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Leaf Music and Adam Zinatelli Present: Fifteen Feet Closer to the Sky

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and trumpeter Adam Zinatelli are delighted to announce their forthcoming album Fifteen Feet Closer to the Sky, recorded in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, University of Calgary, earlier in 2023. The recording consists entirely of premiere recordings of new works, some of which have not yet even had their first concert performance. All the music explores the composers’ inspiration in writing for the trumpet as a solo instrument, with its unsurpassed vast and varied expressive range.

Adam Zinatelli is Principal Trumpet of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed as guest Principal Trumpet with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Les Violons du Roy. He studied at the Glenn Gould School with Andrew McDandless and the Cleveland Institute of Music with Michael Sachs. Adam is a Yamaha Artist.

The recording features a stellar group of musicians, including timpanist Alexander Cohen, fellow trumpeters Aaron Hodgson and Miranda Cairns and pianist Akiko Tominaga. Composers include Gabriel Dharmoo, Tobin Stokes, Jeffrey Ryan, Eric Nathan, David John Lang, Claude Lapalme, Dorothy Chang, and Karen Donnelly. Chang’s All that glitters was commissioned specifically for the recording and possible through funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Funding for the project was also provided by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

The recording features many styles of music for trumpet, including virtuosic writing in Tarantella dell’Ubriaco by Claude Lapalme, a “romp” showcasing the cornet at its agile and articulate best. Other pieces were written during COVID lockdowns, including Karen Donnelly’s Fanfare for the Backyard Birdfeeder (2020), utilizing the trumpet to imitate birds.

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell). 

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Leaf Music and Gillian Smith Present: En Route

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Canadian violinist, Gillian Smith is releasing her latest recording, En Route. The album features five new works for solo violin by Canadian composers Carmen Braden, Amy Brandon, Derek Charke, Corie Rose Soumah and Hsiu-Ping Patrick Wu. It will be released in a digital version on November 3 on the Leaf Music label. A free release concert will be held on Thursday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the new Joseph Strug Concert Hall, Dalhousie Arts Centre.  

The concept for these pieces was the idea of voices: voices being heard for the first time; voices being heard in new ways and voices interacting in new ways. Each of the composers approached this concept in a unique way and featured the violin in a particular light. Two pieces ask the performer to vocalize in addition to playing the violin. For example, in Tree Talk, Carmen Braden asks the performer to converse with their violin, in fact with the tree whose wood became the violin. Corie Rose Soumah asks the performer to vocalize to add sound colours to the music. 

The title track, EN ROUTE, was composed by Hsiu-Ping Patrick Wu, who says the piece is about his Taiwanese heritage and his journey to Canada: “It’s a piece about my nostalgia, homecoming, resilience and determination.” The piece quotes Nova Scotian folk songs and a variation of the traditional Taiwanese hit song, Bang-Chun Feng. Patrick also created the artwork used on the cover of the digital booklet; an acrylic painting titled EN ROUTE.

Amy Brandon’s Dualisms shows the contrasting voices of the violin – one timbral and one more traditional, intended to give a feeling of unease or disorientation. Nebula Variations by Derek Charke is a large-scale improvisation in four movements, a work that plays on space and time, fantasia, counterpoint and virtuosity.

Gillian Smith is an enthusiastic advocate for new music, releasing her debut solo album, Into the Stone on Leaf Music in 2019. The album was nominated for the 2020 Classical Recording of the Year by the ECMA and was described by The WholeNote’s David Olds as “a stunning debut album by a rising star.” She’s also recorded with members of the Acadia New Music Society on the Centrediscs label and performed on Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars, chamber music by Carmen Braden (Centrediscs, 2019). That album was nominated for the 2020 ECMA for Classical Recording of the Year.

Gillian’s solo and chamber music recordings have been broadcast on radio on stations across Canada and in the U.S. and the U.K., and she performs in recital and as a chamber musician in series and festivals such as Open Waters, Shattering the Silence, Musique Royale, Music Room Chamber Players, and others. To learn more, please visit www.gilliansmithviolin.com.

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts in the presentation of this project.

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell). 

