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Crossover Media


Founded in 1994, Crossover Media's client list includes: Sony Masterworks, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, BMG, and Concord, along with many Independent Labels and Artists. Projects include collaborations with the following artists: 2CELLOS, Alexandre Desplat, Andras Schiff, Andrea Bocelli, Andris Nelsons, Anna Netrebko, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Angele Dubeau, Angelique Kidjo, Anoushka Shankar, Antonio Sanchez, Arcade Fire, Arturo Sandoval, Bebel Gilberto, Becca Stevens, Bela Fleck, Bettye LaVette, Bill Frisell, Bill Charlap, Bill Murray, Billy Childs, Billy Joel, Bob James, Bobby McFerrin, Brandee Younger, Branford Marsalis, Brian Eno, Burkard Schliessmann, Cassandra Wilson, Cecilia Bartoli, Charlie Haden, Chick Corea, Chilly Gonzales, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Hope, Daniil Trifonov, David Crosby, David Foster, David Sanborn, Devonte Hynes, Diana Krall, Don Sebesky, Ella Fitzgerald, Emanuel Ax, Ennio Morricone, Evgeny Kissin, Frank Sinatra, Gabriel Kahane, George Benson, George Winston, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Santaolalla, Hans Zimmer, Helene Grimaud, Hilary Hahn, Hildur Guonadottir, Hubert Laws, Hubert Sumlin, Huey Lewis & The News, Igor Levit, Itzhak Perlman, Jake Shimabukuro, Jan Garbarek, Jarvis Cocker, Jeff Goldblum, Jessye Norman, Jethro Tull, Jimmy Webb, Joan Baez, Joe Lovano, Joey Alexander, Johann Johannsson, John Coltrane, John Scofield, John Williams, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Jonny Greeenwood, Joshua Bell, Joy Harjo, Joyce DiDonato, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Krzysztof Penderecki, Kurt Masur, Lee Konitz, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lena Horne, London Symphony Orchestra, Luciano Pavarotti, Madison Cunningham, Mark O'Connor, Martha Argerich, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Max Richter, Medeski Martin & Wood, Melody Gardot, Michel Camilo, Paul McCartney, Paul Winter, Pete Townshend, Phil Woods, Rachel Portman, Randall Goosby, Ray Charles, Regina Carter, Renee Fleming, Richard Reed Parry, Rick Wakeman, Rodney Dangerfield, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Samara Joy, Seiji Ozawa, Sergio Mendes, Seth MacFarlane, Shabaka Hutchings, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Sinead O'Connor, Snarky Puppy, Sonny Rollins, Sons of Kemet, Soweto Gospel Choir, Stanley Turrentine, SYML, Terence Blanchard, Terry Riley, The Bad Plus, The Choir Of King's College Cambridge, The Comet Is Coming, The Cranberries, The Derek Trucks Band, The Hilliard Ensemble, The Hot Sardines, The Piano Guys, The Stan Getz Quartet, The Manhattan Transfer, The New York Philharmonic, Thelonious Monk, Theo Bleckmann, Theo Croker, Third Coast Percussion, Time for Three, Tony Bennett, Tuck and Patti, Vangelis, Vienna Philharmonic, Vijay Iyer, Vikingur Olafsson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Horowitz, VOCES8, Willie Nelson, Wynton Marsalis, Yannick Nezet-Sequin, Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, and many others. 
 

"Music is a science. Music is mathematical. Music is a foreign language. Music is History. Music is physical education. Music develops Insight and demands research. Music is all these things, but most of all, MUSIC IS ART. That is why we teach music. Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life...But so you will be human...So you will recognize beauty...So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world...So you will have something to cling to...So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good- in short, more LIFE."   - Ludwig van Beethoven

For more information contact Max Horowitz    maxcrossover@gmail.com

Top 10 Albums For January 20, 2025

  • Benjamin Lackner

    Spindrift

    Back with a newly formed quintet, gathered together for a particularly fruitful 2024 session in Southern France, the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner now presents a different side of his composer-approach that should go a step further in exposing Lackner as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary jazz world. Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the sole returnee from Lackner’s debut Last Decade and heard here in striking dualism with Mark Turner’s idiosyncratic saxophone dialect, forming a key-characteristic of the interplay that permeates Spindrift. The horn-duo and pianist are joined by the nonpareil bassist Linda May Han Oh and French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, who was part of Lackner’s trio before the pianist’s tenure with ECM.

    “I spent the last two years writing nearly 100 tunes and experimenting with two or three voices in each song,” Lackner outlines the process that led to new material. “I would write the tune, record a demo version that same day and then let it rest for a week before deciding on whether it was a keeper or not. The closer we got to the recording the more I started editing my list down and I showed up in the studio for the recording with about 20 songs. We chose the nine we deemed the best for the session. I was really blown away by how the musicians approached the music with such openness and spontaneity, despite a lot of the music having been far more written out than on Last Decade.“

    Accordingly, as with the debut record, Spindrift is exclusively made up of Lackner originals, save “Chambary”, which was written by his long-time friend Matthieu Chazarenc. Throughout, subtle fanfares meet thoughtful lyricism in a programme that always puts melody and ensemble chemistry first. Saxophone and trumpet take the lead, forming their own little ensemble section, and contribute elegantly interwoven lines and striking solos to an especially harmonious group sound. The one rare exception to the double-horned-frontline appears at the top of this set in the title track. Here Mark Turner leads as the sole horn, driving the whirlwind of a tune to emphatic heights. The brisk opener segues into gentler terrain on “Mosquito Flats”, a flowing and infectiously melodious mid-tempo groover, prefaced by elegant rubato interplay.

