Neuma Records

25/08/2025

"There are albums that feel like a well-tempered glass of wine, and then there's Project Encore, Vol. 2 – a musical firework that's anything but a mere sip at the end. Timothy McAllister, arguably the most well-known classical saxophonist of our time, and Liz Ames, a pianist with a keen sense for contemporary timbres, present 17 newly commissioned works that prove: encores are no longer a side issue, but a cosmos unto themselves.

The mix could hardly be more colorful. The spectrum ranges from Wynton Marsalis, who unleashes his rarely heard chamber music talent in three miniatures, to Jennifer Higdon's lyrical "A Fine Line" and Sean Hickey's furious "Mutually Assured Destruction." In between, we are transported by Adam Schoenberg's dancing rhythms, Iman Habibi, Composer and Pianist's thoughtful soundscapes on climate change, and Lembit Beecher's folkloric-rooted "Baltic Crossings." All of this is carried by a sonic symbiosis that blends saxophone and piano into a vibrant duo.

What's striking here is that McAllister and Ames consistently reject the "classical canon," in which the same pieces are played over and over again. Instead, they open doors for new voices and give a platform even to composers who don't yet have a Grammy collection on their shelves. The virtuosity of the two remains undisputed – whether in jazzy grooves, intricate dialogues, or melancholically breathy lines.

The recording has something of a well-curated festival program: you never know what to expect from the next track, but you know it will remain exciting. And even if you don't immediately fall in love with all the pieces, the stylistic diversity is precisely what makes this album so appealing. In conclusion: an inspiring, bold project that sees contemporary music not as a must-see, but as an adventure."

https://amplified-mag.de/reviews/mehr-als-nur-zugaben-timothy-mcallister-liz-ames-mit-project-encore-vol-2
AM:plified - Das Magazin für starke Musik

Saxophon trifft Klavier, Tradition trifft Moderne: Project Encore, Vol. 2 liefert 17 neue Werke voller Energie, Vielfalt und Überraschungen.

23/08/2025

Duo 彩 AYA’s debut album Cycles is a stunning testament to intentional artistry, deep collaboration, and musical storytelling.

Flutist Rachel Woolf and marimbist Makana Jimbu demonstrate not only technical mastery but also a shared artistic language that is intuitive and fully realized. From start to finish, this project is about more than performance: it’s about presence.

One of the first things I noticed was the duo’s exceptional sensitivity to sound. Whether in the energetic motions in “Reunion Dance” or the hushed heartbeats in the title piece, “Cycles,” their command of touch, tone, and timbre is remarkable. They never force a moment; instead,each phrase unfolds with purpose, the music breathing and speaking for and in itself. Intensity never tips into excess, and gentleness is never mistaken for fragility.

That shared musical intuition is perhaps most evident in “Cycles” itself, which to me is the album’s expressive heart. Every note has been carefully considered, part of an unfolding introspective dialogue between performers and listeners.Woolf’s expressive depth as a flutist and Jimbu’s centered, consistent voice on marimba (with body percussion!) create a sound world that feels both rooted and searching.

Throughout the album, I kept coming backto how seamlessly the duo shifts musical roles.They’re constantly in conversation — trading ideas and solidifying others. That give-and-take shapes the pacing of “Reunion Dance,” brings narrative clarity to the landscapes of “Kembang Suling,” and allows pieces like “Wildflowers” and“Kassouga” to bloom with color and character without ever feeling ornamental.

“Wood Wide Web II” honors the deep, often unseen connections that bind us; like roots beneath the surface, it’s a meditation on interdependence and shared life. And the finale, “WaterPlanet,” includes electronics, evoking that sense of wonder when we wander, reminding us that, though we be aware of and an observation of the cycles around us on this planet, when viewed through the macro lens, we are a small part of thelarger cycles at work in our universe and beyond.

Cycles isn’t just a collection of pieces, it’s a musical journey of attentiveness and artistry. Get this album; keep it in rotation. It’s one you’ll come back to, again and again, for years to come.
—Cassie Bunting

PPercussive Arts SocietyPercussive Notes, August 2025
RRachel WoolfMMakana Jimbu@ Helvacıoğlu Composer

17/08/2025

Duo Aya consists of Rachel Woolf, flute and Makana Jimbu, marimba.

"There is a clear and wonderful synergy of just really good dedicated musicians whose interpretive skills that flatter the composers’ works. Rather than attempt to describe each of the pieces on this album, I am choosing in this brief review to simply report the experience of this reviewer’s multiple listenings.

