Tag: Romantic

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Leaf Music and Fierbois Duo Present Sing to Me Again

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Fierbois announce the release of a new recording Sing To Me Again, being released on January 10, including a live performance at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at 7:30 p.m.

Sing to Me Again (LM286)presents re-imagined works from Eastern Europe, with a unique blend of traditional folk influences, rich melodies, and the dark, powerful sound of Caitlin Broms-Jacobs’ oboe, paired with the warm and rich resonance of Madeline Hildebrand’s piano.

Two of Winnipeg’s finest musicians, the duo styles themselves after the Joan of Arc’s sword (Fierbois). Fierbois means “proud wood” in Old French (a nod to the piano and oboe;) an iconic strong woman, Joan of Arc never used the sword to inflict harm, only to inspire. Fierbois’s first album features passionate and unusual repertoire sourced by the musicians, representing silenced voices of the 20th century, underplayed composers or those whose voices have been restricted in artistic expression. The works of Gayane Chebotaryan, Fikret Amirov and Holocaust victim Pavel Hass are joined by art songs by youthful Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940), and lyrical works reflecting the album’s title by Mikhail Glinka, Canadian Srul Irving Glick and Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin.

Known for their joyful and electrifying performances, pianist Madeline Hildebrand and oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs have been friends and musical collaborators since 2014 when they first performed together on Winnipeg’s prestigious Millennium Recital Series. Caitlin is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and has frequently performed as guest principal oboist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Madeline has recently performed with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet and currently teaches at Brandon University and the Canadian Mennonite University. Fierbois will tour Western Canada with Prairie Debut in the 2025-26 season; learn more here: https://www.caitlinbromsjacobs.com/fierbois

The new album was produced with the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Film and Music, The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, FACTOR and numerous individual donors. It was recorded at the Lorne Watson Recital Hall, Brandon University, in December of 2023. Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca 

(902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).

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Leaf Music Distributes New Fortepiano and Wind Instruments Album from Anders Muskens

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music announces the distribution of a new recording from early music specialist Anders Muskens, being released on November 29.  

“Der meint’es treu!” Music for Fortepiano & Winds from the Biedermeier Salon: Mendelssohn, Schubert, Hummel & R. Schumann features compositions associated with German Romanticism (1815-1848), which were often performed in domestic settings. Muskens performs on an original German square pianoforte made by Johann Gottlieb Irmler in Leipzig c. 1823, paired with historical wind instruments. The album is presented by musicians from Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester Kamermusici, including Anders Muskens on fortepiano, Elia Celegato on historical clarinet, and Florencia Gomez on historical flute. 

During the Biedermeier period, social life often revolved around the salon, intimate gatherings typically hosted by women in their homes, where intellectuals, artists, and musicians engaged in discussions, performances, and the exchange of ideas. The famous Schubertiade, named after the composer Franz Schubert, was a more specialized form of salon, dedicated to music and Schubert’s compositions. The German square piano was a popular fixture in homes of the time and was ideal for the smaller living spaces typical of the Biedermeier era. 

Listen to “Der meint’es treu!” Music for Fortepiano & Winds from the Biedermeier Salon: https://leaf-music.lnk.to/am242

Prolific early music specialist Anders Muskens has had other recordings distributed by Leaf, including Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas and Army of Generals Volume 11: Carl Theodor’s Court Orchestra in Mannheim 1742-1778. Muskens is a Canadian early keyboard specialist and ensemble director, who performs throughout North America and Europe. He completed a Masters in Fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague under Dr. Bart van Oort and Petra Somlai, with Fabio Bonizzoni and Patrick Ayrton for harpsichord. He is represented as a performer by the Sonus Agency for Early Music and is the founder of the ensemble Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester, an international initiative to revive the music of the Mannheim School in the second half of the eighteenth century.  

The new album was produced with the generous support of the Adriana Jacoba Fonds and the Sena Performing Artist Fund, and was recorded at the Lutherse Kerk Delft, May – June 2021. 

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada. 

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt

peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).

Classical Winds Playlist

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Leaf Music and Noémie Raymond with Zhenni Li-Cohen Present Dialogues

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music announces the launch of Dialogues (LM295), a new recording by cellist Noémie Raymond and pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen, available September 20 in digital and physical format. Dialogues includes two major works, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s monumental Cello Sonata in G minor, Op, 19 from 1919, and Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata (Version for Cello and Piano) from 1901.

The album explores the duality between these two masterpieces, created by composers and virtuoso performers born thirteen years apart, who both emigrated to the United States. Despite their distinct styles, the works share a remarkable emotional depth and instrumental virtuosity. Dialogues is a true musical conversation linking two eras, two artistic visions, and two talented artists. The musicians add “a dialogue between you and us.”

Less well known than his orchestral works, Rachmaninoff’s Sonata (composed simultaneously as his famous Piano Concerto No. 2), marked his return to composition after a difficult period following the unfavourable reception of his First Symphony in 1897. Rebecca Clarke, a pioneer of “English impressionism,” wrote her Sonata three years after emigrating to the US, where she experienced an artistic rebirth following a tormented childhood. Recalling works by Debussy and Ravel, the piece placed second in a prestigious competition for composers and today has emerged in its rightful place in the standard repertoire for viola.

The album launch will take place at the Piano Nobile at Place des Arts in Montreal on September 20th. A concert tour will follow, including the opening of the 24/25 season at Chapelle-Historique-du-Bon-Pasteur in Montreal on September 29 (2024), a recital at Carnegie Hall on March 20 (2025), a recital at the Bradshaw Amphitheater in Toronto on April 17 (2025) and a recital at the Berlin Philharmonic in autumn 2025.  

