Francesco Tristano, 2022 laureate of the Global Project Grant in the classical/contemporary music category, released his new album on early music on 11 February with Sony Classical label.

On Early Music is not merely a fitting homage to this repertoire; the works are given a fresh, contemporary twist thanks to Tristano’s production skills, studio mastery, and keen eye for detail. All the works featured are tonally and melodically complimentary, and while some have been faithfully reproduced, others have been extensively reworked and reinterpreted. “Early music has a reparative power, like a sunrise, and these works give me that uplifting feeling,” he says, “There’s something really primitive about them, but something rejuvenating too.” For Tristano, this repertoire remains as joyful and inspiring as when it was composed over 500 years ago; On Early Music proves it’s also thoroughly deserving of a contemporary audience.

The promotion of this album, which marks his return to the baroque repertoire, has been accompanied by a series of concerts since last spring in Europe and a marketing strategy to promote both the release of the album and the tour dates in specific territories.

“What it does really, the Global Project Grant, is to give the means, to give the necessary support, the financial support for a prolonged campaign. In my case, for the album. I don’t think we could have done remotely what we did without the Global Project Grant […]. I have a lot of ideas, and sometimes we have to get rid of most of them. But the Global Project Grant was definitely helping to realise those ideas,” says the artist.

About Francesco Tristano
Francesco Tristano, born in Luxembourg in 1981, is a pianist and composer. A student of Béatrice Rauchs at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, Francesco graduated from the Juilliard School in New York in 2003 and was a laureate of the International Piano Competition in Orléans in 2004. He has recorded more than 20 albums. As an atypical character, Francesco specialises in baroque and contemporary repertoire, while composing acoustic and electronic music.
www.francescotristano.com

About Global Project Grant
Created by music:LX and taken over by Kultur | lx, the Global Project Grant is awarded to a musician of each genre (pop/rock/electro/hip-hop, jazz/world, classical/contemporary). It allows to support the artist in the development of a project that aims to stimulate his/her career. Kultur | lx follows the artists and their teams in each stage of the project.

More information about Global Project Grant here
Applications to be submitted by October 16, 2022

Direct-to-Fan Workshop with Music Ally

General Workshop : April 19, 2022 – 4:00pm to 7:00pm (open to all applicants)
Mentoring Session : April 20, 2022 – 4:00pm to 5:30pm (applicants selected by committee) 

Kultur | lx is thrilled to continue working with Music Ally for our industry-focused workshops and training sessions. As a global leader in digital training for the music industry, Music Ally has trained thousands of industry professionals and artists. A knowledge and skills company, it provides insight to indies, publishers, major labels as well as artists and managers globally. Their mission is to help the music industry embrace digital platforms and build sustainable careers for artists across the globe.  

The upcoming Direct-To-Fan Workshop will be split into two sections. The first half will involve a presentation on email marketing, which is a vital component of an artist’s marketing mix. By the end of the presentation, you will know how to choose an email marketing platform, build your mailing list and design captivating emails for your fans. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A and participation in Music Ally’s training module in advance of the workshop. 

In the second half of the session, we will be joined by Jessie Scoullar and Joe Vesayaporn for a panel discussion around direct-to-fan marketing. Jessie is the founding director of Wicksteed Works, a company focused on empowering musicians to maximise their audience and sales potential through connection, communication and coordination of direct-to-fan campaigns. Joe Vesayaporn works for Music Glue, a specialist e-commerce platform for the music business which allows artists to sell physical and digital music, merchandise, and event tickets in multiple currencies and languages direct-to-fan. Both panelists have collectively run campaigns for artists like Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello, Eurovision, Paul McCartney, and Iron Maiden among several others.  

REGISTER HERE

We look forward to welcoming you to this workshop series on Tuesday, April 19th!  Music Ally will also be hosting private mentoring sessions on Wednesday, April 20th (applicants selected by a committee). 

Save the date!
Upcoming workshops :
23/05 – Short Form Video Masterclass – Time TBD
20/06 – Livestreaming and social commerce – Time TBD

Laureate of the Global Project Grant 2022 for classical/contemporary music, Francesco Tristano released his new album on early music on February 11th 2022 (Sony Classical).

This new opus marks Tristano’s return to early music repertoire, particularly close to his heart. The promotion of this album will feature, among other things, a tour that will take place allover Europe on next spring. This will mark the return of Francesco Tristano on stage after the Covid crisis, which affected a high number of Luxembourg artists.