I have played this through many times, each time in varying contexts, some with no distraction, focused listens, sometimes in the background letting the music draw its gentle spell in the background, and all revealed joyful, seductive musicianship of music with creative substance. I will leave further analysis to those trained far better than me. I’m just a happy listener. As Shakespeare said, “…play on”!"
Allan J. Cronin


Erdem Helvacıoğlu Composer

Neuma 218 I’ve listened to this utterly charming debut album from this flute and marimba duo several times. It is an engaging and charming selection of music by composers all unfamiliar to this lis…

16/08/2025

Professor Girlfriend - My Mother In Love: The Summer Sessions

"Art song meets art rock on this sharp and evocative album composed by Anna Weesner for her, Charles Mueller (guitar, bass, production), and Tak Ensemble’s Charlotte Mundy (vocals) to realize. Joining them is a raft of marvelous musicians, including Tak’s Laura C***s (flute), Marina Kifferstein (violin), and Madison Greenstone (clarinets). One musician I hadn’t heard of before is Cameron LeCrone, whose emotionally attuned and dramatic drums punctuate many of the songs on this album. But Mundy’s voice is front and center and it’s a complete joy to hear her in this context."

https://anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for-friday-cassandra-jenkins-adf
AnEarful

15/08/2025

OUT NOW! Timothy McAllister and Liz Ames: Project Encore, Vol. 2.

When audiences cry out for more after a thrilling concert, players need to respond with something even more dazzling and impactful. Their options of what to play just increased with the arrival of 17 more pieces commissioned from a broad array of composers by two top-shelf performers (who rarely leave a room without a standing ovation).

Saxophonist Timothy McAllister and pianist Liz Ames announce PROJECT ENCORE, Vol. 2, a powerful initiative dedicated to expanding the concert repertoire through fresh, dynamic works by living composers. Born from the belief that classical programming often leans too heavily on old chestnuts and war horses, PROJECT ENCORE champions diverse voices and groundbreaking compositions—whether as encores, recital openers, or standalone highlights. From Pulitzer, Emmy, and Grammy-winning icons, to intrepid young voices bursting onto the scene today, Vol. 2 is a channel-surfing mosaic of modern works reflecting broken dreams, wistful nostalgia, environmental fears, youthful optimism, the darkness of global conflict, and, ultimately, hope for a better world. McAllister notes, “there is a mission and a level of musical activism behind this series of works, and nothing can speak to the state and richness of concert music today better than the saxophone.”





Wynton Marsalis
Ephraim Champion
Adam Silverman
Adam Schoenberg
Jennifer Higdon
Chihchun Chi-sun Lee
Andrew Bishop
Ellen Rowe
Joel Puckett
John Wineglass
Justin Bush
Iman Habibi, Composer and Pianist
Lembit Beecher
Cathy Likhuta
Sean Hickey
Gregory Wanamaker
Rob Buckland
David Biedenbender

19 track album

15/08/2025

OUT NOW! Peter Van Zandt lane: Axils.

With Axils, composer Peter Van Zandt Lane unveils his most expansive and emotionally resonant work to date—a genre-blurring collection of chamber and electroacoustic pieces that shimmer with complexity and pulse with introspection. Performed by a stellar roster of collaborators—including Bent Frequency Ensemble, Splice Ensemble, violist Maggie Snyder, Ensemble Vim, and the UGA Contemporary Chamber Ensemble—Axils pushes beyond the kinetic surfaces Lane is known for, plumbing deeper emotional terrain where technology, memory, and ecology intersect.

While Lane’s previous works have been celebrated for their propulsive energy and rhythmic ingenuity, Axils marks a striking evolution. Here, visceral intensity meets reflective lyricism; intricate structures give way to surreal atmospheres. Available in both stereo and 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos, the album invites listeners into a richly spatialized world—an immersive auditory experience where every detail rewards close and curious listening.

6 track album

15/08/2025

OUT NOW! Lucina Yue’s Transcendent Phoenix — A Sonic Rebirth of the Ancient Konghou.

The sacred white phoenix of Chinese legend rises from the ashes in the powerful hands of Lucina Yue, heralding a new era for the 2,000-year-old konghou harp in this dazzling symphonic album.

Transcendent Phoenix, the much-heralded debut release by trailblazing young harp star Lucina Yue, is set to explode the boundaries of Chinese classical music. Mastered by multi-Grammy-winning engineer Alan Silverman, this album is a seismic fusion of ancient tradition and modern innovation—a phoenix’s rebirth rendered in sound.

Lucina Yue, a pioneering force in globalizing the konghou and a leading ambassador of the instrument’s overseas revival, channels the fiery mythological creature’s sacred, soaring spirit. The album’s 8 epic tracks oscillate between crystalline serenity and blazing intensity, mirroring the phoenix’s mythic cycle of destruction and renewal.
Lucina Yue

8 track album

15/08/2025

OUT NOW! Professor Girlfriend: My Mother in Love - the Summer Sessions.

Set against a backdrop of quiet domestic unease—a child reading about war while his mother sits motionless at the kitchen table—My Mother in Love offers a narrative of emotional resilience, perception, and familial tenderness. It is a record of transformation, of finding music amid uncertainty, and of allowing the walls between genres, roles, and expectations to fall away.

