Ulysses Arts releases J A Monteiro Choral Music on 28 August 2026, with the Happenstance Singers conducted by Matthew Swann (UA260071). The album will include Monteiro's Limehouse Mass, And Ruth Said, Away in A Manger, and music from Seven Last Words.

Monteiro: Choral Music brings together a selection of sacred works by J A Monteiro. Rooted in the traditions of Anglican and Catholic choral music, these settings balance expressive harmonic writing with the practical demands of liturgical performance.

At the centre of the programme are selected movements from Seven Last Words, a setting of the final words of Christ on the cross. Each movement illuminates a different emotional character, from the tender compassion of Woman, behold your son, through the anguish of My God, why have you forsaken me?, to the sorrow of It is finished.

The album also includes the Limehouse Mass, written for the Church of Our Lady Immaculate & St Frederick, London: a compact setting for practical liturgical use. And Ruth said unfolds in long lyrical lines, while Away in a manger offers a gentle reimagining of the familiar carol.

Joe Monteiro, who publishes as J.A. Monteiro, is a composer and arranger of choral music. His works have been recorded by the Ulysses Arts label. Two initial EPs, Limehouse Mass (2025) and Seven Last Words (2026), were released in preparation for this full album. Choral works include motets, Mass and psalm settings, and arrangements of hymns and carols. His organ work Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem was performed at Southwark Cathedral in 2024 and subsequently recorded.

He is Director of Music at the Church of Our Lady Immaculate & St Frederick, London. He graduated from the University of Oxford, where he wrote for the chapel choir of St Hugh’s College.

Happenstance Singers were formed in 2020 by their director, Matthew Swann, and a few like-minded friends who were seeking a high-quality choir in London with a distinctive warmth of tone, across a wide range of choral repertoire. They have performed a range of projects including Bach’s St John Passion, rarely-performed Flemish 16th-century polyphony including Richafort’s Requiem in Memoriam Josquin de Prez, contemporary classics including Eric Whitacre’s When David Heard and their highly popular Handel’s Messiah at the Kernel Brewery Tap Room. They also sing regularly for services at Westminster Abbey.

Pre-order, download and streaming links will be published here.

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English composers Herbert Howells (1892–1983), Stanley Bate (1911–1959) and Edwin York Bowen (1884–1961) offer a wealth of divergent influences illuminating the cultural shifts of the early twentieth century. Their choral, instrumental and orchestral music is well recorded, but their songs less so. This album reveals them to be fine song composers too and includes also one song by Edwin York Bowen’s song Philip. Except for Howells’s Peacock Pie, all the music here is released for the first time.

Timothy Salter writes:

‘I am fortunate to have known two of the three composers represented in this collection of songs. 

My first piano teacher arranged for me, aged about 16, to play to York Bowen. Following a first meeting I had piano lessons with him for a sadly brief time until his death in 1961. 
My memory of him is of a friendly and quite modest figure; by the time I met him his music had been out of fashion for many years. I sensed that our relationship, although of short duration, had a sympathetic quality lent to it by the fact that I too am a composer as well as a pianist. I recall showing him one of my compositions; his response included a remark that I might have difficulty in publishing it these days in the face of the current cultural climate of modernism, hard-edged and experimental as so much of it was.

York Bowen’s own music is in a rich harmonic language characterized by an overtly sensual appeal, and in his teaching, he demonstrated this sensibility too. He once told me with great enthusiasm of a recital to which he’d been recently, given by Walter Gieseking - another pianist-composer - who had played some music of Debussy. Bowen had been enraptured by Gieseking’s limpid playing of a descending cascade of notes, saying it was as if he’d shaken the notes out of his sleeve.  It’s an image that has stayed with me.  

My acquaintance with Howells was more tangential. I recall an early encounter: he was examining a cellist for whose performance I was playing the piano part, and he remarked on the piano playing with generosity. He and I both taught at the Royal College of Music, London; our times overlapped by a few years.  The subjects we taught were composition and what used to be called harmony and counterpoint (later amended to ‘musicianship’ - more elegant but less informative).  Not long after I started to stand in at RCM for absent professors, I was called upon to deputise for him; he had attempted to board a No. 9 bus and fallen, breaking his hip.  Thus, I met all his students but my contact with Howells was mostly a matter of amiable exchanges in the corridor thereafter.  

It’s tempting to consider the coinciding of composer and keyboard player.  Its immediate evidence is in the fluency of the keyboard writing throughout this recording; the musical language, of course, remains individual to each composer.’  T.S.
   

