Sebastian Bohren to Release Lindberg Concerto EP on AVIE Records
Boston Trio and violist Marcus Thompson perform Elena Ruehr's chamber works on the companion album WINTER NIGHT.
AVIE Records is releasing new music from violinist Sebastian Bohren and composer Elena Ruehr this fall. Sebastian Bohren plays Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Sergej Bolkhovets on an EP out September 18, 2026. Boston Trio — violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Heng-Jin Park — with violist Marcus Thompson performs chamber music by Elena Ruehr on the album WINTER NIGHT, out October 2, 2026.
Magnus Lindberg: Violin Concerto No. 1
Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren leans into Magnus Lindberg's First Violin Concerto, with Sergej Bolkhovets conducting the Swedish Chamber Orchestra on the digital-exclusive EP, out September 18, 2026 (AV2834 – Digital EP). Lindberg's First Violin Concerto was premiered at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2006. Andrew Mellor, author of The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture, describes in the EP's liner notes that the concerto's material is built from a group of recurring musical motifs.
'The transformation of these simple motifs is what holds the music together – through periods of fulsome drive, violence and lyrical flight…The relationship between the solo instrument and the orchestra changes across the concerto's three movements. That relationship begins with tension; in the opening movement, the orchestra appears aggressive towards the soloist. In the second movement the two elements build bridges, and by the third they are apparently enjoying one another's company.'
Tracklist
Magnus Lindberg (1958) – Violin Concerto No. 1 (2006)
I. (12:09)
II. (10:33)
III. (03:56)
Sebastian Bohren, violin
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Sergej Bolkhovets, conductor
Recorded: Örebro Konserthus, 9–11 October 2025. Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes. Recording Producer: Ulrich Schneider. Recording Engineer: Thore Brinkmann. Editing: Ulrich Schneider.
About the Artists
The Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren has been described by The Guardian as 'deliciously forthright' and praised for his 'charm and elegance' by The Strad and for his 'bravura playing' by The Sunday Times. In repertoire extending from the Baroque to the Romantic period he seeks to ensure that his audiences enjoy an experience far removed from any routine, while his performances of works from the early modern period and from the present day take listeners on a voyage of adventure and discovery. His recordings of works by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart for Sony, RCA and Avie have been praised with the highest accolades.
He makes concerto appearances in his native Switzerland with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Zurcher Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Festival Strings Lucerne and internationally with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, St Petersburg State Academic Capella, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Kolner Kammerorchester, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Elim Chan, Izabelė Jankauskaitė, Ivor Bolton, Jan Willem de Vriend, Michael Sanderling, Cristian Măcelaru, Andrew Manze, Thierry Fischer, Marc Minkowski, James Gaffigan, Heinz Holliger, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Patrick Lange, Andrew Litton, Christoph Poppen, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Mario Venzago. In Switzerland he also manages Stretta Concerts and runs the Brugg Festival. He plays the 1761 'ex-Wanamaker-Hart' G.B. Guadagnini violin.
Sergej Bolkhovets is a distinguished Swedish conductor whose career encompasses both symphonic and operatic repertoire, building upon an extensive international career as a violinist with, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker. His conducting engagements include the Bavarian State Opera, Tonhalle Zurich, Dresdner Philharmonie, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Romanian Radio National Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Goteborg Opera, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Swedish Royal Opera. He has furthermore conducted the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Chamber Orchestra; the symphony orchestras of Malmo, Helsingborg, Gavle, Norrlandsoperan and Norrkoping; as well as the Folkoperan Stockholm, Dalasinfoniettan, Vasteras Sinfonietta and KammarensembleN.
In the United Kingdom, Bolkhovets has conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Halle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, London Sinfonietta and Red Note Ensemble. Early in his conducting career, Bolkhovets served as assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and as kapellmeister at Goteborg Opera. He also held conducting fellowships at the Verbier Festival, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. Prior to these appointments, he studied conducting at the Hochschule fur Musik 'Franz Liszt' Weimar and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and took part in numerous masterclasses, including with Paavo Jarvi and David Zinman.
