The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, best known for its recordings for Telarc, has announced plans for its own label. The first recording on ASO Media – which is due for release on February 22 as both a CD and a download – will be conducted by the ASO’s music director, Robert Spano. The featured composers both have strong relationships with the orchestra. Jennifer Higdon’s new concerto, On a Wire – for which the orchestra is joined by eighth blackbird – will be twinned on the recording with Michael Gandolfi’s choral work QED: Engaging Richard Feynman in which the ASO is supported by its Chorus. 

Both works are commissions by the ASO and both composers are members of the Atlanta School of Composers, an initiative by Spano and the orchestra to “nurture and champion contemporary music through multi-year partnerships with a new generation of American composers”.  Another member of the School is the Masterprize-winning Christopher Theofanidis whose Symphony has also been recorded, and which will also be released next year. A disc of Rachmaninov, with pianist Garrick Ohlsson joining the ASO, is scheduled for next autumn.

The production team, well known to Telarc aficionados, comprises Elaine Martone and Michael Bishop. The other partnership announced will see Naxos of America distributing the ASO Media releases both physically and digitally.