Robin #2 by Robert Daigneault

Robin #2 by Robert Daigneault is one of the first pieces we performed. Daigneault is an Ontario composer born in Hamilton and has collaborated with artists of all kinds. “What interests him is to use a fragment of reality as the starting point for a composition, and to make reality fanciful.” (CMC Biography)

Robin #2 is a prime example of this interest. It uses recordings of birdsong as inspiration for the composition first at the original speed in the vibraphone and then slowed down in the clarinet part. While there is no actual recording playing during the piece the snippets of recognizable and yet ghostly motives play continuously in both the clarinet and vibraphone.

Gulper by Lisa Neher

Gulper is for solo Bb clarinet and inspired by a deep-water fish written by Lisa Neher. Lisa is a very active composer, mezzo-soprano and teacher in Portland, Oregon. The piece has contrasting sections of free, floating notes and strict rhythmic motives. Gulper had its World Premiere performance by Taylor Gaskins, November 2, 2018 and this will be the Canadian Premiere.

From the program notes:

“The gulper eel or pelican eel is not an eel at all but a deep-water fish named for its enormous, pelican-like mouth, which is much larger than the rest of its long, skinny body. At the end of its tail, the gulper eel has a special organ with many small tentacles that glows pink and occasionally flashes red to attract prey, mostly squid and crustaceans.

It is tragic and deeply frustrating that what little we know about these animals comes from those inadvertently caught in fishing nets. The sudden change of temperature as they are pulled from the depths to the surface kills them, and thus research on live gulper eels in their natural habit is extremely limited.

In this piece, the gulper eel comes to life, illuminating its lure, lying in wait for prey, moving about in the deep sea with its whip-like tail, and finally coming in for the kill. I hope this piece cultivates interest and empathy for this fascinating and mysterious creature.”

-Lisa Neher

Blu-Tack by Freya Waley-Cohen

Blu-Tack is a piece we will be performing at Spring Songs on March 3, 2019 at Esquimalt United Church at 7pm. It is a work for clarinet/bass clarinet and vibraphone by award winning British composer Freya Waley-Cohen. We are excited to present the Canadian Premiere of this set of miniatures which will also be performed in the UK in Cardiff in May by NASduo .

Quoted on the front of the score:

Days stretch like blu-tack
and its the little things that go;

which shoulder to throw salt over,
the slowest way to walk home.

-Jo Surzyn

Spring Songs

We are excited to announce that we will be performing at Esquimalt United Church on March 3rd at 7pm. Works include Canadian Premieres of Blu Tack by UK composer Freya Waley-Cohen and Gulper by American composer Lisa Neher. In the coming weeks watch for posts about these composers and others that will be featured.

Esquimalt United is an accessible facility. Tickets are 20 for general admission and 15 for seniors, students and arts workers. We hope to see you there.

Adjudicating this Spring

In March Melissa will have the pleasure of adjudicating for the Brandon Festival of the Arts in Brandon Manitoba. Sessions for winds and brass will be held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral on March 5th.

Also this spring she’ll be at the Kootenay Festival of the Arts in Trail, British Columbia adjudicating for Winds and Brass and presenting a workshop on April 24th on practice techniques.

If you’ll be in either city during the festivals please stop in and say hello!

2018 Adventures

This is the time that we often look back at all that’s happened over the year and look forward to the next. We’ve had a lot of adventures in 2018.

Early in the year we had the amazing experience of being Artists in Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. While staying there we had access to all the percussion equipment we could need, a studio just for us, fitness facilities, nature all around us and the food, oh the food! It was such an inspiring experience and we met wonderful artists and musicians while there that continue to inspire and support us.

In March we performed our concert Woodcuts in Saskatoon and then headed over to Windsor, ON to perform at Melissa’s Alma Mater the University of Windsor for their Alumni Concert. There we performed Shelley Marwood’s piece Dialogues written for us. Special update: Shelley has officially earned the title of Doctor of Composition, congratulations to her!

Early June we premiered Kendra Harder’s work Cat Fight at the Strata New Music Festival as well as some chamber works of Annette Brosin. Since then Kendra has been awarded the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes for her work The Book of Faces, congratulations Kendra.

In June we took to the road and traveled to British Columbia to perform in three different venues in Langley, Victoria and Vancouver. It was a long trip but good to experience different venues and perform in new places in Canada.

In July with Kendra and Shelley we ventured off to ClarinetFest 2018 in Belgium where we collectively had our international premieres. It was an awesome experience where we met many people from Canada as well as around the world.

In August we relocated to Victoria, British Columbia.

September brought us back to Ontario where we performed our Concert Far and Wide in Toronto as well as at the University of Waterloo.

We were thrilled in December to perform a free improvisation session for Sofa Sessions Series. They have a new session every month featuring musicians from Victoria.

A whirlwind of a year with a lot of great experiences. We are working on some wonderful projects in the new year. I hope you will join us for our next adventure.

Lessons!

Have you ever wanted to get better at a piece of music? Want better tone? Want a challenge? Want better marks in music class? Always wanted to learn an instrument?

There are so many reasons that you might want music lessons and in addition to the reasons listed above they are fun! You can take a private lesson and have the teacher streamline your learning to achieve your specific goals. If you have a friend that you would like to learn with, you can arrange for a group lesson. If you are a classroom music teacher you can have a specialist come into your classroom and work with your students.

Even if you live in a remote community you can contact a teacher to make arrangement for an online lesson!

Lessons are such a good way to make progress in your music education. If you know a musician offer them a gift of a music lesson this season, no wrapping required!

Latest Updates!

It’s been pretty crazy the last few months so we have fallen behind on our updates, so he’s a quick catch up! We have relocated to Victoria, British Columbia and are excited for new collaborations and concerts in the area.

At the end of September we had the pleasure of performing at Array Space in Toronto and at the University of Waterloo for their noon hour concert series. We performed an all Canadian line up and both venues had fantastic people in the audience including some alumni from University of Windsor. Thanks for coming out and giving your support, we really appreciate it. Check out a few pictures:

Next month Melissa will be joining DieMahler Ensemble for their concert “Vive la France!” on Saturday November 24th at 2:30 at St. Mary’s Church 1701 Elgin Road, Oak Bay, Victoria BC, if you’re in the area come check it out!