Performer, composer and recording artist Greg C. Brown picked up a guitar in 1982, and since then it has shaped his life. After playing in metal and rock bands in the eighties and early nineties, Brown turned his attention to classical guitar. Brown received formal instruction from various teachers, performers and composers, including Pepe Romero (California State University, San Diego), Douglas James (Appalachian State University), Keith Stevens (James Madison University), Christopher Berg (University of South Carolina), Thomas Patterson (Arizona State University), Martha Masters (Loyola and President of the Guitar Foundation of America) and Anthony Glise, who was nominated for a Pulitzer-prize for composition. His musical interests moves beyond the borders of the US, across Europe and into Asia; Brown cites such diverse influences as Beethoven, Eddie Van Halen, Paganini, and the countless composers of traditional Spanish, Flamenco, and Chinese music. Recording artist Benjamin Verdery of Yale University advised Brown to “think outside the box” and draw from his varied interests and personal experiences to create his own style.

Brown showcased his new compositional style with his first CD, Collected Works for Guitar, released in 1996, which included his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. In 1997, Brown was commissioned to write another piece for guitar and orchestra. Brown’s tone poem Transylvania premiered with the Charlottesville Chamber Orchestra and is the title track of Brown’s second disc, released in 1999. Brown’s third disc, Distant Places, best displays his diverse talent. The disc includes Arabic, Asian, and American influenced works for solo guitar, a rhumba, two orchestral pieces and the return of his electric guitar. As Brown matured in his compositional voice, he has felt more comfortable integrating techniques from his electric days and expanding knowledge of world music.

His next CD, Sojourns in Solitude was released in 2006. This acoustic album is half steel string and half classical with a newly re-mastered Transylvania as a finale. In 2014, Mr. Brown released a CD containing most of his Chamber Music, called 2014. Also available for download, the medley Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective from the Zojoi Video Game series of the same name for which he composed music. His CD, “Recuerdos de Espana” was released in Spring 2016 and features Greg’s love of the music from Spain. 2017 was a big year for Mr. Brown. He released his first ever all blues CD called “Just Tell Me Why” and was selected to participate in the Benjamin Verdery (Yale) Masterclass/Concert Series in Maui. In the Fall, Greg will be released another chamber music CD called “Wanderings” which will feature two tracks on ukulele as well as another electric rock album called “Another Dose”.

2018 has been very productive so far for Mr. Brown. To date he has remastered his old thrash metal band “Age of Fire” for a 30th anniversary release plus 2 new tunes. His first self titled CD will be out in May. This disc will contain recordings that haven’t been available in 20 years, a smattering of tracks throughout the years and 20 minutes of new music. This collection only contains works for guitar, either solo, duet or in trio form. Greg will also be performing in Canada and New York city in the fall.

Brown has been a member of the Guitar Foundation of America, the Charlottesville Classical Guitar Society, the College Music Society and the Society of Composers, Inc. He taught guitar at Mary Baldwin College from 2004-2006, and is currently teaching privately in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, where he resides. He is a graduate of the Music, Video and Business program at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. His music has been heard on TV, Film and Video Games and has been transcribed into braille. Mr. Brown’s recordings are distributed globally through The Orchard and wherever files can be downloaded. His compositions are available through Les Productions D’Oz. In 2015, Brown started his own publishing company, Greg C Brown Guitar Publications to distribute his orchestral and other works.

For more information on Greg, please visit:
Gregory Charles Brown Bandcamp
Greg Brown Guitar

The siblings Marie-Luise and Christoph Dingler are specialists in the category violin duo. Raised in a musical environment – grandfather a musical director, mother a Cantor and harpsichordist – they achieved their high level of musicianship and unique sound after years of performing together. Their passion and main objective is not only to perfect the existing repertoire, but also to carry the tradition of “violin duo “into the current times.

