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Following the success of his 2023 Solo Piano Works album, with more than 1.5 million streams, Ulysses Arts releases Paul Henley's Works for String Quartet on 20 September 2024, performed by the Jarualda Quartet.
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Press kit and listening links for reviewers available from Ulysses Arts.
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Lyrita Recorded Edition releases George Lloyd, The Works for Brass, on 2 August 2024, with The Black Dyke Mills Band conducted by David King, and the Equale Brass Quintet.   George Lloyd, far right, in Royal Marine Barracks with Bandies 1942 © The George Lloyd Society George Lloyd was familiar with music for brass from an early age. One of his first musical recollections was listening with rapt attention to a Salvation Army Band with his mother in St Ives. As a student, he attended regularly brass band concerts at London’s Crystal Palace, where he heard the premiere of John Ireland’s, A Downland Suite at the National Band Festival Competition on 1 October 1932. Lloyd played the cornet when serving as a Bandsman in the Royal Marines, giving him invaluable practical experience as an executant within a group of players. His scoring for the brass section in his large-scale works is invariably idiomatic, impressively wrought and indicates a keen understanding of all the instruments’ range, character and versatility. Yet, despite all these indications that he was a natural composer of brass band music, he turned to writing music for brass instruments only in the last two decades of his creative life. Though music for brass band was the last major genre Lloyd added to his catalogue of works, his enthusiasm for the medium, once he had embraced it, was unstinting. The wide popularity of his music within the brass band movement was an enduring source of considerable pride and satisfaction for George Lloyd, as he once confessed: ‘To realise that the people who are actually doing it, the players themselves ... seem to like it, that is what pleases me the most’. © Paul Conway  “Lloyd's early years in St Ives were spent surrounded by music as his parents were both accomplished amateur musicians, holding weekly chamber concerts with friends in the studio of their house. Despite being “seduced”, as he said, by the sound of brass instruments played by the St Ives Salvation Army Band, he took up the violin, going on to study with the great violinist Albert Sammons…. In 1939, when Lloyd joined The Royal Marines Music Service he became a Cornet player in the Band aboard HMS Trinidad. Asked by the Director of Music to compose a ship’s march he quickly obliged, only to find that the Captain had asked his friend Vaughan Williams to do the same. In the end both marches were played before a panel of the ship’s Officers for them to choose their favourite and George Lloyd’s won.” Phillip Hunt, Cornish National Music Archive “George was delighted to be commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes to provide ‘Royal Parks’ for the 1985 European Brass Band Championships. It seemed to open up other exciting opportunities as he then went on to compose works such as Diversions on a Bass Theme, English Heritage and King’s Messenger amongst others.” Bill Lloyd, 4barsrest Electronic press kit, pre-release listening links and CDs available for reviewers via Ulysses Arts. Lyrita Recorded Edition releases its George Lloyd Piano Works double album on 2 August 2024, performed by duo Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow and as soloists, Kathryn Stott and Martin Roscoe (SRCD 2423).  ‘I just write what I have to write’. The artistic credo of George Lloyd conveys the directness and emotional honesty of his music. He wrote in a traditional idiom enriched by a close study of selected models, Verdi and Berlioz chief among them. His music is distinctive and written with integrity. There is a remarkable consistency to his output, most of which was created spontaneously and without the incentive of a commission. He was fortunate enough to discover his individual and versatile musical voice at an early age. The deceptively artless quality of his scores stems from a thorough grounding in composition techniques. As a violinist, Lloyd was drawn to stringed instruments rather than the keyboard. His wife, Nancy had a very different attitude to the piano, however. Having been brought up listening to records of Alfred Cortot, among other great pianists, she had developed a genuine passion for the instrument. She was always urging her husband to write a piano concerto, but it was not until the early 1960s that those years of persuasion paid off and Lloyd wrote Scapegoat, the first of his series of four piano concertos. Now the composer had overcome his previous aversion to the keyboard, as he put it, ‘Suddenly, everything I thought of, I thought in terms of the piano’. From this dramatic change of heart emerged several works for solo piano. © Paul Conway  Electronic press kit and listening links available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts. LYRITA RELEASES GEORGE LLOYD'S COMPLETE VIOLIN CONCERTOS AND CELLO CONCERTOS ALBUM ON 5 JULY 202421/5/2024
Lyrita Recorded Edition releasesGeorge Lloyd's Violin Concertos and 'Cello Concerto album on 5 July 2024. The Violin Concertos are performed by Cristina Angeleschu and the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by David Parry; the 'Cello Concerto with Anthony Ross and the Albany Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Alan Miller. The Concertos' printed scores (SRMP 0066, 0070 and 0074 and associated sheet music) will be published on 2 August.
'George Lloyd started to learn the violin at the age of five and he was a pupil of the violinist Albert Sammons for six years. Despite his facility in playing the violin and the importance he attached to his lessons with Sammons, Lloyd was slow to compose works for his own instrument. It was not until 1970 that Lloyd wrote Violin Concerto No. 1, his first piece with a leading role for his own instrument, but this achievement seemed to stir his enthusiasm and during the next seven years he completed a number of short pieces for violin and piano, a fully-fledged sonata and a second concerto. Violin Concerto No. 1 was written in 1970 and remained unperformed until the recording featured on this release took place in the summer of 1998. Seven years elapsed before Lloyd wrote a second concerto for the violin. One of Lloyd’s purest, most directly communicative melodies graces the Largo third movement.
The solo instrument’s poetic qualities are to the fore in music of supplicatory spirit. In a couple of ear-catching passages, the soloist’s scrunchy, dissonant chords have the raspy nostalgia of a squeeze box. Lloyd completed his 'Cello Concerto in July 1997, a year before his death at the age of 85 and in this autumnal piece, one can discern a wistful, valedictory quality, with feelings of sorrow and regret surfacing repeatedly. The solo instrument’s inherently lyrical aspect is suited to the composer’s expressive needs, and the one-movement format allows the musical narrative to ebb and flow naturally so that this work has a strong claim to be regarded as Lloyd’s most formally successful concertante piece. A small orchestra is required, consisting of double woodwind, three horns, modest percussion (for one player) and strings.' © Paul Conway 'These two works were recorded during the week before George Lloyd died on July 3, 1998. He was supposed to conduct these performances, but David Parry stepped in at the last minute with the wonderful Romanian violinist Cristina Anghelescu and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra to complete the project. The recording was made in Henry Wood Hall. George was even too ill to attend the sessions, but he was making suggestions as to the best placement of the players to achieve just the recorded sound he wanted 48 hours before his death. This beautiful recording is a fine and lasting memorial to this composer whose music brings such passionate joy to so many music lovers all over the world.' Presto Classical 
'Those familiar with Lloyd's warm, spacious, big-hearted, sumptuously orchestrated symphonies won't be disappointed with his violin concertos.' American Record Guide
Electronic press kit and pre-release listening links are available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.
