Tag: Classical Music

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Another Installment of Carl Theodor Jubilee Year Collection by Anders Muskens – Army of Generals, Vol. 3: Shakespeare and Ovid in Mannheim

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music announces the distribution of a new digital recording from early music specialist Anders Muskens, being released in digital format on September 5. This marks the third album in a series celebrating the Carl Theodor Jubilee Year: https://www.neuemannheimerorchester.de/carl-theodor-jubilee-releases

Shakespeare & Ovid in Mannheim features live recordings of works by two seldom heard Mannheim School composers: Georg Joseph Vogler’s Hamlet Symphony (1778) and Christian Cannabich’s Ceyx et Alcyone (1762–63)—two musical dramas rooted in the expressive ideals of the Enlightenment. Vogler’s Hamlet unfolds as a compact music-drama, tracing the arc of the Danish prince’s grief, ghostly visions, feigned madness, vengeance, and spiraling melancholy in the stormy idiom of Sturm und Drang. In the narrative ballet Ceyx et Alcyone, Cannabich evokes the mythic pathos of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with mystical dances, dreadful tempest scene, and richly textured orchestral colour in the early classical idiom.

Actor João Luís Veloso Paixão narrates the story of Ceyx, interweaving period French texts adapted from Raymond and Charles de Massac’s Alexandrine translations of Ovid (from 1603) and Antoine Houdar de La Motte’s Alcione (1706), into the original instrumental ballet music. This contextualizes the drama of the ballet with the spoken word in a novel historically inspired melodramatic format. The Portuguese baritone and researcher specializes in Early Music singing and acting, with an emphasis on eighteenth-century melodrama and historical acting techniques.

Co-directed by Anders Muskens from the harpsichord and concertmaster Rachael Beesley, the four albums being released in 2025 represent a bold revival of the theatrical and expressive ideals of the Mannheim court. With period instruments, rhetorical flair, and dramatic narration, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester reclaims these neglected masterworks—offering a resonant tribute to Prince-Elector Carl Theodor’s cultural legacy as visionary patron behind the Mannheim Court Orchestra. The German prince’s court was one of the most exciting centres for music-making in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Prolific early music specialist Anders Muskens has had other recordings distributed by Leaf, including Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas and Army of Generals Volume 2: Carl Theodor’s Court Orchestra in Mannheim 1742-1778. Muskens is a Canadian fortepianist, harpsichordist, conductor, and musicologist whose work focuses on the revival of eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century performance traditions, equally active in Europe and North America. He completed a Masters in Fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague under Dr. Bart van Oort and Petra Somlai, with Fabio Bonizzoni and Patrick Ayrton for harpsichord. He is represented as a performer by the Sonus Agency for Early Music and is the founder of the ensemble Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester, an international initiative to revive the music of the Mannheim School in the second half of the eighteenth century.

The new album was produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Forschungszentrum HOF/MUSIK/STADT.

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

Carl Theodor Jubilee Year Collection

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Jeremy VanSlyke Releases New EP – Beach: Children’s Carnival

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and pianist Jeremy VanSlyke are pleased to announce the release of Amy Beach: Children’s Carnival (LM2052), a digital EP available August 15, 2025. 

Written in 1894, Children’s Carnival, Op. 25, is a set of six short character pieces that reflect Amy Beach’s interest in composing for young pianists. Inspired by stock characters from European pantomime, which remained popular in late-nineteenth-century America, the suite captures the theatrical spirit of the Harlequin tradition. From the sprightly “Harlequin” to the dreamy “Columbine,” each piece offers its own character and mood, showcasing Beach’s ability to write technically engaging and imaginative music that remains accessible to younger players. 

Jeremy VanSlyke is a pianist and music producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, whose passion for classical music began at a young age in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He studied piano performance at McGill University in Montréal under Georgian pianist Marina Goglidze-Mdivani, and with Dr. Roger Lord in New Brunswick. His career spans both stage and studio, with experience in orchestral and chamber music, as well as award-winning sound and video recordings that have garnered millions of online streams. He contributed both piano and engineering to the world premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas’ I’m Nobody, a piece for soprano, viola, and piano featuring Grammy-nominated artist Measha Brueggergosman-Lee. Their recording of the work was released in September 2024 on Pentatone’s Grace multi-volume set. A dedicated educator, Jeremy serves as a collaborative pianist at Lipscomb University, where he works closely with voice students in preparation for performances. He is also the owner of Leaf Music, a classical music record label he established in 2012. In 2025, Leaf Music earned five JUNO nominations and 17 East Coast Music Award nominations. 