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Five Songs for Low Voice and Piano, Op. 7a *

1. The Valley of Silence
2. When the dew is falling
3. By the Grey Stone
4. St. Bride’s Song
5. When there is Peace

Peacock Pie, Op. 33

6. Tired Tim
7. Alas, Alack!
8. Mrs. MacQueen
9. The Dunce
10. Full Moon
11. Miss T. 

Stanley Bate (1911-1959)

ive Songs from Pomes Penyeach, Op. 53 *

12. Simples (No. 10)
13. Tutto è Sciolto (No. 8)
14. Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba (No. 4)
15. Bahnhofstrasse (No. 11)
16. Tilly (No. 1)

Edwin York Bowen (1884-1961) *

17. Cordovan Love Song, Op. 68 No. 4
18. To Myra
19. In June, Op. 68 No. 3
20. Storm Song, Op. 68 No. 1
21. The Hidden Treasure, Op. 67 No. 1
22. A Moonlight Night
23. Love's Reckoning, Op. 67 No. 3
24. Sleep: A Song Triptych (by Philip York Bowen, 1913-1970)
25. If You Should Frown, Op. 68 No. 2
26. Love and Death, Op. 62 No. 2
27. The Wind's an Old Woman, Op. 71 No. 1

World première recordings *

Herbert Howells (1892-1983), Five Songs for Low Voice and Piano Op. 7a and Peacock Pie, Op. 33
 
Howell’s Five Songs for Low Voice and Piano date from 1916, when he was beginning to get the first professional performances in London after his studies in London at the Royal College of Music, where he had been hailed by Sir Hubert Parry, the director, at his audition as ‘an amazingly gifted boy’. Unlike his contemporaries Butterworth, Bliss and Gurney, serious illness spared Howells from serving in World War One: instead, he endured years of experimental and ultimately successful radiological treatment for Graves Disease, enabling him to continue to compose.

The Five Songs explore musical language reminiscent of late Wagner or Hugo Wolf’s Lieder in their complex harmonies and expressive intensity. Howells designated the Songs as Op. 7: he applied the same number to his Three Dances for Violin from 1915 and appears to have neglected if not suppressed the songs. While Howells never explained why he did this, like many of his contemporaries, he was searching for new musical styles unburdened by the late Romanticism embodied in the works of established composers such as Stanford, Parry and Elgar. In 1916, Howells expressed in The Athenaeum his opinion about the superfluous nature of musical settings of highly lyrical poetry. The words for these songs are by ‘Fiona Macleod’, a pseudonym for William Sharp (1855-1905).
 
Howells’s setting of six poems from Walter de la Mare’s Peacock Pie (1922) contrast strikingly with Op. 7a. The verses are addressed to children: the music has a direct simplicity, although the fifth song, Full Moon, reveals the lyricism found throughout his music.

* ‘English Singing’, The Athenaeum (July 1916), pp. 351-52.

Stanley Bate (1911-1959), Five Songs from Pomes Penyeach, Op. 53

Stanley Bate had a successful career as composer and pianist in America and Britain, although his work is little heard today. His strongest influences were Delius and near-contemporary European composers Ravel and Hindemith: he studied at the Royal College of Music with Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Benjamin, Gordon Jacob and with Hindemith in Berlin. These five songs were published by Ricordi in 1951 from a set of thirteen composed in autumn 1946 setting words from James Joyce’s Pomes Penyeach. The fourth, Bahnhofstrasse, with its mechanistic piano figure, is far from the Romantic language of early Howells and Bowen. The poem’s reference to colours relates to Joyce’s own difficulties with vision.

On publication, the critic Harry Dexter praised these five songs for their ‘clarity of texture, sincerity of expression, general sense of purpose and their emotional substance which make for ready understanding and should be taken up by all singers of serious intentions.’ They were first performed by John Cameron and Frederick Stone on 20 October 1952. In the same year, Bate created a version of the songs for voice and orchestra.

Edwin York Bowen (1884-1961)

Edwin York Bowen was hailed by Camille Saint-Saëns as ‘the most remarkable of the young British composers’ and a distinguished pianist. During recent decades his piano music has become widely performed along with some of his chamber music. Most of his other works including the songs have remained largely unknown. 

Bowen’s instrumental music’s subtle chromatic harmonic palette and predominantly melodic language display a late Romantic sensibility; the harmonic language of his songs is more direct, manifesting a keen response to their texts.  They were published during the 1920s, except for Sleep (1937), which the score’s title page attributes to Bowen’s son Philip.

Engineering and production: Frank Morgan for Usk Recordings
Digital editing and mastering: David Wright
Artwork design: Hannah Whale - Fruition Creative Concepts
Record label and distribution: Ulysses Arts Ltd.

Ulysses Arts releases Poetry & Prayer, new choral music by Sarah Cattley, Phillip Cooke, Benedict Preece, Eoghan Desmond, Luke Mayernik, Neil Wright and Conner McCain on 5 June 2026, performed by Caritas Chamber Choir directed by Benedict Preece (UA260060).

