Najla Jraissaty Khoury

The magnificent Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury's debut recital album. Featuring Michael Spyres with Conductor Carlo Rizzi and The Hallé. Born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, Joyce El-Khoury studied in Ottawa and Philadelphia before graduating from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Today she is one of the brightest young stars in the opera world, recently receiving universal acclaim for her landmark performance of Violetta in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Écho features music associated with the great 19th Century soprano Julie Dorus-Gras, including arias by Berlioz, Donizetti, Meyerbeer and Weber and features a duet with her co-star from Opera Rara's award-winning recording of Les Martyrs, Michael Spyres.

Robinson Khoury is a young trombone virtuoso, he is only 24 years old and multiplies the experiences within prestigious orchestras, while collaborating regularly with musicians of high flight. Of great musical maturity for his age, Robinson Khoury decided at the end of 2019 to publish his first record as a leader by writing himself almost all the repertoire (with the exception of two titles).

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist. She began her concert career in her native Ukraine before extending her activities to performances in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. A laureate of national and international piano competitions, she graduated with honors from the Kiev Lysenko Special Music School in 1991, going on to study for a Master’s degree at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kiev in 1996. In 1998 she moved to Lebanon, and has since been committed to expanding the boundaries of her traditional repertoire, constantly searching for and adding new contemporary works by Ovchinnikov, Rautavaara, Saygun and Panufnik among many others.

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist.