Max Richter's trailblazing 2015 composition Sleep is now available to download with the launch of a new app. The app enables listeners to reimagine the 8-hour Deutsche Grammophon recording in custom-made musical sessions to help with focus, meditation and sleep which many people will need in the midst of the pandemic lockdown. It brings to a wider audience some of the experience shared by those lucky enough to attend Richter's extraordinary eight-hour overnight performances of Sleep – complete with beds – including LTW's own Tim Cooper who wrote about it here when it came to London in 2017. READ THE FULL Louder Than War ARTICLE

In episode 925 of "ANIMAJAZZ", conceived and conducted by BRUNO POLLACCI , broadcast TUESDAY June 30 at 20.30, on PUNTORADIO, also streaming on www.puntoradio.fm and in an immediate podcast on http: // animajazz. eu will be the protagonists CARLA BLEY - ANDY SHEPPARD - STEVE SWALLOW - CD "Life Goes On" - "Life Goes On_ III. And On "(ECM). The third volume of a sequence of albums begun with Trios in 2013 and continued with Andando El Tiempo (2016), Life Goes On – once more recorded in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher - features striking new music from American pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bassist Swallow has a long history. (Their first recording in trio format was Songs with Legs, recorded for the ECM-distributed WATT label in 1994.) Bley has composed for ensembles of every size but, over time, the trio has established itself as an ideal unit for expressing the essence of her work. Throughout Life Goes On, Carla's terse, distinctive piano, shaping phrases irreducible as Monk or Satie, is beautifully framed by Swallow's eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard's yearning saxes. This trio has a unique collective sound, reflecting – as The Telegraph recently noted – "musical mastery of a rare order".  We remind you that "ANIMAJAZZ" can be heard on TUESDAY at 20.30 in immediate podcast on http://animajazz.eu and the "DOWNLOAD" of the episode can be made, free of charge, from the podcasts area. Happy listening. SEE THE PLAYLIST

The 2020 Juno Awards have wrapped, announcing a list of winners that has been on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the in-person Saskatoon weekend of events in March. But tonight, June 29, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and CBC combined the usual two-night series of events into an hour-and-a-half-long pre-recorded special, delivering a night that Canadian music fans have been waiting for. Winner for 'Classical album of the year: large ensemble' is Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Kent Nagano, The John Adams Album. Released to coincide with Nagano's final season with the Montréal Symphony, The John Adams Album contains his key orchestral works conducted by one of his greatest, lifelong champions "Like all great pieces, each time one returns to them and restudies them, I'm able to find something more - new dimensions that I haven't seen before, other reflections of innovation and genius." - Kent Nagano on John Adams SEE ALL WINNERS ON CBC PAGE

How can it be possible that we're only halfway through the year? On its relentless whiplash toward the middle, the first six months of 2020 have reframed, redefined, shocked, torn down, confounded and crumbled our expectations, our priorities, our concepts of distance and closeness, of responsibility, of tragedy, of joy. They changed how we listened to music, too: so often alone, through wires and screens and glitches and delays. But in six full months packed with moments where we needed music to cope with challenges new and old, there was so much to see us through. These artists had their lives upended as well – it's amazing to look back on this six months of music and realize they made nearly all of it before the year even began. They'll give us so much more in the months to come, no doubt, as reckoning continues to rise to the surface of their songs. (Oh yeah, there's also a Beyoncé visual album on the way.) Below, you'll find more than two dozen records from 2020's first six months that are worth holding onto for the next six, and beyond. We didn't vote on them. Each is the favorite of one member of the NPR Music team. You can find our favorite songs of the first half of 2020 here. With a wink to heart-on-sleeve Romantic piano concertos by Rachmaninov, British composer-conductor Thomas Adès unleashes perhaps the most pleasing concerto written yet this century. A jolt of sheer joie de vivre, the piece features flamboyant orchestration (a duet for xylophone and piccolo?), sizzling passages deftly navigated by pianist Kirill Gerstein and a central slow movement that pushes yearning to new emotional levels. Adès Conducts Adès dropped in February and I listened to its concerto nonstop, until the pandemic hit hard. Then I turned to the grim and masterful Totentanz (Dance of the Dead). Adès was inspired by a 15th-century frieze depicting the figure of death waltzing with representatives of each rung of society, from Pope to peasant and finally an infant. Baritone Mark Stone sings the role of death with self-assured devilry, while mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn sensitively interprets his impotent victims. In orchestration that is massive, beautiful and frightening, Adès's music singularly underscores the inevitability of death in deadly times. -Tom Huizenga SEE THE FULL LIST