    Soft lyricism and lush harmonies ensue, guided by understated piano improvisation on “More Mesa”, a flowing pulse and melancholy fanfare on “Chambary”, before “See You Again My Friend” finds trumpet and saxophone in yearning euphony – Eick with his unmatched tender embouchure blowing in haunting juxtaposition with Turner’s brasher tone and oblique lines. Searching melodies and an idiosyncratic treatment of space and time dress “Murnau” in the gloomy guise of a lament, whereas “Fair Warning” becomes increasingly endowed with a driving impulsion as time passes, propelled by Mark Turner and Mathias Eick’s more muscular soloist exchanges.

  • Seong-Jin Cho

    Ravel - The Complete Solo Piano Works

    Having loved Ravel since childhood, Seong-Jin Cho has chosen to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth by recording his complete solo piano music and the two concertos. He is joined in the latter by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, following acclaimed live performances with them as part of his ongoing focus on the French composer. Cho’s insightful readings of Ravel, on stage and in the studio, underline his status as one of today’s most elegant and accomplished pianists, ten years on from his Chopin Competition victory.

    Deutsche Grammophon releases the first of two albums, Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works, today. (digitally and on two CDs). The second album, containing the two piano concertos and a deluxe edition will soon follow!

    Seong-Jin Cho has always felt a close connection with the French piano literature and found himself fully immersed in Ravel while studying at the Paris Conservatoire. Discussing the challenges of the solo works, he points to the composer’s orchestral sound and meticulous attention to detail. “Ravel really knew what he wanted, so I try to follow his specific markings,” he says. “Miroirs, for example, is incredibly technically demanding. It’s so sensitive and dramatic, full of imagination and colour – it’s almost impossible to apply every marking, but I try my best!”

    Recent reviews suggest he knows exactly how to realize Ravel’s wishes. Following a recital in Madrid in March, Scherzo hailed Cho as “perhaps the finest Ravel interpreter of our time”, while after his Edinburgh Festival recital, The Scotsman wrote, “With what seemed like impossibly perfect precision, the first half of all Ravel heard Cho in a contrasting and extensive range of colour, coupled with a sense of flow that allowed the music to breathe with ease and warmth.”

  • Maria Duenas

    Paganini - 24 Caprices

    María Dueñas finds the perfect balance between artistry and technique as she tackles an icon of the repertoire for her second Deutsche Grammophon album. Having earned rave reviews and a 2024 OPUS KLASSIK Young Talent of the Year award for her DG debut, Beethoven and Beyond, the Spanish violinist now turns to Paganini’s legendary 24 Caprices. She couples these with a selection of later works inspired by Paganini, presenting music by composers ranging from Berlioz to Gabriela Ortiz. Dueñas is joined in chamber pieces by Boris Kuschnir, pianists Itamar Golan and Alexander Malofeev and guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre, and in orchestral caprices by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Mihhail Gerts. 
     

  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold

    The Korngold Symphony-Orch della Svizzera, Mauceri

    Supertrain Records is proud to present an extraordinarily special release, THE KORNGOLD SYMPHONY, featuring two performances of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s 20th Century Masterpiece. On this two-disc release, the first disc presents, for the first time ever, a recording of the Symphony in F#, Op.40 performed by the composer himself, an incredibly special historical recording from the Korngold Family Archives.  

    The second disc presents a 1997 live performance by conductor John Mauceri and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, connecting the spirit of the work from conception - in the mind and fingers of the great composer - to its full glory performed by a symphony orchestra.  ?Starting in 2019, an inquiry was made by Supertrain about the 1997 orchestra recording.  After permission was obtained from the orchestra and conductor, Mauceri connected all of the parties with Leslie Korngold, the composer’s grandson.  In part of Mauceri’s research into this Symphony back in the 1990s, he had asked the family about the existence of any materials which might shed light on the history of the piece and how it might be interpreted.  The conductor was granted access to this incredible reference recording of Korngold playing the piece himself from the early 1950s.  
    The mysteries of recording’s existence and its journey to this current release are discussed in the 24 page booklet including essays from Leslie Korngold, John Mauceri, and Richard Guérin of Supertrain Records. The booklet also includes archival photos of Korngold, the Korngold Family, and images of the original recording source material.
     

  • Pritesh Walia

    Hope Town

    Jazz guitarist extraordinaire Pritesh Walia has been bubbling under the surface of wider public awareness and acclaim for several years. His nimble technical skills and deep sense of musicality has been making its mark in performances as a leader and as sideman, while his strides in education—after graduating from Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory--have helped to spread his message in that capacity.

    But with the release of Walia’s impressive debut album Hopetown, featuring his guitar trio with bassist Chris Worden and drummer Gen Yoshimura, Walia is poised to go public in a more game-changing way. His long-awaited recording debut, a fresh and deep excursion into the neo-mainstream, clean-toned jazz guitar trio tradition, boldly initiates the discography portion of his career, with yet three other varied albums soon to follow. Earlier this year, he released the self-titled album with his organ trio PSA, and coming soon are albums by his big band and a special strings project.

  • Arild Andersen

    Landloper

    Arild Andersen, one of jazz’s most widely acclaimed bassists, presents his first solo album. Characteristically broad in its musical scope and creative range, Landloper was recorded primarily at  Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene (with one piece recorded at Arild’s home).  Choice of repertoire in this recital reflects on Arild’s artistic journey, and, alongside Andersen originals (“Dreamhorse”, “Mira”, “Landloper”), we find Norwegian traditional music (“Old Stev”), a romantic jazz standard (“A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square”), and new light cast upon free jazz classics (Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts”, Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”, Charlie Haden’s “Song for Che”).  Andersen’s performances combine his masterful bass playing with real-time creation of electronic loops that bring an atmospheric dimension to solo playing and fresh opportunities for interaction.