Track List

Sarah Cattley, Ave Maria (IG/Single: 8 May)
Phillip Cooke, God be in my head (IG: 29 May 29)
Luke Mayernik, Vigil- Mary, the Dawn (IG/Single: 15 May)
Sarah Cattley, The lark's in the sky, love
Sarah Cattley, My heart is like a singing bird
Phillip Cooke, Everyone Sang
Benedict Preece, With Prayer and Supplication
Benedict Preece, Ave, Maris Stella (IG: 1 May)
Eoghan Desmond, Aestimatus Sum (IG/Sing;le: 22 May)
Eoghan Desmond, The Wayfaring Stranger
Phillip Cooke, Tota Pulchra Es
Conner McCain, You are Beautiful

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Benedict Preece writes:

'One of the great joys of directing Caritas over the years has been the choir’s unwavering commitment to performing, commissioning, and recording contemporary music. It is therefore a particular pleasure to present this album, devoted entirely to recent works - eleven of the thirteen receiving their first recording here.

The theme of poetry and prayer has given us the freedom to place sacred and secular music side by side. In truth, the boundaries are often porous: many of the sacred works draw upon deeply poetic texts - including two settings from the Song of Songs - while several of the secular pieces resonate with a spirit of contemplation not far removed from prayer. Alongside composers with whom we have an established artistic relationship, this album also marks our first collaborations with Eoghan Desmond, Luke Mayernik, and Conner McCain.'

The recording was made in All Saints’ Church, Boughton Aluph, Kent (pictured), returning to the church in which our first album was recorded in 2017.

Benedict Preece is an award-winning conductor who trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is currently Music Director of Caritas Chamber Choir, East Bridge Chorale and Graduati Singers in London. Passionate about working with both singers and instrumentalists, he is also in demand as an orchestral conductor. He was Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar 2017-18.

He developed his orchestral conducting with Stephen Portman (a former student of Monteux and Szell) and with Peter Stark, with recent conducting engagements with the Festival Chamber Orchestra and Kent Sinfonia. As the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, he studied with Eamonn Dougan and Harry Christophers and with Nicholas Chalmers at the Royal Academy of Music. Benedict graduated from the RAM with an MA with Distinction, the DipRAM, the Regency Award for high achievement and the Exam Board Prize for the highest final recital mark.

He began his career as a Chorister of Canterbury Cathedral singing for many years as a tenor. At Trinity College of Music, London, he specialised in horn and natural horn under Roger Montgomery and Anthony Halstead. As an organist, Benedict studied with Dr. David Ponsford, David Flood, then organ and composition with Neil Wright. For ten years he was Music Director of Sandwich Concert Band and has held numerous church music positions. For more than five years, he was Head of Chapel Music, Head of Keyboard and Organist at The Duke of York’s Royal Military School.

He has released many recordings to critical acclaim with Caritas Chamber Choir. Ritmo magazine described his conducting: “Preece is very convincing…he always knows which voice to bring out, how to accentuate the beauty of the phrase.” Benedict is a signed artist with Ulysses Arts, a London-based record label, as both a conductor and organist. His choral compositions are regularly performed on both sides of the Atlantic and often featured on Caritas Chamber Choir recordings. He is passionate about contemporary music having commissioned composers including Sarah Cattley and has conducted première recordings of works by leading composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Cecilia McDowall, Gabriel Jackson, Phillip Cooke and David Conte. He is looking forward to bringing more brand new works to audiences around the world.

Caritas Chamber Choir was founded in 2011 by Benedict Preece, its Music Director. Caritas is the Latin word for charity and through its performances, the ensemble raises funds for charities, good causes and churches. Members are drawn from around Kent, in south east England. The ensemble has become an important part of the cultural landscape of Kent and is renowned for its commitment to contemporary choral works.

Caritas have many international collaborations and have performed in Sweden, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Every year, the choir proudly sings in Lille Cathedral as part of their summer music festival. For three years the choir ran an international choral composition competition and continues to champion new music with Sarah Cattley as the choir’s Associate Composer.

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Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts Ltd.

Weely from 24 April to 29 May 2026, Ulysses Arts releases a weekly series of live performance videos from Vienna by Bösendorfer artist Nareh Arghamanyan, with music by J.S. Bach, Schubert/Liszt, Fanny Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss/Grünfeld and Schütt, Frank Churchill, Earl Wild and Gershwin.

