SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
LIVE FROM SPOLETO 2025: CHAMBER MUSIC
Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meet Vahdat”
SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
LIVE FROM SPOLETO 2025: CHAMBER MUSIC, VOL. 2 “VIVALDI MEETS VAHDAT”
COMING MAY 8, 2026
Recorded live during Spoleto Festival USA’s concentrated 17-day run in Charleston, South Carolina, Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music brings listeners inside the historic Dock Street Theatre, capturing performances as they happen in real time, shaped by proximity, trust, and musicians listening closely to one another.
That spirit shapes the album, which moves fluidly across styles and traditions: Volume 1 includes Dinuk Wijeratne’s Love Triangle, a volatile, open-ended work in which jazz impulses and South Asian inflections push against classical form, and familiar works that are reshaped by the conditions of live performance: Borodin’s Nocturne from his String Quartet No. 2 in D major unfolds as a shared moment of repose, while Pedro Iturralde’s Pequeña Czarda brings an earthy, improvisatory edge through StevenBanks’ saxophone.
Volume 2, “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” expands the sense of dialogue across time and culture. The album interweaves songs by Iranian vocalist and 2025 Spoleto Festival USA Suzan D. Boyd Composer-in-Residence Mahsa Vahdat with movements from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, turning the program into a single, continuous arc rather than a set of contrasts.
RELEASE DATES
FEB 27, 2026 (Apple Music Exclusive): Single: “G Song”
MARCH 27, 2025 (All platforms): Single “G Song”
APRIL 3, 2026: Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 1.
APRIL 10, 2026: Live from Spoleto: Single “Dialogue With the Beloved” by Mahsa Vahdat (Apple Exclusive here)
MAY 8, 2026: Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat”
May 1, 2026: Live from Spoleto – “Dialogue With the Beloved” by Mahsa Vahdat - streaming on all platforms
LIVE FROM SPOLETO 2025: CHAMBER MUSIC
Spoleto Festival USA
Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 1 moves fluidly across stylistic boundaries: Dinuk Wijeratne’s Love Triangle opens with an almost mischievous blurring of tuning and performance, pulling listeners immediately into a world where structure and spontaneity coexist. Paul Wiancko, the Festival’s Director of Chamber Music, describes this quality as central to his curatorial vision. “I look for the energy of improvisation in everything,” he says — music played with such deep understanding that it feels newly invented each time. That spirit carries throughout Vol. 1: the hushed, time-bending textures of Trueman and Mugan’s Ricercar; the fiery, character-rich Pequeña Czarda, brought to life by Steven Banks’ singular voice on the saxophone; the luminous stillness of Borodin’s Nocturne, offered not as repertory staple but as a moment of shared breath. Even in works listeners know well, the live setting reshapes the experience.
Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” deepens the sense of dialogue across time and culture. Mahsa Vahdat’s songs are interwoven with movements from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, creating a listening experience that reframes both worlds. For Wiancko, the pairing was a deliberate leap — and a necessary one. He describes it as an experiment rooted in intuition, one that allowed listeners to “live in her world for an entire program,” rather than encountering her music in isolation. The result is a continuous emotional narrative, where Persian song and Baroque concerto speak to one another across centuries.
Taken together, the two Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music albums — Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” — are not simply documents of performance, but invitations into the Festival’s inner life. These recordings offer what Hanna calls a “sampler of the aura of Spoleto” — a way to experience its intensity beyond the 17 days in Charleston, while still preserving the sense that something singular is happening in the moment of sound. What emerges is music not as refinement alone, but as lived exchange: artists listening deeply, audiences leaning in, and music revealing — again and again — why it continues to matter.
SINGLE: G SONG
Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Artists
Artist Notes
by Eva Chien
Chamber music at Spoleto Festival USA is not a genre — it is a way of listening. Across the two albums that comprise Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, music unfolds as conversation: between performers, between centuries, and between traditions that might otherwise never meet. Recorded live during the Festival’s famously concentrated 17-day span in Charleston, South Carolina, these performances capture what makes Spoleto singular — not polish alone, but presence, risk, and human connection.
For Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, General Director and CEO of Spoleto Festival USA, that sense of risk is essential to the Festival’s identity. “Spoleto is about adventure and excitement — about how different art forms can collide with each other to create something new,” he explains. The chamber music series, he notes, is one of the Festival’s core artistic pillars, shaped by the same DNA of curiosity and daring that animates the entire program.
That DNA is embedded directly into the music heard across both volumes. Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 1 moves fluidly across stylistic boundaries: Dinuk Wijeratne’s Love Triangle opens with an almost mischievous blurring of tuning and performance, pulling listeners immediately into a world where structure and spontaneity coexist.