  • Keith Jarrett

    The Old Country

    Keith Jarrett’s recordings from the Deer Head Inn have a special place among his recordings devoted to explorations of jazz standards and the American songbook. And The Old Country is a document of particular historical significance, from several perspectives.

    The Deer Head Inn, situated in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Water Gap Region, has presented live music continuously since 1950, making it one of the US’s oldest jazz clubs. In 1961, the club gave Jarrett, then 16 years old, his first gig as leader of a piano trio. When owners Bob and Fay Lehr retired, handing the reins over to their daughter Dona and son-in-law Christopher Solliday, Jarrett offered to play there again, to honour the club’s ongoing commitment to jazz. On September 16, 1992, Jarrett, joined by Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, played to a packed house. There had been no promotion, but news of the event had spread by word of mouth. The Deer Head is an intimate venue and the Allentown Morning Call paper subsequently reported that, “of the 130 people inside the club, 30 had to stand. On the porch outside, another 50 or 60 people stood.”

    The spontaneously organized performance marked the only occasion on which Jarrett, Peacock and Motian played as a trio. Peacock, at the time, was a dedicated member of the Standards trio completed by Jack DeJohnette. Motian had been drummer of Jarrett’s ‘American quartet’ (refer to The Survivors Suite and Eyes of the Heart), but hadn’t worked with Jarrett since that group’s dissolution. “Not only had I not played piano at the Deer Head for 30 years, but I hadn’t played with Paul Motian for 16 years. So it was like a reunion and a jam session at the same time”, wrote Jarrett in the liner notes to At The Deer Head Inn, the initial selection of material issued from this gig, in 1994.

  • Lucie Horsch

    The Bruggen Project

    Dutch recorder virtuoso Lucie Horsch announces her new Decca album, a compelling programme of early 18th-century compositions delivered on instruments of the same vintage. The Brüggen Project, out today, just after the 90th anniversary of Brüggen’s birth, takes the listener back to a golden age of instrument making. Its tracklist features fourteen historic recorders, each blessed with its own distinctive sound and musical personality.

    Frans Brüggen, a towering figure in the world of period-instrument performance, often played on the historic recorders he acquired during his long and illustrious career. The Dutch musician’s peerless collection largely fell silent after his death ten years ago. Lucie has restored it to vibrant life. The album contains sublime interpretations of ensemble pieces by Marcello, Corelli and J.S. Bach, including the famous Air from the latter’s Third Orchestral Suite and Brüggen’s transcription of his Concerto in E major BWV 1053. It also trains the spotlight on a sequence of solo works that demonstrates the tonal variety and subtle nuances of instruments created three centuries ago in London, Paris, Nuremberg and the Netherlands.

  • Jakob Bro

    Taking Turns

    Recorded ten years ago in New York, and released now for the first time, Taking Turns is a snapshot of Jakob Bro’s music in a period of transition. In a chronological discography of Bro’s sessions, it would follow Gefion, the Danish guitarist’s leader debut for ECM, by a few months. Atmospherically and conceptually, it extends and rounds off work begun earlier with saxophonist Lee Konitz.

    A major figure in jazz history from The Birth of the Cool onwards, Konitz came into Jakob Bro’s musical life in 2008, on the recommendation of Paul Motian, and contributed to a trilogy of albums – Balladeering, Time and December Song – issued on Bro’s own label.  The association, Jakob says, changed his priorities. “I felt I had found a direction that worked for me when Lee started playing my pieces.  That might seem obvious, taking the greatness of Konitz as an improviser into consideration, but for me it was a revelation. From Day One, Lee was quite freely interpreting my music, playing around the melodies, hinting at them, not necessarily playing them as written.  And it made me think in a new way about how much music I should bring in, how much direction I should give, for the group sound to find its own natural balance and flow. That’s something I’ve been exploring ever since.”

  • Yuja Wang

    Messiaen - Turangalila Symphonie w/BSO,Nelsons

    Captured at Boston’s Symphony Hall in April 2024, this new Deutsche Grammophon recording presents Messiaen’s monumental Turangalîla-Symphonie. The work was one of the centrepieces of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “Music of the Senses” Festival, aimed at expanding the audience experience through music that plays with colour, light, sound and time. The BSO and its Music Director Andris Nelsons were joined on stage by pianist and exclusive DG artist Yuja Wang and by Cécile Lartigau, one of today’s rare ondes Martenot players. 

    A first taste of their dazzling interpretation can be heard in the exuberant fifth movement, Joie du sang des étoiles, released on 15 November. The full recording will be released as a digital album on 6 December 2025, marking the 75th anniversary of the world premiere, given by the BSO and Leonard Bernstein on 2 December 1949. A physical release will follow in 2025. 
    The BSO is celebrating two other significant anniversaries this year – it is 150 years since the birth of Serge Koussevitzky, its legendary ninth Music Director, and 100 years since his appointment to that role. It was Koussevitzky who commissioned Turangalîla, giving Messiaen free rein by telling him, “Choose as many instruments as you desire, write a work as long as you wish and in the style you want.”

    The result was this extraordinary, 10-movement symphony for large orchestra – including a vast array of percussion – with solo piano and ondes Martenot (an early electronic instrument). It was the perfect work for the BSO to programme in its festival, not only because of its origins, but also because Messiaen’s synaesthesia meant he saw colours when he heard or imagined sound. He called Turangalîla, which was inspired in part by the Tristan myth, “the most coloured” of his works and a “hymn to joy”. Under Nelsons’ baton, the BSO and the two virtuosic soloists reveal every facet of the work’s kaleidoscopic colours, heady harmonies and sweeping emotional drama.

