WPR Music new album of the week: ‘Ascension: Symphonina Rising’

WPR highlighted a new genre called the symphonina last year; it’s designed specifically for streaming audiences, and I wrote about it here.

Since then, the Symphonina Foundation has continued to gather steam, recently releasing their fourth album, “Ascension: Symphonina Rising.” It’s comprised once again of what the organization refers to as small complete melodic symphonies, each movement the length of a typical streaming pop tune.

This new album features composers Jordan Jinosko, Christopher Reed, Alexander Unseth, David Fogel and Daniel Fisher, all of whose symphoninas have been featured on WPR classical broadcasts in the past.

The awards for symphoninas as a classical genre have been rolling in, with this latest release already winning one contemporary classical award from the Hollywood Independent Music Awards, and two from the Clouzine International Music Awards. Past nods have come from Billboard, the Global Music, Elite Music, LIT Music and World Entertainment Awards.

The Symphonina Foundation hosts an annual composition contest with a valuable prize for emerging composers – their scores are recorded by high caliber orchestral musicians. On this new release, that’s either the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Scoring Orchestra or the International Symphonina Orchestra. That last one is made up of young diverse musicians from all over the world who perform and submit their music virtually.
All of this work — whether recording, composing or sharing music — comes out of the Symphonina Foundation’s mission to spread the joy of symphonic music to young audiences.