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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Leaf Music Distributes New Album from Anders Muskens – Beck: Sonata for Keyboard, Op. 5

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music announces the distribution of a new digital recording from historical piano specialist Anders Muskens, being released in digital format on June 27.

Sonatas for Keyboard Op. 5 – Franz Ignaz Beck continues Musken’s tribute to the Carl Theodor Jubilee Year (1724-2024) with compositions by German composer, violinist, director and keyboardist Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809), performed on original instruments. Muskens recorded this album on a Square Pianoforte by Longman & Broderip (John Geib), London 1788 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2018) from his own personal collection. Carl Theodor was a regional monarch in German history, cultivating the Mannheim court orchestra; 2024 marks the 300th anniversary of his birth.

Franz Ignaz Beck was born in Mannheim, given his musical education by Johann Stamitz, famous composer, violin virtuoso and director of the Mannheim Court Orchestra. His early career was dramatically impacted by a duel during which his opponent feigned death. To avoid repercussions, Beck fled and travelled extensively throughout Italy, performing concerts and refining his compositional abilities. He settled in France and later faced a tribunal during the French Revolution along with his entire theatre ensemble. Fortunately, he was proven innocent and continued as a central figure in Bordeaux’s cultural life until his death in 1809. He wrote symphonies, vocal and operatic works and keyboard sonatas. The 18 Sonates pour le Clavecin ou le Piano Forte were published in Paris around 1772 and are full of wit, charm, sensuality and coquetry.

Prolific early music specialist Anders Muskens has had other recordings distributed by Leaf, including Vogler: Travel Souvenirs for Keyboard, Beethoven’s Forgotten Piano Concerto, Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas and Army of Generals Volume II: Carl Theodor’s Court Orchestra in Mannheim 1742-1778. Muskens is a Canadian fortepianist, harpsichordist, conductor, and musicologist whose work focuses on the revival of eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century performance traditions. He is active in Europe and North America and completed a Masters in Fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague under Dr. Bart van Oort and Petra Somlai, with Fabio Bonizzoni and Patrick Ayrton for harpsichord. He is represented as a performer by the Sonus Agency for Early Music and is the founder of the ensemble Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester, an international initiative to revive the music of the Mannheim School in the second half of the eighteenth century.

The new album was produced with support from the Forschungszentrum HOF/MUSIK/STADT and Adriana Jacoba Fonds and was recorded at the Nikomedeskirche, Weilheim-Tübingen.

Listen to Beck’s Sonatas for Keyboard Op. 5 on your favourite streaming platform.

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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Leaf Music, Francesca dePasquale and Peter Takács present Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas, Op. 30

(Nashville, TN) Leaf Music, violinist Francesca dePasquale and pianist Peter Takács announce the upcoming release of their new recording, Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 (LM303), in digital format. 

The three sonatas mark the beginning of Beethoven’s “heroic” middle period. Completed in 1802 and dedicated to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, they were written during one of the most tumultuous years of Beethoven’s life. Around this time, he penned the now-famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a poignant letter to his brothers revealing his despair over his worsening hearing loss. Though it reads like a farewell, the letter ends with a vow to persevere in the service of art. That inner struggle—between hopelessness and determination—finds voice in the music as Beethoven begins to push the familiar classical forms to new expressive ends.

Photo credit: Alexandra DeFurio

Celebrated for her “sincerity, intensity, and individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and praised for her “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine), violinist Francesca dePasquale was the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She was also awarded the 2014–2016 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts and received the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award. Francesca is currently a violin faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and previously was a member of the violin faculty for the Juilliard School Pre-College Program. She studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Robert Lipsett. Her earlier teachers include Hirono Oka, Charles Parker, and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt. 

Hailed by The New York Times as “a marvelous pianist,” Peter Takács has performed widely to critical and audience acclaim and is noted for his penetrating and communicative musical interpretations. He enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris at age fourteen, later earning full scholarships to Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, followed by a three-year fellowship at the Peabody Conservatory, where he completed his artistic training under the guidance of the renowned pianist Leon Fleisher. Takács has appeared as a guest soloist with major orchestras across the U.S. and internationally and has performed at prominent festivals, including Tanglewood, Music Mountain, Chautauqua Institution, ARIA International, the Schlern Music Festival in the Italian Alps, Tel Hai International Master Classes in Israel, and Sweden’s Helsingborg Festival. His recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas was released on the Cambria label in 2011 to critical acclaim. ​ 

Listen to Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 on your favourite streaming platforms. 

