His music sinks deep into the question not only of who we are, but who we aspire to be. His works have been streamed over a billion times and, perhaps more importantly than that, he is the composer to whom we turn as we try to find truth in this world. His new album, Voices, is just out, and it is a work almost beyond categorisation. Voices started as a small idea ten years ago when Richter composed a short piece called "Mercy" in response to events around Guantanamo Prison. Richter's aim was to write a piece to think to, a piece which would provoke us, inspire us, beguile us, something within which we could let our minds go to the most important things in our world. And he has succeeded. The original piece "Mercy" is now at the end of the album, which combines Richter's new compositions with readings, in many different languages, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was created after the horrors of the Second World War. "All human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of community." Ed Ayres interviews Max Richter  READ & LISTEN TO ABC - Australia

Even a globally-renowned, multiple Grammy-winning orchestra such as Maria Schneider's is difficult to fund in the 21st century, and she has to rely on commissions and the crowdsourcing website ArtistShare to bring her projects to the public. Data Lords is Schneider's fifth album in a row she's made using ArtistShare and her first since 2015's autobiographical The Thompson Fields, an album that racked up a bunch of 5-star reviews. Schneider had a different theme in mind for her next album, one that expresses society's loss of control and identity due to the massive, aggressive and stealthy collection of personal data from tech giants such as Google and Facebook, and how much harder it is to retreat to the natural world, that part of our being still unaffected by the ugly side effects of technology. There's a message in all music; how successful is the music depends a lot on how effective it is in carrying out its message. Maria Schneider wanted to send a strong message about the threat of a mass manipulation of humanity with Data Lords. Through her high standard for meticulous composing and arranging, delivered by some of jazz's best musicians, she gets the message across in perhaps the grandest way possible. READ THE FULL SOMETHING ELSE! REVIEW

Daniel Barenboim and Decca Classics continue their acclaimed Elgar series, recording Sea Pictures again after four decades and paired with the symphonic poem Falstaff. Recorded live in the winter of 2019, the album features the Berlin Staatskapelle and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča in her first recording of Sea Pictures. For July 30 2020, Daniel Barenboim Elgar -Sea Pictures, Falstaff is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

There are enough records in the world already, thinks the ­composer Max Richter. So when he writes music, there has to be a "good reason". So far, those have included the Kosovo War, which he tackled on his debut album Memoryhouse in 2002, the Iraq War, the subject of 2004's The Blue Notebooks, and the 7/7 bombings, on 2010's Infra. 2015's eight-and-a-half-hour concept album Sleep was intended as a break from the pressures of the digital age and became a classical phenomenon, streamed more than 450 million times. His latest, Voices, began with the contemplative violin and piano-led "Mercy", which takes its inspiration from the "Torture Memos", which revealed how prisoners were treated at Guantánamo Bay, that had left him "dumbstruck". "It felt like the world had gone wrong in a new way, and I wrote ‘Mercy' as a way to figure that out. A bigger piece of protest music was set in motion right then." The resulting album takes its theme from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, which set the aspirational blueprint for better times after the Second World War. Music has always been a rebellion for Richter. He was born in Germany, and his family moved to Bedford when he was four. He took piano lessons, but dropped out of school at 16 because he hated it. READ THE FULL iNews ARTICLE

Guitarist Sharon Isbin first caught my eye when I saw her in a trio setting where she held her own with Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo at a concert at CSUN. Here, she releases a pair of albums, one with her in the lead and the other in a unique quartet setting. The first, Affinity, has her in solo, duet and concert settings all to rich rewards. The feature piece is Chris Brubeck's "Affinity: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra" which includes intricate and romantic fingerwork with modern Iberian tones and sweeping strings. Leo Brouwer's "El Decameron Negro" is darker and filled with shadows, while her duet with guitarist Colin Davin on "Waltz No. 3 Natalia" is a joyful conversation. On her own, she displays a strong touch, crisp and affirmative on  ""Balada de laDoncella Enamorada" and with mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard gets folksy and minstrel'd for "Listen…" and "This Night of Love…". A wide stringed palate. Quite eclectic is the four piece team of Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash and Iben for a handful of premiers for guitar and sarod, which is essentially a mini-sitar. Kavthekar plays tablas on all tracks with isben, while the three sarod players take turns teaming up. Kavthekar guides the team on the concise "Love Avalanche" with mysterious strings in abundance, while rapid fingers race and dance to a rich climax to "By The Moon". The strings bend to almost exhaustion on "Sacred Evening" and while they gallup to the finish lne on the bluesy "Romancing Earth". Southern Asia tones and harmonies meld with Western musings like a rich sauce. SEE THE Jazz Weekly PAGE

Jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath died this past January 19 at the age of 93. That means that he lived through just about every genre of twentieth-century jazz. His personal involvement in making jazz can be traced back to performances with both Howard McGhee and Dizzy Gillespie. A little over a week ago Verve released his final album entitled Love Letter. There are only eight tracks, all of which are ballad classics, including songs written by Billie Holiday, Mal Waldron, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, and Gordon Parks (who is probably better known for his work in photography and film). Heath's rhythm section includes Kenny Barron on piano, David Wong on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums. For some tracks the combo is augmented by Russell Malone on guitar and/or Monte Croft on vibraphone. The album also features three "special guests." Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis joins Heath for a duo account of Dorham's "La Mesha." In addition two of the leading vocalists of the current century join the group. Both of them sing songs by Parks, "Left Alone" presented by Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter delivering "Don't Misunderstand." The focus of listening deserves to be centered on Heath himself. While there is no question that Heath approaches these eight tracks with keen sensitivity to the tunes themselves, there is nothing intellectual about the foundational rhetoric. READ THE FULL REHEARSAL STUDIO REVIEW

Folk artist, banjo evangelist, Grammy winner and MacArthur genius grant recipient Rhiannon Giddens will be the new artistic director of Silkroad. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the artistic organization in 1998 to foster multicultural connection and collaboration among music artists across the world, sort of like an ongoing United Nations jam session. Silkroad announced the decision Tuesday morning. Giddens' first official appearance as Silkroad's new artistic director will be July 29 during Tanglewood's virtual "Recitals from the World Stage." "Rhiannon is an extraordinary human being and musician," Ma said in a statement provided by Silkroad. "She lives Silkroad's values, at once rooted in history and its many musics, and is an advocate for the contemporary voices that can move us to work together for a better world." READ THE FULL UNDEFEATED Q&A