Stories For January 20, 2025

  • Jesse Cook returns to Arizona and the Webb Center / The Wickenberg Sun
    Posted At : January 6, 2025 12:00 AM
    Canadian rhumba flamenco artist Jesse Cook has blended the exotic Spanish music form with elements of new age, jazz, and easy listening on his releases for Narada Records. Signed to the label in 1994, he produced his debut, Tempest, one year later. Gravity, released in 1996, hit the Top Ten on the new age charts. Vertigo was released two years later, and Free Fall appeared in mid-2000. In 2003 Nomad came out, followed by the live album Montréal in 2004. Though it was started conceptually in 2005, Cook didn't issue his next studio album, Frontiers, which marked a return to his initial simpler production style, until 2007. The Rumba Foundation followed in 2009. Cook varied the routine a bit with his next release, 2012's The Blue Guitar Sessions, adding ballads and vocals on some tracks (by singer Emma-Lee) for a more expansive and jazzy midstream pop sound. The guest artist-studded and aptly named One World, which drew inspiration from music of the Middle East, South America, Spain, and beyond, was issued in May 2015. Continuing to explore a more diverse sonic palette, Cook returned in 2017 with Beyond Borders.


    The Wickenberg Sun writes….Master guitarist Jesse Cook will perform at the Del E. Webb Center on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Cook knows how to deliver an amazing live concert. Mixing flamenco style music with everything from classical and jazz to zydeco, blues and Brazilian samba, Jesse and his four-piece band promise a foot-stomping, hand-clapping night of Latin-infused, high-energy music. Experience it for yourself at the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
    An accomplished guitarist, composer, producer and equally prolific filmmaker, Jesse Cook has evolved his talents to create experiences that delight audiences wherever they discover him - at home, in concert, online or even at the 2006 Olympics. “In Torino, both the Japanese and the Russian skaters competed using the same song. One of them won. I think I should have got bronze,” Jesse jokes. No wonder Cook also quips that his music “has had a way more interesting life” than he’s had.


    To date, Cook is humbled that his career includes thousands of concerts performed around the world, over two million albums sold, 700 million streams of his songs and counting, five PBS specials filmed, and a library of over 300 YouTube videos including “Cascada featuring Matt Sellick”  being filmed at Wickenburg’s Vulture Peak during his February 2022 tour stop.
    Jesse and his extraordinary band of talented musicians, which include a bass, violin, drums, and a variety of percussion instruments, are looking forward to returning to the road, bringing their unique brand of rhythm and rhumba to audiences across North America and beyond. Tickets for the Saturday, Feb. 1 performance start at $45 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under. They are on sale now at the Webb Center Box Office.


    SEE The Wickenberg Sun PAGE
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  • Khatia Buniatishvili's 'Rachmaninov Third' w/Berlin Philharmonie was brilliant and vulnerable / Georgia Today
    Posted At : January 16, 2025 12:00 AM
    Georgia Today's  Lily Fürstenow writes……Amidst heated debates as to whether Georgia is part of Europe, and how its integration into the EU can be solved in the most rapid and cost-effective way, local art scenes are being literally torn apart by the non-stop protests all over Georgia and abroad against the ruling party in Tbilisi, which they accuse of election and other fraud. At this historical turning point, Khatia Buniatishvili’s concert in the Berliner Philharmonie got extra media attention and was bestowed with something of a symbolic meaning.Organized by Konzertdirektion Hans Adler, it was a true celebration of music- not as means to ignore politics, but as a sign that Georgian musicians are an integral part of common European cultural heritage, cherished by people deep in their hearts across borders. The concert program, including Rachmaninov and Mahler, saw Bent Sørensen using the occassion to mark the 100th anniversary of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. On this occasion, the ensemble embarked on an extensive European tour under the baton of Conductor Fabio Luisi with Khatia Buniatishvili starring as solo pianist. The first concert of the tour took place in Berlin on January 13, and was an absolute hit with the public.Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, often referred to as “Rach 3,” is one of the most demanding works in the piano repertoire, celebrated for its emotional depth, technical challenges, and sweeping Romanticism. Its intricate interplay between piano and orchestra, coupled with its soaring melodies and dramatic intensity, makes it a pinnacle of virtuosity and expressiveness.