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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About Peter
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Leaf Music Distributes New Album from Anders Muskens – Vogler: Travel Souvenirs for Keyboard

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS)Leaf Music announces the distribution of a new recording from early music specialist Anders Muskens, being released in digital format on April 18.

Travel Souvenirs for Keyboard – Georg Joseph Vogler features compositions by German composer Georg Joseph Vogler (1749 – 1814), performed on original instruments. Muskens recorded on a Square Pianoforte by Longman & Broderip (John Geib), London 1788 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2018), and a Grand pianoforte by John Broadwood & Songs, London, 1806 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2022). He tuned and tempered the instruments (both from his own collection), using the method described by Vogler himself in 1807.

The album celebrates Carl Theodor’s Jubilee Year (2024). Vogler was a key Kappelmeister in Theodor’s court. Many pieces were published during Vogler’s tenure in Sweden.

Vogler’s wanderlust inspired many of the pieces he composed, and he was well-regarded for his intricate, complex variation sets for keyboard, which he often improvised in dazzling public concerts on organ and fortepiano. The new recording includes a work from 1798 (Pieces de clavecin) and Variations sur l’Air de Marlborough from 1791. Georg Joseph, known as Abt or Abbé Vogler, never spent more than a few months in one place; he was always travelling, literally crisscrossing Europe, and even venturing to the Arctic Circle and North Africa. His fascination with folk melodies can be heard woven into his harmonic and structural innovations for keyboard.

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

The new album was produced with support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Forschungszentrum HOF/MUSIK/STADT, and was recorded at the Pfleghofsaal at the Musicology Institute of the University of Tubingen

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

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Allison Ernst announce the March 7 release of her new EP, Ravel: Sonatine (LM2048), a technically demanding three-movement piano work just twelve minutes long.

Dr. Allison Ernst is a dedicated and passionate performer and teacher. Her work as a pianist has taken her all over the United States, performing solo, chamber, and concerto works. She has also competed in the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition and the Bay Area Piano Competition. An avid leader within music education, she serves as the Newsletter Editor for Tennessee Music Teachers Association, Treasurer for the Nashville Area Music Teachers Association, and as an adjudicator for piano festivals around Nashville. She is the owner and founder of Dr. Allison’s Piano Studio, previously known as Aunt Ali’s Music Studio. She also held a position as Adjunct Professor of Music for three academic years at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee. 

Allison’s commitment to serving the community through musical performances has inspired her to create two projects, which include The Riverside Arts Walk Concert Series and The Mission Inn Concert Series. She continues to perform free events through her newest community outreach program, The Music City House Concert Series. Creating a greater sense of community through the power of music remains central to her ideals in all the roles that she plays. As a scholar, she plans to publish her latest research entitled, “Playing with Time: Understanding and Notating Tempo Rubato,” in the next issue of the academic journal Historical Performance Practices.

Originally from Kalispell, Montana, Allison received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Historical Performance Practices from Claremont Graduate University, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from California Baptist University, and a Bachelor of Arts-Music from Seattle University. Her primary teachers include Jenny Soonjin Kim, Tina Kouratachvili, and Kay Lund.  When not practicing or teaching piano, Allison loves to travel, swim, and cook new recipes with her husband.

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

About Allison
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Leaf Music Distributes Drew Jurecka & Maurice Ravel: String Quartet

“Captivating…breathtaking tour de force… The Venuti String Quartet plays with joie de vivre!” – The Whole Note

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and the Venuti String Quartet announce the distribution of their new recording Drew Jurecka & Maurice Ravel: String Quartets (VSQ202401).

Drew Jurecka & Maurice Ravel: String Quartets celebrates Ravel’s 150th birthday but begins with member and co-founder Drew Jurecka’s string quartet, a composition that explores and blends classical and jazz influences. This is followed by Ravel’s only string quartet in F Major, composed during this student years at the Paris Conservatory. The album concludes with The Spider, a collaborative piece at breakneck speed by Jurecka and Jay Danley, paying tribute to Carl Stalling, who wrote music for Looney Toons and Merry Melodies cartoons.

The Venuti String Quartet brings together four of the most in-demand musicians in Toronto’s vibrant music scene (Rebekah Wolkstein and Drew Jurecka, violins; Shannon Knights, viola and Amahl Arulanandam, cello), hailing from esteemed Toronto ensembles including the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Payadora Ensemble, Schmaltz & Pepper and VC2. Founded with genre-flexibility in mind, the group is equally at home in recording studios or onstage playing alongside a range of artists in almost any genre (e.g. Alessia Cara, Laila Biali, Jill Barber and her recent release, Encore, Donovan Woods) as they are performing the great classics and original compositions and arrangements. In concert, the Quartet enjoys pairing nonclassical music with works of the great composers, as they have done with their debut album, combining the original composition of Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and composer Drew Jurecka with one of his great inspirations, the beautiful and dynamic Quartet by Maurice Ravel.

