decurio

16/06/2026

Exactly two weeks ago, Gregor Mayrhofer 's Recycling Concerto, featuring Vivi Vassileva and the SWR Orchester, was shortlisted for the "Innovation Award for Sustainability" by OPUS KLASSIK in cooperation with the Orchester des Wandels!

We’re incredibly happy for you, Gregor, and proud to have been accompanying you on this truly ambitious and inspiring project over the past few months. Thank you for your trust!

A special bravissimo and thank you to the amazing people and partners involved:

◽The SWR team for their expertise and active support throughout the process
◽Phonocut and Supersense for their innovative work on the final product: an LP made from ocean plastic (link in bio!)
◽ARD Klassik for their dynamic video documenting the recording of the piece (now in the ARD Mediathek)
◽Flairdrum for their truly unique bottle instruments
..and all the helping hands that brought this project to life and kept it vibing!

Boosey & Hawkes

17/04/2026

IT'S OUT!!

Gershwin in Vienna
Gershwin and the Second Viennese School

Levi Hammer, piano

On all Streaming Platforms
Link in Bio

"My musical upbringing couldn’t have been more American. Born in Iowa – the very center of the country – with two World War II veterans for grandfathers, my first exposure to music was in the form of folk songs, hymns and old patriotic tunes. It was sort of a Midwestern version of Charles Ives’s New England, only a century later. But what really made my heart pound was the Great American Songbook that my grandmothers shared with me; so I don’t remember a time when the tunes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter or Jerome Kern weren’t in my ears…. But ever-present for me was the brightest diamond of them all, George Gershwin. His piano music was my “Well Tempered Clavier,” his “An American in Paris” my Beethoven Fifth Symphony; and as a teenager when I first played piano with orchestra, it was “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“Gershwin in Vienna” weaves together many musical and historical threads, but it is also a kind of self-portrait of my own artistic journey, a diary of my musical development… And as I grew from a child of the Great American Songbook to a conductor and pianist wrestling with the rigorous beauties of the Second Viennese School, my life also became transatlantic after a decade living in Europe…

Gershwin, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern were cut from the same musical cloth, and it is my hope that “Gershwin in Vienna” will spark curiosity and bring listeners the same joy that I’ve experienced in my lifelong devotion to their art."

Levi Hammer
(Excerpt from the liner notes)

Released by decurio
Recorded at Teldex Studio Berlin GmbH
Recording producer, mixing: Benedikt Schröder
Editing: Johannes Hartmuth
Mastering: Lukas Kowalski
Executive producers: Benedikt Schröder & Lukas Kowalski
Product manager: Lorraine Buzea
Design: Bernd Grether & Münchrath Ideen+Medien
Cover picture:
Video Trailer: Johannes Gottschick & Benedikt Schröder

13/03/2026

Single No. 2 out today!
Link in Bio

From their Album “Elegie”
Schwarzenberg Trio

Ernest Chausson
Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3
II. Vite

This movement of Chausson’s Trio suggests a turning point: a moment suspended between motion and reflection, where excitement and uncertainty meet memory, longing, and the quiet resolve to continue forward. Momentum gathers, only to pause unexpectedly, allowing a glance backward filled with warmth and nostalgia.

Chausson’s voice ultimately reveals itself in refinement and detail: in fleeting gestures, in subtle shifts of light and shadow, and in the delicate oscillation between major and minor that gives the music its deeply human breath.

Elegie
Chausson, Babajanyan, Rachmaninoff
Schwarzenberg Trio
Violin: Franz-Markus Siegert
Cello: Roland Lindenthal
Piano: Hanna Bachmann

Album out: March 20, 2026

Recording Producer, Editing, Mastering: Agnes Ecker
Mixing: Agnes Ecker, Benedikt Schröder
Executive Producer: Benedikt Schröder, Lukas Kowalski
Product Manager: Lorraine Buzea
Picture: Lukas Pitscheider
Design: Münchrath Ideen+Medien
Recorded at Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik Wiener Neustadt

16/02/2026

New Release!
Single •2 : The Man I Love

(From George Gershwin's Songbook)
Available on all streaming platforms

Levi Hammer says of “The Man I Love”:

“It might seem like a romantic ballad, but for me it’s dark and lonely. After all, at the end of the song, the singer (or in my case, pianist) is still waiting - the longing for love remains unfulfilled!”

Gershwin in Vienna
Gershwin and the Second Viennese School
Album out April 17
Levi Hammer, piano

🎧 Link in Bio for all other Digital Streaming Platforms

Released by decurio
Recorded at Teldex Studio Berlin GmbH
Recording producer, mixing: Benedikt Schröder
Editing: Johannes Hartmuth
Mastering: Lukas Kowalski
Executive producers: Benedikt Schröder & Lukas Kowalski
Product manager: Lorraine Buzea
Design: Bernd Grether & Münchrath Ideen+Medien
Cover picture: Denislav Kanev

Levi Hammer · single · 2026 · 1 songs

16/02/2026

- Elegie -
Schwarzenberg Trio

Album Release: March 20, 2026!

On March 20, let the composers Arno Babajanyan (1921-1983) and Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) reveal their Piano Trios through the fingers of the Vienna-based Schwarzenberg Trio. Alongside Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1, this album unravels and unites the profound nostalgia of Rachmaninoff, the fierce rhythmic energy of Babajanyan, and the “overwhelming beauty and elegance” of Ernest Chausson (in the words of violinist Franz Siegert).

Following their debut album (Pirchner, Beethoven, Mendelssohn), this new release once again highlights the Schwarzenberg Trio’s commitment—born from their first encounter at Café Schwarzenberg in Vienna—to bringing hidden chamber music gems alongside well-known masterpieces to welcoming ears.

Elegie
Chausson, Babajanyan, Rachmaninoff
SchwarzenbergTrio
Violin: Franz-Markus Siegert
Cello: Roland Lindenthal
Piano: Hanna Bachmann

Album out: March 20, 2026

Recording Producer, Editing, Mastering: Agnes Ecker
Mixing: Agnes Ecker, Benedikt Schröder
Executive Producer: Benedikt Schröder, Lukas Kowalski
Product Manager: Lorraine Buzea
Picture: Lukas Pitscheider
Design: Münchrath Ideen+Medien
Recorded at Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik Wiener Neustadt

02/02/2026

New Album Out April 17

In “Gershwin in Vienna” Levi Hammer pairs Gershwin with pivotal works by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern to reveal the kinship between the American superstar and the masters of the Second Viennese School.

The album explores the mutual admiration between these transatlantic composers, as well as their personal bonds – from Schoenberg and Gershwin’s tennis matches to Berg’s famous declaration to Gershwin that “music is music.”

To discover the program, join Levi Hammer this Wednesday in Chicago at The CheckOut.

Gershwin in Vienna
Gershwin and the Second Viennese School
Album out April 17
Levi Hammer, piano

Released by decurio
Recorded at Teldex Studio Berlin GmbH
Recording producer, mixing: Benedikt Schröder
Editing: Johannes Hartmuth
Mastering: Lukas Kowalski
Executive producers: Benedikt Schröder & Lukas Kowalski
Product manager: Lorraine Buzea
Design: Bernd Grether & Münchrath Ideen+Medien
Cover picture: Denislav Kanev