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Yolanda Kondonassis

American Rapture w/Rochester Philharmonic Orchestr

Azica Records

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Album Trailer
1 Jennifer Higdon: Harp Concerto - First Light
2 Joy Ride
3 Lullaby
4 Rap Knock
5 Samuel Barber - Symphony No. 1 Op. 9
6 Patrick Harlin - Rapture
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Azica Records will release American Rapture featuring harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Ward Stare. This album includes the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto, written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis; Samuel Barber's Symphony No. 1 in One Movement, Op. 9; and the world premiere recording of Patrick Harlin's Rapture. The album is designed to highlight three generations of American composition and, as defined by Harlin in the context of his work, to depict rapture not as a religious event, but as an experience of extreme human emotion.

  • Yolanda Kondonassis. Pulling All the Right Strings / THE NATIONAL HERALD
    Posted At: July 25, 2024
    THE NATIONAL HERALD's Tony Glaros writes….What fresh, aromatic laurels can an adoring public heap on Greek-American musical powerhouse Yolanda Kondonassis? Launching a whirlwind career at 18 with the New York Philharmonic and performing with a constellation of other symphonies, the world-class solo harpist who scored thousands of frequent flyer miles playing professionally, hopscotching from her ancestral r...

  • Musical America ranks CIM's Yolanda Kondonassis among top 30 professionals for 2023 / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: December 5, 2023
    The honor recognizes classical music industry professionals who “persistently and relentlessly strive to keep the performing arts vital.”BroadwayWorld's Stephi Wild writes…..Musical America Ranks CIM's Yolanda Kondonassis Among Top 30 Professionals Of The Year For 2023CIM has announced that harp department head Yolanda Kondonassis has been named one of Musical America's Top 30 Professionals of the Year for ...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis chats with Tallahassee's WFSU Public Media
    Posted At: May 24, 2023
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis is celebrated as one of the world's premier solo harpists and is widely regarded as today's most recorded classical harpist. With "a range of colour that's breathtaking" (Gramophone), she has been hailed as "a brilliant and expressive player" (Dallas Morning News), with "a dazzling technique unfailingly governed by impeccable musical judgment" (Detroit N...

  • 'Wildflower' for Mothers and Mother Earth - 89.5KMFA interviews GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis
    Posted At: May 5, 2023
    On May 12, 2023, multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis will release her new single Wildflower (Yolanda’s Song) on Azica Records. This supplemental track to Kondonassis’ 2022 album FIVE MINUTES for Earth® was composed for her by the great Cuban virtuoso trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval – winner of four GRAMMY Awards and a dear friend of the harpist. Timed for a Mother’s Day weekend rele...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis: Wildflower written by Arturo Sandoval is featured on yourClassical - Extra Eclectic 'A Spring Awakening'
    Posted At: April 26, 2023
    On May 12, 2023, multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis will release her new single Wildflower (Yolanda’s Song) on Azica Records. This supplemental track to Kondonassis’ 2022 album FIVE MINUTES for Earth® was composed for her by the great Cuban virtuoso trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval – winner of four GRAMMY Awards and a dear friend of the harpist. Timed for a Mother’s Day weekend rele...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis - Dark Mountains written by Chen Yi makes SINGERSROOM Top 20
    Posted At: April 12, 2023
    SINGERSROOM writes…..The harp is a beautiful and ancient musical instrument that has captured the hearts of many people throughout history. Its elegant appearance and ethereal sound have made it a favorite among musicians and music lovers alike. Throughout the years, many talented harp players have emerged, creating beautiful and captivating music. In this article, we will explore 20 famous harp players who...

  • The ecological harp. Yolanda Kondonassis - Five Minutes for Earth / New Music Buff
    Posted At: July 21, 2022
    New Music Buff - Allan J. Cronin writes….Yolanda Kondonassis‘ name is practically synonymous with her instrument, the classical concert harp. Her discography (via discogs) numbers over 50 albums, most of which demonstrate her interest and dedication to music of our time. She has played both as soloist and as orchestral musician with many major orchestras and has had many works written for her. If you collec...

  • Music with a mission: Yolanda Kondonassis discusses 'Five Minutes for Earth' with Classical Post
    Posted At: July 12, 2022
    Via Azica Records on April 1, 2022, multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis released her new album: FIVE MINUTES for Earth, that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience inspired b...

  • 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth' is painfully sensitive but captures the powerful emotions raised by Yolanda Kondonassis / GRAMOPHONE
    Posted At: July 7, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis has released; FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience in...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis ambitious FIVE MINUTES for Earth combines harp talent with love for the planet / theWholeNote
    Posted At: July 4, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis new album FIVE MINUTES for Earth both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it. Available worldwide from Azica Records, Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience inspired by Earth in one o...

