Doug MacLeod Wins Acoustic Artist Blues Music Award!
Congratulations to Doug MacLeod on his 2017 Acoustic Artist Blues Music Award! July 7th will mark the release of his next recording with Reference Recordings, Break The Chain, in which Doug continues to explore the breadth and depth of the human condition. Each of the twelve new original songs is extremely personal and at the same time, universal; covering subjects topical, humorous, and soulful; from the satirical to the sublime. Break The Chain will be…
Adam Schoenberg Orchestral Music a Recording of the Month!
Order Now The Kansas City Symphony‘s Adam Schoenberg Orchestral Music recording is a MusicWeb International Recording of the Month! “There is no doubt that the music is technically challenging and the writing is often complex. However, it seems to me that Schoenberg’s achievement in these three scores is that he has written music that, no matter how technically demanding it may be, never leaves the listener behind. There’s absolutely no condescension to the listener yet…
Dallas Winds Interview with Christopher Martin
New York Philharmonic Principal Trumpet, Christopher Martin talks with the Dallas Wind Symphony. Christopher Martin will be the guest soloist on John Mackey’s “Antique Violences” on the Dallas Winds’ next recording project. Their Kickstarter for the recording is at 80% with 6 days to go, and was selected as a “Project We Love” by Kickstarter – so make sure to help them get over the top by supporting the project! Support The Project Dallas Wind…
Manfred Honeck Interview in Presto Classical
Before the Vienna Spring Concerts, Manfred Honeck spoke with Presto Classical‘s Katherine Cooper about his career, the music of Strauss and more: KC: You began your career as a viola-player with the great Viennese orchestras, but have spent the past ten years as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Do you notice any stylistic differences between American and Austrian orchestras, and do you feel that there’s still such a thing as a distinctive ‘Viennese…
Podcast Interview With Fiona Boyes
Fiona Boyes joins the “Staces Place” podcast for a 45-minute interview! Listen below courtesy of the Stace’s Place Podcast: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/stacesplace/Pods/SP33Fiona.mp3 Order Now Fiona Boyes: Professin’ The Blues Professin’ The Blues proclaims Fiona Boyes passion for the Blues as she celebrates the unique contribution of recording and mastering engineer ‘Professor’ Keith O. Johnson, Reference Recording’s Technical Director and audio legend. In her self-penned and illustrated liner notes Fiona makes the declaration, “’Professor’ Keith’s amazing approach to…
Pre-Order Doug MacLeod: Break The Chain!
Order Now Break The Chain In this release, his third album for Reference Recordings, Doug MacLeod continues to explore the breadth and depth of the human condition. Recorded by Reference’s Grammy-winning engineer ‘Prof.’ Keith O. Johnson at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California, Break The Chain brings twelve new MacLeod originals. Each song is extremely personal and at the same time, universal; covering subjects topical, humorous, and soulful; from the satirical to the sublime. The…
What Inspires Adam Schoenberg?
Order Now The Meet The Artist blog has a wonderful new interview with composer Adam Schoenberg: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music? My father is a world-class piano improviser, and my mother is a lyricist and children’s book author. I was surrounded by music my entire life, and began playing the piano at the age of three. Looking back, it was almost inevitable that I would eventually become a composer.…
Joel Fan Live on KUAF
Joel Fan talks with KUAF radio about exploring world music and performs Dia Succari’s La Nuit du Destin live! Joel Fan Recordings
Don’t be without Pittsburgh Symphony’s Rosenkavalier Suite
Order Now “The Pittsburgh Symphony is one of America’s more Germanic orchestras and is well suited to Strauss. The brass are terrific, and the strings play with a powerful Teutonic sound. Reference Recordings is known as an audiophile label, and it earns that distinction here, particularly in Elektra, whose extreme demands it meets especially well. Even opera purists should enjoy this program. Honeck’s booklet notes include detailed time indiciations of what is going on in…
Dick Hyman NEA Jazz Master Interview
April 3rd, Dick Hyman was featured in a concert honoring him as a 2017 NEA Jazz Master. Along with the concert, each of the artists was featured in an ArtWorks Podcast. Listen to the interview with Dick Hyman via YouTube: The 2017 NEA Jazzmasters include (in order of above photo from L-R): Dave Holland – Bassist, Cellist, Composer, Bandleader Dick Hyman – Keyboardist, Composer, Arranger Dee Dee Bridgewater – Vocalist, Producer, Broadcaster Dr. Lonnie Smith…
Manfred Honeck’s Strauss Opera Suites Recording is Groundbreaking!
Order Now “This is a groundbreaking recording—and a wonderful one!…Manfred Honeck himself catalysed the effort, in collaboration with Czech composer Tomás Ille. … Strauss pushes the borders of harmony in Elektra and employs a complex orchestra of 110, larger than most of his tone poems. … Honeck has marginally rescored it down to the merely mammoth forces customarily used in Strauss’s tone poems. Most importantly, he has woven the punchy, mercurial, polyphonic score into a…
Textura Raves for Schoenberg’s Orchestral Music
Order Now Textura Magazine offers high praise for composer Adam Schoenberg and the Kansas City Symphony’s recording of his orchestral music: “There’s something distinctly American about Adam Schoenberg’s music, and it’s not just because one of the pieces on this recording bears the title American Symphony. Largely tonal, melodically rich, and rhythmically robust… If any composer looms large as a point of reference, it’s Aaron Copland, though there are moments when one might be reminded…
Help Fund A New DWS Recording!
Be a part of the team that creates the first all John Mackey CD, by supporting the Dallas Winds’ new “Asphalt Cocktail” Kickstarter! Rewards start at just $10 (which gets you an advanced digital download)! John Mackey’s music runs the gamut of human emotion, from the sublime to the ridiculous. One minute he offers the sound of ripping metal, then suddenly gives you a melody that’s achingly beautiful. Click to back the project Asphalt Cocktail:…
Adam Schoenberg is a Rising Star
Order Now “Currently teaching at Occidental College in Los Angeles, [Adam Schoenberg]’s a rising star, his tonal, tuneful, colourfully scored music performed by orchestras across the US. … [Finding Rothko] successfully mirrors Rothko’s art — atmospheric, meditative and imposing, with shimmering colours that effectively play against each other in unexpected ways.… Schoenberg’s five-movement American Symphony (2011) begins and ends with buoyant optimism, powered by quasi- minimalist ostinatos. Two solemn, slow movements, built on sustained Coplandesque…
ClassicalEar on Adam Schoenberg’s Orchestral Music: Superb
Order Now “Schoenberg’s painterly soundscapes fall very easily on the ear… Best in my view are the Picture Studies, especially the Stravinskyan ferocity of ‘Kandinsky’ and ‘Miró’, which is bouncy and percussive, with telling use of an E-flat clarinet. The closing piece, ‘Pigeons in Flight’ after a photograph by Francis Blake recalls, like certain other works on the disc, the gently pulsing, harmonically pleasing delirium of Reich, though Schoenberg’s style more approximates the composing manners…