Release Schedule: April to May 2026

24 April
Johann Sebastian Bach: Siciliano from Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031, arranged for solo piano by Wilhelm Kempff

30 April
Franz Liszt: Variations on the Basso Ostinato from J.S. Bach's Cantata, 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen', S. 180

1 May
Fanny Mendelssohn: Der Traum (Januar), from Das Jahr, H. 385
Frank Churchill, Remininscences of Snow White, arranged by Earl Wild

8 May
Alfred Grünfeld, Concert Paraphrase on Waltz Motifs from Johann Strauss's Cinderella, Op. 52
Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Swans, Swan Lake Act II, No. 13/IV, arranged by Earl Wild

15 May
Eduard Schütt, Concert Paraphrase on Johann Strauss the Younger's 'Tales from the Vienna Woods', for solo piano, Op. 10
Earl Wild, Virtuoso Étude No. 3, based on George Gershwin's Song 'The Man I love'

22 May
Komitas, Garun A (It is Spring)
Franz Schubert, Der Müller und der Bach, from Die Schöne Müllerin, Op. 25, D.795 No. 19, arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt.S. 565/2
Tchaikovsky, The Seasons, Op. 37a No. 1: January - At The Fireside

29 May
Earl Wild, Hommage à Poulenc based on the Sarabande from J.S. Bach, Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825
Leopold Godowski, Triakontamerion, No. 11: Alt-Wien

Producer: Thomas Egger
Videographers: Sigrid Friedmann and Ulrich Kaufmann

Nareh Arghamanyan was born in Armenia and is a Bösendorfer artist based in Vienna. Since winning the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition, she has performed at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, The Wigmore Hall in London, New York's Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Osaka Concert Hall and many others worldwide. 

Conductors with whom she has worked include Sir Neville Marriner, Riccardo Chailly, Kent Nagano and Alain Altinoglu, with the Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle -Orchester Zürich, Radio-Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and L'Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal.

Nareh's festival performances include the Lucerne Festival, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Domaine Forget and Schwetzinger Festspiele. Her awards include the Franz Liszt Prize, the Georgy Cziffra Wward, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, and distinctions from the Karajan Foundation and Orpheum Stiftung.

As a recording artist, Nareh's discography includes albums with Analekta and Pentatone, releasing critically acclaimed albums of Rachmaninov, Liszt, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. In 2018, she recorded the premiere of Franz Danzi’s Piano Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra for Sony Classical. Recent solo albums feature works by Brahms and Tchaikovsky, released by Ulysses Arts, Komitas and since 2025, with German label Hänssler Classic, starting with Femme de Légende, dedicated to piano works by female composers. Her next album will be devoted to the vibrant dance music of Johann Strauss and Aram Khachaturian.

Deeply committed to fostering the next generation of musicians, Nareh organises and leads masterclasses, serves on competition juries in both Austria and her native Armenia. Her initiatives reflect a passionate dedication to nurturing young artists and building bridges between cultures through music.

Nareh's artist approach connects with the lineage of pianists such as Godowsky, Cherkassky, Arrau, Schnabel, Gilels and Michelangeli. At the heart of her artistry is the desire to connect - intimately, honestly and profoundly, whether in a quiet rehearsal room or the largest concert hall.

'A force of nature at the piano.' Musical America
'Blazing virtuosity meets soulful depth.' La Scena musicale
'A major talent with unstoppable presence.' International Piano Review

Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts.

World première recording of J A Monteiro, Seven Last Words, performed by the Happenstance Singers directed by Matthew Swann, is released by Ulysses Arts on 3 July 2026 (UA260070).

Seven Last Words was first performed on Good Friday in 2025: it sets the last words of Christ on the cross.  Each movement illuminates a different emotional character, from the sincerity of ‘Truly, I say to you’, and the tender compassion of ‘Woman, behold your son’, to the anguish of ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ The final movement, ‘Father, into Your Hands’, brings the sequence to a close with a moment of stillness and release.

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William Thomas McKinley String Quartets Vol. 1 (MS104) is released digitally on 17 April 2026 by the McKinley Foundation, in partnership with Ulysses Arts.

Stirng Quartet No. 1 is from McKinley's student days: two superficially contrasting movements, but full of subtle connections, including angular melodic lines, chromatically inflected intervals, imitative counterpoint and tripartite textures with melody and accompanyment and often a third line commenting on both.

Quartet No. 7's eight movements constitute a panoply of aesthetic directions, from sarcasm, pastiche and profound lyricism.

No. 4 - Fantasia Concertante - is a unapologetically modernist, embracing new complexity. Its a single movement: dense, deeply chromatic,and brilliantly textural—and yet remains accessible.

No. 9 (1992), subtitled “moments musicals”, incorporates jazz and abstract harmony into a coherent, mature whole, in eleven short movements with an early 1990s post-minimalist character.

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Ulysses Arts releases Paul Henley Piano Works Volume 2, performed by Pavel Timofeyevsky, on 29 May 2026, in partnership with Bridges Music (UA260050).

Christopher Kettle writes:

'Henley's Sonata No. 4 is a substantial work in three movements. The Allegro con brio opens clangorously and with a sense of upward striving; a repeating pattern of four notes seems to embody this. The music makes its way through quieter, though not necessarily calmer waters – some writing of icy brilliance for the right hand – before recovering the movement’s opening gestures and reaching a high plateau of full-throated affirmation. The ending is brusque, almost dismissive.