Both started to play violin at the age of 7 and participated already 4 years later in „Jugend musiziert“, a nation-wide competition, where they won the first award six times in the following years. They are winners of Adolf Metzner Foundation, the Heinrich Vetter Foundation, the Kiwanis Club, the Bruno-Herrmann Prize, the European music competition and the International Violin Competition Hofheim, just to mention a few. As soloists they performed with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Baden-Baden, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra, the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès (Barcelona), the New Ideas Chamber Orchestra (Lithuania), the Mannheimer Philharmonic, the Kurpfälzische Chamber Orchestra and appeared several times on TV and radio stations nationally and Internationally (SWR, SWR2, RBB, Center TV, Desh TV and many others). They performed internationally in India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Tunisia, Spain, Italy, France, Lithuania, Austria and Switzerland, at national and international festivals (including cultural summer Nord Hessen, Weilburger Schlosskonzerte, Villa Musica, Musik Erlebnis Munich, Podium Festival Esslingen, Kintai Music Festival Lithuania) and as guest artists on the cruise ship MS Europa 2.They shared the stage with known artists ‚Spark – the classic band‘ and Yuri Revich (both ECHO – Award winner). Both studied violin with Prof. Bratchkova at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim (diploma of artistic education and solo education) and since then pass their knowledge on to subsequent generations. In 2009 the Twiolins initiated the 1st Progressive Classical Music Award, to enrich and broaden the repertoire for two violins. In 2012 the Twiolins were awarded the “Helene-Hecht-Preis” for their efforts. 2011 they released the CD VIRTUOSO featuring the winning works, followed by the CDs SUNFIRE and SECRET PLACES after every three years.

For more information, please visit: www.thetwiolins.de

Alexandre Perotto - 35, is a self developed visual artist, photographer, art director and composer - based in Brasília, Brazil. His work is inspired by his life, memories, the natural and surreal world.

Perotto's artworks and photos were featured on advertising, magazines, calendars, house decor, album covers and exhibited in art galleries.

Website: www.alexandreperotto.in

Instagram: www.instagram.com/perotto

Be sure to join us in August as Classical Music Discoveries celebrates Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday.

During August you will be treated to Bernstein's ballets, operatic works, film scores, musicals, incidental music and orchestral works.

If you are a fan of Bernstein, you will not want to miss the musical birthday cake we are serving in August.

Only on Classical Music Discoveries, the world's most popular choice for classical music.

Welcome to Classical Music Discoveries' Season 14!

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FLARE
VOLUME 32
Society of Composers, Inc.

Navona Records proudly presents Flare, recordings by members of the Society of Composers, Inc. Now in its 32nd installment, it offers a veritable cross-section of some of the most original voices in composition today.

The album opens with 20-year-old Vaibhav Mohanty's Rhapsody No. 1 (2017), traveling through elements of Western classical composition, jazz, and Indian traditional music with such well-proportioned naturalness and ease, it bears all the telltale signs of an instant repertoire classic.

Robert Strobel's Refugees, a dynamic piano composition reminiscent of Takemitsu, explores the human drama of displacement in profoundly thought-out rhythmic and melodic structures. Continuing with the musical tradition of the 20th century, Keith Kramer transcends Olivier Messiaen's harmonic heritage in his oboe/piano duo L'etere del Tempo.

Rejuvenated by Matthew J. Jaskot perambulates a futuristic universe of musical expression in seven diverse piano variations, miraculously springing forth from a simple pentatonic melody. In contrast, Jonathan Graybill draws inspiration from ancient Cherokee mysticism and lends a mysterious voice to the black-capped chickadee in Tsigili'I, illustrating its mythological association as a messenger of wisdom and truth.

In Song of the Avadhut, Romanian composer Gabriel Mălăncioiu aims to affect human consciousness in an avant-gardesque duet between soprano and violin, influenced by the teachings of modern and ancient mystics. Jacob Thiede's When All Else Fails contrasts the sonorous texture of a tuba with the mathematical perfection of computerized sine tones. In Dreams Interrupted, Mark W. Phillips fuses jazz, blues, and classical elements into a rhapsodic tribute to the cultural heritage of Memphis TN.

Wonderful Town is a 1953 musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of two sisters who aspire to be a writer and actress respectively, seeking success from their basement apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. It is based on Fields and Chodorov's 1940 play My Sister Eileen, which in turn originated from autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney first published in The New Yorker in the late 1930s and later published in book form as My Sister Eileen. Only the last two stories in McKenney's book were used, and they were heavily modified.

Wonderful Town premiered on Broadway in 1953, starring Rosalind Russell in the role of Ruth Sherwood, Edie Adams as Eileen Sherwood, and George Gaynes as Robert Baker. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress, and spawned three New York City Center productions between 1958 and 1966, a 1986 West End production and 2003 Broadway revival. It is a lighter piece than Bernstein's later works, West Side Story and Candide, but none of the songs have become as popular.

SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA
Joe Sheehan

SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA, Joe Sheehan’s debut on Ansonica Records, finds the composer and pianist fusing his passion for the music of West Africa, particularly that of Ghana, with his background in both classical chamber music and contemporary jazz. SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA features nine traditional Ghanian songs surrounded by original music composed by Sheehan, performed by two critically acclaimed groups: Kinetic and Kassia Ensemble.

Sheehan returned to Ghana several times after a life-changing trip in 2008, between 2013 and 2017, to further explore the country and its music. The intensity of these studies, which included many unforgettable late nights drumming and dancing, continued to inspire him, resulting in Kinetic’s 2014 recording, World of Wonder, and now in SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA.

To promote the values of open, critical cross-cultural dialogue, this genre-bending album challenges the persistent notion of drumming being the sole outstanding feature of traditional African music. Kinetic, which Sheehan founded, is comprised of five versatile musicians who believe in breaking down barriers between traditional music genres and audiences. The newly-formed Kassia Ensemble is equally focused on breaking down barriers – the all-woman group came together to supersede the gender barrier that is prevalent in classical music.

SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA features vocalist Anqwenique Wingfield singing in various indigenous languages and styles representative of Ghana’s ethnic diversity. The amalgamation of the Kassia Ensemble’s and Kinetic’s musicians represents an equally diverse spirit, incorporating whose work outside these groups extends to contemporary classical, R&B and hip-hop.

SONGS OF LAKE VOLTA expresses Sheehan’s joy and admiration for Ghanian music in an honest and respectful way, sharing a wisdom that unites the three music traditions from which it draws influence: West African, classical and jazz.

TRACK LISTING
01 Akoo Kofi 4:08
02 Damba Suite 6:42
03 Nyento 6:35
04 Oye 6:51
05 Subo 4:09
06 Confornoche 5:48
07 Kekele 5:06
08 Dusime 7:29
09 Dama Dama 4:42

West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

The story is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City in the mid 1950s, an ethnic, blue-collar neighborhood (in the early 1960s, much of the neighborhood was cleared in an urban renewal project for the Lincoln Center, which changed the neighborhood's character). The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of the Sharks, from Puerto Rico, are taunted by the Jets, a white gang. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang's leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein's score for the musical includes "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America", "Somewhere", "Tonight", "Jet Song", "I Feel Pretty", "A Boy Like That", "One Hand, One Heart", "Gee, Officer Krupke", and "Cool".

The original 1957 Broadway production, conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Musical in 1957, but the award for Best Musical went to Meredith Willson's The Music Man. Robbins won the Tony Award for his choreography and Oliver Smith won for his scenic designs. The show had an even longer-running London production, a number of revivals and international productions. A 1961 musical film adaptation, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including George Chakiris for Supporting Actor, Rita Moreno for Supporting Actress, and Best Picture.

UNEXPLORED
NADA RADULOVICH
CULLAN BRYANT

The four works on UNEXPLORED, offer an expansive variety of musical genres while introducing listeners to previously unrecorded cello repertoire. Premiere recordings of works by Tchaikovsky, Cassadó, Rudnytsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov are presented by cellist Nada Radulovich and pianist Cullan Bryant.

Tchaikovsky’s Six French Songs, opus 65, dedicated to Madame Desirée Artôt de Padilla, are settings of works of three French poets. The intensity of these poems is amplified by Tchaikovsky’s music. They find a convincing voice in this transcription for cello. Although this is a fully instrumental program, Radulovich provides the only available English translation of this poetry with this album at Navona Records. Published by Ovation Press.

The passionate and compelling voice of Cassadó (1897-1966) in his Sonata of 1924, deserves to be widely shared and enjoyed . This four movement work is dedicated to Donna Giulietta von Mendelssohn who was said to ‘sing like a mermaid and play the piano like Liszt’ . This compelling work, presented here for the first time, represents various moods and dances. At times poignant, dramatic, playful, or uplifting, it is an effective synthesis of tradition cast in striking harmonic terms.

Romantic Fantasie for Cello and Piano, Op 43, by Ukrainian composer Antin Rudnytsky (1902-1975), displays a conservative 20th-century harmonic language, while exploring the folk idioms of the composer’s native land. The intricate dialogue between the instruments illustrates the composer’s skill at evoking a variety of moods within a single composition.

One of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s best-known works, The Flight of the Bumblebee, evokes the effortless yet driven path of the tiny insect. This unique transcription of the work was created by pianist Bryant in his effort to remain truer to the original score than previous transcriptions, and was inspired by his years of collaboration with Radulovich.