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Artist: Karl Jenkins
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Karl Jenkins:

Stravaganza

Decca Records is thrilled to present Stravaganza, a new album of world premiere recordings of works by legendary composer Sir Karl Jenkins. Featuring his saxophone concerto of the same name – written for and performed by star saxophonist Jess Gillam – the album also includes a vibrant reimagining of Sir Karl’s beloved work Palladio, heard here in a brand-new orchestration by the composer.  

The recording is the first since Decca honoured Sir Karl with a historic lifetime deal, celebrating the composer’s 80th birthday and recognising his enduring musical appeal. Stravaganza is out today, coinciding with its live performance at the BBC Proms (Prom 32, 12th August). 

Stravaganza, which means ‘eccentric’ in Italian, explores themes of carnival and extravagant fantasy and was written especially for Jess, inspired by her experience of first trying a saxophone at a carnival centre in her native Cumbria. The four-movement work blends Karl’s backgrounds in jazz and classical music, and features some truly virtuosic moments for the soprano saxophone, played here by Jess with her trademark skill and expressiveness. 

The concerto was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, receiving its first performance at the Berlin Philharmonie in June 2023 with the DSO and Jess as the soloist. Although Karl has composed a sequence of earlier concertos, collected together on the Quirk album on Decca, the creation of Stravaganza in 2019 has a personal significance. The composer studied oboe at the Royal Academy of Music in London and worked as a reed player for many years in the 1970s with jazz-rock fusion groups Nucleus and Soft Machine. 

Stravaganza is performed at the BBC Proms on Monday 12th August, performed by Jess and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Nil Venditti. This is the first time that Sir Karl’s music has been featured at the Proms. 

Sir Karl Jenkins said: “The inspiration for Stravaganza is that Jess first played a saxophone and found her musical home in a carnival centre, having first tried the stilts and then the drums. The work is in four movements, and a certain eccentricity or quirkiness pervades throughout. In many ways it is programmatic, but the listener may create her or his eccentric fantasies. To my delight, Jess chose the soprano saxophone (the highest in pitch of those in common use) for this particular ‘parade’. It has been wonderful to work with Jess on this over the last few years and to see her bring this concerto to life.”

Karl Jenkins:

One World

Decca Records is proud to announce a new album from Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the world’s most-performed living composers. The album presents One World, commissioned by Nicol Matt, founder and artistic director of the World Choir for Peace. 
The World Choir for Peace was founded in 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War when Sir Karl conducted a commemorative performance of his The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in Berlin with a choir of 2000 singers from 30 countries. 

As with that concert, the choir is joined in this new work by the World Orchestra for Peace, co-founded by Sir Georg Solti and Charles Kaye in 1995 to reaffirm “the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace”.

These illustrious ensembles are joined for two movements by the Stay At Home Choir, a global choral community formed during the first Covid-19 lockdown to bring singers together, digitally, during a time of isolation. The virtual ensemble has already formed a strong connection to the music of Sir Karl Jenkins; their 2020 video performance of The Armed Man amassed over 5000 singers in a powerful online singalong hosted by Classic FM.

Karl Jenkins:

Cantata Memoria

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster in Wales, Sir Karl Jenkins has composed a major new choral work, Cantata Memoria – For The Children,to be released on a Deutsche Grammophon album on 7th October and premiered at the Wales Millennium Centre the following day.  The concert will feature some of Wales' most celebrated artists including Bryn Terfel, Catrin Finch, Elin Manahan Thomas, David Childs, as well as contributions from Michael Sheen and Siân Phillips. Cantata Memoria was commissioned by S4C, the Welsh language TV channel, to mark 50 years since the Aberfan disaster, when 116 children and 28 adults lost their lives after a colliery waste tip collapsed and engulfed Pantglas school and nearby houses, devastating the local community in South Wales.

28 TOTAL
SYND: PRI/C24 & Echoes, CBC, Classic fm
Direct: MOOD
Markets include: New York, San Francisco, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Houston, El Paso, Rochester NY, KS(Network)
INTER: Canada, UK, Netherlands, Romania
Online: AccuRadio

Karl Jenkins:

Requiem

Welsh-born Karl Jenkins, who has been called "the most popular living composer", writes music that speaks to audiences across the world. Following the huge success of Adiemus, Jenkins has now completed his new piece Requiem, which is being released on EMI Classics.

1 new Stations"ON" 53 Total Stations
Syndicated: CPRN, Music Choice
Markets include: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinatti, Kansas City, Tampa, New Orleans, Buffalo, Honolulu, Columbus OH, Tempe AZ

Karl Jenkins:

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace

Welsh-born Karl Jenkins, who has been called: "the most popular living composer", writes music that speaks to audiences across the world. Following the huge success of:Adiemus, Jenkins brings you: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace on EMI Classics. In a manner reminiscent of Britten's War Requiem, "The Armed Man" interpolates a number of different texts within the usual Mass form. Malory, Dryden, Swift, Tennyson, Kipling, The Koran and the Hindu Mah bhar ta contribute to a compelling account of the descent into and terrible consequences of war.

3 New "ON" this week: 46 Total Stations
Syndicated: CPRN
Markets include: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Denver, Cincinatti, Kansas City, New Orleans, Austin, Buffalo, Albuquerque, Columbus OH, Tempe AZ

Karl Jenkins:

motets - Polyphony
Karl Jenkins:

Symphonic Adiemus

Sir Karl Jenkins presents Symphonic Adiemus, the new album of epic proportions. Brand new recordings of the greatest moments from the Adiemus series features an extended orchestra of over 100, including over 20 layers of classical and ethnic percussion, and a choir of 80. With judicious use of multi-tracking, there are sometimes over 400 participants heard at any one time. 

31 TOTAL
SYND: C24, CBC
Direct: MOOD
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis, Austin, SC(Statewide), AL(Statewide), MI(Statewide), Barcelona
INTER: Canada, Spain
Online: Passion Musique et Culture, Musicas Imaginadas