The searching Adagio begins with a wistful, sadly falling melody over a gentle rocking rhythm. The music gathers intensity until, at the movement’s climax, the melody achieves a genuinely tragic stature. Then its energies drain away until it is reduced to its sparest form, and it
expires, mid-phrase.

The brief finale, Molto energico, sets all to rights: a torrent of syncopated energy, followed by a lilting tune like a folk dance, light as thistledown, in the right hand. Irresistible! (Did I hear a lively transformation of the wistful Adagio tune just before the ‘folk dance’?) At the end of the recording session, Pavel said to Henley: “You create such a magical world…and so Romantic – I imagine a couple dancing.”

The Eighteen Preludes form a huge work, a significant landmark in Henley’s career as a composer. I say ‘work’ because, whilst he allows that the Preludes can be performed individually or in a selection, Henley writes that “due to the structure of the work and the way in which the Preludes relate to each other with regard to their tonal centres, it is preferable that they are played all together as a set – that was my original intention.” Pavel sensed this very strongly: he remarked that they belong with Schumann’s Carnaval and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition rather than with Chopin’s Preludes, and although they were first recorded individually, he was keen to play them in sequence in a single ‘take’ – which he did: the impact was gigantic, a compelling revelation of the whole work’s imaginative reach, its integrity and its drama.'

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English composer, Paul Henley, considers that the primary purpose of music should be to communicate. As such, he believes in writing music that is accessible, with significant melodic content, a harmonic language based on tonality and a considerable emphasis on rhythm – the foundation of all music. Dance and theatre are also part of Paul’s diverse artistic interests and he has directed various stage works. For Paul, music at its greatest is of spiritual value and that, as such, it is essential. Its link with faith is of profound importance to him. 

Originally from Worcester, he lives in Shropshire with his cellist wife, Ruth. His earliest musical inspiration came from his grandmother, a keen amateur pianist and actress. During the 1960s, she used to take Paul to the Children’s Theatre Club at the newly established Swan Theatre in Worcester. She also had a tape recorder and with various members of the family playing different characters, she used to record sketches. At secondary school in New Malden in south-west London, he played trumpet in the school's band. Aged of fifteen, he commenced piano lessons with Reymour Rice.

Paul left school aged 16, working first as a shop assistant, but continued to get experience as a musician – singing in his church choir, playing trumpet in local orchestras and performing as a pianist both in his teacher’s pupils’ recitals and in local festivals. He also started to compose and continued to train as a pianist. Eventually, at the age of twenty-one, he went to Birmingham School of Music (now Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) where he commenced studies in 1980, first in piano and trumpet, then singing and composition.

After leaving college, Paul had a career as an opera singer and made his South Bank debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1990 to national acclaim. He performed much contemporary music and in 1997 created the role of William Byrd in the world premiere of False Relations by David Stoll. He worked regularly for BBC Radio 4 and performed at many national festivals. He maintained his early interest in composition, and in 2019, decided to devote himself to working solely as a composer.

Following that decision, Paul received a commission from Bridgnorth Sinfonia, the result of which was the orchestral tone poem, The Firmament on High. Since then, Paul has written in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental mediums. Recordings of his music have been released on the Ulysses Arts and Prima Facie labels. His music has featured on Apple Music playlists including ‘Pure Piano’.

His works have been performed both nationally and in Europe and reviewed to international acclaim. His music has also been broadcast on BBC Radio. He has written many cello works for his wife, Ruth who has performed and recorded many of them. He also collaborates regularly with pianist, Duncan Honeybourne, a champion of contemporary British piano music and the Jarualda String Quartet, both of whom have recorded albums of his works and given many performances of his music. His works also feature regularly in concerts by Shropshire Chamber Orchestra.  He is a featured composer with The Marches Songbook Project. 

Paul and Ruth established the Corvedale Festival in 2022 in Shropshire, where he was its Artistic Director. After three years the Festival evolved into the Corvedale Concerts series for which he continues in his role as Artistic Director.

Recent premières include his Sonata for Flute and Piano, ‘Notes and Sorrows’ for High Voice and Piano, Voice for Solo Cello and String Orchestra, Lyric Movement for String Quartet and Five Epigrams for Piano. This is Paul Henley's third album with Ulysses Arts.