Paul Wiancko, the Festival’s Director of Chamber Music, describes this quality as central to his curatorial vision. “I look for the energy of improvisation in everything,” he says — music played with such deep understanding that it feels newly invented each time.
That spirit carries throughout Vol. 1: the hushed, time-bending textures of Trueman and Mugan’s Ricercar; the fiery, character-rich Pequeña Czarda, brought to life by Steven Banks’ singular voice on the saxophone; the luminous stillness of Borodin’s Nocturne, offered not as repertory staple but as a moment of shared breath. Even in works listeners know well, the live setting reshapes the experience.
Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” deepens the sense of dialogue across time and culture. Mahsa Vahdat’s songs are interwoven with movements from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, creating a listening experience that reframes both worlds. For Wiancko, the pairing was a deliberate leap — and a necessary one. He describes it as an experiment rooted in intuition, one that allowed listeners to “live in her world for an entire program,” rather than encountering her music in isolation. The result is a continuous emotional narrative, where Persian song and Baroque concerto speak to one another across centuries.
For Hanna, this kind of temporal and stylistic conversation is fundamental to Spoleto’s mission. He sees the Festival as a place where art across eras communes in real time, offering listeners both continuity and renewal. “Reaching across centuries into unexpected places gives you faith in the fundamental experiment of human expression,” he reflects — a reminder that music’s urgency does not diminish with time, but renews itself through encounter.
Taken together, the two Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music albums — Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” — are not simply documents of performance, but invitations into the Festival’s inner life. These recordings offer what Hanna calls a “sampler of the aura of Spoleto” — a way to experience its intensity beyond the 17 days in Charleston, while still preserving the sense that something singular is happening in the moment of sound. What emerges is music not as refinement alone, but as lived exchange: artists listening deeply, audiences leaning in, and music revealing — again and again — why it continues to matter.
Album Information
TITLE: Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music ~ Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meet Vahdat”
ARTISTS: Spoleto Festival USA | Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Artists including Alexi Kenney, Anthony Manzo, Ayane Kozasa, Celia Hatton, Daniel Chong, Daniel Phillips, David McCarroll, Gabriel Cabezas, Geneva Lewis, Jay Campbell, Jessica Bodner, Livia Sohn, Mahsa Vahdat, Melissa White, Melissa White, Paul Wiancko, Pedja Mužijević, Raman Ramakrishnan, Soyeon Kate Lee, Steven Banks, Todd Palmer
COMPOSERS: Alexander Borodin (1833-1887); Pedro Iturralde (1929-2020); Dan Trueman (b. 1968) & Monica Mugan (b.1967)(Owls arrangement); Terry Riley (b. 1935); Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980); Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973)(2025 Spoleto Festival USA,Suzan D. Boyd Composer-in-Residence); Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978)
SUMMARY: Across the two albums that comprise Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, music unfolds as conversation: between performers, between centuries, and between traditions that might otherwise never meet. Recorded live during the Festival’s famously concentrated 17-day span in Charleston, South Carolina, these performances capture what makes Spoleto singular — not polish alone, but presence, risk, and human connection.
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CREDITS
Production Credits Producer: Paul Wiancko | Executive Producer: Michael Hostetler | Recording Engineer, Mixed & Mastered: Andreas K. Meyer | Stereo & Dolby Atmos Mixing and Mastering: Andreas K. Meyer | Assistant Recording Engineers: Nancy Conforti, Jennifer Nulsen | Edited by Paul Wiancko | Post Production completed at Swan Studios NYC www.swanstudios.nyc
For Spoleto Festival USA Mena Mark Hanna, General Director and CEO Liz Keller-Tripp, Chief Artistic Producer | Paul Wiancko, Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director of Chamber Music | Philip Snyder, Producer | Livia Sohn, Chamber Music Administrator
For Phenotypic Recordings Michael Hostetler, Founder & CEO | Stephen Prutsman, Creative Director | Cristin Canterbury Bagnall, BroadBand Collaborative: Fractional Chief Operating Officer | Mary Paz Cubero Navarro, Director of Product Development & Strategic Partnerships
Justin J. Holden, Copy Editor
For more information about Spoleto Festival USA, visit spoletousa.org
For more information about Phenotypic Recordings, visit phenotypicrecordings.com
© 2026 Phenotypic Recordings and Spoleto Festival USA
All rights reserved
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Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 1
Love Triangle Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978) 15:10
Geneva Lewis, violin; Jay Campbell, cello; Soyeon Kate Lee, piano
Ricercar (arr. Owls) Dan Trueman (b. 1968) and Monica Mugan (b.1967) 4:05
Alexi Kenney, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Gabriel Cabezas, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello
Pequeña Czarda for Saxophone and Piano Pedro Iturralde (1929-2020) 6:00
Steven Banks, saxophone; Soyeon Kate Lee, piano
Nocturne from String Quartet No. 2 in D major Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) 7:30
David McCarroll, violin; Melissa White, violin; Celia Hatton, viola; Paul Wiancko, cello
G Song Terry Riley (b. 1935) 9:45
Alexi Kenney, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Paul Wiancko, cello
Moreni for Clarinet, String Quartet, and Piano Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980) 14:00
Todd Palmer, clarinet; Geneva Lewis, violin; Melissa White, violin; Celia Hatton, viola; Jay Campbell, cello; Pedja Mužijević, piano
Improvisation Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973) 3:15
Mahsa Vahdat, voice; Daniel Chong, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Livia Sohn, violin;
Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello;
Anthony Manzo, bass; Pedja Mužijević, piano
“Other Song” Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) 4:47
Steven Banks, saxophone; Alexi Kenney, violin; Melissa White, violin; Celia Hatton, viola; Gabriel Cabezas, cello
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Live from Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music, Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat"
A Thousand Birds Will Chant Your Song Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973) 3:55
Mahsa Vahdat, voice; Daniel Chong, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Livia Sohn, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass; Pedja Mužijević, piano
The Four Seasons, “Summer,” Presto in G minor Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) 2:40
Daniel Chong, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Livia Sohn, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass; Pedja Mužijević, piano
Dialogue With the Beloved Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973) 5:09
Mahsa Vahdat, voice; Daniel Chong, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Livia Sohn, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass; Pedja Mužijević, piano
The Four Seasons, “Autumn,” Adagio molto in D minor Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) 2:36
Pedja Mužijević, piano; Daniel Chong, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Livia Sohn, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass
Vaya Vaya Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973) 4:38
Mahsa Vahdat, voice; Daniel Chong, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Livia Sohn, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello
The Four Seasons, “Winter,” Allegro non molto in F minor Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) 3:28
Livia Sohn, violin; Daniel Chong, violin; Geneva Lewis, violin; Daniel Phillips, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass; Pedja Mužijević, piano
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“Spoleto is about adventure and excitement—about how different artf orms can collide with each other to create something new… these recordings reflect the same spirit of curiosity, daring, and immediacy that defines Spoleto Festival USA as a whole.”
Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, Spoleto Festival USA General Director and CEO
The Composers
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Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
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Pedro Iturralde (1929-2020)
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Monica Mugan (b.1967)
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Terry Riley (b. 1935)
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Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)
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Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980)
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Dan Trueman (b. 1968)
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Mahsa Vahdat
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Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978)
Live from Spoleto: Chamber Music - Volume 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat” interweaves songs by Iranian vocalist and 2025 Spoleto Festival USA, Suzan D. Boyd Composer-in-Residence Mahsa Vahdat with movements from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, turning the program into a single, continuous arc rather than a set of contrasts.
Composer drawings by Ally Knopf
SHOP
Live From Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music
Vol. 1
DIGITAL ALBUM
Live From Spoleto 2025: Chamber Music
Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 “Vivaldi Meets Vahdat”
DOUBLE CD ~ PREORDER
SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
About Spoleto Festival USA The Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Music Series is one of the Festival’s most cherished and enduring traditions. Since its inception in 1977, the series has brought together leading musicians from around the world for intimate, spirited performances at the historic Dock Street Theatre. Over the decades, it has become a cornerstone of the Festival, known for its engaging programming, lively onstage camaraderie, and the joyful connection it fosters between artists and audiences. Under the direction of Paul Wiancko, the series continues to evolve, offering a vibrant mix of classical masterworks and contemporary compositions. For more than three decades, Bank of America has been the title sponsor of the Chamber Music Series—reflecting its enduring commitment to the arts and to Spoleto Festival USA’s mission of bringing exceptional music to Charleston, South Carolina. spoletousa.org.
PHENOTYPIC RECORDINGS
Phenotypic Recordings is a media company that brings to light new music by world-class musicians and innovative composers, with a focus on music that highlights the most important issues facing the world today. Artists include Kronos Quartet, Osvaldo Golijov, Kenji Bunch, Modern Violin Ensemble (MoVE), W4RP and more. As another way of amplifying artistic voices, Phenotypic Recordings donates revenue from streaming and downloads to support humanitarian causes identified by the artists making the music. phenotypicrecordings.com
