What a pleasure to have my music and research featured on CBC’s In Concert: Revelation Hour with Paolo Pietropaolo. All the more so because it is even possible to listen to the episode outside Canada! Thank you to the CBC, and to all the musicians featured playing my music, including Jennifer King, the Elizabeth Bishop Chamber Players, and more.
Last year I was commissioned to write a piece for the Kapten Trio by Chamber Music Scotland. It was a fantastic experience from start to finish, with lots of discussions and rehearsals with the Kapten Trio throughout the creative process, and two amazing Creative Scotland residencies at Hospitalfield in Arbroath. My piece, called Bowheads, is based on songs of the Bowhead Whale. (Thanks to biologists Catherine Berchok and Stephanie Grassia for sharing recordings with me!) The Kapten Trio took Boweads (along with pieces by Shiori Usui, Mozart, Debussy, and Brahms) on a 6-concert tour of Scotland. This video (made by Anne Milne) is from the premiere, at the Barn in Banchory, as part of the Sound Festival.
Thank you to Anthony Lanman for inviting me to talk on his podcast 1 Track about my piece Woodwings. Woodwings was commissioned by the Fifth Wind Quintet in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of their Forecasting the Canadian Wind Project, funded by a Canada Council New Chapters grant, and premiered by Fifth Wind, Mistral 5, Choros, Blythwood Winds, and Ventos in September 2018. It’s based on the songs of 9 birds found across Canada, including the bobolink, the hermit thrush, the winter wren, snow geese, and five species of owls! If you’re interested in obtaining a score, you can do so by taking out a (free) membership in Wind Quintet International.
I’ve just finished my first wind quintet, Woodwings, for Fifth Wind Quintet, of Halifax, NS, as part of their Forecasting the Canadian Wind project. Woodwings will be premiered in September by Fifth Wind, as well as Choros (Montreal), Blythwood Winds (Toronto), Mistral 5 (Saskatoon), and Ventos (Vancouver), along with premieres by Carmen Braden, Cris Derksen, Daniel Janke, and Cameron Wilson. (If you play in a wind quintet and would like to have access to these and other new works after their premiere, you can sign up at Wind Quintet International!)
Woodwings is based on the songs and calls of a number of birds that are fairly widespread in Canada – the Bobolink, Hermit Thrush, Snow Goose, Winter Wren, and a selction of owls (Boreal Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl, Hawk Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, and Western Screech Owl). It’s been a great pleasure to write this piece, both because I’m a (mostly former) oboist myself, and because the musicians in Fifth Wind are long-time friends, and in some cases my former teachers. (Oh dear – I’ve just calculated and realize I have known several of them for more than 30 years! Am I really that old?) I’m really looking forward to the rehearsals and workshops in May, and to the performance in September!
I’m looking forward to the upcoming recording of my piece Field Music (2017) by the Fair Trade Trio on a CD which will also include works by Jennifer Higdon, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Kaija Saariaho, and Molly Herron. Ashley Windle, violinist and founder of the Fair Trade Chamber Music Society talks more about this recording and other Fair Trade Trio Projects in an interview with with Lana Norris on I Care If You Listen.
The Fair Trade String Trio (Ashley Windle, Hannah Levinson, and Jeanette Stenson) will be premiering my newest piece, Field Guide, on July 20 through 26 on their second Pacific Northwest tour, with concerts in Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Bellingham WA, and Portland OR. More details of the concerts can be found on their website. Field Guide is based on the songs of three birds which can be found in the Western US, the horned lark, the greater sage grouse, and the Western meadowlark. Though these birds aren’t currently endangered, they depend on the wild land of the US National Parks and Forests — and are one of the many, many reasons why we all need to be working to preserve these lands.
I just finished Three Summer Pieces for the Cherry Street flute duo, commissioned by Sophia Tegart (with funding from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation James and Lola Faust Chamber Music Grant). They’ll be recording it for CD in March, and performing it later this year. I’m really looking forward to hearing them!
An enormous thanks to Ensemble Thing, conducted by Tom Butler, with Alan McHugh, Catherine Backhouse, and Brian McBride, directed by Stasi Schaeffer, for a fantastic premiere of the fully-staged version of Jan Tait and the Bear on October 6 and 8 at the CCA in Glasgow. We received some lovely reviews from The Tempohouse, The Cusp, and Opera Scotland. We’re hoping to take it on tour next year. In the meantime, here’s a photo of Catherine Backhouse as Jan Tait and Brian MacBride as the bear, with costumes by Vicki Brown!
I’m so thrilled that Ensemble Thing, conducted by Tom Butler, will be premiering the fully staged version of Jan Tait and the Bear at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow on Oct. 6 (8 PM) and Oct. 8 (1 PM). This performance stars Alan McHugh, Catherine Backhouse, and Brian McBride, and is directed by Stasi Schaeffer, with costumes by Vicki Brown.
For a little preview, here is a trailer, with beautiful illustrations by Meilo So and animations by Jason Brown of Greenlight Creative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spdmljqd7ow
Tickets are available from the CCA, in advance or at the door. I hope to see you there!
An enormous thanks to Opera America, the Hinrichsen Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts for making these performances possible!
I’m really looking forward to writing a new piece for the Fair Trade String Trio (Ashley Windle, Kallie Ciechomski and Jeanette Stenson), commissioned by the Fair Trade Chamber Society. The piece will be premiered on their summer 2017 tour of the Pacific Northwest, and in New York in fall 2017.