Nimbus releases Robert Saxton's Epic of Gilgamesh and The Resurrection of the Soldiers (NI 6447) on 5 July 2024 with the English Symphony Orchestra and English String Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Woods.
Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest written literary text in Middle Eastern/Western cultural history, predating the Hebrew Bible. The epic relates the story of King Gilgamesh, partly divine, partly human, who may have existed historically circa 2800 BC. From immature youth and a belief in his immortality, he eventually comes to accept the power and reality of Death.
There are five movements/scenes including the Prologue, where the gods try to restore a sense of balance, the journey to the Forest of Cedar in search of glory, and Apotheosis, where Gilgamesh visits Ut Napishti (precursor of Noah in Genesis) who survived the Flood and had been granted immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh fails the final task set by Ut-Napishti to test his suitability for eternal life, returning to Uruk to build his lasting monument, the city walls. The Resurrection of the Soldiers for string orchestra was commissioned by George Vass, to whom it is dedicated, and the English Symphony Orchestra, for the 2016 Presteigne Festival, with funds generously donated by the John S. Cohen Foundation and the Arts Council of England. The title derives from the final panel of Stanley Spencer’s Sandham Chapel visionary series of paintings which were the result of Spencer’s experiences in the British Army in World War One and depicts soldiers emerging from their graves on the last day. The piece is in three continuous parts: a slow, sustained introduction which is, in essence, a descent from the note E by means of a prolation canon, but which ascends to a rather intense climactic point before falling and giving way to a very active fugue which, after arriving at an anguished, sustained climax, is succeeded by a closing slow movement consisting of arising melodic line which permeates the entire texture heterophonically, leading to the closing E major triad. The work thus traces a cyclical path as it progresses towards a sense of resurrection, re-birth and hope. © Robert Saxton 
'Full of captivating music-making, two remarkable and compelling compositions, magnificently played.' Guy Rickards, Gramophone, July 2024
'In Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh – a work that is subtle yet approachable in its idiom – Saxton reveals an understated orchestral mastery.' Robert Saxton Composer Profile
Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone, 12 July 2024 'The strings cope with some fantastically demanding writing with apparent ease.' Kevin Mandry, British Music Society, 18 July 2024 'Fans of orchestral music will be impressed by this movingly powerful and emotionally charged symphonic poem.' Keith Finke, AllMusic, 2024 
Robert Saxton was born in London in 1953. At 21 he won the Gaudeamus International Composers Prize in Holland and was Fulbright Arts Fellow at Princeton in 1986. Now Robert is Emeritus Professor of Composition at Oxford University, Composer-in-Association at the Purcell School, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music.
Robert has been commissioned by the BBC, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Oorchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Antara, Arditti and Chilingirian Quartets, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (USA) and written for the Huddersfield, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Lichfield and Three Choirs Festivals.
Electronic press kit and listening link available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.
Lyrita releases Charles Villiers Stanford, Te Deum and Elegiac Ode (SRCD 435) on 5 July 2024 with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, sopranos Rhian Lois and Samantha Price, tenor Alessandro Fisher and baritone Morgan Pearse, conducted by Adrian Partington.
'By the time Stanford had received a commission from the Norfolk and Norwich Festival to write a choral work for them in 1884, he had, aged 32, already begun to assert himself as one of Britain’s leading composers. The Elegiac Ode was, however, his first mature foray into the world of major British choral festivals. Some of the Elegiac Ode had been sketched three years earlier in 1881, but after the Norwich commission, Stanford grasped the opportunity to complete it in July 1884. The words were taken from the last part of Walt Whitman’s elegy, ‘When lilacs in the door yard bloom’d’, written after President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. (Stanford’s pupil, Gustav Holst, would use the same text for his Ode to Death after the First World War in 1919.) Taking the seven verses of the burial hymn, Stanford divided his chosen text into four parts, creating a four-movement musical structure more akin to a choral symphony with its substantial and thematically related choral outer movements flanking two shorter inner essays.
Stanford’s large-scale setting of the Te Deum Op. 66 was first sung at the Leeds Festival on 6 October 1898: its ambitious, opulent dimensions were a fitting commemoration of the accession to the throne by Queen Victoria (its dedicatee) sixty years earlier, as well as a tribute to the full-bodied, well-trained Leeds chorus of 350 singers. A particular feature of the Te Deum is the grandeur of much of its choral writing. Though also dramatic, a dominating feature of the Te Deum is its prominent use of the chorus, and the many fulsome sonorities Stanford was able to draw from the magnificent ‘instrument’ of the Leeds voices.' © Jeremy Dibble
'The performances on the disc have a sophistication and vigour that does full justice to the music.'
Planet Hugill, 24 July 2024 
SRCD 382: Stanford, Mass 'Via Victrix':
'Rescued from obscurity nearly a century after its composition, Stanford's largescale post-war mass is definitely worth checking out. Impassioned performances here.' BBC Music Magazine Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts. Ulysses Arts director James Ross, pianist Clara Rodriguez and soprano Janice Watson perform in London at St. James's Piccadilly in aid of The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation on Friday 31 May, 7.30pm in orchestral works by Richard Strauss, Mozart, Núñez and Manuel de Falla with members of London orchestras and conservatoires. Clara Rodriguez also plays Teresa Carreño, Mi Teresita Waltz and Luisa Elena Paesano, Pajarillo for solo piano. 
