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Sequenza21 | Contemporary Classical Music Blog - Music
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Gwenifer Raymond: “Jack Parsons Blues” (New song) – Sequenza21
Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark by Gwenifer Raymond Gwenifer Raymond will release her third full length recording Last Night I Heard the Dog Bark (We Are Busy Bodies) on September 5th, 2025. Ahead of the release, she is sharing the track "Jack Parsons Blues." A gentle vocal abetted by the ta
Mara Gibson – Unseen World – Sequenza21
Unseen World is a new release by composer Mara Gibson on the Mark Custom recording label. The album consists of five works composed between 2020 and 2024 that are inspired by vivid visual art that is both expressive and complex. Various instrumental ensembles are employed including a piano and cell
Swimming Bell’s Early Summer Serenade – Sequenza21
Swimming Bell Somnia EP Perpetual Doom Summers have been getting progressively hotter in much of the world. Here in the Northeast United States, we have had a mild Spring, but anticipate that summer will be a scorcher. Happily, singer/songwriter Katie Schottland ‘s project Swimming Bel
Alisa Weilerstein’s Fragments 3 Program at Zankel Hall (Concert review) – Sequenza21
Fragments 3: Alisa Weilerstein at Zankel Hall May 20th, 2025 Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey NEW YORK - Alisa Weilerstein is a supremely gifted cellist, and it is hard to imagine being anything less than riveted by her playing. At Zankel Hall last Tuesday, she made decis
Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn Perform Glass at Merkin Hall – Sequenza21
Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn Perform Glass at Merkin Hall Kaufman Music Center Piano Dialogues Simone Dinnerstein with Baroklyn May 12, 2025 Published on Sequenza 21 NEW YORK - Last Monday, the pianist Simone Dinnerstein brought her Baroklyn project to Kaufman Musi
Quatuor Diotima Plays Boulez (CD Review) – Sequenza21
Pierre Boulez - Livre pour quatuor Quatuor Diotima Pentatone Record CD/download The centenary of Pierre Boulez’s birth has been celebrated with concerts, books and recordings. The Diotima Quartet’s Pentatone CD of Livre pour quatuor (1948-1949, 2017) is a distinctive offering in that i
Stile Antico Sings Palestrina at St. Mary’s – Sequenza21
Stile Antico Sings Palestrina at St. Mary’s March 29, 2025 Church of St. Mary the Virgin NEW YORK - Celebrating their twentieth year, the vocal ensemble Stile Antico brought a program dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s birth to Miller
Miguel Zenón – Golden City (CD Review)
Miguel Zenón Golden City Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón’s sixteenth album, Golden City has been well-received, its plaudits including a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. The eleven original compositions are excellent vehicles for soloing. A standout is “Arts of Exclusio
Seattle Symphony announces 2025–26 season
Seattle Symphony unveiled its 2025–26 season, the first under incoming Music Director Xian Zhang. She brings two steady if unglamorous hands to the wheel of an organization with a troubled recent history, but only a lackluster commitment to exploratory new music.