The Swedish Chamber Orchestra is a full-time ensemble of 39 players based in Orebro, a city of 150,000 inhabitants situated 200km west of Stockholm. Resident at Orebro Concert Hall, it has recorded and toured extensively since its inception in 1995, releasing over 100 albums. The Orchestra has played all over the world, making repeated appearances at the Lincoln Center in New York and the BBC Proms, and performing at festivals in Rheingau, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Bergen to name but a few. It is a regular guest at many principal venues, in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen and Berlin. Martin Frost became Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2019 and under his leadership it has undertaken a number of defining concerts and recording projects. The Orchestra is also an important commissioner of new music and has long-standing relationships with composers and conductors such as Brett Dean, HK Gruber and Sir James MacMillan. Recent commissions include works by Sally Beamish, Anna Clyne, Olga Neuwirth and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Elena Ruehr: Winter Night
Boston Trio, with Marcus Thompson on viola, performs on WINTER NIGHT, out October 2, 2026 (AV2876). A proliferation of programmatic music infuses WINTER NIGHT, composer Elena Ruehr's seventh release on AVIE. The program is the result of Ruehr's particularly close collaboration with the international members of Boston Trio – violinist Irina Muresanu and cellist Mihai Marica, both Romanians, and Korean pianist Heng-Jin Park – who are joined by native New Yorker violist Marcus Thompson in Ruehr's piano quartet.
Emotions, energy and the natural world abound in the world premiere recordings of the album's four works. The title track, Ruehr's Piano Trio No. 3, is a four-movement narrative that is by turns lyrical, graceful and melodic. The joyful Piano Trio No. 4, subtitled 'Ski, Kayak, Bike,' recalls childhood sports enjoyed with her father, the work's dedicatee. The three movements of Piano Trio No. 5, 'Troubled Times,' confront emotional responses to challenging personal circumstances. Piano Quartet No. 2, 'Maple,' is an homage to an ancient tree that has stood the tests of time, much like the Stradivarius instruments that were made using the beautiful, dense wood. Ruehr's music appropriately references composers working at the same time as the famed luthier, Bach, Pachelbel and Vivaldi.
Ruehr says, 'I first heard Boston Trio almost thirty years ago at a concert in Jordan Hall in Boston. I was deeply impressed by their musicianship and wanted to write a work for them. Over the years I became close friends with both the pianist, Heng-Jin Park, and violinist, Irina Muresanu. I went to many of their concerts and composed a number of works for them, including one concerto each and a lot of chamber music. But I always wanted to write a trio specifically for Boston Trio and to work with them on a recording. This disc represents a compilation of works and the realization of a dream.'
Tracklist
ELENA RUEHR (b. 1963)
Piano Trio No. 4: 1. I. Ski (5:20)
2. II. Kayak (4:36)
3. III. Bike (4:55)
Piano Trio No. 5 'Troubled Times': 4. I. gutty and laborious (6:39)
5. II. spooky then aggressive (2:28)
6. III. playful but anxious (4:21)
Piano Quartet No. 2 'Maple': 7. I. Sapling (3:35)
8. II. Prelude, Fughetta, Chorale (4:29)
9. III. The Luthier (3:40)
Piano Trio No. 3 'Winter Night': 10. I. Lyric (4:52)
11. II. Grazioso (4:30)
12. III. Aria (3:42)
13. IV. Finale (4:45)
Boston Trio: Irina Muresanu, violin · Mihai Marica, cello · Heng-Jin Park, piano — with Marcus Thompson, viola
About the Artists
Elena Ruehr says of her music, 'The idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complex.' Gramophone Magazine has written, 'The sound world is wholly Ruehr: it never sounds like anyone else and the effect is exhilarating… her output is unified by her desire to communicate effectively without compromise…'
Currently composer-in-residence with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, her discography includes orchestral works (O'Keeffe Images, BMOP Sound), the opera Toussaint Before the Spirits (BMOP Sound), cantatas (Averno, with the Trinity Choir, Avie), and chamber music (Six String Quartets, with the Cypress String Quartet, Borromeo Quartet and Stephen Salters, Avie). Her other recordings include Icarus (Avie), Jane Wang considers the dragonfly (Albany), Lift (Avie), Shimmer (with Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble, Albany) and Shadow Light (with the New Orchestra of Washington / Marcus Thompson, Acis), among many others.
While she has a standing collaboration with Quartet ES, her works have also been commissioned, recorded, and performed by numerous other ensembles including the Arneis, Biava, Borromeo, Cypress, Delgani, Lark, Quartet Nouveau, Roco and Shanghai string quartets. An award-winning faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Known for her vocal music and collaboration with poets, she has written five operas, five cantatas and a number of songs. She has also written extensively for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, opera, dance and silent film. Her work has been performed internationally and has been described as 'sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies' (New York Times) and 'unspeakably gorgeous' (Gramophone).
