From the Heartland

Impurity chains' is an album about influences: the joyful chaos of 21st-century listening and the creative impact this can have on a composer. Each work on impurity chains is referential, whether to effects-laden popular musics, Newfoundland traditional folk music, or even other concert music of the heavier variety. In the first ever recorded collection of Simms' music, the bounty of stimuli available in both acoustic and electroacoustic soundworlds is celebrated with some of Toronto's finest chamber ensembles performing works with gestural vitality, nuanced timbral shadings, and a colorful array of sources that reflect Simms' curiosity as a listener: from the turbulent and grotesque to the sumptuous and fleetingly lyrical. Bekah Simms' varied output has been heralded as "nuanced and complex" (NOW Magazine) and "redefining classical music" (Ludwig Van). Propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe, her work is often filtered through the personal lens of her anxiety. Foremost among her current compositional interests is quotation and the friction between recognizability and complete obfuscation. Her music has been performed from coast to coast in Canada, over a dozen American states, Italy, and the UK; broadcast on Montreal's Pulsar; and included on Musicwork's album series. Bekah has been the recipient of over 20 awards and prizes, including the 2017 Toronto Emerging Composer Award and the 2018 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music.

Celebrated Canadian composer Andrew Staniland's latest recording project is comprised of three major vocal works: Peter Quince at the Clavier on the poetry of Wallace Stevens, Execution Songs based on a folk ballad, and Earthquakes & Islands, a collaboration with Toronto poet Robin Richardson. In each of these cycles, Andrew crafts a psychological journey. He weaves soaring vocal lines and innovative textures in the piano. He creates bold and soul-searching atmospheres, utterly and unmistakably his own. He is not afraid to experiment with extremes of range, the resonant capacities of the grand piano, the twisting of harmonic pathways, in order to create sound worlds that reveal the truth of a poetic moment. His absolute reverence for text-setting is transformed into a meditation, a triangulation of musical, emotional, and spiritual thought. Composer Andrew Staniland has firmly established himself as one of Canada's most important and innovative musical voices. Described by Alex Ross in the New Yorker magazine as "alternately beautiful and terrifying", his music is regularly heard on CBC Radio 2 and has been performed and broadcast internationally in over 35 countries. Andrew is the recipient of the 2009 National Grand Prize in EVOLUTION, presented by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre, top prizes in the SOCAN young composers competition, and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music. As a leading composer of his generation, he has been recognized by election to the Inaugural Cohort of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Royal Society of Canada in 2014. Andrew is currently on faculty at Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland.

This Disc is devoted completely to the music of Vancouver composer Owen Underhill comprised of 4 major works composed between 1998 and 2011 featuring Montreal's Quator Bozzini. Underhill is winner of the 2007 Most Outstanding Composer in Western Canadian Music Awards and is considered Robert-Everett-Green of the Globe and Mail says Underhill is 'one of the most thoughtful and effective of West Coast composers'.

John Burge: Chamber Music

For two decades, Juno-nominated Land's End Ensemble has captivated audiences with high-caliber performances and innovative programming. Having premiered over 100 Canadian works and commissioned dozens of composers, Land's End has firmly established itself as one of Canada's foremost new music champions. To celebrate the 20th Anniversary season, Vincent Ho, LE Artistic Director, has brought together a collection of the nation's most celebrated composers to write new works for this 20th Anniversary recording. The Ensemble is thrilled to present to you this diverse collection of works, which highlights the remarkable musical culture the country of Canada has to offer. "If you want to see a contemporary music ensemble perform provocative, brilliant and relevant work, with an eye for the narrative, then look no further than this bold ensemble that does it all" (Calgary Herald)

Shadow Box

Tapestries

Ann Southam: Glass Houses (Arr. G. Harrison & J. Smith)