Is there a classical performer more keenly attuned to the moment than the cellist and musical ambassador Yo-Yo Ma? When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in March, Ma launched a participatory social media project (#SongsOf Comfort) that's tapped a deep need for music as a unifying force in these isolating times. The performer's ongoing performances of Bach's Cello Suites around the world have seemed similarly soulful, global, and essential. Never content to stay in any narrow lane, Ma has been crossing borders for decades. As a driving force in The Silk Road Project (now Silkroad), he brought together musicians from widely diverse ethnic regions and traditions. He's collaborated with scores of artists, from Astor Piazzolla to James Taylor, in other ways. Now, in a reprise of the 2011 Goat Rodeo album, Ma has reunited with fiddle player Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Chris Thile, and bass player Edgar Meyer on the drolly titled and winningly big-hearted Not Our First Goat Rodeo. The Sony disc features the gently infectious singer Aoife O'Donovan on three of the album's 10 tracks. The vitality kicks in right away with "Your Coffee Is a Disaster," all jittery, jangly plucks and shivers set off by wails of protest from the cello and fiddle, smoothed out later on by some creamy harmonies. The number feels both cunningly designed and loosely improvisatory, a well-made brew that's allowed to go awry a bit. Lovely and light-fingered as it often is, this second Goat Rodeo also takes some daredevil rides into the unknown. As Ma has often demonstrated, music that takes risks can pay handsome rewards.     PHOTO: Josh Goleman READ THE FULL San Francisco Classical Voice ARTICLE

Host John Pitman chats with the great Swedish mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie Von Otter about her performance of a new work by American composer, Caroline Shaw.  Title "Is a Rose", the three-movement song cycle is sung by Von Otter with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, as Shaw has written the work with Baroque ensembles – and Ms. Von Otter – in mind.  Next, John talks with the composer herself, touching on the song cycle and her first oratorio, The Listeners, which was inspired by the gold record created for the Voyager spacecraft.  Music from Shaw's new works are interwoven with the conversation. LISTEN