  • Beautifully engineered, Yolanda Kondonassis 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth,' proves diverse. Well worth hearing / ClassicsToday
    Posted At: June 16, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis announces FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on April 1, 2022. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful ...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth' is RTE - Vespertine with Ellen Cranitch ' Album Of the Week'
    Posted At: June 4, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis has released; FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience in...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis - Five Minutes for Earth is the WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: April 22, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist has released; Yolanda Kondonassis' ‘FIVE MINUTES for Earth,’ a new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it. Available worldwide from Azica Records, Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience i...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis celebrates Earth with New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: April 20, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis new recording; FIVE MINUTES for Earth, celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it.  Available via Azica Records, Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful experience inspired by Earth in one of it...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis - Five Minutes for Earth is the ideastream public media: WCLV - Recording Of The Week
    Posted At: April 16, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis announces FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on April 1, 2022. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful ...

  • On Five Minutes for Earth,' Yolanda Kondonassis turns the harp into an instrument of change / Cleveland.com
    Posted At: April 14, 2022
    Cleveland.com - Zachary Lewis writes…..A straightforward benefit concert or charity album wasn’t going to cut it. Not this time. No, given the urgency and severity of the problem, Yolanda Kondonassis felt the need to do something different, something unconventional. Thus was born “Five Minutes for Earth.” With her new recording project, the head harpist at the Cleveland Institute of Music found a way to rai...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis discusses 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth' with Schenectady NY's 89.1WMHT
    Posted At: April 12, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis has released FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on April 1, 2022. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerf...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth' is a remarkable collection that celebrates the natural world / The Cusp
    Posted At: April 7, 2022
    Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis announces FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on April 1, 2022. Kondonassis asked fifteen of today’s most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length, that express a powerful ...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis releases; 'FIVE MINUTES For Earth' / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: March 10, 2022
    Kondonassis asked fifteen of today's most innovative compositional voices to create new works for the harp, of approximately five minutes in length.BroadwayWorld's A.A. Cristi writes…..Multiple GRAMMY-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis announces FIVE MINUTES for Earth, her new album that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it, available worldwide from Azica Records on Apr...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis Announces 'FIVE MINUTES for Earth'
    Posted At: April 29, 2021

    FIVE MINUTES for Earth® is a project that both celebrates our planet and illuminates the challenge to preserve it. Yolanda Kondonassis has tasked fifteen of today's most innovative compositional voices with creating works or soundscapes of five minutes or less for the harp that express a powerful experience inspired by Earth in one of its many conditions or atmospheres. FIVE MINUTES is also a met...

  • Explore the 'lyrical, feisty, energetic' and GRAMMY winning Higdon Harp Concerto featuring Yolanda Kondonassis & RPO on WCRB's 'Out of the Box'
    Posted At: March 23, 2020

    WHY THIS MUSIC: Before this piece won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, I was unaware of it, and so wanted to explore it together. This Out of the Box project has been about exploring the new and the newly released. When Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, I took note and made sure it would be part of ...

  • Jennifer Higdon wins 2020 GRAMMY Award 'Best Contemporary Classical Composition' for her 'Harp Concerto' on 'American Rapture'
    Posted At: January 27, 2020

    Azica Records release of American Rapture featuring harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Ward Stare is an album includes the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto. Higdon's piece was written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis. The album also includes; Samuel Barber's Symphony No. 1 i...

  • RPO recording with Yolanda Kondonassis nominated for two GRAMMY awards / Finger Lakes Times
    Posted At: December 30, 2019

    American Rapture, a recording featuring the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Ward Stare with soloist Yolanda Kondonassis, was nominated for two Grammy awards. This album includes the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto, written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis. The recording received the following nominations: ...

  • Lansing music lovers were on Cloud9 in 19, starting with the harps / City Pulse
    Posted At: December 26, 2019

    The jazz and classical music lovers of greater Lansing started out on Cloud Nine in 2019, and it only went up from there. Thanks mainly to the burgeoning MSU College of Music, a relentless run of symphonic and chamber performances, brilliant guest artists, jazz combos of every size and flavor and unusual hybrid events filled the year with delight and stimulation. With apologies to the inevitable omission...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis and Ward Stare discuss 'American Rapture' with NETNebraska
    Posted At: December 22, 2019

    Azica Records released American Rapture in 2019, which featured harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by it's Music Director, Ward Stare. This album includes the world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto, written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis; Samuel Barber's Symphony No. 1 in One Movement, Op. 9; and...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis & Ward Stare chat with All Classical Portland
    Posted At: November 25, 2019

    Yolanda Kondonassis is a harpist that may be described as "fearless", as she enthusiastically takes on any idea that contemporary composers send her way. A while back, Ms. Kondonassis made a wonderful recording of the Ginastera concerto. Now, she shares what may become the first great harp concerto of the 21st century: a commissioned work by Jennifer Higdon. The work is colorful, inventive, and just plai...

  • Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto from Yolanda Kondonassis - American Rapture selected for 2020 GRAMMY nomination
    Posted At: November 20, 2019

    Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto from Yolanda Kondonassis - American Rapture Best selected for 2019 GRAMMY nomination inboth 'Contemporary Classical Composition' & 'Best Classical Instrumental Solo' category. Azica Records release of American Rapture featuring harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Ward Stare inclu...

  • 'American Rapture' is a generous and interesting program that explores three generations of American music / I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
    Posted At: August 15, 2019

    American Rapture, the new release on the hitherto unknown to me Azica label, features Samuel Barber's "Great American Symphony" contender Symphony # 1 (1936)  and two world premiere recordings; Patrick Harlin's Rapture (2011) and Jennifer Higdon‘s Harp Concerto (2018) written for Yolanda Kondonassis. This generous and interesting program explores three generations of American music, and it is ...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis' 'American Rapture' dreams, soars and levitates through an intricately flowing compositional architecture / 91.3KUAF
    Posted At: August 1, 2019

    Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis' newest album "dreams, soars and levitates" through an intricately flowing compositional architecture with the inclusion of a newly commissioned harp concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon. "The idea was the interplay and the precociousness, and the childlike wonder," Kondonassis elaborates on how Higdon encompassed her emotions in the composition. "She re...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis - American Rapture is a delicious sampling of neoromanticism / New Music Buff
    Posted At: July 17, 2019

    Two contemporary world premieres paired with Samuel Barber's masterful First Symphony make this disc a delicious sampling of neoromanticism in American music. The standout here, and the main reason to buy this disc is the glorious Jennifer Higdon Harp Concerto (2017).  Higdon, the third woman to win a Pulitzer Prize (by my count) is clearly schooled in a wide variety of compositional techniques ...

  • 90.9WGUC Cincinnati speaks with Yolanda Kondonassis & Ward Stare about 'American Rapture'
    Posted At: July 16, 2019

    Azica Records recently released an album titled American Rapture from Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic. The release contains three American works from three different generations of composers, one being Grammy-winning Jennifer Higdon. Her new Harp Concerto, written for and performed by Yolanda Kondonassis, is a delightful addition to the harp repertoire and one, I believe, will be performed for ...

  • Jennifer Higdon interviews with 88.5WCPE - Wake Forest
    Posted At: July 16, 2019

    Yolanda Kondonassis' new Azica Records Album - American Rapture features the World Premiere Recording of Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto - With Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Ward Stare, Music Director. Pulitzer Prize and two-time Grammy winner, Jennifer Higdon is one of the most performed living American composers working today. She is a major figure in contemporary Classical music,...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis premieres new harp concerto by Jennifer Higdon on 'American Rapture' / New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: July 3, 2019

    New Classical Tracks is a Syndicated feature heard national on Classical 24 and Statewide via Minnesota Public Radio. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT & READ THE TRANSCRIPT Yolanda Kondonassis has played a lot of contemporary harp concertos. Her new recording, American Rapture, features the world premiere of one written especially for her by American composer Jennifer Higdon. "I've played a lot of conte...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis, RPO 'American Rapture' is the WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: June 16, 2019

    "Yolanda Kondonassis' enthusiasm for her instrument is infectious," says Jennifer Higdon when describing working with her to create a new harp concerto. This world-premiere recording by Kondonaiss with Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is a showcase for the grandeur of the harp through this beautiful composition by Higdon. The recording continues with the triumphant First Symphony of Sa...

  • Yolanda Kondonassis and Ward Stare discuss 'American Rapture' with FM91: Toledo
    Posted At: June 13, 2019

    Harpist extraordinaire Yolanda Kondonassis and Rochester Philharmonic Music Director Ward Stare join us to preview their new album, American Rapture from Azica Records. Included on the disc are the Symphony No. 1 by Samuel Barber; a cave-diving inspired tone poem by the young composer Patrick Harlin (Rapture), and the world premiere centerpiece of the recording: the Harp Concerto by Grammy Award and Puli...

  • If you think playing the harp is something only angels do, then you've never met Yolanda Kondonassis / WOSU Public Media
    Posted At: June 13, 2019

    Yolanda Kondonassis is in part the reason why Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon wrote her new harp concerto. One of today's foremost solo harpists, Kondonassis outspokenly disavows the heavenly stereotype of her instrument and instead, um, harps on its earthly possibilities. "My mother was probably the instigating factor in me beginning the harp when I was 9 years old," Kondonassis said...
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