Photos: Navona and Albany Records to Release New Jazz, Celtic, and Classical Albums
Pianist Jackie Leung's INSIDE OUT features solo piano works by composer Alvin Singleton spanning decades.
Navona Records and Albany Records are set to release a collection of new classical albums on September 4th, 2026, spanning jazz, Celtic, and classical influences and highlighting several underrepresented voices in the genre. The releases include new music from Hannah Roberts, Kirstin Chávez, David Berry, Jackie Leung, Ching-Chun Lai, and Jessica Krash.
INSIDE OUT Jackie Leung, piano Alvin Singleton, composer View Album Page
SPIRIT, BODY AND SOUL David Berry, piano View Album Page
TRUE STORIES Jessica Crash, composer View Album Page
HER SYMPHONIC VOICE Rutgers Symphony Orchestra Ching-Chun Lai, conductor View Album Page
AMOUR Kirstin Chávez, voice Paolo André Gualdi, piano View Album Page
CELTIC LEGENDS Hannah Roberts, piano View Album Page
INSIDE OUT
Jackie Leung, piano
Alvin Singleton, composer
With one foot in contemporary classical music and the other in jazz, Alvin Singleton's (b. 1940) ability to unify both have yielded a unique and highly-recognizable amalgam. Canadian pianist Jackie Leung, who has been fascinated with Singleton's music for years, decided to bring it to the public by recording INSIDE OUT, the first album dedicated to all of Singleton's solo piano works written between 1966–2022.
Amidst strong jazz influences, the music retains its classical roots: flowing between tonality and atonality, blending zesty rhythms with novel harmonies, and juxtaposing raw affect with high-precision virtuosity. These works trace Singleton's unmistakable musical fingerprint: vibrant rhythmic energy, bold contrasts, and a seamless synthesis of jazz-inflected freedom and contemporary classical craft. Leung navigates the technical challenges as if they were a breeze, and in doing so, highlights the brilliance of Singleton's voice in a dazzling performance.
SPIRIT, BODY AND SOUL
David Berry, piano
In SPIRIT, BODY AND SOUL, pianist and composer David Berry offers powerful and virtuosic compositions on African American Spirituals for solo piano. Ranging from intense virtuosity to deeply intimate reflection, the works on this album are imbued with the full gamut of human emotion that lives within the tradition of the spirituals. The album includes beloved favorites such as Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, Go Down Moses, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, and closes with a very unique improvisation on Lift Every Voice and Sing.
Berry's style, praised as 'touchingly introspective' by Gramophone, blends the power, sweep, and virtuosity of the classical piano tradition descended from Liszt and Rachmaninoff, with the soul essence and elements of various Black music styles in a unique journey through these cherished spirituals.
TRUE STORIES
Jessica Krash, composer
With TRUE STORIES, composer Jessica Krash invites listeners into a richly imaginative world with works composed over the last eight years. Expressive, virtuoso performers take us on musical adventures, delving into contrasting ideas and feelings that coexist in unexpected and compelling ways. A duo for cello and piano about a mother's wishes for her adult son's happiness is followed by a woodwind quintet dancing and ruminating. The cellist and pianist return, telling true stories together in imagined spaces, and then Debussy steps into the 21st century. A large wind orchestra explores Jewish experiences in Lithuania, from the 18th century Vilna Gaon to his contemporary intellectual and cultural heirs, and then an intimate solo violin embodies a time-travelling great-great-grandmother. In a piano suite, women fly through the sky, over the village rooftops of Chagall's paintings, piloting planes and space shuttles, and dancing as the Seven Sisters in the night sky. The album concludes with two friends at the piano on a nonlinear romp between introspection and celebration.
HER SYMPHONIC VOICE
Rutgers Symphony Orchestra
Ching-Chun Lai, conductor
HER SYMPHONIC VOICE is a collection of live orchestral performances highlighting the bold spirit and transformative power of female composers. Spanning over a century of creative evolution, the album serves as an evocative gallery of sound and as a testament to the enduring diversity of the symphonic tradition. Each selection celebrates the distinct musical identity of a landmark composer, weaving her unique culture and heritage into the framework of Western composition.
Captured in the vibrant acoustics of Rutgers University's Nicholas Music Center, these recordings bypass the sterile perfection of the studio to favor the raw, human vitality of a live performance. By choosing the stage over the studio, this album preserves the 'in-the-moment' energy in the concert hall: shared breath of the musicians, the impact of the percussion, and the unmistakable electricity of an audience witnessing history. These are performances filled with the kinetic energy of the baton's stroke and the resonant warmth of a live ensemble.
AMOUR
Kirstin Chávez, voice
Paolo André Gualdi, piano
Kirstin Chávez's desire to share the songs she has come to love best seems only to grow with the passing of time, and the moment is ripe to offer this next album from the culture that has been such a huge part of her life for more than two decades. Having traveled the world to perform the eponymous French-singing femme fatale, Carmen, Chávez felt it the perfect time to bring forth a collection of her all-time favorite French love songs with AMOUR.
In collaboration with her dear friend, the celebrated pianist Paolo André Gualdi, each piece on this album is a cherished gem from Chávez's personal musical jewel box, beloved throughout her career.
CELTIC LEGENDS
Hannah Roberts, piano
Celtic music often brings to mind pipes and fiddles, but its cheery melodies and narrative qualities are equally suited for solo piano. On CELTIC LEGENDS: THE PIANO MUSIC OF HELEN HOPEKIRK, pianist Hannah Roberts explores the repertoire of the prolific Scottish composer. Classically trained in Vienna, Hopekirk combined a late-Romantic style with her Scottish roots, using the piano to tell the tales of her homeland and bring a slice of celtic style to classical music. Roberts performs the works with crisp clarity and buoyant energy, and champions another female voice in the keyboard repertoire.
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