 The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is the UK's leading lung cancer charity dedicated to helping everyone affected by the disease. Since 1990, when set up by Professor Ray Donnelly, it has funded millions of pounds of essential lung cancer research, looking for ways to detect the disease as early as possible and save lives. The Foundation supports everyone affected by lung cancer – from diagnosis, through treatment, living with the disease and end of life care. It raises awareness, prevents future generations from getting lung cancer and challenges misconceptions about it, so those diagnosed can live well with lung cancer for as long as possible. The concert on 31 May includes members of Sidcup Symphony Orchestra, whose constituency MP James Brokenshire died from lung cancer in 2021. From his initial diagnosis in 2017 until his death, James was an indefatigable campaigner for better lung cancer screening, becoming the first MP to host a debate on it in the House of Commons. He was determined that the misconceptions surrounding lung cancer should be removed. Read more at https://roycastle.org/james-brokenshire-one-year-on-a-life-well-lived/ CONCERT PROGRAMME NOTES  Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Der Rosenkavalier Suite arr. H.H. Higgs for chamber orchestra Der Rosenkavalier (1911) is Richard Strauss’s best-loved opera. Set in the Vienna of 1740, its comic surface only heightens the opera’s exploration of heartfelt – and heartbreaking – human feelings. We see love at first sight between the youthful Octavian, the seventeen-year-old ‘Rose Knight’ of the title – a female ‘trouser role’ – and Sophie, naïve and fresh from the Convent, the boorish wooing ‘skills’ of Baron Ochs, the social ambitious of Faninal, a nouveau riche arms dealer, and most poignantly, the Marschallin’s renunciation of Octavian’s love faced with his choosing a younger woman. The opera’s comic face is wrinkled with nostalgia for a bygone era that never was. Musically it is permeated with the rhythms and melodies of the Viennese waltz, which became popular only in the Nineteenth Century, decades after the story takes place. The Suite begins with the introduction to Act One – depicting the youthful Octavian paying court vigorously to the Marschallin in her boudoir – before moving through a sequence of the opera’s greatest moments, including Octavian’s ‘Presentation of the Rose’ (chosen for this task – most unwisely – by the aptly-named boorish Baron Ochs) to Sophie and their instant falling in love, the heavy footsteps and hesitant waltz that accompanies Och’s comic entrance to the Marschallin’s house. In this music from the final trio, Octavian, Sophie and the Marschallin express their starkly different feelings with supreme passion and poignancy, before finally a dazzling quick waltz sequence and grand concert ending.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1765-91), Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488 Clara Rodriguez, piano I. Allegro - II. Adagio - III. Allegro assai Mozart completed this Concerto while composing his opera The Marriage of Figaro in the winter of 1785-86, although its conception might have dated back several years. It was one of Mozart’s favourite works: he described it amongst those ‘compositions that I keep for myself or for a small circle of music lovers and connoisseurs (who promise not to let them out of their hands)’. The music’s seemingly effortless fluency belies much hard work: Mozart rejected his initial sketches for a second movement in D major, and tried numerous openings to the third movement before settling on the final version. The Concerto’s scoring is unusual: clarinets, still not standard members of the orchestra, replace oboes; they blend ingeniously with flute, bassoons and horns to create a wind ensemble able to interact autonomously with the soloist and strings. The first movement offers three themes within an atmosphere dominated by charm and geniality, which should never be mistaken for lack of depth and musical substance. The solo cadenza near the end is Mozart’s own. The Adagio is a slow lilting sicilienne in F-sharp minor, the only time Mozart uses this key. The Concerto’s expressive heart, this of music of sublime intimacy and sensitivity, with wide leaps, expressive sighs, descending sequences of semitones and unexpected silences. At every return of the opening piano theme, the music brings us to new and deeper perspectives. Near the end, the sicilienne hollows out into sparse string pizzicato notes with single notes from the piano, before a final elegiac farewell to the opening theme. The Finale’s mood is close to The Marriage of Figaro, a magnificent instrumental evocation of ‘opera buffa’, its themes behaving like a cast of extrovert stage characters. James Ross Interval: 15 minutes
Teresa Carreño (1853-1917), Mi Teresita Waltz Juan Carlos Núñez (arr.), Anthology of Venezuelan Waltzes Rafael Saumell (1830-unknown), Vals Venezolano Juan Carlos Núñez (1947-), Retrato de Ramón Delgado-Palacios Ramón Delgado-Palacios (1867-1902), Mi Aplauso Luisa Elena Paesano (1941-2019), Pajarillo This selection of works represents the richness of Venezuelas’s musical heritage, beginning with Mi Teresita Waltz by Teresa Carreño (Caracas 1853- New York 1917), composed in 1884 to accompany the first dance steps by her daughter Teresita. Faced with a euphoric audience and having run out of encores, Carreño decided to perform Mi Teresita in public for the first time. It was an immediate success: she played it hundreds of times to end her concerts. Venezuela’s waltz tradition is deeply ingrained deeply in the national culture. Influenced initially by Viennese tradition, Venezuelan waltzes evolved their own distinctive characteristics. Typically, their rhythm features a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver and another crotchet. The structure follows an A-B-A form: the 'A' section presents an elegant melody at a moderate tempo, while the middle 'B' section is played faster. Juan Carlos Núñez (Caracas 1948-) is a composer and conductor with a passion for both popular and classical music. He has arranged famous waltzes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries for piano and string orchestra, which I had honour of premièring in Caracas. Tonight, we perform Vals Venezolano by Rafael Saumell, followed by Autorretrato de Ramón Delgado-Palacios. Here Núñez uses Delgado-Palacios’s own musical self-portrait, reflecting his tormented and melancholic life with atypical harmonies and a jazzy solo cadenza, followed by one of Delgado-Palacios' happiest compositions, Mi Aplauso. To conclude this segment of the concert, I will perform Pajarillo by Luisa Elena Paesano (1946-2019). This vibrant composition is inspired by the pajarillo style of ‘joropo’ from the Venezuelan plains. Adding a special touch to this performance, Wilmer Sifontes will join me, playing the maracas. Clara Rodriguez  Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) El amor brujo: Ballet pantomímico Janice Watson, soprano Manuel de Falla was born in Madrid, but his deepest inspiration came from Andalusia. In 1914, World War One’s German invasion of France forced Falla to return to Spain from Paris, where he studied and was building an international reputation. For many composers, war suspended or greatly curtailed their creative work; for Falla, these were the most