    Khatia Buniatishvili’s interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Third was a powerful blend of technical brilliance and emotional vulnerability. Her playing is marked by a remarkable command of the concerto’s complex passages, coupled with her unique ability to bring out its lyrical and melancholic undertones. Buniatishvili approaches the piece with a deeply personal touch, often infusing it with a heightened sense of drama and spontaneity. Her dynamic phrasing and bold contrasts capture both the grandeur and intimacy of the concerto, making her performances unforgettable for audiences.Gustav Mahler’s relationship with politics on the other hand was complex and largely indirect. As a composer and conductor, Mahler was more focused on artistic expression than on overt political statements. However, his identity as a Jewish artist in late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe, a period marked by rising nationalism and antisemitism, often placed him in politically charged contexts. His conversion to Catholicism in 1897, likely motivated by the need to secure his position as director of the Vienna Court Opera, underscores the political pressures he faced. Despite these challenges, Mahler’s music reflects a deep engagement with existential and spiritual themes, transcending the political conflicts of his time.Khatia Buniatishvili’s piano virtuosity is marked by her breathtaking technical skill, bold interpretive choices, and an emotional intensity that captivates audiences. Known for her dynamic stage presence, she brings a distinctive blend of power and sensitivity to her performances, effortlessly navigating the most demanding passages while imbuing each note with profound expressiveness. Her interpretations often push boundaries, making familiar works feel fresh and deeply personal. Whether tackling the fiery drama of Liszt or the nuanced poetry of Rachmaninoff, Buniatishvili consistently delivers performances that are both technically dazzling and deeply moving. For those who haven’t had the chance to attend the event this Monday good news is that her next concert in Berlin is already scheduled for spring 2026.Reviving Nude Dance: Kysy Fischer’s Bold Reinterpretation at Tanztage Berlin
    It’s common knowledge that women in arts have it particularly hard. Institutions therefore are now more likely to go off the beaten path and introduce female artists into their programs. Super Superficial by Kysy Fischer on January 9 ushered in the Tanztage Berlin at Sophiensaele, reviving the centuries long tradition of nude dance. Naked dance movement in Berlin during the 1920s used to be part of the broader cultural and artistic experimentation of the Weimar Republic, characterized by a spirit of liberation, modernism, and rebellion against traditional norms. Often associated with the Freikörperkultur (Free Body Culture) and avant-garde performance art, these dances combined elements of expressionism, naturalism and social critique.Now almost a hundred years later, choreographer Kysy Fischer, together with her dance counterparts, managed to get to the very core of it showing what’s going on beneath the superficiality of appearances. Her whole piece was an outburst of rage pushed to the limits, with spells of idyllic elegance followed by outbreaks of savage fierceness of contorted muscles, grimaces nurtured by the accumulated force of protest against the long established canons of grace as we know it from art history. Citations from Greek antiquity with its immediately recognisable postures clashed with rebellious denial to fake these for the sake of commonplace demands and public pleasures. The performance was a spectacular attempt at bodily liberation celebrating the return to primordial natural powers, orgiastic female frenzy reminiscent of Dionysian rituals of Maenads losing themselves in ecstatic dances combined with a witty take on female desire. The performance took place as a double bill with WET HOT WOMBS – Bathing into other Bodies by Tentacular Figurings. Tanztage Berlin will go on till 25.1. 2025. According to Stuttgart based Georgian actress Mariam Jincharadze in “100 Seconds for Arts” film trailer on Otto Dix’s portrait of Berlin’s most notorious nude dancer Anita Berber, she never grew as old as she looks in that picture.

    Photo by Jon Bonde EriksenREAD THE FULL GEORGIA TODAY ARTICLE
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  • Simone Dinnerstein chats about 'The Eye is the First Circle' with 103.5 Hindsight Media Radio
    Posted At : January 16, 2025 12:00 AM
    Described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, recently released her new album, The Eye is the First Circle  featuring iconic American composer Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, via Supertrain Records. Timed to coincide with Ives’ 150th birthday on October 20, the new album is a live recording of the premiere of Dinnerstein’s multimedia production of the same title, at the Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University, New Jersey on October 17, 2021.The recording is Dinnerstein's last to be released with her longtime recording partner, GRAMMY-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, who also produced her previous thirteen albums. She says, “The Eye is the First Circle was a deeply personal project for me, and it was very meaningful to have Adam there. It is even more meaningful that this marks our last album together.”Dinnerstein has long been drawn to the music of Charles Ives. “There is a type of wild struggle in his music between the weighty influences of the past and the Americana of his upbringing and his quest for developing his own musical language,” she says. “The music seems to vacillate between a kind of haunting memory of beauty and an extremely dissonant and forward-looking anticipation of the future. It’s deeply human, incorporating tragedy and comedy, a striving for the spiritual and an embrace of popular culture. In our present day, when every one of us is able at the drop of the hat to curate the most esoteric of playlists, both literally and metaphorically, his music resonates deeply.”With her production The Eye is the First Circle, Simone Dinnerstein ventured into bold interdisciplinary artistic territory in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett. Conceived and directed by Dinnerstein, the dynamic production deconstructs and collages elements from two iconic works of art – Simone’s father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata – and also incorporates ambient sounds of children playing, night sounds from the pond, and birdsong.In the live, multimedia performance, Simon Dinnerstein’s The Fulbright Triptych places a family portrait (including an infant Simone) within the tradition of Medieval altar paintings, against a wall teeming with art historical references, and the Concord Sonata expresses the imaginative and natural world of the Transcendentalists through an ecstatic and fractured musical lens. Olinder pulls visuals including animated elements of the painting and real-time video to all points of the stage, and Scandrett’s lighting gives them breathtaking theatricality. Dinnerstein’s searching performance sits within this disorientingly immersive visual space. The piece asks: How do our origin stories mold us? How can a sense of self come from the musical and visual fragments we remember from childhood?The Eye is the First Circle was inspired in part by a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Circles: “The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end.”Dinnerestein explains the work further, writing in the liner notes for this album: “We tend to think of identity as taking us back to our roots, the part of us which remains essentially the same across time. In fact, identity is always a never-completed process of becoming – a process of shifting identifications, rather than a singular, complete, finished state of being. Ives’ music teems with invention, with the music that was all around him – art music and popular music – from which he, in turn, created his own distinctive and changing voice. . . This artistic project was a way in which I could ponder the process we’ve all been through – the accretion of experiences and influences that brought me to the place I was. It was an attempt to do what Emerson argued that we all want to do: to draw a new circle.”In addition to the premiere at Montclair State University presented and commissioned by PEAK Performances, Dinnerstein has performed The Eye is the First Circle at the Folly Theater in Kansas City presented by the Harriman Jewell Series and at the Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University.   Track List:Charles Ives: Concord Sonata
    1. "Emerson" (after Ralph Waldo Emerson) [16:19]
    2. "Hawthorne" (after Nathaniel Hawthorne) [12:21]
    3. "The Alcotts" (after Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott) [5:33]
    4. "Thoreau" (after Henry David Thoreau) [11:31]Dinnerstein discussed the recording with Hindsight Media Radio 103.5. Listen to the attached conversation
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  • Midori set for 'Sibelius' concerto with Louisville Public Media
    Posted At : January 15, 2025 12:00 AM
    Louisville Public Media's Bill Doolittle writes…..Richard Strauss wrote music that described things – people, ideas, stories – from Till Eulenspiegel the merry prankster to Salome the seductive dancer to the awesome sunrise of Also Spake Zarathrustra. And right outside the windows of his villa in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (pictured above), the composer could take in a view of one of the most magnificent vistas in the world, the Bavarian Alps. Strauss took a number of swings at creating the music to match the majesty of the mountains, and finally got what he wished in 1915 in An Alpine Symphony.It’s a big and atmospheric piece of music that calls for an augmented orchestra, and Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams has added a number of players and special instruments for concerts Friday and Saturday in Whitney Hall. The additions include a raft of brass, eight extra French horn players, a “thundersheet” and a wind machine to describe one 13-hour day up an Alpine mountain and back down again. A lot can happen.And after intermission, allso on the bill, Midori performs the Sibelius violin concerto.Playing Jean Sibelius’ Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. The Japanese-born American performs under just her first name and has earned an elite musical rank as a violinist and humanitarian. A fan favorite with a devoted following.This is Midori’s first appearance with the Louisville Orchestra, and it comes amid a winter tour that includes concerts in Boston, San Francisco, Berlin, Poland, Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, and Korea. She’s performing the Sibelius concerto she’s playing in Louisville on a tour in Spain. Midori is also helping create “Hope concerts” in Japan for Noto Peninsula earthquake victims with pianist Mao Fujita, and an event with young string players in Nepal. Her recording project for 2025 is works by Robert Schumann. Notably, Midori’s instrument is the 1734 Guarneri del Gesu, “Ex-Huberman.”