Pianist and composer, Pavel Timofeyevsky was in Russia and educated in England, Pavel graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, London. Solo and chamber music recitals, as well as concerto performances with orchestras has brought him to nearly all major UK  concert venues, including London's Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls. Concert tours, television and radio appearances internationally include in the USA (Merkin Hall, New York and Fred Kavli Theatre, Los Angeles), China (Shanghai Oriental Centre for Arts, Guangzhou Opera House), Italy, Russia, France, Spain, Sweden, Greece, South Africa, Kenya and India. Pavel is the recipient of several prestigious British music awards, scholarships and national competition prizes including the Musicians Benevolent Fund Award, the 2007 Myra Hess Award, and the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship for piano, as well as winning the BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the Year award for composition.

Having made London his home, Pavel is highly sought after as a solo performer and a chamber music partner, collaborating with some of the world's finest musicians. A keen and eloquent speaker, Pavel enjoys giving lecture-recitals and has his own regular lecture-concert series for the Kensington Music Society.

A fervent advocate of contemporary music, Pavel has given many premieres of fellow composers works and featured on the album ISLAS by British composer Ian Stewart for the MUSIC CHAMBER label, as well as participated in the recording of music of Hungarian composer Hans Gal, as part of Ensemble Burletta, for Toccata Classics label.

Pavel's passion for film has led him to work in that field too. He recorded the soundtrack and starred in the US documentary Tchaikovsky (US Bioghraphy channel) and has composed music for several films, including the critically acclaimed “Le fin de la belle époque” documentary for Russian television. Most recently he created a soundtrack for Russia's oldest Animated film studio Souyzmultfilm.

Pavel is the founder and Artistic Director of Philomel Creative Circle: a concert series in London, currently in residence at the Francis Crick Institute, as well as the Founder and Director of Philomel Music Academy, a summer course in residence at The Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. In 2023 Pavel was appointed Music Director of Devon Opera, UK.

Pavel continues to collaborate with orchestras and to tour extensively with recitals across the UK and abroad, making regular appearances on the British music festival scene.

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Jeremy Beck Chamber Music, with world première recordings, is released by Ulysses Arts on 8 May 2026 (UA260030):

Quartet for Flute, Clarinet, Cello and Piano 2017
1. Lively
2. With calm and grace 
3. Flowing
4. Playful and light
A/Tonal Ensemble: Kaelah McMonigle, flute; Carrie RavenStem, clarinet
Jon Silpayamanant, cello; Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, piano
 
Songs of Love and Remembrance 2011
5. An Argument (Moore)
6. Time does not bring relief (Millay)
7. A Drinking Song (Yeats)
8. When the year grows old (Millay)
Emily Albrink, soprano; Sila Darville, violin; Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, piano

9. Star Dance 2014 for percussion and piano
Tanner Leonardo, percussion; Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, piano

Sonata 1987
1o. Lively, with spirit
11. With tenderness
12. Aggressively
Jennifer Potochnic, oboe; Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, piano
 
13. Nightlife 2008 for four pianos
Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, pianos
 
Sonata No. 3 2012 for violin and piano
14. Always moving forward
15. Allegretto e leggiero
16. Playfully
Sila Darville, violin; Jessica Litwiniec Dorman, piano

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Based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the USA, Jeremy Beck’s music has been presented by New York City Opera, American Composers Orchestra, ETHEL, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, Center for Contemporary Opera, Peabody Opera, Yale Opera, and the Nevsky String Quartet, among others He has received honors and awards from the Boston Chamber Orchestra, The King’s Singers, the National Opera Association, Musica per Archi International Composition Competition, and the Arts Councils of Iowa, California and Kentucky. 

A graduate of the Yale School of Music, Duke University, and the Mannes College of Music, Beck formerly served as associate professor of composition and music theory at both the University of Northern Iowa and California State University-Fullerton and has enjoyed residencies at Copland House, Hambidge (GA) and The Millay Colony.

Beck 'knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. …  Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world s concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.'
Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone

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We Remember Moments, the debut recording by Canadian composer and pianist Joel Toews, is released by Ulysses Arts on 1 May 2026 (UA260020).

'“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” (Cesare Pavese) My music evokes memories - not specific recollections, but moments imparting an experience’s emotions. Memory is fallible; remembering an entire day is impossible. Instead, we retain moments, snapshots of life affecting our minds and present.

Each work alludes to moments surrounding experiences, emotions and people. The melodies, harmony and rhythms are straightforward, composed not for show or gravitas, but as meditative reflection on moments worth remembering.' (Joel Toews)

1. Four Thousand and One: Joel Toews
2. Evergreen: Joel Toews, Jacqueline Goring
3. January (of 2020): Joel Towes
4. Prairie Skies: Joel Toews, William Lamoureux
5. August (of 2006): Joel Toews, Jess Lajner, William Lamoureux
6. Solace: Joel Toews, Matt Smith
7. Stephanie’s Theme: Joel Toews

Joel Toews, piano
Jacqueline Goring, harp; William Lamoureaux, violin
Jess Lajner, guitar; Matt Smith, trumpet

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Joel Toews is a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter and pianist based in Toronto.

