KVNO's music director, Emily McIvor, on the search for new music.
By Emily McIvor
Emily Adds New Tunes
October 22nd, 2025
We’ve reached late October, and I’m sure I’m not alone in noting that it’s a busy time. As the person who designs KVNO’s playlists, my office is an interesting mix of spooky-season tracks and holiday tunes. I’m finishing out playlists for October while also looking for albums to expand our holiday-related collection of music. And almost every day, I get notifications about exciting new classical albums—it’s hard not to want them all!
One of my favorite roles as KVNO’s Music Director is that I get to listen to these new albums and add great new music to KVNO’s music library. Here are some recent highlights.
—Music by American composer Florence Price. The more I listen to her works, the more I love her style and voice, and so we’ve added recordings of her symphonies, chamber music, and piano works to our catalog. In particular, pianists Lara Downes and Michelle Cann have both recently released albums of her music from which we’ve been playing fantasies and character pieces. And if you like a short, humorous showpiece, check out Price’s “The Goblin and the Mosquito” here.
—Music of American minimalist composer Terry Riley. Riley is a pioneer of the minimalist movement, as well as electronic music, and turned 90 this year. We recently purchased some of his recordings that will show up in KVNO programs like Modern Classics on Friday nights. His most famous piece is In C, written in 1964, a quintessential example of minimalism in music (limited musical material, repetition, improvisation). Riley’s works were hugely influential for other important 20th century composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams.
—Avi Avital, star mandolinist, has released a series of EPs this year with his group Between Worlds that explores music from Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and around the Black Sea, as well as a full album called Song of the Birds. The materials are varied and interesting, traditional songs as well as classical compositions, and always expertly performed.
—LOTS of piano music. New recordings of all kinds of keyboard words—Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, Schumann, Shostakovich, Liszt, Mozart, Satie, Grieg, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and many more—by some of the best pianists performing today (Yeol Eum Son, Helene Grimaud, Daniil Trifonov, Leif Ove Andsnes, Sviatoslav Richter, Roberto Prosseda, Kun-Woo Paik, Angela Hewitt, Luisa Guembes-Buchanan, Stephen Hough, Christopher O’Riley, George Li, etc.) have come across my desk. I’ve loved getting to hear new interpretations of familiar works, as well as finding new pieces and even new composers.
—Christmas and holiday albums are coming out, and I’m digging Cuban Christmas by Sarah Willis and the Sarahbanda. It’s full of familiar favorites with a Cuban twist—I did some chair dancing when I listened to it! I can’t wait to program some of them for the upcoming holiday season.