Preview: Pianists Adam Sherkin and Anthony de Mare: “Composers in Play XV”
The Canadian pianist/composer Adam Sherkin shares music from his home country on an extensive program at Merkin Hall in New York on March 15, 2025. “Composers in Play XV” is presented by Piano Lunaire, an organization launched by Sherkin and his colleagues in 2018. On this occasion he joins forces w
New Single: Khruangbin remixes Arooj Aftab
Khruangbin remixes Arooj Aftab Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign was one of my favorite recordings of 2024. Released today, the Thai funk by way of Texas artists Khruangbin have made a remix of one of the album’s most memorable tracks, “raat ki rani.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2qG0GOpwnI
Satie (CD Review)
Satie Alain Planès, Pleyel piano (1928) François Pinel, piano duets, Marc Mauillon, baritone Harmonia Mundi In 2025, substantial attention is being paid to the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth. Pianist Alain Planès has instead decided to celebrate the centenary of Erik Sat
Remaking a Rug Concert: Boulez at 100
Sound On: A Tribute to Boulez The New York Philharmonic, Conducted by David Robertson Jane McIntyre, Soprano David Geffen Hall, January 25, 2025 By Christian Carey - Sequenza 21 NEW YORK - If you think that audience development is a relatively new practice, then you may not have
Lisa Illean Debut on NMC (CD Review)
Lisa Illean Arcing, stilling, bending, gathering NMC Records, 2024 Composer Lisa Illean (b. 1983) is from Australia and has been based in recent years in the UK. Her work encompasses a variety of techniques, including alternate tunings and sampled electronics. These are means to consummately ex
Compelling and Visceral: “In a Grove” and Arooj Aftab at Prototype
PROTOTYPE – OPERA | THEATRE | NOW defines itself as a “festival of visionary opera-theatre and music-theatre works”. Its presentation of In a Grove (January 16 – 19, 2025) was as close as Prototype comes to conventional opera in the context of eschewing tradition. It was also one of the most compell
Canyons compilation benefits LA Firefighters
Canyons compilation Sequenza 21 friend Nick Norton has speedily put together a digital compilation called "Canyons” to benefit LA firefighters. It is a loaded setlist, with contributions from India Galley, Dustin Wong, Molly Pease, Isaac Schankler, Nicholas Deyoe, Warp Trio, and more. The release
Kalevi Aho’s String Quartets (CD Review)
Kalevi Aho String Quartets 1-3 Stenhammar Quartet BIS Kalevi Aho (1949-) is a prominent Finnish composer whose oeuvre includes a number of orchestral and chamber works and a smaller body of vocal music. His string quartets are from relatively early in his career, the first from quit
Persist – Ethel and Loggins-Hull (CD Review)
Persist Ethel and Allison Loggins-Hull Sono Luminus The string quartet Ethel presents a characteristically diverse program of contemporary music on Persist, their first recording for Sono Luminus. They are joined by composer/flutist Allison Loggins-Hull and the resulting quintet are st
Music for Trumpets, Bass Clarinets, and Saxophones (CD Review)
Music for Trumpets, Bass Clarinets, and Saxophones Aural Terrains Rebecca Toal, Katie Lodge, Bradley Jones, trumpets Raymond Brien, Michelle Hromin, Eb and bass clarinets Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, bass clarinets Robert Burton, soprano saxophone Julie Kjaer, alto saxophone, Tim
Post-identity music: Schell’s picks for 2024
It’s been a somber year, with wars, conflicts, and intractable cultural and political divisions weighing on the lives and thoughts of many, including those with an investment in Western art music. I’ll endeavor to assess the situation not only musically, but also against the backdrop of a serious de
Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall (Concert Review)
Music Sacra Classics for Christmas: Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra Kent Tritle, conductor Simone Dinnerstein, piano Susanna Phillips, soprano Carnegie Hall December 18, 2024 NEW YORK - Musica Sacra, directed by Kent Tritle, gave a concert o
Jeremy Denk at 92nd Street Y (Concert Review
92nd Street Y Thursday, December 2024 Photos courtesy of Joseph Sinnott NEW YORK - When devising a recital program, pianist Jeremy Denk always provides thematic interest to abet the musical diversions. The centerpiece and entire second half of his performance at the 92nd Street Y was t
Frederica von Stade bids farewell on Naxos Recording (CD Review)
Crimson Roses: Contemporary American Choral Music Naxos Music CD Musica Viva Choir and Orchestra, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor Erin Sensenig, soprano Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano After a lengthy and illustrious career, the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade says far
Piano Music by Kenneth Hesketh (CD Review)
Kenneth Hesketh Hände - Music for Piano Clare Hammond, Paladino Music Composer Kenneth Hesketh has written several works for piano, and Clare Hammond has for years been their most dedicated advocate. Hände is a collection of her detailed performances of seven pieces, ranging from minia
Two Early Music Groups Visit New York (Concert Review)
Two Early Music Ensembles Visit New York Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Fretwork, viols, and Silas Wollston, organ and virginal, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, December 3rd, 2024 The Tallis Scholars, presented by Miller Theatre’s Early Music Series at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, December 5th, 2
Jason Anick and Jason Yeager – Sanctuary (Recording Review)
Jason Anick and Jason Yeager - Sanctuary (Sunnyside) Violinist Jason Anick and pianist Jason Yeager last recorded together in 2017, and their album Unite revealed a simpatico pairing. Just as it was thematically constructed around its title, Sanctuary, their 2024 Sunnyside release, seeks to
VIVA 21ST CENTURY and VIVA 20 YEARS!