He studied at Berklee College of Music, then Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music at MacEwan University, where he wrote and arranged for string quartet, choir, jazz big band, piano trio and more, studying with Dr. Allan Gilliland, Kent Sangster and John McMillan. Currently he studies composition at York University, Toronto.

Composition credits include:
2018: Piano Trio 'Influence': International Keuris Composers Contest 4th prize.
2019: 'Ra’ah': Borealis Orchestra, Edmonton
2019: Film score for 'The Transit Lodge', directed by Kalyan Acharya
2021: Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Explore the Score program: mentorship from TSO composers and conductors and recorded reading of 'Athabasca', awarded first annual Litha Symphony Orchestra Composition Contest; first performed in New York City, 2022
2021: MacEwan University commission: 'Miriam', for big band, recorded in its 'Generations' Project.
2021: Suite for Piano and Cello, for Sahara von Hattenberger, blending elements of Canadian and Japanese culture, funded by Canada Council for the Arts: recording with visual accompaniment. 2022: 'Mirrors in Haida Gwaii' première: Sofia Symphonic Summit: Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria
2022: 'Sleeping Giant': Orchestra Toronto Composer Prize commission.
2023: River City Big Band Edmonton commission, celebrating the planets, including a re-working of the opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra
2025: New Conductors Orchestra's Call for Scores winner, New York City.

Joel lives and works in Toronto. He is a piano, theory and composition teacher for children, youth, and adults; he works as a composer, arranger, and songwriter, and is Orchestra Manager of the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra.

Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts.

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Music Centre Slovakia releases its album Sacred Music in Slovakia from the Eleventh to Seventeenth Centuries (HC10065) with the Ad Fontes Musical Ensemble digitally on 27 March, and Slovak Sacred Music of the 20th Century (HC10066) on 15 May 2026, in partnership with Ulysses Arts.

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Sacred Music in Slovakia of the 11th to 17th Centuries (download)

Slovak Sacred Music of the 20th Century (pre-order)

Sacred Music in Slovakia from Sources of the 11th-17th Centuries features Gregorian plainchant comes from manuscript codices dating from the 11th to the 16th centuries, set in the context of the vocal polyphonic repertoire from 17th-century Spiš and Šariš sources. The selection of compositions on the recording is thematically based on two five-voice polyphonic works — Magnificat octavi toni by David Thusius and the anonymous Te Boha chwalime — taken from the Levoča Music Collection and the Ľubica Hymnal.

Additional sources of the repertoire include the Bratislava Antiphonaries, the Spiš Missal, the Bardejov Music Collection, and other manuscripts. The selected works were recorded by the vocal-instrumental ensemble Ad Fontes Musical Ensemble under the artistic direction of Sylvia Urdová.

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ESO Records releases Poulenc, Hindemith, Pinkham: Works for Orchestra and Orchestra, with soloist Iain Quinn, the English Symphony Orchestra/English String Orchestra, and conductor Kenneth Woods, on 13 March 2026, in partnership with Ulysses Arts (ESO2601).

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Organist Iain Quinn was born in Cardiff, Wales. He grew up as a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral, also studying the organ, piano, and trumpet. At fourteen, he was appointed Organist at St Michael’s Theological College, Llandaff. He later joined the faculty of the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music, London. In 1994 he moved to the USA for study at The Juilliard School, the University of Hartford (BM) and the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University (MM), returning to the UK in 2009 as a Doctoral Fellow at the University of Durham (PhD historical musicology).

He has released fifteen CDs on the Chandos, Guild, Hyperion, Naxos, Paulus, Raven, and Regent labels. His most recent recordings include Haydn Organ Concertos with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen (Chandos), Organ Music of Vincent Persichetti, and Organ Music of Zoltán Kodály (Naxos). He has completed critical editions of the previously unpublished organ works and early Christmas cantata of Samuel Barber (G. Schirmer), the complete organ works of Carl Czerny (2 volumes, A-R Editions), the complete anthems of John Goss (A-R Editions), and two volumes volume of the Elgar Complete Edition. He is the editor of an ongoing series of English Organ Sonatas (Ut Orpheus Edizioni) and the author of four books: The Genesis and Development of an English Sonata (Routledge – Royal Musical Association Monograph Series); The Organist in Victorian Literature (Palgrave Macmillan); Music and Religion in the writings of Ian McEwan (Boydell and Brewer); Rudolph Ganz, Patriotism and Standardization of The Star-Spangled Banner, 1907-1958 (Routledge).

Dr Quinn is Professor of Organ at Florida State University and the Research Fellow in the Arts and Humanities in the Office of the Vice President for Research. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.


Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “a symphonic conductor of stature”, Kenneth Woods was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra in 2013, and has quickly built up an impressive and acclaimed body of work and recordings with them. Woods also serves as Artistic Director of both the Colorado MahlerFest – the only US organisation other than the New York Philharmonic to receive the International Gustav Mahler Society’s Gold Medal – and (since 2017) the founding Artistic Director of The Elgar Festival in Worcester. Woods has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra, and has made numerous broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has appeared on the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals, such as Aspen, Scotia and Lucerne.

Under Kenneth Woods’ leadership, the English Symphony Orchestra has gained widespread recognition as one of the most innovative and influential orchestras in the UK. The first of Woods’ many acclaimed ESO discs was  Volume One in the Complete Piano Concertos of Ernst Krenek, selected by The Times as one of their “Best Recordings of 2016.” His recording of Fraser’s Elgar orchestrations for Avie was a Classic FM Disc of the Month. The ESO’s Nimbus Alliance recording of Kenneth’s orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A Major was chosen as one of the 10 Best Classical CDsof 2018 by The Arts Desk. In 2016 Woods and the ESO launched their 21st Century Symphony Project, an ambitious multi-year effort to commission, premiere and record nine new symphonies by leading composers, with the triumphant premiere of Philip Sawyers’ Third Symphony at St John’s Smith SIn 2018, the Project continued with the premiere of David Matthews’ Ninth Symphony, selected by The Spectator as one of the Top Ten Classical Events of the year, followed in 2019 by Matthew Tayloh Symphony, hailed by ClassicalSource as “a masterpiece” at its premiere. The most recent offerings in the 21st Century Symphony Project include Robert Saxton’s Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Adrian Williams’s First.

Electronic press kit available for reviewers and radio producers from Ulysses Arts.

The Sabi Ensemble releases its debut album From The Heart - music by Coleridge-Taylor and Louise Farrenc - with Penny Fiddle Records, distributed in partnership with Ulysses Arts, on 24 October 2025 (PFR202503CD).

'Should [imaginative art] not come from the heart as well as the brain?'
Samuel Coleridge‐Taylor, 1911

This poignant question—posed by Coleridge‐Taylor months before his death— encapsulates the emotional core of the Sabi Ensemble’s debut album, From The Heart.

The SABI ENSEMBLE, founded in 2024 by historical bassist Carina Cosgrave, is committed to reviving works by composers whose work has been unjustly forgotten and placing this music from the margins centre stage. The programme celebrates two 150th anniversaries and is the first time Coleridge-Taylor’s music has been recorded on period instruments.

The album features two of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s expressive Novelletten - rarely heard works arranged by the SABI ENSEMBLE that reveal his sharp craft and lyrical voice; his Nonet - a student composition which cemented his status as a breathtaking composer at the young age of 18; and Louise Farrenc’s Nonet - a powerful piece written at the height of her career. After the death of her daughter, Farrenc ceased composing—her creative life halted by grief. 

Together, these works frame a recording that acknowledges not only artistic brilliance, but the personal stories behind it. Using historically-informed performances on period instruments, From The Heart offers listeners a window into the expressive richness of neglected repertoire— interpreted with care and curiosity.

Launch Concerts

18th October 2025 - Showcase Event, Classically Black at Kings Place, London
25th October 2025 Parish Church of Ascension, Plumstead, London

Track List

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), Nonet in F minor, Op. 2

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante con moto
3. Scherzo: Allegro
4. Finale: Allegro vivace

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), Nonet in E-flat, Op. 38

5. Adagio - Allegro
6. Andante con moto
7. Scherzo: Vivace
8. Adagio

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor arr. SABI ENSEMBLE

9. Novelletten IV
10. Novelletten II

Musicians
Catherine Martin (1st violin), Persephone Gibbs (2nd violin)
Clifton Harrison (viola), Sarah McMahon ('cello), Carina Cosgrave (double bass)
Rosie Bowker (flute) Leo Duarte (oboe) Fiona Mitchell (clarinet), Rebecca Hammond (bassoon), Nivanthi Karunaratne (horn), Olivia Sham (piano)

Piano Technician: Edmund Pickering
Recording Producer: Holly Harman
Sound Engineer, mixing & mastering: John Croft, Chiaro Audio
Recording venue Ascension Church, Plumstead, London 8-10 January 2025

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Press and radio inquiries to WildKat PR London

Ulysses Arts releases Christmas EP Evermore & Evermore, with music by Eric Choate, performed by the Choir of St Mary's Church San Francisco, on 21 November 2025.

These arrangements arose organically, first fashioned to supply instrumental parts for the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin in San Francisco. Developed during several years, they acquired a character beyond their initial purpose, growing ever more expansive in scope.

Prologues, interludes, and codas offer intervals for reflection, enabling the listener to linger upon the mystery of these sacred texts and find repose within the stillness of the Advent and Christmas seasons.‌

Follow Eric Choate on Apple Music​

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