Composer Brian Current Among Winners of 2015 JUNO AWARDS

The 2015 winners were announced on Saturday at the Juno celebrations in Hamilton, Ontario. The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. Two of the four classical categories were won by artists on Naxos or Naxos-distributed labels.

Composer Brian Current won the Classical Composition of the Year for his opera Airline Icarus. The librettist for this opera was Anton Piatigorsky. Brian said of this Juno: "I'm deeply honoured to receive this award. Huge thanks to Naxos for believing in this music and for bringing it to the world."

Upon hearing this work, Joshua Kosman wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: ""Airline Icarus," a punchy, emotionally redolent chamber opera by Canadian composer Brian Current, joins the list of artworks you might not want to encounter at 30,000 feet. But heard safely on the ground, this 45-minute one-acter is full of inventive writing and an elusive dramatic flavor that comes through even without staging." Airline Icarus is featured on Naxos Canadian Classics in a performance conducted by the composer (Naxos 8660356).

Violinist James Ehnes won Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble for his Chandos recording Bartok: Chamber Works for Violin Vol. 3. (Chandos CHAN10820). In a fact that speaks for itself, this is James Ehnes's 10th Juno Award. His recordings have also won GRAMMY and Gramophone awards.

Rick Dunlop, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Naxos of Canada commented from the Juno Awards: "My congratulations to all of this year's nominees and winners. It is a great honour to work with all of you. The level of excellence found in these recordings is an inspiration, and a demonstration to all Canadians why the contributions by our musicians must be cherished and supported."

In addition to being an award-winning classical label, Naxos is the #1 independent classical music distributor in the U.S. and Canada. Specializing in state-of-the-art distribution, marketing and promotion, Naxos distributes nearly 50,000 titles on CD and DVD to traditional brick and mortar retail, as well as offering a comprehensive suite of services tailored to consumer direct fulfillment. Naxos is also the largest digital distributor of independent classical music, supplying a catalog of over 50,000 albums to hundreds of digital download and mobile outlets worldwide. Naxos offers marketing, e-marketing, publicity, e-publicity, physical and digital e-commerce services, licensing opportunities, streaming services, sales and customer service for all new releases and active catalog titles of Naxos Records and more than 400 distributed labels.