Canadian music advocate, pianist and musicologist Elaine Keillor C.M., joins forces with Julliard graduate, pianist, conductor and music-technologist Shelley Katz and his innovative Symphonova Orchestra to celebrate Canada’s Sesquicentennial with a recording featuring works by Canadian composers. Repertoire includes a selection of works by Calixa Lavallee, Clarence Lucas, Rodolphe Mathieu, Ernest MacMillan, Murray Adaskin, Violet Archer, George-Emile Tanguay and John Weinzweig. The Symphonova is, without exaggeration, a first-of-its-kind: by using a collection of cutting-edge technologies, a small ensemble led by a conductor creates the full symphonic sound and musical experience of a large orchestra - anywhere. The technologies include virtual acoustics, a system capable of transforming venues into versatile and superior concert spaces, a newly-developed conducting wand that enables the conductor to fully control timing and expression of the virtual instruments, and Instrumental Loudspeakers, a unique method for authentic sound propagation by converting actual musical instruments into loudspeakers, which are used to augment the sound of the musicians. From a musical perspective, Symphonova’s small setting enables a chamber-music approach to the biggest and most challenging scores. With its unique constellation combining artistry and technological advancement, Symphonova is now a reality that opens new and exciting opportunities for musicians and audiences.

Victor Herbiet has composed works in various styles to add new and innovative selections to the classical saxophone repertoire. Whether he draws inspiration from the Argentinian tango, ragtime, French Impressionism, serialism or electronic music, he strives to infuse flow and energy in every piece he creates. This recording features compositions for saxophone and various instruments that led the composer to the create Through the Ethereal Gate for solo saxophonist-thereminist. This piece is unique because it features a new playing system where the saxophonist can generate notes and effects from a theremin while playing the saxophone. The "Ethereal Gate" is the invisible barrier in thin air that separates the area where the theremin is inactive from the one where the theremin recognizes someone's presence. The composer, on the saxophone, is joined by clarinettist Kimball Sykes, violinist Marc Djokic, and pianist Fr�d�ric Lacroix. Victor Herbiet studied saxophone with Peter Smith and No�l Samyn and composition with Steven Gellman at the University of Ottawa where he obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degree in saxophone performance. After serving with the Canadian Forces music branch between 1999 and 2011, Victor reoriented his career towards solo performance, education and composition. By blending the idioms of twelve-tone music with other styles such as French impressionism, Canadian folk, American jazz and Latin music, Victor has created a musical language that is accessible and interesting for diverse audiences.

Janke: Cinco Puntos Cardinales

Foreman, Charles: Ballade

SOUTHAM Glass Houses Revisited • Christina Petrowska Quilico (pn) • CENTREDISCS CMCCD 16511 (58:10)


Glass Houses Nos. 1–7, 9, 13


This disc consists of nine selections from a larger group written by the late Canadian composer Ann Southam, who died in 2010 shortly after working on this music. The choices were made by the composer and the pianist, her longtime friend and fellow Canadian Petrowska Quilico, who also helped to edit the music, originally penned in 1981 and published as Glass Houses. The new edition is thus Glass Houses Revisited. The title is a pun and an homage to the music of Philip Glass, but although her pieces broadly mimic his characteristic rhythmic overlappings, Southam adds a number of touches to make the music her own. Her music tends to be more tuneful than that of Glass, and more apt to look backward at historical sources, especially Baroque dance forms. The composer’s own brief notes, which were left uncompleted at the time of her death, also credit Canadian East Coast fiddle music as a source of inspiration. Glass is thus more of a pure Minimalist, but Southam’s music is more accessible, sunnier, and dare I say it, more likable. The fascinating cascading figures are there, but with a bit more seasoning for taste. This material holds up well to repeated hearings.


Petrowska Quilico has championed Southam’s music for many years. Her playing here is a marvel; as is often the case with so-called Minimalist music, the writing is much more difficult to play than it seems to the casual listener. The coordination of the quicksilver rhythmic shifts requires intense concentration and much of the music is fast and relatively quiet at once, a great technical challenge that recalls the etudes of Chopin and Liszt. Quilico calls her fingers “whirling dervishes” when playing the Glass Houses. She brings it off brilliantly, adding no little warmth as well.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

Land of Living Skies II