Get your CD copy of Dialogues or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform.    

Dialogues was recorded March 6-8, 2024, in Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, and produced by Jeremy Van Slyke for Leaf Music with sound recording by René Laflamme and editing, mixing, and mastering by Nathan Cann.

Noémie Raymond, critically acclaimed for her exceptional talent and deep, rich timbre, has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Midori and Pinchas Zukerman. She debuted at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2016 and was recognized as one of CBC’s “30 Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2018.

Steinway & Sons artist Zhenni Li-Cohen is praised for her captivating playing and recordings of rare works. She will soon perform with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic.

About Leaf Music:  Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

We acknowledge that Leaf Music’s work spans many Territories and Treaty areas, and that our home is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).

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Leaf Music and Karl Stobbe Present “Ysaÿe, J. S. Bach & Paganini: Works for Solo Violin”

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian violinist Karl Stobbe announce the launch ofYsaÿe, J. S. Bach & Paganini: Works for Solo Violin (LM294), available March 22 in digital format.

This is part of a six-album series of violin repertoire to be released individually over the next few years, based on the repertoire of J.S. Bach. Karl Stobbe traces the important relationship between luthiers, players, and composers through this album, through the compositions of three giants in solo violin playing and composition—Bach, Paganini, and Ysaÿe. Recorded on a violin made in 1806 by the French master Nicolas Lupot, Stobbe interprets Bach’s virtuosic B minor Partita, three of Paganini’s most technically treacherous but musically ingenious Caprices, and Ysaÿe’s fourth Solo Sonata—an homage that melds Paganini’s flair with Bach’s profound counterpoint and complexity.  

As a concertmaster, chamber musician, soloist, and performer, Karl Stobbe (www.karlstobbe.com) is recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished violinists, known for his dedication to violin excellence. Stobbe completed a Master of Music at Indiana University with a minor in Violin Repair and Construction. His passion for the construction and mechanics of the violin is an integral part of his professional musical life and continues to influence his performances and teaching. Noted for his generous, rich sound and long, poignant phrasing, he is described by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “an artist with soulful musicianship,” and by London’s Sunday Times as “a master soloist, recalling the golden age of violin playing… producing a breathtaking range of tone colours.” Karl has performed in many of North America’s most famous concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, the National Arts Centre, Roy Thompson Hall, Segerstrom Hall, and the Orpheum Theatre. He plays on a violin made in 1806 by French luthier Nicolas Lupot, and a bow made just a few blocks away in1790 by Francois Xavier Tourte.

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).

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Leaf Music Distribution Presents Anders Muskens and Beethoven’s “Waldstein & Appassionata” Sonatas Performed on an Original Pianoforte

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music announces the distribution of two distribution from early music specialist Anders Muskens. The two recordings are all being released on December 1.

Prolific early music specialist Anders Muskens has two new recordings released by Leaf Music Distribution. The first, Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas is performed on an original pianoforte (historical piano) by John Broadwood & Sons, made in London in 1806 and restored by Paul Kobald in Amsterdam in 2022. The recording was made at the Nikomedeskirche, Weilheim (Tübingen), Germany, with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts. Muskens says: “These wonderful historical instruments, when working, can produce that rawness and vitality that Beethoven must have strove for.” Transporting his listeners to another time and place, Anders strives to provide a “completely new perspective of well-known repertoire.”

Listen to Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas wherever you stream your music: https://leaf-music.lnk.to/am003.

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell). 

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Leaf Music Distribution and Christine Vanderkooy Present: “Schubert Late Piano Works”

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Pianist Christine Vanderkooy presents a new album, Schubert: Late Piano Works, distributed by Leaf Music Distribution. Recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio during Toronto’s lockdown in December of 2020 on “Bertha” the nine-foot New York Steinway, the recording comprises two works composed by Schubert in the twilight of his life: Sonata in C-minor, D. 958 – the first from his late sonata trilogy – and Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946. While these works were long passed over following their creation in 1828, these deeply human compositions have been establishing their place as inimitable masterworks amongst pianists and audiences alike.

Written just a year following the death of his admired Beethoven, Schubert completed “some of his most sophisticated, poetic, and deeply felt works for the piano…permeating the deepest layers of the soul…moving us, sometimes with the masterful shift of just one note or rest, from the desolate to the sublime,” Christine writes in the liner notes.

Praised for her “sensitive and passionate artistic interpretation,” Christine Vanderkooy has performed as a soloist across Canada, the US and Europe. Her previous recording, Schubert and Schumann, enjoyed critical acclaim including a cover story for Tempo magazine. As well as radio play on CBC Radio and stations across the continent. Christine has been frequently invited to adjudicate festivals and competitions and has twice been invited to judge the Canadian JUNO Awards. Her national reputation as a piano pedagogue has led to workshops and masterclasses across the country.

Christine studied and taught at McGill University where she earned a Doctor of Music in Piano Performance. Her major teachers included David McIntyre, Boyd McDonald, Tom Plaunt, Sara Laimon and Marc Durand. She joined the University of Windsor in 2017 as Associate Professor of Music and Education. 

The recording was made possible by funding from the University of Windsor, including a research start-up grant and the Research Stimulus Fund Grant from the Faculty of Education, as well as an SSHRC Exchange Grant.

Listen to Schubert Late Piano Works wherever you stream your music: http://leaf-music.lnk.to/cv2023

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).