The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), an orchestra devoted exclusively to performing and commissioning new music, has announced it will launch an in-house record label, BMOP Sound, in January.

BMOP Sound will release five world premiere CDs early next year: John Harbison’s Ulysses, Michael Gandolfi’s Y2K Compliant, Gunther Schuller’s Journey Into Jazz (with the composer narrating), Lee Hyla’s Lives of the Saints (with mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger), and Charles Fussell’s Wilde (with baritone Sanford Sylvan).

Twenty-eight additional projects are planned and the label will issue four to six CDs annually. "Seminal works that are no longer available to the public" will be recorded as well, according to a statement.

“BMOP’s mission has always been to bring the classical music audience closer to the music of its own time by performing new works and rediscovering underappreciated, important works from the 20th Century," said BMOP founding artistic director and BMOP executive producer Gil Rose. "BMOP Sound gives us the opportunity to broaden that mission to a global audience.”

Distributed by Albany Music Distributors, BMOP Sound recordings will be coupled with global online distribution: an interactive website with digital download capabilities is in the works as well.

BMOP's current season began on November 2 and featues ten world premieres, including Rakowski's Piano Concerto by and Elliott Schwartz's Chamber Concerto #3.

The nationally recognized group founded in 1996 has received nine ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Orchestral Music, including the 2006-2007 ASCAP Award for Programming of Contemporary Music, and the 2006 American Symphony Orchestra League’s John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music.

By Kevin Shihoten