Blog

Enjott Schneider celebrates his 75th birthday on May 25 – a perfect occasion to honor the remarkably diverse work of one of the most frequently performed German composers of contemporary music. Whether as an award-winning film composer (Brother of Sleep, Stalingrad), as a creator of operas and orchestral works (Marco Polo), or as a dedicated cultural advocate – Enjott Schneider has shaped the German music landscape on many levels for decades. With over 600 film scores, numerous organ compositions, oratorios, and operas, his oeuvre ranks among the most extensive of his generation.

WERGO congratulates the composer with an exclusive anniversary offer: All Enjott Schneider CDs are available at a special price until June 30.

1977 – A Violin Concerto is Sebastian Hilli’s new work to be premiered with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is a a musical portrait of the year 1977. Its twelve movements each transform a real event from that year into a vibrant orchestral scene. Discover more about this inspiring work and a fascinating year! 

Youth is Edmund Finnis’s first collection of pieces for solo piano, featuring brief, evocative works with performance directions such as ‘intimate’, ‘spacious’, ‘with childlike simplicity’, and ‘as if improvising’.

Mátyás Seiber, a pupil of Kodály and Bartók at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, settled in London in the mid-1930s, where he established himself as a composer and teacher. The composer wrote Pastorale in 1941, six years after moving to the UK.

First published in 1912, Mélanie Bonis’s Scènes enfantines (Children’s Scenes) edited by Melanie Spanswick, is a charming collection of eight descriptive piano pieces which offer intermediate-level pianists (around Grades 4–6) the opportunity to explore engaging repertoire that develops both their technical and musical skills.

Schott guitarist Joscho Stephan, one of the world’s leading Gypsy Jazz performers, recently appeared on the YouTube channel of Rick Beato, the renowned American music educator and content creator. In their wide-ranging conversation, Stephan amazed viewers with his breathtaking technique, deep musical understanding, and heartfelt passion for the Django Reinhardt tradition.

 A new accordion concerto by Dobrinka Tabakova – composed for Ksenija Sidorova and now touring Europe.

A true story of injustice turned into opera: Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five brings five falsely convicted teenagers to the stage – in May 2025 a new orchestral version premieres at Detroit Opera.

What does a lawnmower have to do with orchestral sound? For Han Lash, quite a lot. Zero Turning Radius is a new piece that showcases the orchestra as a nimble musical creature. The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), a leading orchestra dedicated to new music, commissioned the piece and will premiere it on May 4, 2025 in Boston.

How do you find your own voice in jazz? Martin Jacobsen shares how Kind of Blue sparked his journey, what mistakes taught him on stage, and why limited technique can be a strength. In this interview, he reflects on self-teaching in Copenhagen, the essence of jazz as an aural tradition, and what players can learn from his books Let’s Speak Jazz and Let’s Play Jazz. An inspiring read about intuition, freedom—and trusting your own path.