productive years of his life, creating his Nights in the Gardens of Spain for piano and orchestra, The Three-Cornered Hat ballet, and at the invitation of famous flamenco singer Pastora Imperio, El Amor brujo. The first version, first performed in Madrid in 1915, was a ‘gitanería’ for Gypsy dancers, actors, flamenco cantaora singer and chamber ensemble of fifteen musicians. A second version, made in 1916, removed the spoken dialogue, enlarged the orchestration and adapted the vocal part; the final and best-known version from 1925 was a one-act ‘ballet pantomímico’, first performed in Paris. The story of El amor brujo tells of an Andalusian widow struggling to free herself of her former husband’s ghost and find love again through a night of enchantment, recitations and ritual dances. According to the final ballet scenario: ‘Candelas, a beautiful young gypsy, is courted by Carmelo and wants to respond to his love, but the Spectre of her first lover, a jealous, dissolute and faithless Gypsy, terrifies her and interposes himself between her and Carmelo. He persuades Lucia, a young Gypsy friend of Candelas, to pretend to be in love with the Spectre, and to lure him away until he (Carmelo) has been able to give Candelas “the kiss of perfect love”. Carmelo and Candelas finally exchange the redeeming kiss, and the Spectre is exorcised for ever, ‘conquered by love.’ Falla captures the story’s primitive force, magic and tragedy without sentiment or stylisation. Rather than ‘local colour’ and intellectualised folklore, orchestra and gitanería meet on equal terms. The ‘Ritual Fire Dance’, often performed separately, is Candelas’ unsuccessful first attempt to cast off the Spectre, with which she dances every night and remains obsessed with her soul. The ‘Will-O’-the-Wisp’ song inspired the second track of Miles Davis’s 1960 jazz Sketches of Spain album. Unlike the first Madrid production, whose radical novelty confused its audience, the final 1925 ballet version was a triumph. According to French critic Roland-Manuel: ‘Despite all its dazzling finery, I know of no music more purely, more sanely musical than that of Falla, nor of any which possesses a more certain objective value. El amor brujo bears witness especially to Falla’s orchestral genius … surpassed by none.’ James Ross 1. Introducción y escena - 'Introduction and Scene' 2. En la cueva - 'In the Cave' 3. Canción del amor dolido – 'Song of Suffering Love'
4. El aparecido (El espectro) – The Apparition 5. Danza del terror – Dance of Terror 6. El círculo mágico: Romance del pescador – The Magic Circle: The Fisherman’s Story 7. A media noche: los sortilegios – At midnight: the spells 8. Danza ritual del fuego – Ritual Fire Dance 9. Escena – Scene 10. Canción del fuego fatuo – Song of the will-o'-the-wisp
11. Pantomima 12. Danza del juego de amor ('Dance of the game of love')
13. Final – las campanas del amanecer (Finale – the bells of sunrise)
 Clara Rodriguez ‘Venezuelan virtuoso pianist Clara Rodriguez’ (The Financial Times) has built an enviable international reputation for her innovative programme planning, juxtaposing standard repertoire with works by South American composers. She has commissioned, premièred and is the dedicatee of more than thirty works. Her playing stands out for its sheer beauty of tone, high expressiveness, sensitivity considerable digital clarity combined with stylistic acumen.’ At seventeen she was awarded the Teresa Carreño Scholarship to pursue studies at The Royal College of Music with Phyllis Sellick, where she received numerous awards including the Scarlatti Prize, the Mozart Prize, and the Percy Buck Award, as a finalist in the Chappell Prize. At the RCM she performed concertos by Mozart, Falla and Gershwin. In Caracas, at eighteen she made her orchestral debut Mozart's Piano Concerto K.595 with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra and José Antonio Abreu; her London debut in 1985 was at St. John’s Smith Square, playing Ravel’s Concerto in G. Before coming to London, pianist Guiomar Narváez was Clara Rodriguez's first teacher. She has also studied with Paul Badura-Skoda (Austria), Niel Immelman (UK), Irina Zaritskaya (Russia) and Regina Smendzianka (Poland). Clara Rodriguez’s solo career has earned her great acclaim in UK, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Venezuela, the United States, India, Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia. In London, she is a hugely popular performer who regularly plays in recitals and as a concerto soloist in the most prestigious halls including the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. James’s Piccadilly, St John’s Smith Square, Leighton House, Bolívar Hall and the 1901 Arts Club. She is invited to play concertos with the worldwide acclaimed Simón Bolívar Orchestra, including memorably in the Grandes Virtuosos del Piano Festival, performing Reynaldo Hahn’s Piano Concerto alongside other participants including Paul Badura-Skoda and Chick Corea. Clara Rodriguez is often interviewed by the BBC; her albums CDs feature regularly on BBC Radio stations and in networks worldwide. She has recorded six solo albums for Nimbus Records including the piano works by Moisés Moleiro, Federico Ruiz, Teresa Carreño, Ernesto Lecuona, Venezuela, and Americas without Frontiers. Two more albums include El Cuarteto with Clara Rodriguez Live, and Frederic Chopin on the Ulysses Arts label. Represented by Dominic Seligman Agency, Clara Rodriguez regularly plays recitals at Arundells, the Salisbury home of former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. As a pedagogue her students have been awarded numerous prizes in competitions and scholarships to leading universities and music conservatoires, with successful public concerts at Wigmore Hall, the Albert Hall’s Elgar Room and venues throughout the UK. She teaches at the Royal College of Music junior department and is an international adjudicator. Clara Rodriguez has been awarded the ‘Classical Music Act’ LUKAS Prize 2015, has been made an honorary member of the Chelsea Arts Club and has been named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the main newspapers and magazines of Venezuela. She is the editor of Clifton Editions’ rapidly growing series Venezuelan Treasures for Piano, Clifton Editions, distributed by Stainer & Bell. Artists and orchestras with whom she has performed include clarinettist and conductor Michael Collins, BBC Symphony Orchestra leader Stephen Bryant, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional de Venezuela, Orquesta Municipal de Caracas, Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo, Orquesta Sinfónica Francisco de Miranda, Orquesta Sinfónica Juan José Landaeta, Phoenix Orchestra, Orquesta de Aragua, Fulham Symphony Orchestras, Camden Symphony Orchestra, conductors Jordi Mora, Marc Dooley, Levon Parikian, Christopher Adey, Eduardo Rahn, Teresa Hernández, Carlos Riazuelo, Alfredo Rugeles, Rodolfo Saglimbeni, Luis Miguel González-Fuentes, Régulo Stabilito, Telésforo Naranjo and Jesús Uzcátegui: www.clararodriguez.com Follow Clara Rodriguez on Spotify ‘The Venezuelan is a doughty champion of Latin-American music, and her programme of piano pieces reaches below and often jaunty surface to capture the region's deeper soul. Plenty is captivating, not least Venezuelan works by Antonio Estévez and Juan Carlos Núñez, while Gershwin's Three Preludes are a class act’. Stephen Pettit, The Sunday Times ‘Venezuelan Clara Rodríguez, one of the most distinguished pianists on the international scene. This distinction is evident especially in the emotional connection she has with Chopin’s music. Rodríguez marks with delicious expressiveness its differences and contrasts while maintaining a perfect balance in the inseparable fusion between form and content. The truth is that the wisdom of Rodriguez’s interpretation, provides to her versions a universal dimension of romantic pianism.’ Marçal Borotau, Sonograma Magazine, Barcelona ‘Clara Rodriguez at the Wigmore Most of what Clara Rodriguez played to a full Wigmore Hall was marked by the sheer beauty of her tone.’ Max Harrison, Musical Opinion ‘Clara Rodriguez provides performances of alluring vivacity allied to that most essential of requisites-charm’. Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone  Janice Watson is one of the worlds’ major sopranos, renowned for the beauty of her sound. A flautist originally, she began singing seriously at the instigation of tenor Philip Langridge. She studied firstly with Johanna Peters at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, then with Renata Scotto. There followed a period at the Ravel Institute in Ciboure, culminating in a concert performance of his Shéhérazade with the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michel Plasson. At 23 she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the Royal Overseas League, which launched her into the upper levels of the singing profession. Janice has performed in most of the world’s major opera houses including Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera New York, Chicago, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Vienna, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, La Scala Milan, Naples, Turin, Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, and as a regular guest with English National Opera and Welsh National Opera. Conductors with whom she has worked include Riccardo Chailly, Ed Gardner, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Bernard Haitink, Neeme Järvi, Trevor Pinnock, John Elliot Gardiner, Franz Welser-Möst, Danielle Gatti, Robin Ticciati, David Atherton, David Parry, David Hill, Richard Hickox, Franz Bruggen, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Antonio Pappano, André Previn, Kurt Masur, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Donald Runnicles, Martyn Brabbins, Vassily Sinaisky and Sir Andrew Davis. Opera roles include Countess (Nozze di Figaro), Ellen Orford, Arabella, Daphne, Ariadne, Marschallin, Salome, Musetta, Katja Kabanova, Jenufa, Blanche & Stella (A Streetcar named Desire), Alice Ford, Leonore, Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhaüser), Sieglinde, Isolde, Kundry, Madame Lidoine (Carmelites) Hecuba (King Priam). Janice’s numerous recordings include Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes for Chandos with Richard Hickox and London Symphony Orchestra, which won her a Grammy; she has received two further nominations. Others include Elisabeth (Don Carlos) and Jenufa for Chandos, A Poisoned Kiss, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven Missa Solemnis and Ah Perfido, Poulenc Gloria and Stabat Mater, and Saalambo’s Aria from Bernard Herrmann’s Citizen Kane score with the Scottish National Orchestra. A recent recording of Delius Mass of Life and Prelude and Idyll for Naxos was album of the week both on BBC Radio 3 and in The Gramophone. Concert work includes Britten’s Spring Symphony at Boston’s Tanglewood Festival, Die Walküre in Hong Kong, a Far East tour with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, many performances of Britten’s War Requiem, Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Mahler Symphonies, Strauss Four Last Songs, Walton’s Facade (performing the speaking role in duet with Sir Andrew Davis), Rachmaninov’s The Bells, Chausson, Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Beethoven Masses, Mozart Mass in C and Requiem, and oratorios by Handel and Mendelssohn. Janice has sung many times at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the Edinburgh Festival. Listen to Janice Watson on Spotify  James Ross, conductor, studied at London’s Southbank International School and won scholarships to Harrow School in London and Christ Church at Oxford University, where he studied Modern History, then Music as a postgraduate. His D.Phil. on French Opera, Politics and the Press was awarded Oxford’s prestigious Sir Donald Tovey Prize. He studied violin, viola and singing, gained extensive orchestral and chamber music experience and was a 1998 BBC Philharmonic Conducting Competition finalist. Since then, he has conducted in nineteen countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. UK performances include at The Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Symphony Hall Birmingham, state occasions in Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II, and Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, for whose 350th anniversary concert he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In the UK, he is Artistic Director of Kent Sinfonia, with whom his album of previously unrecorded works by Vaughan Williams for Albion Records releases this autumn, and Music Director of Sidcup Symphony Orchestra, Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Welwyn Garden City Orchestra and Chorus and Bridgnorth Sinfonia. As Artistic Advisor of The Commonwealth Resounds, he has conducted The Commonwealth Festival Orchestra in the UK, Malta and Sri Lanka, including the first orchestral performance at Colombo’s Nelum Pokuna Theatre, concerts and tours in Turkey and Uganda with musicians from Purcell and Chetham’s Schools, UK conservatoires and the Royal Over-Seas League. He has conducted more than 1,500 works including Beethoven, Borodin, Brahms, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky’s complete symphonies, operas by Bizet, Britten, Janačék, Mozart, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner, and many ballet scores. Singers with whom he has worked include Sir Thomas Allen, Janice Watson, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Olga Borodina and UK National Opera Studio. As a contemporary music conductor, his numerous first performances include collaborations with the City of London Sinfonia and Arts Council, at London’s Saatchi Gallery with Philharmonia Orchestra members, and opera productions for the Center for Contemporary Opera in Milan and New York. James Ross also has extensive business experience as director of record label and music consultancy Ulysses Arts, which provides strategy advice, due diligence and digital services to venues, orchestras, soloists and record companies. Clients include Apple, Deutsche Grammophon, the Berliner Philharmoniker, L’Orchestre de Paris, L’Orchestre national de Lille, 21C Media, Juilliard School, Meyer Sound Laboratories, Barbican Centre, Nimbus/Lyrita Records and Afghanistan National Institute of Music. He has taught at Oxford University, contributed to books and journals, especially on French music and culture, and lectured as a guest speaker at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He has helped raise more than £1 million performing for charities, including with English National Ballet in aid of Save The Children’s work with Syrian refugees. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, James Ross produced more than 30 recordings for Ulysses Arts, conducted a televised broadcast and recording in Istanbul with the Büyükada Ensemble; and led the Ankara City Philharmonic Orchestra’s inaugural concert at the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Hall. Listen to James Ross on Spotify  Wilmer Sifontes, from Caracas, Venezuela, has become one of London’s leading Latin percussionists since settling here in 1996. He has worked with artists such as Tito Puente Jr., British-Nigerian singer-song writer Ola Onabule, Venezuelan classical pianist Clara Rodriguez, British-Colombian drum and bass project Side Stepper, and Colombian Latin Grammy award winners Aterciopelados. Amongst UK bands and world music artists, he has performed with Salsa Celtica, including two world tours, Sitar and Tabla player Baluji Shrivastav, Iranian percussionist Hussain Zahawy, The Elliptics, North American Funk and Soul Legend Leroy Burgess, Lee John Imagination band (Funk pop), Gee Bello & Mel Gaynor Light of the World band, and Clasico Latino, backing legendary Colombian Salsa artist Fruko. He has played at leading international festivals, such as Womad, Glastonbury, Love Supreme, North Sea Jazz Festival, Beijing International Festival (China), Bath International Festiva, Sea Side Jazz Festival (Croatia) and the Kijanii Festival in Nairobi (Kenya). He is music director for projects including UK’s leading Salsa band Conjunto Sabroso, with whom he has toured extensively, as well as backing international Salsa stars such as Fania All Stars legend Adalberto Satiago, Jose Mangual Junior, Maelo Ruiz, Tito Gomez, Tito Nieves, Cano Estremera, Henry Fiol, to name a few. He also directs his own bands: Afro-Venezuelan ensemble ‘Afro-America Project’ and the 12-piece ‘Wil Sifontes and his Latin Sound Orchestra’, with which he was invited to play a Tito Puente 100 tribute at Love Supreme Festival in 2023. Wilmer Sifontes on Spotify Orchestra Members We are most grateful to members of the Royal Academy of Music, London Repertoire Orchestra, Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra, Sidcup Symphony Orchestra, Fulham Symphony Orchestra, Haslemere Symphony Orchestra, Drury Lane Orchestra, Whitehall Orchestra and others for giving their time to play in tonight’s concert.
Acknowledgements We wish to thank St. James’s Piccadilly for hosting tonight’s concert, The Travellers Club and Bolívar Hall for rehearsal space, Helen Rowley for poster design, Jean-Luc Muller for music preparation assistance, Malcolm Youngs for loan of music, Kensington Chimes, Westminster Music Library, The London Library, Chatham House, Royal College of Music, Talent Unlimited and others who have shared or displayed posters, and Ulysses Arts Ltd. for publicity support.
Alex Heffes's score to Shardlake, featuring the Paraorchestra and choir Tenebrae, is now available from Hollywood Records, released on 24 April 2024. The series releases worldwide on Disney+ and Hulu on 1 May. The soundtrack also features Alex Heffes playing electric 'cello.
Shardlake is an eerie whodunnit adventure, based on the popular historical novels by C. J. Sansom. Set in 16th-Century England during the dissolution of the monasteries, lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes) is sent by Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Chancellor (Sean Bean) to the remote town of Scansea. Shardlake's mission is to investigate the death of a commissioner and to seize the wealth of Scansea's monastery, accompanied by the ambitious Jack Barak (Anthony Boyle). Shardlake, the central character, is disabled, therefore making it especially apt that Disney chose to collaborate with the Para Orchestra - the world’s only orchestra built around people with a range of disabilities. 
Flim Music Reporter, 26 Apr 2024
Electronic press kit available from Ulysses Arts  Alex Heffes
Alex Heffes is a Golden Globe, BAFTA and three-times Ivor Novello nominated composer who has scored over 70 feature films and TV projects. He has worked with many of cinema’s top filmmakers including Steven Frears, Kevin Macdonald, Catherine Hardwicke, Mira Nair, Michael Keaton & J J Abrams. His wide range of work includes scores to Macdonald’s The Last King Of Scotland & State Of Play, Justin Chadwick’s Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, Mira Nair’s Queen Of Katwe and Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away. Notable TV projects include Black Mirror (Shut Up & Dance), the award-winning reboot of TV classic Roots, the Stephen King mini series 11.22.63 produced by J.J. Abrams and the HBO limited series The Regime starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant.
Known for his great versatility across genres, Alex has shown himself equally at home scoring biopics such as Stephen Frears’ The Program, horror in The Rite, action in Escape Plan, comedy in Catherine Hardwicke’s Mafia Mamma and natural history films such as BBC Earth's Earth: One Amazing Day and The Elephant Queen for Apple TV+. His unique ability to collaborate with artists also been been a trademark of his style. It was his iconic score to Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland that first sent Alex to record in Africa where he created a blend of world music and orchestral scoring. His solo album Face To Face features collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Regina Spektor and Yasmin Levy and his score to A Suitable Boy features a collaboration with Anoushka Shankar. He collaborated closely with director Tim Burton on his screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd. Alex’s many honors include nominations for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and several International Film Music Critics Awards as well as wins and nominations at The World Soundtrack Awards, European Film Awards and The Royal Television Society. He has been nominated three times for an Ivor Novello, winning for Best Film Score of the Year. His score to Roots won Best TV Score of the Year at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards. In 2016 he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Lyrita releases George Lloyd Piano Concertos album on 7 June 2024, conducted by the composer10/4/2024 Lyrita Records continues its 2024 George Lloyd Signature Edition releases with the complete Piano Concertos, on Friday 7 June, with soloists Martin Roscoe and Kathryn Stott, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer (SRCD 2421).  George Lloyd’s four piano concertos come from his time as a smallholder at Ryewater in Dorset during the 1960s and 70s. 