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Premiere of Seven Duos for Birds and Strings

On November 30, 2014   /   Concerts, Research   /   Leave a comment
Premiere of Seven Duos for Birds and Strings

I wrote Seven Duos for Birds and Strings in 2011-2012, when I was composer-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany. The piece explores the ways different species of birds might sing their songs together, ranging from unintended overlapping to hocketing so tight that it sounds like only one bird singing.

Seven Duos was commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts for violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel and violist Dan Sweaney. For a variety of reasons, the piece did not receive its premiere until November 28, 2014, when Annette-Barbara and Dan performed it at the International Viola Congress. I’m glad they waited, because this year the Congress was in Porto, Portugal, and I was able to attend! They gave a fantastic performance, and I had a great time visiting Porto as well.

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Hermit thrushes sing songs based on the overtone series!

On November 23, 2014   /   Research   /   Leave a comment
Hermit thrushes sing songs based on the overtone series!

For the past several years, I’ve been researching the song of the hermit thrush together with Bruno Gingras, Dominik Endres, and Tecumseh Fitch. We found that its songs follow the overtone series! Our resulting paper was published in the Procedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences on November 18. Some good press coverage of our research can be found in Smithsonian Magazine and Huffington Post, and on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks.

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English String Orchestra performs “falling still” in London

On October 20, 2014   /   Concerts   /   Leave a comment
English String Orchestra performs “falling still” in London

I’m just back from London, where the English String/Symphony Orchestra and violinist Harriet Mackenzie, with Ken Woods conducting, gave a beautiful performance of falling still. The concert also featured a fantastic premiere of Wall of Water by Deborah Pritchard, and pieces By Thea Musgrave and Kaija Saariaho. (A detailed review of the concert can be found here.)

I’ve known Ken since the early 1990’s, when we were both students at Scotia Festival of Music, and it was great to have the chance to work with him again. (Ken is a very multi-talented musician. When we were at Scotia Festival, we performed Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb together: Ken played both the mandolin and the musical saw parts!)

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