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Craig Leon portrait

London Symphony Orchestra & Evelyn Glennie Premiere
Performance
On 21 July 2007 at 8:00 pm The LSO and percussionist Evelyn Glennie are performing the premiere of Craig's new arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's " Symphonic Dances from West Side Story" at the Peabody Auditorium, Daytona, Florida, U.S.A. as part of the Florida International Festival 2007. Marin Alsop will be conducting.

This arrangement was done to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first performance of "West Side Story" which took place in 1957 in New York.

The UK premiere will take place at the Barbican on 4 November, 2007 at 7:30pm, again with Glennie,the LSO and Alsop.

The work will be recorded later this year and released in 2008 as part of a collaboration of Dame Evelyn and Craig.

 

Natasha Marsh
The "Amour" CD by Natasha Marsh enters the Music Week classical chart at number 1 in it's first week of release. "Amour" was produced and arranged by Craig and recorded at Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Ramones
The self titled album "Ramones" ,produced by Craig in 1976,has been voted into the U.S. Grammy Hall of Fame. For further info please click here to see the hall of fame website.

Natasha Marsh Debut Album
February 2007 sees the release of the debut album by soprano Natasha Marsh  and the London Symphony Orchestra on the EMI Classics label. Natasha is one of the most exciting new classical artists to emerge from the UK operatic scene.The album features  production, arrangements and orchestration by Craig. In addition Craig has conducted a number of the recordings on the disc.

You can find out more about Natasha at: natashamarsh.com or at myspace.com/natashamarsh

Giorgia Fumanti New Album
In January 2007 EMI/Manhattan Records is releasing the new album by crossover soprano Giorgia Fumanti. This album features production, arrangements and orchestrations by Craig. Giorgia is a unique interpreter of music from Italian films( one of Craig’s favourite areas of pop music) and other contemporary music. Recorded in The Netherlands and in the U.K. with Craig conducting. More info on Giorgia can be found on her web site: giorgiafumanti.com

 
The Best of Andreas Scholl
Decca Music Group will release The Best of Andreas Scholl will be released internationally on 15 September which contains two titles from the "Wayfaring Stranger" disc that was produced and arranged by Craig.This is a compilation which covers the years during which Andreas' recorded at Decca.

Korngold & Griffes CD release

The recording of the London Symphnony Orchestra, conducted by Simone Pittau, performing Erich Korngold's Symphonic Serenade in B Flat Major, op. 39 coupled with Craig's new orchestration of the complete "Roman Sketches, op. 7 for Orchestra" by Charles Tomlinson Griffes is now available on ASV Gold in Europe. The American release through Koch will follow shortly.

The disc, produced by Craig, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. One movement of the Griffes arrangement has been used on the current demonstration DVD for the new line of B&W Nautilus
loudspeakers. The full version is now available on this new disc.

For more information on the music on the disc please click here.

For more information on Erich Korngold click here

For more information on Charles Tomlinson Griffes
and his wonderous music click here

Julia Thornton's Harpistry
...Enters  the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart

Harpist Julia Thornton’s Harpistry, a collection of solo classical works by Bach, Beethoven, and other composers produced and orchestrated by Craig, entered the Billboard classical chart at number 13 this week.

Thornton, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, performed harp and percussion with Bryan Ferry and his band Roxy Music before releasing Harpistry.

Lang Lang starts recording the "Maestro" soundtrack
Recording has started on the sound track for the film “Maestro” starring Klausmaria Brandauer and Tom Sturridge. It is the story, set in Australia in the 1960s ,of the relationship between a piano student and his mentor. Craig is composing the underscoring as well as doing the music supervision for the project and producing the soundtrack CD for release on Deutsche Grammophon  next year. The film is being directed by Catherine Jarvis and produced by Lizzette Atkins and Thierry Potok. The initial recordings have been of solo piano pre shooting recordings and piano orchestral music arranged by Craig. performed by Lang Lang and the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra.

Romance of the Violin
The "Romance of the Violin" SonyBMG Masteroworks disc featuring Joshua Bell and The Academy of St. Martin In The Fields, arranged and produced by Craig, has appeared in the Billboard top selling classical albums for the second year running. It was number 1 in 2004 and has logged in at number 5 for 2005.

 Romance of the Violin cover

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