Neoclassical Suite is a column that will present 7 recent, distinctive tracks of the neoclassical-modern classical-contemporary -and beyond!- music field. 

The Players

Federico Ferrandina

(neoclassical, cinematic)

Italian music artist: composer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Born in a family of classical musicians, such a heritage always got paired with an irrepressible hunger for non-classical musical galaxies and for non-musical disciplines like literature, modern dance and sociology. His production gained attention in the entertainment industry, and many of his works are currently part of some of the major movies and TV shows soundtracks, such as the multi-Oscar winner Dallas Buyers Club or productions like Netflix, ABC HBO and NCB tv shows. In 2017 he founded a strings orchestra in his hometown Matera, which records and performs original music in an ancient theatre carved in the stone and acoustically treated in order to get recordings that sound like nothing else.

Mike Dunhill

(modern classical, electronica)

I am an Italian composer, pianist, arranger, living in Berlin, Germany.
During and after my classical music and composition studies, I made part of a progrock band for several years as keyboardist. In my non-classical compositions, I have experimented and mixed different styles, always giving a special place to piano and moogs.
I can say that I have a romantic melodious vein but also a very rhythmic one. In any case, I try to put always some cheerfulness and brio in my compositions, no matter if they are more reflective or more rhythmic.

Rose Riebl

(neoclassical, contemporary music)

Rose trained intensively as a classical pianist from the age of five, later studying and performing throughout Australia, Europe and Asia.

Her compositional work extends her intimate relationship with the piano into a realm of more fragile, soulful and transcendent works that guide the listener into vulnerable emotional spaces. She has performed her own compositions in concert halls through Asia, Europe and Australia and has collaborated with multi-disciplinary artists in performances that take her work into open air, or alternate environments that provoke expansive listening experiences for the audience.

Dan Schrage

(neoclassical, cinematic)

It had been a while since I had a piano in the house. I wrote a ton of music in my teens and twenties, spent a fair amount of time in music licensing for film and television (with some highlights), but I put the music thing on hold for a while and ended up selling my last piano (also my first) for lack of use when I bought and moved back into my old family home, not anticipating that I’d start writing again. Sacrilege, I know, but for what it’s worth, I came to my senses.

During 2020’s pandemic quarantine, and following the unexpected loss of my brother, I returned to the piano in earnest. I released some older recordings (e.g. “Jarrett”, “Steps”, “The Fall”), and embarked on a felt piano album that would later be given the name “Being in Time” (set to be released in July, with the lead single, “Just”, coming out on June 25th). The album is about love, loss, and some of the deeper things in between. It is my first proper album, and it all started with the writing of “Just”, a tribute to my late brother. The other pieces followed from a similar place, and serve as a kind of expression of my first experience with true loss, the grieving process, and ultimately trying to make sense out of this thing, which ironically feels so utterly unnatural. Each track was recorded in the living room of our old family Victorian. Needless to say, it holds a piano once again. It’s placed in the exact location of the upright I had growing up, and gets just as much use.

Matthias Bakker

(neoclassical, epic music)

Whilst creating melodies, chord progressions and lyrical content for artists under his label Ossia Records, Matthias pays homage to the piano with these intimate compositions, the instrument on which all his melodies originate. These melodies are left in their purest form, uncluttered and honest in its simplicity, capturing emotive experiences that resonate joy, sadness, love and life.

Arelius

(neoclassical, solo piano)

Arelius is a project heralded by Grammy winning songwriter and record producer Wayne Wilkins. Wayne grew up in Croydon, South East London, England. He started playing the piano at 4 years old and was awarded his first scholarship at age 7 to learn the piano at the Croydon Schools Piano Centre which was funded by a wonderful music program set up by Croydon council and mentored by concert recitalists that played around the world. 
 At 13 years of age Wayne began his journey learning the church organ and has played many of the cathedral organs in the UK both giving recitals and accompanying choirs. At 18 years old Wayne was awarded a scholarship to study the piano further at the Royal College of Music in London and during that same time period attained a degree in physics from Imperial College, South Kensington. 
 Wayne’s love of music has led him to live in Los Angeles for the past 12 years and to make a name for himself songwriting and producing records for many of today’s biggest contemporary artists. He now has a collection of multi platinum discs and BMI radio air play awards for his songs 
 In this new, chapter, Wayne is also concentrating on his own artist career and releasing music under the project name “Arelius”.

Luis Paul

(neoclassical, cinematic)

Every person has his or her own stories –

and all too often they could just as easily come from a movie. The only thing missing is the music. Ludwig Paul Karsch aka Luis Paul wants to capture exactly such moments, stories and associated feelings with his compositions and give them what they deserve in retrospect – The film music of life.

Thus, the Berliner tells with his album “Rebirth” about a whole series of different moments – from the great love, a dancing farewell, resistance and struggles to acceptance and finally rebirth. The song “Transience” musically addresses the transience of life, and “Fading Memories” tells of blurring memories of people who were once close to you. It is music with a lot of depth, which frees imagination, fantasy and memories from their twilight sleep in every listener and gives them room to unfold. With a lot of love, the studied music producer and composer creates touching sound worlds that would have felt just as comfortable in one or the other film genre and can be classified somewhere between well-known film scores by John Williams, Hans Zimmer and the more reduced soulful songs by Ludovico Einaudi or Yann Tiersen.

The Music

Christos Doukakis