Drew Jurecka’s string quartet was completed over a ten-year period from 2010-2020. An accomplished jazz and classical violinist, Jurecka’s composition explores his diverse musical experiences through the rich vocabulary of the string quartet. Each movement takes its inspiration from a different style of music, seen through the lens of classic string quartet form and composition, including impressionism, jazz improvision and tango techniques. In 1903, Maurice Ravel composed his only string quartet at the age of 28; the work is considered one of the greatest masterworks of the string quartet repertoire.

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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Leaf Music, Dorian Komanoff Bandy, and Catherine Cosbey present Mozart: Strings Duo

“Virtuosity (that is) relentless, precise, and, above all, dazzling.” – the WholeNote

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Dorian Komanoff Bandy and Catherine Cosbey announce the January 24 release of their new recording Mozart: String Duos (LM297), including two never-before-recorded violin duets.

Mozart: String Duos presents vivid, period-instrument performances of Mozart’s two spectacular Duos for Violin and Viola (K. 423 in G major and K. 424 in B-flat Major), alongside newly discovered historical arrangements of the Violin Sonata K. 305 and arias from La clemenza di Tito. Following historical convention and drawing on groundbreaking research, Cosbey and Bandy insert extensive embellishments and cadenzas, capturing a degree of improvisatory freedom rarely heard in performances of Mozart’s string music. These pieces, as well as the arrangements, would have introduced many eighteenth-century listeners to Mozart’s music. Today, they conjure scenes of domestic music-making among family and friends.

Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin K. 305 was transformed into a duet for two violins by an anonymous Parisian arranger in 1799 (eight years after Mozart’s death). This version and the opera arrangements were recently discovered in rare book libraries in Texas and Germany and may not have been heard since the early 1800s. They reveal how deftly musicians adapted Mozart’s music for performance at home.

Dorian Komanoff Bandy, associate professor at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, is one of early music’s most energetic and versatile proponents. His repertoire spans four centuries and six instruments, and his performances have been praised for their “impressive emotional scope” and a “virtuosity [that is] relentless, precise, and above all, dazzling.” A leading Mozart specialist, Dorian has conducted award winning productions of Mozart’s operas on both sides of the Atlantic, and is the author of Mozart the Performer: Variations on the Showman’s Art, which he’ll discuss in an upcoming virtual forum on January 21.

Violinist Catherine Cosbey is a member of the Cavani String Quartet and was a founding member of the Linden String Quartet. Her performances, described by the Strad Magazine as “polished, radiant, and incisive,” have taken her to leading venues and festivals across the US, Canada, and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Esterhazy String Quartet Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A frequent guest educator at festivals across North America, she currently serves on the violin and chamber music faculty at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

Both musicians perform on eighteenth-century German instruments. The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax, in June of 2024. Get your CD copy of Mozart: String Duos or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform.

Mozart: Strings Duo – Album Trailer

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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New Single from Caitlin Broms-Jacobs and Madeline Hildebrand

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music releases a new single by oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs and pianist Madeline Hildebrand, titled 6 Pieces for Flute and Piano: VI. Nocturne (Version for Oboe & Piano) by Fikret Amirov.  

Like Armirov’s other compositions, the Nocturne is imbued with traditional Azeri elements: melodies, harmonies, and ornamentations, but its magic defies categorization. Although Amirov’s name is nearly unknown in the West, he was one of Azerbaijan’s most esteemed cultural figures. He was a prolific and highly significant composer who wrote numerous large-scale symphonic works, operas, ballets, and chamber music.  

The duo, Fierbois, takes after the name of the sword of Joan of Arc. An iconic strong woman, she never used the sword to inflict harm, only to inspire. Fierbois means “proud wood” in Old French. 

Caitlin and Madeline’s upcoming album debut, Sing to Me Again, will be released on January 10. The album explores and reimagines music from Eastern European countries for oboe and piano. It results from a decade of discovery, growth, and artistic partnership between the two musicians. 

The debut album gets its launch in Winnipeg at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Friday, January 10, 2025, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM CST. Click here for tickets and more information. 

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MEDIA CONTACT: 

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

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

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Winds Playlist
Anders Muskens Playlist