Sergei Kvitko Nominated for 2026 GRAMMY® Award
Reference Recordings is thrilled to celebrate producer and pianist Sergei Kvitko on his 2026 GRAMMY® Awards nomination for Producer of the Year, Classical! His nominated portfolio includes his work as the producer of Anastasiia Larchikova and Mykhailo Diordiiev’s Four Hands. Two Hearts. One Hope: Ukrainian and American Music for Piano Duo. In celebration, we’re offering the three recordings featuring his work, including his own Schubert by Candlelight, on sale for 20% off through Tuesday, November…
Fanfare Interviews Marcia Martin before RR’s 50th Anniversary!
Re-printed from the November/December 2025 Issue of Fanfare Magazine. Available for subscribers online at fanfarearchive.com Marcia Martin joined Reference Recordings (“RR”) as a vice president in charge of business and finance back in 1980. The company had been founded four years earlier by John Tamblyn (“Tam”) Henderson, who had studied music at the University of Georgia and then worked first as Music Director for KSFR radio and subsequently as the owner of two record stores…
American Record Guide Reviews Segovia Grand Finale!
“In his previous 3 albums, prize-winning Spanish guitarist Roberto Moronn Perez has been investigating the Segovia repertoire from a treasure trove called the Segovia Archive. … A spirited performance of Polish composer Alexandre Tansman’s Cavatina opens the program, with Perez’s sure-fingered, sensitive interpretation rivalling any this reviewer has heard, spanning the emotional spectrum from the playful ‘Preludio’ to the quietly secure ‘Sarabande’ to the tremolo-laden ‘Scherzando’ with its changeable moods and the somber ‘Barcarolle’. ……
Blues Blast Magazine Announces the 2025 Blues Blast Music Awards!
Blues Blast Magazine has announced their 2025 Blues Blast Music Awards nominees for 2025 and Reference Recordings® is thrilled to share that Doug MacLeod has been nominated for Acoustic Guitarist of the Year! How to Vote Fan voting in the 2025 Blues Blast Music Awards is now open and continues until August 31, 2025. Voting is free and open to anyone who is a Blues Blast Magazine subscriber. You may only vote one time. If…
Doug MacLeod Performs Live on WREG Memphis!
Doug MacLeod previews Between Somewhere and Goodbye LIVE on WREG TV Memphis before his album release concert this weekend!
Between Somewhere and Goodbye “Outshines the Dark”
Beautiful review for Doug MacLeod’s Between Somewhere and Goodbye from Huntsville, Alabama’s WLRH FM/WJAB FM Radio’s Dave Gallaher: “With much gratitude I opened the CD of Between Somewhere and Goodbye — first noticing that packaging this good is an extinct luxury in contemporary blues recordings in this first quarter of the 21st century. Choosing to open this radio feature with the mysterious mysticism of I Ain’t No Stranger (a glistening addition to Doug’s “ain’t no” songs) may be asking…
Gramophone Recommends Minnesota Orchestra’s Belkis, Queen of Sheba
The July 2025 issue of Gramophone Magazine features an exploration of Ottorino Respighi’s Belkis, Queen of Sheba in the “For the Record” column: “One of Respighi’s most ambitious stage works, it was composed to a scenario by Claudio Guastalla for an enormous orchestra including a huge percussion section, offstage brass, chorus, vocal soloists and a narrator who tells the legendary story in verse. … “Eiji Oue restored the correct ordering in his splended Minnesota Orchestra…
Fanfare Declares Roberto Moronn Pérez’s Grand Finale “Not To Be Missed”!
“Something special happens when musicology comes to vibrant life. Such is the case here: guitarist Roberto Moronn Pérez has released three previous albums concentrating on unknown (or barely known) music from the Segovia Archive. Here, he presents better-known works and, where possible, uses the manuscripts found among Segovia’s papers. … Tansman’s award-winning 1950 Cavatina is no occasional work… Segovia recorded Cavatina along with the final Danza Pomposa, which was added in 1952… I actually prefer Moronn Pérez to Segovia here;…
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 & Bates: Resurrexit Wins 2025 GRAMMY® Award!
2025 GRAMMY® Award Winner – Best Engineered, Classical Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit Mark Donahue & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) REFERENCE RECORDINGS® proudly presents Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, in a new interpretation from conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It is coupled with the first recording of Mason Bates’ Resurrexit, which was composed in 2018 on a commission from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the sixtieth birthday…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner Symphony No. 7 and Bates: Resurrexit an ICMA Symphonic Music Nominee
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner Symphony No. 7 and Bates: Resurrexit recording has been nominated for the 2025 International Classical Music Awards in the Symphonic Music category! See the full list at icma–info.com Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 & Bates: Resurrexit REFERENCE RECORDINGS® proudly presents Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, in a new interpretation from conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It is coupled with the first recording of Mason Bates’ Resurrexit, which was composed in 2018…
2025 GRAMMY® Nominees!
We are thrilled to share three nominations for the 2025 GRAMMY® Awards! Congratulations to all involved in these two fantastic recordings. Best Engineered Album, Classical Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit Mark Donahue & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) Producer of the Year, Classical Dirk Sobotka: Bates: Resurrexit (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) Best Choral Performance “A Dream So Bright – Choral Music of Jake Runestad” Eric…
Sonograma Rave Review for Handel’s Jephtha
“David Portillo is presented with charisma, self-confident, with a spectacular vocal dexterity in the role of Jephtha. We would like to highlight the countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, who was very strong, and the brilliant soprano Lauren Snouffer as Iphis, who gave an equally impressive reading. We were surprised by the expressive singing of Clara Osowski as Storgè. Finally, we liked the pure voice of Neal Davies, bass-baritone playing Zebul, and the vocal presence of Katelyn…
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 & Bates Resurrexit in The New York Times
The New York Times‘ “5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now” column features Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 & Bates Resurrexit recording: “simply excellent… the effect in practice is magical… Even more than in his terrifying account of the Bruckner’s Ninth, you get the sense that he holds the composer in awe. And it’s difficult not to feel a similar reverence for the players of the Pittsburgh…
Gramophone Praises Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations recording receives a strong recommendation from Gramophone Magazine in the August 2024 issue: “Listening to these polished performances, I marvel that the Kansas City Symphony was founded as recently as 1981. Kudos, then, to Michael Stern, who’s stepping down as music director after 19 seasons, for helping to make the KCS a worthwhile destination on the musical map. Indeed, given Reference Recording’s crystalline sound (courtesy…
David Hurwitz Reviews Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations
Thank you to ClassicsToday.com’s David Hurwitz for this wonderful recommendation of the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations recording!