Francesco Tristano will perform his Album Programme, as well as other projects on the following dates :

• April 21stl 2022 at Konzerthaus, Vienna, AT
• May 9th 2022 at Stadtgarten, Cologne, DE
• May 13th 2022 at Arsenal, Metz, FR with Orchestre national de Metz, Yi-Chen Lin
• May 15th 2022 at Silent Green, Berlin, DE
• May 19th 2022 at La Scala, Paris, FR

To listen to on early music, click here.

YouTube Masterclass with Music Ally

General Workshop : March 28, 2022 (open to all applicants)
Mentoring Session : March 30, 2022 (applicants selected by committee)

All dates will be held from 10:00 to 13:00 CEST 

YouTube Best Practice: YouTube offers a breadth of opportunities to customise videos, drive viewers to other videos on your channel, create playlists, and engage with your community. In this module we will explain the essentials of YouTube strategy and optimisation. Furthermore, with an estimated 70% of all watch time on YouTube being driven by recommendations from YouTube’s algorithm, this module covers all bases for ensuring your YouTube videos and channels are as visible as possible.

YouTube Analytics & Monetisation: YouTube is undoubtedly a key platform for music discovery. Understanding your audience, content performance and how to earn revenue from the platform are therefore essential. This ‘YouTube Analytics & Monetisation’ module serves as a deep dive into how to make sense of YouTube’s new artist-focused analytics platform in order to fuel your channel growth.

We will explain the most important metrics, how they are measured and how they contribute towards your success on YouTube. Impressions, CTR, engagement, audience retention – which are the most important metrics to keep track of and what actionable insights can we retrieve from them? Following the discussion on analytics, we look at the various ways an artist’s YouTube channel can be monetised in order to create a revenue stream from the platform.

We look forward to welcoming you to this workshop series on March 28, 2022!  Music Ally will also be hosting private mentoring sessions on March 30, 2022 (applicants selected by a committee).

Laureate of the Global Project Grant 2022 for classical/contemporary music, Francesco Tristano is releasing his new album on early music on February 4^th 2022 (Sony Classical).

“This album is a sort of return to my roots: early music has been one of my favourite areas since my early age”, Francesco Tristano says.

The pianist is returning indeed to early music and brings a contemporary note thanks his production skills and studio mastery. In this regard, this new opus mixes five original compositions with works by early composers such as Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, Peter Phillips, as well as one of Tristano’s main source of inspiration, that is Girolamo Frescobaldi.

Upstream of the release of on early music, two of Francesco Tristano’s original compositions, aria for rs et On John Bull’s Galliard In D, are available as singles on streaming platforms.

About Global Project Grant

Created by music:LX and taken over by Kultur|lx, the Global Project Grant is awarded to a musician of each genre (pop/rock/electro/hip-hop, jazz/world, classical/contemporary). It allows to support the artist in the development of a project that aims to stimulate his/her career. Kultur|lx follows the artists and their teams in each stage of the project.

Luxembourgish artists are in the international press. Excerpts.

Cathy Krier, Etudes pour Piano, Ligeti
Award-winner of the Global Project Grant 2021 – Classical music, Cathy Krier has released the integral recording of Ligeti’s Études pour piano, on August 27th under CAvi-music.

“Concentrated, but never tense, and taking sparkling delight in this stylistically and intellectually unpredictable piano music, she masters these pieces beautifully. Even in resting phases when Ligeti retreats into post-impressionism, Krier shows class and dexterity there too.” – Rondo

“These pieces are among the most significant pieces for solo piano after the Second World War. Have they ever been performed more expressively than by Cathy Krier?” – Fono Forum

“[Cathy Krier’s] interpretations are sensual, vital, colourful and exciting. […] The artistic importance of  this Ligeti’s masterpiece has never been clearer.” – Wiener Zeitung

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Benjamin Kruithof, Russian Mood
First Prize winner of the National Cello Competition in Amsterdam, cellist Benjamin Kruithof released his debut CD Russian Mood on the ArsProduktion label on 3 September. Recorded with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under the direction of Conrad van Alphen, the CD features works by Tchaikovsky, Glasunov, Davidov, Popper and Rachmaninov.

“For his first album, Kruithof has chosen the Russian repertoire: works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, Glazumov, Karl David Dawidow and David Popper. And he presents himself here as an intimate interpreter, entirely devoted to the expression of great feeling.” – ö1

“Benjamin Kruithof and his cello play smoothly play through all the moods of Russian music. When you start listening, you quickly find yourself in the wake of his cello – and in the process you discover the extent of its expressive power. With “Russian Mood”, the young cellist has achieved a musical exclamation point.” – Hessischer Rundfunk 2

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Sabine Weyer, Mysteries
Sabine Weyer has released a CD on ARS Produktion label entitled Mysteries, which combines the music of the Russian/Soviet composer Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950) with the one of the contemporary French composer Nicolas Bacri (born 1961).