'Lloyd was already thinking of writing a piano concerto when he heard the playing of John Ogdon, at that time one of Britain’s most promising and interesting younger pianists. Lloyd kept Ogdon’s playing in mind as he wrote his single movement Piano Concerto No.1 ‘Scapegoat’ in 1962/63… it has an improvisatory feel and…jazz variations…There are so many colours and shadings in the orchestral part that make it as important as the piano part. Lloyd intended to write a three-movement work, but the initial material worked itself into a single movement concerto. This remarkable work was first performed in October 1964 by John Ogdon with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves. This led to a friendship with Ogdon, with Lloyd helping the pianist with the orchestration of some of his own compositions.” © Bruce Reader, The Music of George Lloyd The effort of writing his Seventh Symphony, with its predominantly tragic tone, at the end of the 1950s had taken a heavy toll on the composer’s mental health and by the start of the following decade he was in a very negative frame of mind. Not for the first time in his life, the act of composing provided the key to alleviating the situation, as he explained: ‘... around the very early sixties, a few darker thoughts – tragic thoughts – began haunting me. With them musical ideas began to formulate, and I began to wonder if this might be the time for that piano concerto’. If the first three piano concertos have the heft and communicative power of Lloyd’s larger middle-period symphonies, the Fourth has a close affinity to the Ninth Symphony, which was completed the previous year. Both pieces exhibit an impish sense of fun, tempered by profound feelings of yearning and regret. George Lloyd approached the piano concerto form with imagination and individuality. His idiomatic solo writing avoids shallow virtuosity and empty rhetoric and there are no mighty tussles between piano and orchestral forces encountered in archetypal large-scale concertante scores. Instead, the composer offers a series of deeply personal attempts to reconcile time-honoured elements of display with symphonic preoccupations of long-range tonality, rhythmic energy and melodic growth. In sum, Lloyd’s four piano concertos constitute a compelling and distinctive branch of his creative legacy. © Paul Conway 'The interpretations are thoroughly committed. Martin Roscoe and Kathryn Scott prove to be wonderful storytellers at the piano, repeatedly creating great moods and revealing a wide repertoire of stylistic expression – from romantic virtuosity and impressionistic intimacy to exuberant jazz elements. The orchestras are also highly committed, shining with delicate string sounds, solemn tutti and dynamic rhythms.' Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 13 June 2024  Electronic press kit available for reviewers. Digital download and streaming links will be posted here.
Nimbus Records releases Steve Elcock, Symphony No. 8 and Violin Concerto on Friday 7 June 2024 (NI. 6446), with the English Symphony Orchestra and soloist Zoë Beyers, conducted by Kenneth Woods, as part of their 21st Century Symphony Project.
The 21st Century Symphony Project The 21st Century Symphony Project (21CSP) is an English Symphony Orchestra initiative conceived by conductor Kenneth Woods. The initial goal was to commission, premiere and record nine new symphonies by nine different composers. The 21CSP has been called 'one of the most important musical initiatives of modern times' by Robert Matthew-Walker, Editor of Musical Opinion, and 'the most important series of commissions and recordings of our times' by musicologist and cultural commentator Peter Davison, former Artistic Consultant at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Alongside Steve Elcock’s Symphony No. 8, other works in the 21st Century Symphony Project include David Matthews Symphony No. 9 (NI 6382), Philip Sawyers Symphony No. 3 (NI 6353) and Adrian Williams, Symphony No. 1 (NI 6432).  Steve Elcock
Symphony No. 8 'Following the weighty Sixth and Seventh symphonies, I felt the need to write a smaller scale piece before tackling the Ninth, the finale of which was already written and was monumental enough in character to require some substantial movements to precede it. I attempted to produce such a lighter piece by turning to an early string quartet written in 1981 when I was aged 24. I had dismissed it as juvenilia but thought it could perhaps be salvaged by arranging it for string orchestra and filling out the textures… While my first two symphonies still await either performance or recording after a quarter of a century, the Eighth was already on the programme of the Three Choirs Festival before I had even finished reorchestrating it… Symphony no. 8 was commissioned by the English Symphony Orchestra and first performed by them as part of the Three Choirs Festival in Kidderminster on July 28, 2021.' © Steve Elcock Violin Concerto 'With the first movement, I wanted to achieve a return to the classical momentum that had largely been lost throughout the Romantic era and onward. The energy is unflagging, verging on the desperate, relief being provided only by the two appearances of the expansive second theme; but even this is underpinned by a niggling rhythm in the violas. The second movement provides a welcome contrast. Its opening makes use of change-ringing techniques applied to slowly moving scales in violins and violas, evoking distant bells ringing across a valley.' © Steve Elcock 
'Juxtaposing two major works which confirm his standing among the leading European symphonists of his generation ... This latest release warrants the strongest of recommendations.'
Richard Whitehouse, Arcana, 18 May 2024 'The more I discover and experience the music of Steve Elcock, the more I feel the need to recommend it to anyone who happens to read this review. If you enjoy classical music in general, with a preference for symphonic writing, this living composer ticks all the boxes when it comes to harmonic integrity, orchestration colors and textures, emotive power and structural stability.' Jean Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel, 13 June 2024
Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts
Lyrita Records releases George Lloyd's A Litany and A Symphonic Mass, conducted by the composer, on 3 May 2024, with Bounemouth Symphony Orchestra/Brighton Festival Chorus, soprano Janice Watson and bass Jeremy White, and Philharmonia Orchestra with Guildford Choral Society (SRCD 2419).
‘I just write what I have to write’. The artistic credo of George Lloyd conveys the directness and emotional honesty of his music, which is distinctive and written with integrity. He was fortunate enough to discover his individual and versatile musical voice at an early age. The deceptively artless quality of his scores stems from a thorough grounding in composition techniques.
Lloyd wrote in a traditional idiom enriched by a close study of selected models, Verdi and Berlioz chief among them. There is a remarkable consistency to his output, most of which was created spontaneously and without the incentive of a commission. Conceived on a grand scale, Lloyd’s late choral works build fruitfully upon his previous experience in other genres. They share with his operas an innate lyricism, natural affinity with the human voice and feeling for the long line, while their structural balance, intensive working out of motifs and rich orchestral palette owes a significant debt to his prolific symphonic output. Chris de Souza writing in The Independent, 1998, described the Brighton Festival commission of A Symphonic Mass as ‘perhaps the climax’ of Lloyd’s ‘astonishing career’. In his review of the original release of the present recording, Ivan March was moved to describe the Mass as ‘one of the finest pieces of English choral writing of the twentieth century’. 
Electronic press kit available for reviwers.
Digital download and streaming links will be published here. Lyrita Records releases George Lloyd's Requiem and Psalm 130 on 3 May 2024, with the Exon Singers, countertenor Stephen Wallace and organist Jeffrey Makinson, conducted by Matthew Owens. 