    Jean Sibelius isn’t just Finland’s most famous composer, he’s a hero in that nation – and the composer of the stirring anthem Finlandia. His symphonies are probably most familiar to audiences, especially Symphony No. 2, but smaller-size works are always popping up on concert programs and radio. “Hey, that’s neat!”Sibelius certainly has a sound. He comes along as one of the final Romantic composers, like Richard Strauss, writing from the 19th Century into the 20th.Sibelius totally ignored the atonal stuff of the period, taking a pass on sour notes, strange constructions and slashing assaults on the sensibilities of audiences. Yet, there is, in Sibelius and in this concerto, a northern austereness that listeners will recognize. More red-varnished wood than gold gilt. A Nordic edge, perhaps, distinguishing Sibelius from his Romantic siblings in Bavaria and Austria. But ever Romantic.

    PHOTO: Nigel Parry

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  • Freddie De Tommaso makes OperaWire's: Top 11 Singers of 2024'
    Posted At : December 23, 2024 12:00 AM
    A phenomenal voice and talent in the tradition of the great Italian tenor voices, 27 year old British-Italian Freddie De Tommaso shot to prominence when he won the First Prize, the Placido Domingo Tenor Prize and the Verdi Prize at the 2018 Viñas International Singing Competition in Barcelona. Since then he has performed at the Royal Opera House and Dutch National Opera and in September 2020, he opened to great success the Wiener Staatsoper season as Pinkerton in a new production of Madama Butterfly conducted by Philippe Jordan. Further performances this season include Macduff Macbeth, Italian Singer Der Rosenkavalier and Ismaele Nabucco, all at the Wiener Staatsoper, Alfredo La Traviata at Staatsoper Berlin and a hugely anticipated debut as Cavaradossi Tosca at Royal Opera House. Looking further ahead his engagements include several leading roles at Royal Opera House, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Dutch National Opera and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia Valencia.

    Highlights from De Tommaso’s 2019/20 season include Cassio Otello at the Royal Opera House under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano and Ismaele Nabucco with Dutch National Opera. He was as also invited to make his company debut in a new production of Madama Butterlfy at Semperoper Dresden.

    As a Previous member of the studio of Bayerische Staatsoper for the 18/19 season, De Tommaso appeared in productions including Norma, La Fanciulla del West, La bohème and the programme’s production of Mavra and Iolanta double bill. Prior to this, he was a member of the Young Singer Academy at the Salzburg Festival for the 2018 season. Following the Viñas competition, De Tommaso was invited to appear in concert at Teatro Real, Madrid and in recital in Vilagarcia, Spain. Other performances included concerts with the Georg Solti Accademia in Tuscany and a gala concert at the Victoria Hall, Geneva. His solo credits also include Mendelssohn Elijah, Puccini Messa di Gloria and Verdi Requiem.

    Hailing from Tunbridge Wells, the British-Italian tenor is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music where he studied under the guidance of Mark Wildman. His roles there included Don Jose La Tragedie de Carmen and Rodolfo La bohème. De Tommaso was generously supported by the Josephine Baker and Countess of Munster trusts. He is a Joseph Karaviotis scholar, a recipient of a Gregory-Carr scholarship and the Richard Lewis scholarship.


    Freddie marked the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death in 2024 with a new EP. Recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ed Gardner. Having already released some of Puccini’s greatest works including arias and duets on previous albums.                OPERANEWS writes…..

    The British-Italian tenor had a lot of debuts and “Tosca” productions in 2024. Among those important debuts was the Metropolitan Opera showcase where he made his mark with his signature of Cavaradossi. The tenor revived the David McVicar production and instantly became a hit with the New York audiences with OperaWire noting, “Without a doubt, De Tommaso is the real deal and is a tenor that will likely become a staple at the Met and a star that the house needs at this time.” Worldwide, audiences got to see his interpretation via the Live in HD series.But that was not his only notable debut. The tenor made an unexpectedly early debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in “Carmen,” jumping in for an ill colleague and then went on in a production of “Un Ballo in Maschera,” which was his original debut role. Then in March, he made his Teatro San Carlo debut and his role debut as Pollione in “Norma.” It was a role for which critics noted the the tenor was “completely absorbed by his character.” He also made his debut at the Greek National Opera as Alfredo in “La Traviata.”De Tommaso also toured alongside Lise Davidsen in concert and with “Tosca,” which took the duo to Berlin, Munich, Salzburg, and Wiener, as well as the aforementioned New York production. Other roles included Gabriele Adorno in “Simon Boccanegra” in Vienna, Don Jose in “Carmen” in Verona, and Maurizio in “Adriana Lecovreur” at the Liceu. There was also a concert with Angela Gheorghiu and a gala to celebrate Georg Solti.Off-stage, De Tommaso released his Puccini album and became the first tenor since Pavarotti to record ‘The Hymn of the Nations’ with the Teatro alla Scala. He also introduced himself to the radio world through his show on Classic FM, “Notes from Italy.”