For more than 25 years, WPRB's Marvin Rosen has been one of radio's greatest champions of living composers, playing works by many, many hundreds of composers both greater and lesser known, with an especially strong emphasis on gender and racial equity. Marvin's curiosity and openness towards the mus
Two Favorite of 2024 Recordings from Ethan Iverson (CD Review)
Ethan Iverson - Technically Acceptable (Blue Note CD, 2024) Ethan Iverson - Playfair Sonatas (Urlicht Audiovisual 2xCD, 2024) Ethan Iverson is one of the foremost jazz pianists of his generation. An alumnus of the Bad Plus, he has since appeared with a number of artists, both live and on
Francesco Tristano – Bach: The 6 Partitas (CD review)
Bach: The 6 Partitas Francesco Tristano, piano Naïve 2XCD In his 2024 recording for Naïve, pianist Francesco Tristano interprets some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most challenging pieces, the six Partitas for clavier. Tristano’s 2022 On Early Music was an admirable outing, with pieces by
James Romig – Matt Sargent – The Fragility of Time (Recording review)
James Romig The Fragility of Time A Wave Press Matt Sargent, Guitar Composer James Romig’s previous piece for electric guitar, The Complexity of Distance, written for Mike Scheidt, was an overwhelming paean to distorted revelry. It was a swerve from Romig’s previous compositions, wh
Winterreise on DG (CD Review)
Franz Schubert - Winterreise André Schuen, baritone and Daniel Heide, piano Deutsche Grammophon Winterreise is the third recording of Schubert’s cycles/song sets (Schwanengesang isn’t a cycle - it has multiple poets) by baritone André Schuen and pianist Daniel Heide. These were some of
Danish String Quartet – Keel Road on ECM (CD Review)
Danish String Quartet Keel Road ECM Records ECM 2785 Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, Violin, Clog Fiddle, Harmonium, Spinet, Voice, Whistle; Frederik Øland, Violin, Voice, Whistle; Asbjørn Nørgaard, Viola, Voice, Whistle; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, Violoncello, Bass, Voice, Whistle; Nikolaj B
Ban and Maneri – Transylvanian Dance on ECM (CD Review)
Transylvanian Dance Lucian Ban, piano Mat Maneri, viola ECM Records “These folk songs teach us many things.” Transylvanian Dance is the second recording on ECM by pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri; the first was Transylvanian Concert (2013). As the album title sugges
Leo Chadburn Primordial Pieces (CD Review
Leo Chadburn - Primordial Pieces (self-released) Composer and synthesizer performer Leo Chadburn uses very little in the way of material, but it is employed to craft expansive compositions. On “Reflecting Pool,” pianist Ben Smith plays repeated arpeggios with a sustained low note, shadowed b
Laura Lentz releases new EP (CD review)
Laura Lentz Prismatic/Plasmonic EP Music for flute and electronics Laura Lentz, flutes; Sean William Calhoun, electronics Blue on Blue Records Laura Lentz’s Prismatic/Plasmonic EP consists of three works, each addressing contemporary approaches in a different fashion. Lentz plays beaut
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Aletheia – Choral Works (CD Review)
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Aletheia - Choral Works Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Kļava, artistic director and conductor Ondine Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973) divides her time between her home country, Lithuania, and the United States. Her works have earned her accolades and laurels
The Sixteen at St. Mary’s (Concert Review)
The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers The Deer’s Cry Miller Theatre Early Music Series at Church of St. Mary the Virgin Saturday, October 26, 2024 NEW YORK - This past Saturday, renowned British vocal ensemble The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, made their Miller Th