Interview with All Classical Portland's John Pitman

When the coronavirus sequestered Americans at home and forced businesses to close, Hale Ryan braced himself for a financial winter. As the director of sales and marketing at Metroplex Piano in Dallas and a 30-year veteran of the piano business, he had seen other crises - like 9/11 and the 2008 recession - damage sales. When the lockdown began in March, Mr. Ryan said in a recent phone interview, "I thought this was going to be the final nail." Instead, he began to field a flood of requests for instruments. Even with his showroom closed, the economy nose-diving and the professional music world in tatters, he sold pianos. "It's actually been the best three months that I've seen in retail," he said. The piano market encompasses a wide range of instruments, from hand-built concert grands that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to factory-made uprights, digital pianos and keyboards designed for young learners. The high-water mark of piano sales in America was 1909, when 364,500 new acoustic pianos were sold in the country. Since then, radio, television, recordings and instrument technology transformed the way music is created and consumed. Only about 30,000 new acoustic pianos are now sold here each year, but the number surpasses a million when all digital varieties are included. Even a lower-end instrument represents a significant investment, and can seem like a luxury during a time of economic uncertainty. And with showrooms closed this spring, potential buyers could no longer test-drive the possibilities. A sale represented not just a splurge, but also a leap of faith. "It's actually been the best three months that I've seen in retail," said Hale Ryan of Metroplex Piano in Dallas.Credit...Metroplex Piano And yet interviews with nearly a dozen dealers across the country reveal surprisingly robust sales that suggest a resurgence of at-home music-making just as the live concert scene vanished. Most of the dealers noted a rise in demand for digital pianos, which allow players to channel the sound through headphones: a key feature in households where working-from-home parents share space with distance-learning children. The phenomenon seems to be part of a general pivot toward home-based recreation, along with increased demand for gym equipment and bicycles. Indeed, a significant portion of purchasers appears to be new to the market. Tom Sumner, the president of Yamaha Corporation of America, said in an interview that he had heard from retailers that between 20 and 25 percent of sales this spring were to first-time buyers. "A good chunk of customers are people they've never seen before," Mr. Sumner said. According to him, Yamaha sold 60 percent more digital pianos this April than in the same month last year. He added that the sales increase was especially significant because, in a typical spring, schools tend to make big purchases in preparation for fall band season. Because of the coronavirus, he said, that segment has dropped away, so the spike in sales likely comes from individual buyers. Brian Majeski, the co-owner of Music Trades, a company that analyzes data about the musical instruments industry, said in an interview that across America, sales of digital pianos rose by 30 percent this April and May, with the trend appearing to continue into June. He also noted an uptick for acoustic pianos, though it was smaller and mostly driven by used instruments. Still, Mr. Majeski said, "The question in our industry is: Will this stick? Are you creating a new generation of players, or is it a momentary spike with people who have time on their hands looking for things to do?" The Piano Guys, a crossover group that has clocked over a billion YouTube views with music videos of its arrangements of pop and classical standards, began selling digital pianos for $2,000 to $8,000 on its website last December, typically bundled with online learning materials alongside proprietary sheet music. Steven Sharp Nelson, a member of the group, said that in the first months it sold a piano every two or three days. In April and May demand rose steeply; some days the band sold six pianos in one day. He said it was the pandemic that had led many to learn to play the piano for the first time. "We're in a cadenza fermata," he said, referring to the moment in a classical concerto when the orchestra drops away and the soloist takes off on a flight of fancy. "People are improvising." Isaac Namias, who sells restored acoustic pianos in Brooklyn, said email inquiries shot up when the virus hit New York. Under lockdown, he said, he sold nearly twice as many units per month as during normal times, mostly instruments in the lower price range, about $2,500 to $6,500. About half his business was driven by piano teachers referring students. Notably absent from the client list were professional performing pianists. Mr. Namias said, "They want to touch the piano, they know exactly what they're looking for." But the reliance on hands-on, in-person sales seems to have lessened. Anthony Gilroy, a spokesman for Steinway, said in an email that although the company had seen a drop in sales when showrooms closed, the decline had been less than expected. In response to the pandemic, Steinway for the first time created an option to buy pianos directly from its website. And sales representatives using digital platforms were able to make big-ticket sales, including limited-edition Steinways costing upward of a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Nelson of The Piano Guys likened the trend to car sales. "To my mind it's like when people started selling cars on eBay," he said. "At first people thought that was crazy. But now a significant portion of car sales is done online." Mr. Ryan, whose showroom in Dallas has since reopened, said he had organized virtual demonstrations of instruments on Zoom. "I never thought anybody would buy a $20,000 piano without playing it first," he said. But he sold several concert grand pianos this way, including a $200,000 Bösendorfer to a doctor who had been working on the front lines of the coronavirus. "He is a pathologist and a serious player and he's always wanted a Bösendorfer," Mr. Ryan said. "He's stressed beyond belief and he just wants to get back to playing piano."

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two concerto favorites: Chopin's Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2, released on Decca Classics. Recorded with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the record marks Benjamin's fifth album on Decca Classics, following the hugely successful Homages in 2016, and is his first orchestral album since 2012. These works have been an active part of Grosvenor's repertoire since his early teens: "Chopin was the first composer to whom I felt a strong connection as a child. I have always been drawn to his music, and his piano concertos are among some of the finest in the repertoire." Of the new recording, which came to fruition following a successful performance of the Piano Concerto No.2 with Elim Chan and the RSNO in 2018, Benjamin notes: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Elim and the outstanding musicians of the RSNO." Benjamin appears this spring in the US performing the Piano Concerto No.1. 89.7WCPE: Wake Forest NC, Rob Kennedy spoke with BG about the new album. LISTEN to the attached file.