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  • Bourgie Hall presents 'The Great European Songbook' featuring the David Chesky Trio / The Montrealer
    Posted At : January 14, 2025 12:00 AM
    The Montrealer writes…..Grammy-nominated David Chesky is a composer of orchestral works, operas and ballets, an author of children's books, a jazz pianist, and a world-renowned innovator of audio technologies. Critics describe his music as “highly individualistic,” “memorable,” “dynamic” and “exotic.” David Chesky has earned great respect for his fresh and unique approach to musical compositions, which span the jazz and classical genres. Captivating audiences around the world, The New York Times raves, “Chesky combines a gritty sophistication with street-level energy and currents of exotic folkishness.”
     Chesky developed his own style of composition heralded as “Urban Orchestral” music, merging classical techniques with sounds emanating from the streets of New York. This unique style has critics raving, “Chesky fuses diverse influences into a musical language all his own.” (Gramophone Magazine). This style produced genre-bending works including his Rap Symphony, and Concertos for electric guitar, piano, violin, and a double concerto for violin and cello, featured on 2011 albums Urbanicity and String Theory. Classics Today praised String Theory, “This music has integrity, and it gets under your skin.” His solo piano album, The New York Rags, was cited by The Absolute Sound as “being one of the best piano albums ever recorded.” Chesky's ballets, including Hope, commissioned and toured by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well as his Central Park Dances, Urbanicity, and The New York Variations, reflect modern life in a fast city. His full-length children's ballets, The Zephyrtine, and The Snowbears of Lake Louise, explore fantasy worlds while reinforcing the importance of cultural diversity and acceptance.
     Miami native Chesky moved to New York in 1974 to officially begin his career as a musician. With an interest in both classical and jazz, he immediately began studying composition with Pulitzer Prize winner, David Del Tredici, and piano with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. His blending of genres was first reflected in the culmination of his big band, The David Chesky Big Band, where he performed at every major jazz club and festival including The Village Vanguard, Storyville, and the Newport, JVC and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Still active as a jazz pianist today, Chesky plays and composes for his new group, Jazz in the New Harmonic, incorporating 12-tone and contemporary classical harmonies into jazz, and his Grammy-nominated Latin-jazz fusion, The Body Acoustic. David's latest jazz trio album is The Great European Songbook , in which he re-harmonizes the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin and sets them into a jazz palette.
     Artists
    David Chesky , piano
    Walter A. Stinson , double bass
    Jim Doxas , drums
     Program
    J.S. BACH/CHESKY
    Preludes 1, 2, and 6 (from The Well-Tempered Clavier , Vol. 1) Fugue No. 2 (from The Well-Tempered Clavier , Vol. 1 ) Chorale Prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BEETHOVEN /CHESKY Ode to Joy Für Elise CHOPIN/CHESKY Prelude No. 4 in E minor, Op. 28 J. STRAUSS II/CHESKY The Blue Danube

