SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA AND PHENOTYPIC RECORDINGS LAUNCH EXCLUSIVE APPLE MUSIC CLASSICAL PARTNERSHIP WITH LIVE FROM SPOLETO 2025: ORCHESTRA

FULL ALBUM OUT MARCH 13 VIA PHENOTYPIC RECORDINGS

FIRST SINGLE AVAILABLE TODAY—EXCLUSIVELY ON APPLE MUSIC CLASSICAL

January 16, 2026—Spoleto Festival USA announces Live from Spoleto 2025: Orchestra, the first release in a new, multi-project partnership with Apple Music Classical. The collaboration presents exclusive recordings that capture the immediacy and power of the Festival’s 2025 Orchestra performances. The full album arrives March 13 via Phenotypic Recordings.

The partnership launches today with an Apple Music Classical’s exclusive release of the third movement of Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, performed by violinist Alexi Kenney—listen/share only on Apple Music Classical here.

The single will be available to stream on all digital service providers on February 13, followed by the full album’s worldwide digital release in March. With this partnership, Spoleto Festival USA joins an elite group of festivals worldwide to be granted exclusive Apple releases, alongside the Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival—placing Spoleto among the most internationally recognized platforms for orchestral performance today.

“This collaboration brings together three partners who share a deep belief in the power of live performance,” said Spoleto Festival USA General Director and CEO Mena Mark Hanna. “Phenotypic Recordings has been an essential creative partner in capturing the risk, immediacy, and humanity of Spoleto’s performances, and Apple Music Classical provides an unparalleled global platform to share that work with listeners around the world. Together, this partnership allows us to extend the Festival beyond Charleston while remaining true to what defines Spoleto: music made in the moment, with urgency, ambition, and a spirit of discovery.”

The Sibelius concerto serves as the album’s centerpiece, revealing both elemental force and inward intensity. Kenney’s performance blends technical brilliance and raw lyricism. “You can feel the tension that only happens when musicians are taking real risks together,” says Phenotypic Recordings CEO Michael Hostetler. “That’s where the excitement lives.”

Recorded during the 2025 Spoleto Festival USA season, Live from Spoleto 2025: Orchestra preserves performances shaped by risk, spontaneity, and the singular energy of live music. At its core is the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, a professional ensemble of rising stars and accomplished musicians assembled each year specifically for the Festival. Under the direction of Music Director Timothy Myers, the orchestra combines technical excellence with adventurous programming, creating performances that are both precise and full of vitality.

“Spoleto is a place where musicians arrive ready to give everything,” said Myers. “There’s an intensity here—a sense that every performance matters because it’s happening right now, in front of people who are fully present. The orchestra thrives on that energy, and it comes through in every note”

That immediacy defines the album’s sound. Hostetler continues, “Watching extraordinarily talented musicians at the beginning of their careers—that’s where the magic happens. Live performance brings risk, spontaneity, and humanity, and that’s exactly what we want listeners to hear.”

The album’s four parts trace a dramatic arc across contemporary and classic repertoire. It opens with Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Stellar (2024), a premiere recording that launches the program with kinetic energy and radiant color. Myers calls it “a spark—it immediately brings everyone into the same shared space of attention and energy.”

The recording concludes with Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, a work of sumptuous color, warmth, and theatrical joy. Under Myers’ direction, the Festival Orchestra balances lushness with immediacy, allowing the music to unfold with both elegance and momentum.

Live from Spoleto 2025: Orchestra offers a vivid portrait of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra in full flight, capturing not just performances, but the spirit of a festival where music is created in real time: alive, unfiltered, and shared.

SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA

Spoleto Festival USA was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to create an American counterpart to the annual Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, which he had founded in 1958. Spoleto Festival USA is internationally recognized as America’s premier performing arts festival. For 17 days and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston’s historic theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with performances in opera; theater; dance; and chamber, symphonic, choral, and jazz music. With General Director & CEO Mena Mark Hanna at its helm, the 2026 season takes place from May 22 to June 7 in various locations throughout Charleston. Spoleto Festival USA is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization.

ABOUT PHENOTYPIC RECORDINGS

Phenotypic Recordings 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. As another way of amplifying artistic voices, Pheno donates its revenue from streaming and downloads to support humanitarian causes identified by the artists making the music.

ABOUT APPLE MUSIC CLASSICAL

Apple Music Classical is the world’s leading classical music app. Launched in March 2023, Apple Music Classical makes it easier to find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog of over 6 million tracks with fully optimized search built specifically for classical, while offering the highest audio quality available. With high-resolution lossless and immersive Spatial Audio, listeners can experience classical favorites in a whole new way. Expertly curated playlists and insightful composer biographies as well as the addition of over 50,000 booklets featuring in-depth liner notes, translations, plus the only global classical music chart and more, make Apple Music Classical the best place for classical music lovers. Apple Music subscribers can enjoy Apple Music Classical at no additional cost.

For more information, please contact Krista Williams, Christopher Emond or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.

www.spoletousa.org

www.phenotypicrecordings.com

https://classical.music.apple.com