Advocacy · recordings · performance
A new work needs more than admiration. It needs champions. We help works reach listeners who will carry them forward—and the performers and presenters who can give them a second performance, a tenth and a lasting place in the repertoire.
Why this work
A first performance introduces a work to one room; it does not ensure that anyone beyond it will ever encounter the music. Without a recording, the work cannot travel. Without context and an advocate, performers and presenters may never imagine it in their own programs.
Uncharted Opus works in that gap. We produce and support recordings, tell the stories behind the music, and make it easier for performers and presenters to discover the work, find the score, and bring it to another stage.
Projects
Our current focus is the music of Dutch composer Joey Roukens. The work of Apollo Chamber Players and Kinetic Ensemble is leading to a new Roukens recording produced by Uncharted Opus.
Joey Roukens · Kinetic Ensemble
Label announcement forthcoming
Album title forthcoming · Proposed companion works by Nicky Sohn and Karim Al-Zand
Recorded and awaiting its release plan, Visions at Sea is currently envisioned alongside Nicky Sohn's 2024 violin concerto and a recent song cycle by Karim Al-Zand.
Recording supported by Ed Schneider, founder of Uncharted Opus.
Joey Roukens · Apollo Chamber Players
Azica Records · Connective Harmony (working title)
Roukens brings seventeenth-century Dutch melodies into a vividly contemporary quartet—a meeting of cultural memory and the present.
Recording supported by Ed Schneider, founder of Uncharted Opus.
Joey Roukens · Performing artists to be announced
Azica Records
Five works · Approximately 55 minutes · Album title forthcoming
A 55-minute portrait of Roukens's chamber music, moving from solo piano through agile mixed ensembles to string quartet—conceived as both a lasting recording and an invitation to future performance.
Executive produced by Uncharted Opus.
For listeners, performers & presenters
Explore the works and the stories behind them. Listeners can share what resonates and introduce others to the music. Performers and presenters can find scores, see what each piece requires and start a conversation about bringing it to the stage. Most featured scores and performance materials are available from Donemus.
Ask about performing a workAzica Records · Recording May 2027
Violin, cello, piano & percussion
Violin, piano & percussion
Five works · Approximately 55 minutes
Scores, performance materials & work catalogues
About
Uncharted Opus was founded on a simple belief: too many compelling works by living composers risk disappearing after their premieres. That is not because the music lacks merit, but because the classical music field supports premieres far better than it supports the repeat performances on which its repertoire was built.
Before establishing Uncharted Opus, founder Ed Schneider personally supported recordings of Joey Roukens's Forgotten Dutch Melodies with Apollo Chamber Players and Visions at Sea with Kinetic Ensemble. Those projects form the prelude to Uncharted Opus's first executive production: a full album devoted to Roukens's chamber music, to be released by Azica Records.
Uncharted Opus is an independent supporter and producer and does not represent Joey Roukens or the participating ensembles.
Stay connected
Occasional dispatches about the music, the people making it and what it takes to bring a new work to its next stage. Release news comes along the way.
Join the list for occasional notes from Ed.
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Project collaborators
Project collaborationChamber Music AmericaA valued collaborator since the project's earliest stages. We are especially grateful to Susan Dadian, Director of Artistic Planning, for helping identify and recruit musicians, and to Kevin Kwan Loucks, Chief Executive Officer, for his support and guidance.Contact
Considering a work for performance, or interested in the project? Write to Ed.
ed@unchartedopus.com