'Whenever this trio plays, drop everything and go hear them!' hailed the Boston Globe on the occasion of Boston Trio's Tanglewood debut at Ozawa Hall. Acclaimed for their superb sense of ensemble and wondrous balance, these virtuosic and profound musicians are committed to creating exceptional and daring performances of the standard and contemporary repertoire.
Violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Heng-Jin Park each have distinguished careers as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and have appeared with major orchestras and premier music festivals throughout the United States and Europe.
Boston Trio is passionately committed to furthering the exposure and performances of new music. They have premiered several works written for and dedicated to them. The trio has been invited to perform for numerous prestigious music series including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series, 'First Monday' series at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, Harvard Musical Association, Concerts at the Point, Brigham Young University, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Howland Chamber Music Circle, University of Arkansas, Merkin Hall, and for a nationally televised concert from the Belgrade Music Festival at Kolarac Foundation Hall in Serbia. Boston Trio has released several acclaimed recordings.
Actively involved in the education of the next generation of musicians, Boston Trio has held mini-residencies at the Dickinson College (Pennsylvania), Gordon College (Massachusetts), St. Olaf College (Minnesota), and Luther College (Iowa). The trio members have coached chamber music at Tanglewood Institute of Music, Harvard University, and MIT, and served as ensemble-in-residence at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and at NEC. The Trio is committed to bringing chamber music to a broader community through outreach activities at public schools and assisted living centers. Boston Trio's individual members serve on the faculties of the NEC, the University of Maryland, and MIT, and are in demand as master class teachers throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.
Marcus Thompson, violist, has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and in chamber music series throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. He has been a soloist with the orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, and Saint Louis, the National Symphony, the Boston Pops and the Czech National Symphony in Prague. He performed Keith Jarrett's Bridge of Light with the Atlanta Symphony, and regional premieres of John Harbison's Viola Concerto: on the West Coast with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (with the composer conducting), in Chicago with the Chicago Sinfonietta, and in Boston with the NEC Honors Orchestra. Thompson has received critical acclaim for his performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Boston with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Symphony Orchestra and in London (UK); for the premiere of Elena Ruehr's Viola Concerto Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington; and for the premiere of Olly Wilson's Viola Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic. He has played Hindemith's Viola d'amore Concerto (Kammermusik No. 6) with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga and concertos by Vivaldi at the Bravo Festival in Colorado and at Aston Magna in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
He has premiered and performed many recital and chamber works by MIT composers including Peter Child, Keeril Makan, Charles Shadle, and John Harbison, and has recorded Barry Vercoe's iconic Synapse for Viola and Computer. His recording of the Concerto for Viola, Chamber Orchestra & Percussion commissioned from composer and organist Anthony Newman in 1985 was re-released along with concertos for five other instruments by the composer. Thompson's recordings with orchestra also include concertos by Hindemith, Bartók, Serly, and Bloch, along with works by Françaix, Martin, and Jongen. Recent releases include Elena Ruehr's Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington, and John Harbison's Viola Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Thompson has been a guest of the Audubon, Borromeo, Cleveland, DaPonte, Emerson, Fine Arts, Jupiter, Lydian, Miami, Muir, Orion, Parker, Shanghai, and Vermeer string quartets and a frequent participant at chamber music festivals in Anchorage, Seattle, Sitka, Los Angeles, Montreal, Edmonton, Rockport (Massachusetts and Maine), Rio de Janeiro, Spoleto, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik and Okinawa. He has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and performed with them on a Live from Lincoln Center telecast. He appears on recordings of chamber works released by Music from the Sitka Festival, Het Reizend Muziekgezelschap, and the Boston Chamber Music Society.
Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Thompson holds a doctorate in viola performance from Juilliard. He currently lives in Boston, where he is a member of the viola faculty at New England Conservatory. He has served as violist and Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 2009 and is the founder of the MIT Chamber Music Society and the Institute's Emerson/Harris private study program. In 1995 he was recognized for his extraordinary teaching at MIT and named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music, followed a decade later by his appointment as Institute Professor. In 2022, at its 47th International Viola Congress, Thompson was awarded the American Viola Society Career Achievement Award 'In recognition of distinguished contributions to viola performance and viola pedagogy through his influential recordings and his celebrated tenure at NEC and MIT, hosting the 1985 International Congress, and for advocacy and leadership on behalf of the viola.'
