composer Bill Whitley. Whitley’s music is characterized by meditative and trance-like qualities inspired by various forms of meditation practice, and, above all, the artistic installations of Alexander Calder. Indeed, Whitley’s music seems to be primarily concerned with depicting and embodying experiences, whether they be sensory, natural, spiritual, or human experiences.

First released in 2002 on Capstone Records, Phillip Schroeder’s TURNING TO THE CENTER is a subdued, atmospheric tour de force of songs written primarily for an ensemble of baritone voice, clarinet, and keyboards. Featuring texts by Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Rumi, the three song cycles on this release offer atmospheric and varied writing for the expected baritone, clarinet, and keyboards with occasional forays into the unexpected sound worlds of synthesizer and added percussion.

With SUFFICIENT TROUBLE, his debut release on Ravello Records, composer and performer Brian Belet offers a selection of computer music composed over the last twenty years. Featuring acoustic instruments and responsive electronic materials the disc offers a degree of variety in timbre and musical content that is sometimes lacking in electronic music. In Lyra, the album’s opening track, Belet establishes an aural world in which the organic material and electronic content merge seamlessly, clearly defining the musical language to come as the album progresses.

Composer Alla Elana Cohen presents a full album of chamber works in her first Ravello Records release RED LILIES OF BELLS, GOLDEN LILIES OF BELLS, WHITE LILIES OF BELLS. Cohen is an extremely creative and evocative composer, her works are wildly imaginative. The album is rich with musical surprises that reward repeat listens.

On TWILIGHT REMEMBERED (2003), musical and marital partners Robert and Kim McCormick join forces as the McCormick Duo, performing percussion and flute, respectively. The album presents a collection of contemporary compositions for these two instruments, including works from Paul Bissell, Elliot Carter, Andre Jolivet, Ralph Shapey, David Heuser, Henri Lazarof, Hilton Jones, Wesley Fuller, Howard Buss, Kent Kennan, and Daniel Adams.

Ravello Records proudly presents the digital single PIECE BY PIECE, the PARMA debut of composer Beth Mehocic (ma•ho´•sick). Her work of the same name is scored for flute, bass clarinet, trumpet, bass trombone, violin, contrabass, and percussion and is performed by the Moravian Philharmonic Chamber Players. Piece by Piece was commissioned by the Erick Hawkins Dance Company of New York City in honor of their former director and composer-in-residence, Lucia Dlugoszewski. Dlugoszewski is known for her developments in avant-garde music technique and experimental music; thus, Mehocic includes a number of these techniques in the piece, including pitch bends, rapid glissandi, muting techniques, and extreme ranges.

Innovative New Music trumpeter Stephen Ruppenthal commands attention right out the gate. Or perhaps, more specifically, he commands it right out the “NGate” – the subtitle of the opening track on FLAMETHROWER, his Ravello Records debut. The album contains world premieres of five pieces for trumpet, flugelhorn, voice, and crotale, composed specifically for Ruppenthal by Allen Strange, Bruno Liberda, Elainie Lillios, and Brian Belet.

On MARIMBA CONCERTI WITH PERCUSSION ORCHESTRA (2006), Robert McCormick conducts his McCormick Percussion Group – an ensemble comprised of 20 marimbists and accompanied by guest pianist Corey Holt Merenda throughout. Guest conductor Cayenna Rosa Ponchione appears on her composition The Creation, the album’s concluding track.

Ravello Records presents ANIMATED SOUNDS, a multimedia release from composer Gheorghe Costinescu. The album showcases works by Costinescu from a varied and illustrious career spanning more than half a century. The first half of the release is purely musical, with pieces such as the virtuosic Sonata for the Piano and Essay in Sound, performed by pianist Stephen Gosling, and the expressive Voices Within, performed by violinist Vesselin Gellev.

Ravello Records presents VANISHING POINT, featuring saxophonist Allen Harrington and organist Lottie Enns-Braun in an unusual instrumental pairing not often heard in classical repertoire. “The saxophone and organ are wind instruments that rarely occupy the same space at the same time,” says Enns-Braun, “and it is our contention that this seemingly incongruous combination is actually quite perfect.”

Pianist Sang-Hie Lee performs original works written for two pianos, by internationally recognized composers Gerald Chenoweth, Eun-Hye Park, Lewis Nielson, Daniel Perlongo, and Paul Reller, in ARS NOSTRA: BUT NOW THE NIGHT. Along with collaborating pianist Martha Thomas, the pieces showcase the instrument as a “super piano”, unveiling textures and new combinations of sounds not accessible with a soloist.

On his debut Ravello Records release ROSE, composer Michael Laurello offers a personal and refined style marked by rhythmic invention, visceral directness, and earnest emotional depth. His music reflects his diverse stylistic influences, which include Western classical music, jazz-fusion, progressive rock/metal, and EDM/IDM. Intricate polyrhythms, high-energy grooves, and a sophisticated harmonic palette are distinctive features of his music. Laurello composes for both traditional and non-traditional musical forces, including symphony orchestra, acoustic chamber ensembles, and works conceived specifically for the recording studio. He has recently collaborated with groups such as So Percussion, the Yale Philharmonia, Sandbox Percussion, and HOCKET.

Composer and guitarist André M. Santos showcases his chamber works on his debut Ravello Records release SOUNDS OF A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE. Santos wrote each of the pieces featured on the album for fellow musicians and friends, resulting in a kaleidoscope of diverse personalities and styles. To this end, the sounds in his pieces indeed inhabit a different universe—his colorful chamber works bring together unexpected and intriguing combinations of instruments and timbres.