Originally written for concert performance and now reimagined in a studio setting, My Mother in Love: The Summer Sessions marks Anna Weesner’s debut release under the collaborative moniker Professor Girlfriend, featuring vocalist Charlotte Mundy – known for her electric vocalism ranging from “monstrous noise to angelic delicacy” – and Grammy-winning producer-engineer Charles Mueller. This core group is joined by 17 top-shelf musicians on various tracks.

https://annaweesner.bandcamp.com/album/my-mother-in-love-the-summer-sessions

Anna Weesner
Charlotte Mundy
DOT DOT DOT
Charles Mueller
-classical -rock artsong

14 track album

13/08/2025

"A beautiful new set of performances from Shannon Wettstein brings together a series of pieces exploring classic Italian piano works that span from the 1930s up to 2018, and these pieces are performed with such grace and a wonderfully innovative but warm approach that you can hear the love for the craft of performance and the instrument itself in every single one.

The performances throughout the entire record are incredible, and if you listen to the full album from start to finish, it is such a great experience and a very unique and beautiful escape

It is a musical lesson in the culture of Italian music in this specific facet, and there's nothing like it."
Recording Artists Guild (RAG)
Shannon Wettstein Sadler
Erdem Helvacıoğlu Composer

A beautiful new set of performances from Shannon Wettstein brings together a series of pieces exploring classic Italian piano works that span from the 1930s up to 2018, and these pieces are performed with such grace and a wonderfully innovative but warm approach that you can hear the love for the cr...

10/08/2025

"As so many contemporary music ensembles focus on brand-new work for a variety of reasons, it’s nice when a pianist like Shannon Wettstein Sadler takes a broad look into the not-so distant past. This collection offers a nice survey of Italian piano music from the last century, including a piece from 2018 by Sonia Bo. Beyond the geography that orders the collection, Wettstein notes another connecting feature: all of it somehow draws from earlier eras, “whether through direct quotation, formal inspiration, or philosophical kinship.” The album begins with the earliest work, “Con Grazia,“—a jaggedly careening parlor dance—a movement from Giacinto Scelsi’s Suite No. 5., written at some point in the 1930s. The miniature is followed by “Anamorfosi,” another short piece, this one reflecting on Ravel’s solo piano music, by Salvatore Sciarrino. Bo’s “D’Onde” deftly translates the ever-changing patterns and strength of waves, modeling a piece after the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name, in which solo passages represent internal monologues of its characters. The rest of the album retains the same non-linear flow, toggling between classic pieces by Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio with newer music from Ivan Fedele and Guiliano Bracci. As much as we reward novelty, let’s be grateful for musicians like Wettstein, who pull back for more expansive perspectives."
Bandcamp
Peter Margasak



Erdem Helvacıoğlu Composer

Our guide to the month’s best contemporary classical releases.

10/08/2025

"Released in 2025 by Neuma Records, The Past Is Present is a strikingly original project that bridges musical eras, aesthetics, and emotional registers. Neuma, long known for championing adventurous, experimental sound worlds, offers here an album that embodies both the rigor of classical tradition and the restless energy of the avant-garde.

The title The Past Is Present speaks to the album’s central theme: the ways in which history—its echoes, traumas, and cultural legacies—continues to shape the present moment. The music intertwines contemporary sonorities with references to classical and traditional idioms, creating a sonic architecture that spans centuries.

The soundscape is a fluid blend of electronics and acoustic instruments. Traditional timbres coexist with modern textures, evoking the warmth of memory and the daring of innovation. The production is meticulous and cinematic, inviting the listener into an immersive experience rather than a mere sequence of tracks.

Composer Jeffrey Schanzer demonstrates a rare ability to synthesize disparate musical languages, from the precision of classical composition to the boldest experimental gestures. A master of vocal writing, he treats the human voice not only as a conveyor of text and melody, but as an instrument in itself—capable of raw texture, unconventional color, and pure sonic abstraction. His vocal settings challenge the operatic norm, using sound as a sculptural medium rather than a vessel for harmonic beauty alone.

The performers—Isabelle Ganz, Sylvia Bloom, Brian McCorkle, and Thomas Meglioranza—are not merely interpreters but co-creators. Their contributions are marked by technical command and a fearless embrace of sonic exploration.

At its emotional core, The Past Is Present is an artistic meditation on the Holocaust, transgenerational trauma, and the enduring presence of history in contemporary life. Here, the title takes on profound resonance: the past is not buried; it breathes within us, shaping consciousness and culture alike.

The album’s vocal palette is wide-ranging. Alongside classical phrasing, one hears scraping timbres, non-tonal glissandi, and the deliberate strain of tightened vocal cords—a technique that lays bare emotional vulnerability with unflinching directness. Schanzer’s use of strained voice in particular transforms grief into an almost tangible sonic presence.

While its unconventional methods may challenge listeners accustomed to more traditional forms, The Past Is Present ultimately rewards with a deeply moving, multi-layered listening experience. In Schanzer’s hands, time, memory, and pain form a single, living continuum—one that resounds long after the final note fades."



https://sonograma.org/suplement-de-discos/the-past-is-present/