These Goldberg Variations present new perspectives on a well-known score. Danish composer Peter Navarro-Alonso's composition is a note-by-note reinvention of the original Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. Thus Alpha's innovative performance adds no additional notes in comparison to the original. It is merely through the very creative and extreme orchestration that the new composition gains its own life.

Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain conjures a holiday celebration of the Scottish and Irish immigrants who settled in the Appalachian Mountains. With Jeannette Sorrell directing Apollo’s Fire and a host of singers young and old in folk carols and shapenote hymns, Christmas is welcomed with love, singing, dancing and prayer. Following the release of the award-winning Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering (AV2329), which was a Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover hit, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire present Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain.

Renaissance, the latest album by the a cappella vocal quartet Quartom, ranges from Gregorian chant to Palestrina. The four talented singers invite listeners to join them on a spiritual journey in this album of sacred vocal music, recorded à St. Esprit Church in Montreal.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” (Washington Post) known for her “bravura technique and soulful musicianship” (New York Times), headlines a groundbreaking album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.

Energy is the 10th studio album by jazz group Fourplay. The cover show the four members: keyboardist Bob James, guitarist Larry Carlton, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason. Energy grafts a variety of sounds – R&B, pop, African and more – to Fourplay’s unwavering jazz foundations. In addition to vocals by East – a charter member since the band’s inception in 1990 – the album also features a vocal track by Esperanza Spalding, the upright bassist, composer and vocalist who has recently taken the jazz world by storm with her self-titled recording debut earlier this year on Heads Up. Fourplay's first single from Energy "Fortune Teller" was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 51st Grammy Awards 2009.

Auch in diesem Jahr gibt es wieder eine echte Weihnachtsüberraschung: bekannte und stimmungsvolle Weihnachts-Songs, in neuen Arrangements für Chor und großes Orchester - vom Dirigenten Howard Arman. Nach dem Erfolg der ersten CD aus dieser Serie "Christmas Surprises" (2017), die von der Presse hochgelobt wurde: die CD überrascht als nostalgisch puderbezuckerte Liederreise durch das globale Weihnachtswunderland wirklich - durch die Auswahl sowie durch die Abfolge und die schönen, subtilen Orchestrierungen (Die Welt).

The night has always been a time of enchantment; it embodies the uncanny, but also the romantic side of human existence. For her new Hänssler release Jenny Lin has selected a program of night pieces that speak to both the sensual and more complex psychological aspects of nocturnal experiences – from Debussy’s "Clair de lune" to Arthur Lourié‘s "A Phoenix Park Nocturne" to Liszt's "Liebestraum" she evokes sounds, dancing, romance, far from everyday experiences, whispering of things hidden from the light of day.

60's Garage Band From Albuequerque, New Mexico