Bridgetower Project Debuts at #6 on Billboard, Narrowly Outperforming Same-Week Deutsche Grammophon Release by Chopin Competition Winner Bruce Liu

BOSTON, MA — Bridgetower Project, a collaboration featuring Tchaikovsky Gold Medal-winning violinist Ilya Kaler, Steinway Artist pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite, Pulitzer Prize-winning former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and multi-GRAMMY® Award winner Paquito D’Rivera, has debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart for the week of August 22, 2026.

Released by Ongaku Records, Inc. in collaboration with Last Light Productions, LLC, Bridgetower Project was the highest-charting new classical recording on this week’s chart, narrowly outperforming Lunaris, the same-week Deutsche Grammophon release by Bruce Liu, winner of the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, which debuted at No. 7.

The Billboard debut marks a significant milestone for an independently produced and released classical project shining a light on the long-overlooked Afro-European violin virtuoso George Bridgetower, breaking into the top ranks of a chart dominated by long-running catalog titles, compilations, and major-label releases.

“More than two centuries after George Bridgetower’s name disappeared from the sonata he helped bring into the world, an album bearing his name has reached the top 10 of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart,” said executive producer Daniel Faneuf. “We celebrate this achievement today and hope that it serves as a powerful reminder that stories lost to history can still be recovered, heard, and carried forward.” 

Bridgetower Project pairs Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 with Florence Price’s Adoration, four poems from Rita Dove’s Sonata Mulattica read by the poet herself, and the world-premiere recording of Paquito D’Rivera’s newly commissioned Bridgetower Reimagined: Contradanza Mulattica, inspired by Bridgetower’s only surviving composition.  

The project was covered by The Violin Channel and other international media and will be presented live in a series of New York performances this fall, culminating in its Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall on October 3, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.

Press Contact: Last Light Productions info@lastlightproduction.com

More info: bridgetowerproject.com

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