Interview with WCPE's Rob Kennedy

Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John and collaborator, pianist Matt Herskowitz have released a new album; 'Key of A' which pairs Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9, "Kreutzer" in A Major with Cesar Franck's Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, and also includes Fritz Kreisler's Schön Rosmarin. Lara says about the program: "I'm a bit of a strange violinist, and when I was a kid, supposed to be learning all these normal works that folks do, instead I was learning Bartok solo sonata and Debussy, and Beethoven Concerto and 10th Sonata, and I just sort of missed some of these more ‘normal' pieces. I learned both of these sonatas rather late in life - in my late 20s. When I first asked Matt to do the Franck, which we have been playing together now for many years, I had performed it once or twice before, but had never been entirely free of normal pianists' ideas of 'tradition', which I found hobbling and somewhat nonsensical. As for the Beethoven 9 (Kreutzer), I had been waiting for a pianist who would be able to keep up with the extremes I envisioned for this piece, tempo and volume-wise. Obviously, old Ludwig wanted the pianist to improvise, which is what Matt does in the piano cadenzas." 89.7WCPE: Wake Forest NC, Rob Kennedy spoke with Lara about the new album. LISTEN to the attached file

Interview with WCPE's Rob Kennedy

Violins of Hope is an artistic and educational project composed of instruments that were owned by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust. Violins in the collection were played in the concentration camps and ghettos, providing a source of comfort for some and a means of survival for others. The project was founded by Amnon Weinstein and his son Avshalom, Israeli luthiers who collect these instruments, refurbish them to concert quality, and bring them to communities all over the world, so that their voices can be heard again. The Violins of Hope have traveled to Jerusalem, Sion, Madrid, Maastricht, Monaco, Rome, Berlin, London, Bucharest, Dachau, Dresden, and Auschwitz. In the United States, the project has been presented in Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Washington, D.C, Cincinnati, Nashville, Birmingham, Knoxville, Phoenix, Louisville, Fort Wayne, and San Francisco. Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope is the first solo album to be recorded on one of these instruments. Niv Ashkenazi is the only violinist in the world to hold an instrument from the Violins of Hope collection on a long-term loan, and this album was conceived as a way to create a lasting record of the voice of that violin. Ashkenazi is joined on the album by his fellow Juilliard graduate, pianist Matthew Graybil, and the duo first worked together on the project at various ‘Violins of Hope' events in Sarasota Florida in 2017. The Weinstein family commented; "Niv is the only violinist we trust absolutely to bring out the sounds of long gone horrors, with an honest sound and much love for this music and our legacy." Ashkenazi spoke with Spokane Public Radio about the 'Violins of Hope' project. Listen to ther attached file

Interview with Spokane PR's Jim Tevenan

Philharmonia Baroque Productions has released a pioneering recording of commissions by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. The collection features song cycle with Anne Sofie von Otter and a major work for chorus and orchestra with Avery Amereau & Dashon Burton."PBO& Caroline Shaw", the 12th release on the Philharmonia Baroque Productions label, coincides with the launch of the "PBO&" imprimatur, created to record and showcase vital contemporary composers who are committed to composing for the unique sounds of period instruments.  WKCR: NYC host Simon Cohen sat down with the internationally-renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter about the recording, her approach to choosing repertoire, and her favorite singers.  LISTEN

Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever since, in many different contexts. "I love these songs", says Scofield of the selection of Swallow compositions explored here – a broad range including tunes that have become standards, as well as some lesser-known works. The rapport between Scofield and Swallow is evident in every moment. John: "Sometimes when we play it's like one big guitar, the bass part and my part together."  Scofield sat down with KKFI: Kansas City to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached file

Interview with KKFI: Kansas City