    Photo: Patrick Dinely


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  • Leif Ove Andsnes, an insightful champion returns Tveitt to the Wigmore stage / The Guardian
    Posted At : January 13, 2025 12:00 AM
    The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal names him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and has received honorary doctorates from Norway’s Universities of Bergen and Oslo and New York’s Juilliard School.As the MCO’s first Artistic Partner, Andsnes has already led the ensemble from the keyboard in two major, multi-season projects. In “Mozart Momentum 1785/86,” they explored one of the most creative and seminal periods of the composer’s career with live accounts of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20–24 at London’s BBC Proms and other key European venues, as well as recorded ones for Sony Classical. The project’s first album, MM/1785, was nominated for a 2022 International Classical Music Award, and recognized with France’s prestigious Diapason d’or de l’année for Best Concerto Album of 2021. The second album, MM/1786, was named one of the “Best Classical Albums of 2022” by Gramophone, while the two-volume series won the magazine’s 2022 “Special Achievement” Award. This followed the success of “The Beethoven Journey.” An epic four-season focus on the composer’s music for piano and orchestra, this took the pianist to 108 cities in 27 countries for more than 230 live performances. He led the MCO in complete Beethoven concerto cycles at high-profile residencies in Bonn, Hamburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bodø, and London, besides collaborating with such leading international ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Munich Philharmonic. The project was chronicled in the documentary Concerto – A Beethoven Journey (2016), and Andsnes’s partnership with the MCO was captured on the hit Sony Classical three-volume series The Beethoven Journey. The first volume was named iTunes’ Best Instrumental Album of 2012 and awarded Belgium’s Prix Caecilia, the second recognized with BBC Music’s coveted “2015 Recording of the Year Award,” and the complete series chosen as one of the “Best of 2014” by the New York Times.Andsnes’s discography comprises more than 50 titles – solo, chamber, and concerto releases, many of them bestsellers – spanning repertoire from the Baroque to the present day. He has been nominated for eleven Grammys and his many international prizes include seven Gramophone Awards. His EMI Classics recordings of the music of his compatriot Edvard Grieg have been especially celebrated: the New York Times named Andsnes’s 2004 recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic a “Best CD of the Year,” the Penguin Guide awarded it a coveted “Rosette,” and both that album and his disc of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces won Gramophone Awards. His recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 18 was another New York Times “Best of the Year” and Penguin Guide “Rosette” honoree. He won yet another Gramophone Award for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Antonio Pappano and the Berlin Philharmonic. A series of recordings of Schubert’s late sonatas, paired with lieder sung by Ian Bostridge, inspired lavish praise, as did the pianist’s world-premiere recordings of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sørensen’s The Shadows of Silence, both of which were written for him. Leif Ove Andsnes: The Complete Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010, a 36-CD retrospective of his EMI and Virgin recordings, was released to acclaim in 2023. In addition to The Beethoven Journey and MM 1785/86, his recent Sony Classical releases include Dvorák’s unjustly neglected piano cycle Poetic Tone Pictures, Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes, and the Billboard best-selling Sibelius, all recorded for Sony; Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & other works for two pianos four hands, recorded with Marc-André Hamelin for Hyperion; and Schumann: Liederkreis & Kernerlieder, recorded with Matthias Goerne for Harmonia Mundi. Both the Hamelin and Goerne collaborations were nominated for Grammy Awards.Andsnes has received Norway’s distinguished honor, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and in 2007, he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded by members of parliament to honor prominent Norwegians for their achievements in politics, sports, and culture. In 2004-05, he became the youngest musician (and first Scandinavian) to curate Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series, and in 2015-16 he was the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait Series. Having been 2010-11 Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, he went on to serve as 2017-18 Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic and 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony. The recipient of both the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award, Andsnes was named one of the “Best of the Best” by Vanity Fair in 2005.
    From The Guardian………Geirr Tviett’s Ether Sonata – one of the Norwegian composer’s few surviving works – is a rich and characterful piece, part of a recital that also included Grieg and ChopinErica Jeal writes….As Leif Ove Andsnes told us in a quick introduction from the stage, Geirr Tveitt’s Sonata Etere had been heard at the Wigmore Hall at least once, played by the composer himself, a few weeks after its 1947 Paris premiere. The introduction was necessary. Tveitt, born in Norway in 1908, would be better known today had a house fire not destroyed around two-thirds of his life’s work, including all but one of 30-plus piano sonatas.The Ether Sonata has at least found an insightful champion in Andsnes. It’s a substantial piece that wears its title well. In among the weightily characterful writing of the first movement – thickly textured, almost like a Norwegian Janácek – came fleeting moments where the clouds parted to reveal a gentler, more delicate music. Then the second movement began with Andsnes leaning his forearm along the keyboard, freeing up a chunk of the piano’s lower strings so they could ring with each note his right hand played. The effect was to create a kind of halo of vibrancy that seemed to come from another world – a sound from the ether, indeed. This returned at the end of the breathlessly motoring finale, with harsh repeated notes in the right hand sounding almost like a klaxon bringing the movement to a halt.The video player is currently playing an ad.Andsnes had begun with Grieg’s early Sonata Op 7, the first movement a precisely calibrated mix of velvet and grit, the third a fiery, whirling dance thrown into relief by hymn-like passages. The second half was devoted to Chopin’s Op 28 Preludes, a whistle-stop series of styles and mood swings when played back to back as here, almost running into one another. Nor did Andsnes hang around during the music itself – there was a welcome lack of sentimentality to his playing, with the inner workings of Chopin’s musical engines on display. The tiny waltz of number seven offered a few seconds of magically distant-sounding calm, but some faster numbers were tackled with such relentless drive that they felt exhausting.His encore was another prelude, Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie, its bell-like chords taking us back to the resonating world of the Tveitt, the evening’s discovery.

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Max Horowitz

maxcrossover@gmail.com

A graduate of the Aaron Copland School of Music, Max Horowitz is principle of Crossover Media Music Promotion. Founded in 1994, Crossover Media's client list includes: Sony Masterworks, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group along with Independent Labels and Artists. Prior to establishing Crossover Media, Mr. Horowitz served as ‘Producer for SiriusXM,’ ‘Music Choice,’ ‘Classical-104WNCN - New York,’ and the ‘DayNET Talk Network.' A recipient of The George Foster Peabody Award, the ‘International Radio Festival of New York Award, and the ’New York State Broadcaster Awards, as a producer, Max has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, Jonny Greeenwood, Richard Reed Parry, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Leonard Slatkin, Yannick Nezet-Sequin, Vladimir Horowitz, Emanuel Ax, JoAnn Falletta, Daniel Hope, Nico Muhly, John Scofield, Steve Swallow, The Bad Plus, Marcus Roberts, Rachel Portman, Alexandre Desplat, Ilan Eshkeri, Jeff Beal, Jung Jaeil, and many others. Mr. Horowitz is also a contributor to ‘Understanding The Music Business’ published by Simon & Schuster.

Amanda Bloom

amandacrossover@gmail.com

Amanda Bloom is the publicity and communications manager at Crossover Media. A Brooklyn resident, Amanda is also an active NYC jazz vocalist who draws musical inspiration from a wide range of influences. Crossover Media's projects which encompass multiple genres has been a great fit for her both personally and professionally. Amanda earned a BM in jazz vocal performance from the Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Jay Clayton & Gary Thomas.

Zachary Swanson

zacharycrossover@gmail.com

Zachary Swanson began studying the double bass at the age of 6 in his home state of Massachusetts. Using gut strings and a personalized technique, Zachary has developed a conception of the double bass that heightens the integrity of various musical environments. He can be found playing around New York City and beyond in a variety of styles, ranging from adventurous improvised music to backing singer-songwriters. Zachary is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where he has made his home since 2012.