“Circle of Friends” - Verena Koay
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
If you’ve ever believed that music can say what words cannot—or that deep friendship and art can weave together across centuries—then Verena Koay’s instrumental album Circle of Friends will feel like coming home.
Released in April 2022 under the poetic and fitting moniker Circle of Friends, this album isn’t just another classical or Romantic-era inspired record. It’s a tender, emotionally soaked love letter—to history, to complex human connection, and to the people in our lives who keep us creatively alive. With her violin as her voice, Verena Koay tells a story that needs no lyrics to be deeply, unmistakably felt.
The heart of the concept is the timeless, tangled love triangle of Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. If you’ve ever become lost in their music, or read their letters, you know this wasn’t just a chapter in music history—it was the emotional story of the Romantic era. Passion. Genius. Unspoken love. Lifelong devotion.
Verena Koay doesn’t try to retell this story in a literal way. Instead, she channels its emotional temperature—the longing of Brahms’ unsent letters, the inner strength of Clara, and the fragile genius of Robert—into lush, cinematic pieces that ebb and flow like emotional memory. You feel the tension, the reverence, the ache of things unsaid.
This album isn’t just about 19th-century composers—it’s also very much about now. Recorded as a passion project between two friends, “Circle of Friends” also lives as a modern tribute to the creative spark that can exist between two kindred souls.
You can hear that closeness in every track. There’s a trust in the pacing, a shared breath in the phrasing, a tenderness that goes beyond technical precision. It’s like listening in on a conversation.
Musically, “Circle of Friends” is drenched in Romantic-era richness but also doesn’t feel like a museum piece. The arrangements are expressive without being overdone, full of dynamic swells, moments of vulnerability, and that slow, burning emotion that makes you want to just sit with the music and feel for a while.
Whether you’re already enjoy Brahms and Schumann or you’re someone who just wants to listen to something that’ll calm your spirit while stirring your heart, this album lands. It’s meditative and narrative at the same time—a rare combo.
There’s a reason this one lingers. It’s not just technically beautiful. It’s emotionally fluent.
It’s music for rainy afternoons and golden-hour drives. For quiet nights when you're thinking about people you love—or people you lost. It’s for every moment where words fall short, but strings somehow know exactly what to say.
“Circle of Friends” is an album for lovers of nuance. For those who understand that silence between notes can be louder than any crescendo. For anyone who’s ever found themselves somewhere between admiration and heartbreak.
Verena Koay’s violin doesn’t just sing—it remembers. And in doing so, it invites you to remember too.
So find a quiet space and let this album do what great music always does: connect you to something bigger, deeper, and beautifully human.
“Circle of Friends” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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Listen to Verena Koay and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Classical & Ambient’