“Sabine Weyer is the ideal interpreter of these neighbouring aesthetics: her performance allows the fire that often smoulders under the ice to come to the fore, without giving into pathos. A beautiful album“. – Classica

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Jean Muller, Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3
Jean Muller continues his complete collection of Mozart’s piano sonatas with the release of a third volume, which includes four new sonatas: sonatas No. 2, No. 8, No. 10 and No. 16.

“The third volume is released today and presents four new sonatas with the same interpretative guidelines as before: to highlight Mozart’s dramatic genius. Without forgetting his humour!” – France Musique

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Francesco Tristano
2022 Award-Winner of the Global Project Grant in the classical/contemporary music category, Francesco Tristano released his new album on early music on 4 February 2022 (Sony Classical).

“Tristano, alone at the piano – surrounded by three small radiators! – has given himself over to the delicate exercise of a sound recording session. From Orlando Gibbons to Girolamo Frescobaldi, he brought these composers to life with a very contemporary grace. It is perhaps with his own compositions, unveiled in preview, that Francesco Tristano best succeeds in bringing together his passions for electro and classical music. While waiting for the release of the album “On Early Music” in the coming months, this concert can be found online as a suspende.d moment” – Les Echos

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Arthur Possing
Natural Flow is the second album of Arthur Possing Quartet. In the continuity of their first album Four years, this new opus (released on Double Moon Records/Challenge Records) explores numerous compositions with innovative and researched sounds, which gives it new aesthetic.

“Release of the week” – Le Soir

“One can sense various influences – from Coltrane to Mehldau – but it clearly has its own contours and an original and striking force” – Jazzthing

“A collection with a resolutely modern sound, at the crossroads between jazz and pop, and moreover recorded in Peter Gabriel’s studios in England” – Disque du jour on TSF Jazz

“Even more than his piano playing, where one can feel the heritage of the greats perfectly digested, it is the whole that convinces by its organic aspect, its fluidity and its intensity… A promising musician to follow” – Jazz Mag

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Michel Meis
Award-winner of the Global Project Grant 2021 in the jazz section, the Michel Meis 4TET released itsalbum Kaboom on 28 May 2021 on Double Moon/Challenge Records.

“Post-modern jazz with an electro-pop flavour” – Citizen Jazz (FR)

“A flirt with ever-changing forms of energy, bound in a jazz setting, but driven by the crossover of attitudes.” – Jazz thing (DE)

“An album full of contrasts, a masterpiece of lively and versatile jazz”. – Rolling Stone (FR)

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Greg Lamy
After the success of his two previous albums Meeting in 2013 and Press Enter in 2017, Greg Lamy presents his new album Observe the Silence, released on 30 April 2021.

“Lamy makes music that caresses the soul, without being superficial” – Jazzthetik

“This 47 year old Luxembourger has an impeccable technique, but also a sense of melody: enough to make each note vibrate, weightless in an atmosphere made softly magnetic...” – L’OBS

“When he plays at moderate tempos, Greg Lamy has no age or country. He is only a sensitivity that expresses itself, as if by fluidity” – Télérama

“There is in this album a kind of permanent groove, fluidity, flow, clarity, necessity that fills the listener with emotion and happiness” – Le Soir

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Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen
Released on February 26, 2021, the trio Reis-Demuth-Wiltgen received an excellent reception for the release of their album SLY

“Virtuoso Foxes Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen, the Luxembourg tio, present “Sly”, their new album. It can be confirmed that it is a real joy to listen to when these three come out of their lair.” – TDF Jazz

“This Luxembourg piano trio works like a well-oiled machine, and no wonder…” – Jazzthetik

“…the musical race of the Luxembourg trio goes through territories, dialects, phrasing, the popular, the human mirror which they inevitably play with their weapons, the instruments and a rhythmic power that no border stops.” – Couleurs Jazz

“Well in tune with the times, the trio combines classical or impressionist influences with pop, even a harmonic lyricism à la Enrico Peranunzi.” –  Jazz Mag

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Klein
After a first acclaimed EP in 2018, the band KLEIN, led by Jérôme Klein, released their album SONDER on the French label Cristal Records on 10 December 2021.

TOP MEZZO album from January 2022

“…despite its name, it is already a great band. Because it brings a different note, and not just a blue one, to today’s jazz.” –  Le Soir