French Reflections, vol. IV: Trios and Trumpets (2024)
Featured UBC Faculty Artist: Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet Label: Music@Menlo LIVE Featured Tracks: 1,2,3- Trio in E-flat major for Piano, Clarinet, and Viola, K. 498, Kegelstatt by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 4,5,6,7- La revue de cuisine by Bohuslav Martinů Recording details: Trios and Trumpets gathers music from Austria, Hungary, and France. The piano trio is represented by Mozart and Chaminade, and […]
French Reflections, vol. III: Quartets and Harps (2024)
Featured UBC Faculty Artist: Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet Label: Music@Menlo LIVE Featured Tracks: 4,5,6- Octet for Two Clarinets, Harp, String Quartet, and Bass by Charles Martin Loeffler Recording details: When speaking of favorite quartets, no one would leave out the famous Adagio from Barber’s 1936 quartet, performed in this volume by rising classical stars, the Viano String Quartet. Loeffler’s recently-discovered […]
French Reflections, vol. II: Vienna to Paris (2024)
Featured UBC Faculty Artist: Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet Label: Music@Menlo LIVE Featured Tracks: 8,9,10- L’heure du berger for Winds and Piano, op. 20 by Jean Françaix Recording details: Vienna and Paris have long been cultural powerhouses across art forms. Haydn, the founder of the Classical style, and Mozart, who refined and augmented it, are represented in this volume by […]
Understories
Ensemble: Dálava Featured UBC Students and Alumni: Julia Úlehla (PhD ’21) and Aram Bajakian (PhD Candidate) Recording details: Pi Recordings, April 25th, 2025 Dálava, the genre-defying ensemble led by vocalist Julia Úlehla with guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn, Diana Krall), returns with Understories, a deeply evocative new album that explores uncharted territories of […]
Julius Rontgen: Piano Music, Vol. 6
Artists: Mark Anderson Recording details: Nimbus Records, April 4th, 2025 This recording provides the listener with a chronological overview of Julius Rontgen’s creative output, from his earliest published composition, written in 1864-when he was just nine years old-to pieces written as a mature composer five decades later. The latter reveals a composer of outstanding skill, […]
Acoustic Alloy
Ensemble: Vancouver Brass Collective Featured UBC Alumni: Jaelem Bhate (conductor, artistic director, and featured composer), Matheus Moraes (trumpet), Albert Wu (horn), Emily Daily (horn), Maddie Davis (horn), Tyrell Loster (horn), Alan Li (tuba), Jacob Kryger (percussion), Kaiya Gazley (percussion), Chris Baldwin (trumpet), Duane Kirkpatrick (horn), Albert Wu (horn), Marina Antoniou (trombone), Kevin Jackson (trombone), Nick Francis […]
Histoire des Métis: The Freedom Songs
Composer: T. Patrick Carrabré Artists: Vancouver Chamber Choir, Kari Turunen (director) Recording details: WinterWind Records, 2024. Recorded by James Perrella at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts. The story of the Métis people is not so well known. Jean Teillet’s amazing book, The North-West Is Our Mother has been a big step in documenting our truths, so I […]
Inventions
Composer/Performer: Jack Campbell, violin (alumni, BMus ’24) and Hank Bull, piano Recording details: Engineer: Kris Fearon; Recorded At: Hipposonic Studios, Vancouver, CA Notes: Jack and Hank’s philosophy as a musical duo can be summed up in a comment by Hank: “we never perform, we only rehearse.” Jack is a classically trained violinist, but it is […]
Before the World Sleeps
UBC Faculty and Alumni: Alfredo Santa Ana (MMus’05, DMA’10), composer; Miranda Wong, pianist Label: Redshift Records Recording details: Much of the inspiration behind the music in Before the World Sleeps is rooted in the overwhelming sense that the world continues to be on a steady course toward ecological, political, and technological disaster. As the expanding rift between human […]
Awake and Dreaming by Katherine Dowling
Featured UBC Alum: Katherine Dowling (BMus’06) Release: October 2024 on Leaf Music Description: From the artist: Called Awake and Dreaming, the CD showcases the virtuosic playing of Canadian pianist Katherine Dowling, performing ten solo piano compositions by Ping-Yee Ho. This is a marvelous recording that highlights not only Dowling’s endless virtuosity at the keyboard, but […]