Celestial Voices, Carnegie Hall, and more: September Production Recap

photo: Arneis Quartet

We were pleased to see several instances of contemporary classical music flourishing around the world this past month, both under the microphone and in the concert hall. Dive in for a look at sessions and performances in Europe and North America with PARMA artists.

Celestial Voices

The PARMA production team set forth into September with several choral sessions ahead of them with contemporary works to be recorded by the Kühn Choir of Prague at Studio Martínek.

Up first on the podium was Let in the Light of the World by composer Michael Dunn, a piece inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite painting by William Holman Hunt. The work was recorded alongside Christopher Hoh’s Lucis Creator Optime and Magnificat by Richard E Brown, who also recorded several movements of his Korean Dances this month with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra. While Brown could not attend the session in person, he shared his thoughts with the team.

“The recording turned out very well without my direct input because of Jan Košulič’s expert choices,” said Brown, following the session.

Each work was drawn from a recent Featured Recording Opportunity for Choral Works, to be included in the upcoming release from Navona Records, CELESTIAL VOICES VOL. 2.

Stream the first volume of CELESTIAL VOICES from the Navona Records catalog page.

Three Short Movements

September sessions continued at Studio Martínek and transitioned to instrumental music with the recording of composer Marilyn Bliss’ Three Short Movements, a suite of three concise bravura movements for solo trombone. The piece was performed by Lukáš Moťka, award-winning Principal Trombone of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

The piece, selected from our recent FRO, will be released alongside several other works for brass on BRASS TACKS VOL 3 from Navona Records.

Explore the previous two editions of BRASS TACKS from Navona Records.

New Music with Ferdinando DeSena

Recordings of contemporary music continued this month with new works by composer Ferdinando DeSena, who worked with two different ensembles in different parts of the world. His first session took place at Boston MA’s Fraser Performance Studio with the Arneis Quartet, who performed his String Quartet No. 3, a recent submission to PARMA’s FRO for String Quartet.

DeSena’s sessions continued just a few days later back in the Czech Republic at Studio Martínek, where he worked with NdBrass to record his piece, Blue Gamut. 

RESURGENCE: Live in Concert at Carnegie Hall

September productions shifted focus to live classical performance in Manhattan NY with cellist Ovidiu Marinescu and pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera, who gave a spellbinding concert of their recent Navona Records release, RESURGENCE at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. A thoughtful exploration into the expressive capabilities of the cello and piano, RESURGENCE resonated with elegance and raw virtuosity in a well-received Saturday night show. 

Stream the album version of RESURGENCE, available on Navona Records.

Microtonal Music with Charles Corey

September sessions concluded back in the Czech Republic with composer Charles Corey, who brought his microtonal piece, What Ice Once Held, to Janáček Theatre Recording Studio to be recorded by the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Martin Pavlík, and under the baton of conductor Pavel Šnajdr.