‘I just write what I have to write’. The artistic credo of George Lloyd conveys the directness and emotional honesty of his music, which is distinctive and written with integrity. He was fortunate enough to discover his individual and versatile musical voice at an early age. The deceptively artless quality of his scores stems from a thorough grounding in composition techniques.
Lloyd wrote in a traditional idiom enriched by a close study of selected models, Verdi and Berlioz chief among them. There is a remarkable consistency to his output, most of which was created spontaneously and without the incentive of a commission. Conceived on a grand scale, Lloyd’s late choral works build fruitfully upon his previous experience in other genres. They share with his operas an innate lyricism, natural affinity with the human voice and feeling for the long line, while their structural balance, intensive working out of motifs and rich orchestral palette owes a significant debt to his prolific symphonic output. Lloyd produced the final score of his Requiem a month before his death in 1998. It is inscribed ‘to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales’. Compassionate, reassuring and even, at times, joyful, this is a conscious leave-taking on the part of the composer. His compact and cogent setting of Psalm 130 constitutes, arguably, his most fluently effective use of a cappella choral writing. 
Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.
Digital download and streaming links will be published here. To coincide with the centenary of 100th anniversary of Kenneth Victor Jones's birth, Lyrita Records is releasing an album containing five première recordings on Friday 3 May 2024, performed by soloists from the London Mozart Players (SRCD 434). Jones, who also composed a substantial catalogue of film scores, wrote music in neo-classical style: direct and energetic, he stretches the boundaries of tonality without breaking them. The language is familiar - Françaix and Shostakovich come to mind - engaging, playful and immediately graspable. 
Kenneth V. Jones's “love of music began at the age of ten, when he started composing hymn tunes. He began his musical career as a chorister at St. Nicholas’s College of Church Music, Chislehurst, under Sir Sydney Nicholson, and received his first newspaper review in 1935 for his participation in a children’s opera by Nicholson.
The Times’ critic observed that ‘Master Kenneth Jones must be mentioned for his playing of the harpsichord at an age when most of us did not know there was any such thing’… In 1947 he enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition, theory, piano, organ and conducting… In his final year, he won the Royal Philharmonic Prize for composition with his Concert Overture, premiered at the College in November 1950. Only eight years later, in 1958 he became Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music and was also appointed an examiner to the Associated Board.” © Paul Conway London Mozart Players principal cellist Sebastian Comberti writes: “My first encounter with Kenneth V. Jones was in 2016 when our family moved to the village of Bishop stone in the Sussex Downs. Over the course of several months, I was able to learn more of Kenneth’s musical life. As soon as he mentioned having once written a string quartet, it was decided to programme the work during the following Season of Seaford Music Society, of which Kenneth was a long-standing member and whose programming I had recently taken on. Such was the warmth of the reception upon hearing the work that it was decided to explore more of Kenneth’s chamber music output, and thus the idea for this album was born. We have Kenneth to thank for the fact that the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music made the decision, at his suggestion, to include contemporary compositions in their graded examination syllabuses. Several of the short character pieces that Kenneth wrote for the ABRSM remain in the syllabus to this day, and a selection of these is included on this recording. It gave me huge pleasure to be able to present to Kenneth the first edit of the current album, just a few days before his death in December 2020. He was absolutely thrilled.” 
Maureen Buja,Interlude, 10 June 2024
Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.
LYRITA PUBLISHING
Kenneth V. Jones: Sonata for Pianoforte | Wind Quintet No. 2 | Quinquifid (1980) | String Quartet (1950) | Piano Quintet (1967) Sheet music for all the works on SRCD.434 awre also published as individual volumes by Lyrita Publishing on 3 May 2024 (SRMP 0164 - SRMP 0168).
The world première recording of Andrew Smith's Old Irish Blessing, performed by Caritas Chamber Choir with soprano Catherine Futcher, directed by Benedict Preece, is released by Ulysses Arts on 15 March 2024, in partnership with Platoon. This single is the first pre-release for a new album of contemporary choral music launching in summer 2024.
Stream on Apple Music or download on iTunes
 Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith (b. 1970) is a British-Norwegian composer with a growing international reputation for choral and vocal music that links tradition with a contemporary idiom. He read Music and English at the University of Oslo. Composing, a hobby since the age of eight, began in earnest in the late 1990s when he wrote a piece for the newly-formed Trio Mediaeval (Norway). The subsequent recording of this and other music for the Trio brought Andrew to the attention of the American audience and led the way to collaborations with groups such as New York Polyphony, Khorikos Chamber Choir and Gothic Voices. Andrew’s Requiem, composed for the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir in response to the tragic events in Norway in July 2011, was first performed in Trondheim in 2012. The work features on the Nidaros Cathedral Girls Choir album LUX, awarded a Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album in January 2020. Andrew has been commissioned and performed by numerous choirs in Norway and abroad. Recent commissions include Lukaspasjon, a setting in Norwegian of the Passion according to St. Luke for Oslo Cathedral Choir, and O Antiphons for the Khorikos Chamber Choir in New York, first performed in 2019. Andrew Smith’s music is published principally by Norsk Musikforlag, with some works published by Oxford University Press.
Lyrita Records releases Cyril Scott, Piano Sonata No. 1, performed by Simon Callaghan, on 5 April 2024.
Sonata for Piano Op. 66: composed 1908; revised edition from 1930s
'Cyril Meir Scott (1879-1970) is one of a group of British composers to have benefitted from three cultural features of recent decades: increased curiosity from performers and listeners; a more inclusive outlook from musicologists and critics; and the music industry spotting a gap and a demand. A much more colourful picture of British music in the first half of the twentieth century has resulted. Scott was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a composer of several hundred pieces. His writings and music are deeply invested in mysticism and the occult. This element in Scott’s work, as Sarah Collins has noted, helps us to see beyond received notions of Scott as either a trivial exoticist or an unjustly-neglected pioneer, and to appreciate his music on its own terms.' ©Brian A. Ingis 
Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a successful recording career. Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita, among others. He is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and on multiple streaming platforms: his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita
surpassing one million streams in its first month of release. He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it to promotion for classical music in general and seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored. He is Director of Music at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the Series's foundation in 1887. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.
Eletronic press kit for press reviewiers available from Ulysses Arts.
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