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Leaf Music and Luminos Ensemble Present: In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) PEI’s professional choral ensemble, Luminos Ensemble has released its latest recording, In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven. The 16-member group, under the artistic direction of Dr. Margot Rejskind recorded the album of music by Atlantic Canadian composers at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, Sturgeon, PEI, in May of 2022. It will be released in physical and digital versions on October 27 on the Leaf Music label.  

The album features a stellar lineup of all-Atlantic Canadian composers: Atlantic String Machine’s Adam Hill, EKR (Evan) Hammell, Emily Doolittle, Terry Pratt, Derek Charke, Peter Togni, Kathleen Allan and David Buley

The evocative title track, In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven, was composed by Nova Scotian Derek Charke. “We wanted an album that reflected the diversity and breadth of choral music being written on the east coast,” said director Margot Rejskind. “We’re showcasing composers like Adam, Emily and Evan, who all wrote these new works for us.” 

Luminos Ensemble is a Charlottetown-based professional choir of trained vocal soloists that formed in 2017. The group received a nomination from the East Coast Music Awards in the inaugural Best Choral Recording of the Year category in 2023 for their single, I am an Island That Dreams by David Buley. They thank the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this project. To learn more, please visit LuminosEnsemble.com. 

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

 

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell). 

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SHHH!! Ensemble and Leaf Music Present “An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene” 

SHHH!!… a powerful utterance designed to draw attention forward… creating space and awareness… opening ears to something important.  

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene presents a radical catalogue of our created world’s sounds as a continuous multimovement work for piano, percussion, and fixed electronics. Composed by Frank Horvat for Ottawa’s innovative SHHH!! Ensemble, this work illustrates the current state of pollution and destruction by employing over 150 different audio samples indicative of the climate crisis. The musical score augments and interacts with this soundscape, using a broad range of percussion instruments and piano. The “Holocene” is the current geological epoch, which began approximately 9,700 years before the Common Era (BCE), following the Last Glacial Period.  

An Auditory Survey was conceptualized during two week-long creative retreats at Port William Sound in Mountain Grove, Ontario. Nestled in an unassuming cabin and adjacent studio, the musicians worked with composer Frank Horvat, each track the result of extensive experimentation and an uncompromising search to create something compelling and real: “As nature lovers and artists we are conscious of humanity’s impact on the environment, and until this project we had been searching for a way to effect meaningful reflection on this issue that we care so deeply about. Collaborating with Frank and working on An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene has been a powerful way for us to consider our shared responsibilities and explore our place on Earth,” the Ensemble said. 

Percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham comprise the SHHH!! Ensemble, a duo carving a space for themselves as electrifying performers of new music. With a keen ear for experimentation and exploration, SHHH!! has been deemed “truly virtuosic and intense” by Toronto’s Confluence Concerts and “a beautiful discovery” following their debut with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec. Formed in 2017, SHHH!! Ensemble began developing their signature “avant-accessible” style through residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Music Centre. Since then, SHHH!! has continued to develop innovative repertoire for their ensemble commissioning and premiering new works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, John Beckwith, Jocelyn Morlock, Monica Pearce, Harry Stafylakis, and Noora Nakhaei, among others.  They are also artistic director of the Ottawa New Music Creators. 

SHHH!! Ensemble’s creativity and vitality were especially notable through the pandemic, with one critic commenting, “This virtuoso duo are so agile and inventive… I doubt anything short of a geological cataclysm will shut them down” (The WholeNote). Major highlights in 2020–2022 include the duo’s acceptance into the prestigious Evolution: Classical career development residency at the Banff Centre, a National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms concert, the world premiere of JUNO-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock’s Spirit Gradient with the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, and a nationally broadcast recital on the CBC Music program In Concert.   

SHHH!! Ensemble’s debut album Meanwhile (Analekta) was released to critical acclaim, reaching top positions on Apple Music and Spotify playlists, and nominated for 2023 Classical Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards. The title track Meanwhile, by composer John Beckwith, was the first piece written for SHHH!!.  

Frank Horvat is “one of the most inventive songwriters to come out of the contemporary scene in Canada” (The WholeNote). As a pianist and multigenre composer “he has made the tricky musical leap that allows him to pursue a niche of his own” (Edmonton Journal). Frank explores a wide array of themes in his music, from love to the environment, mental health, and social justice issues. His works have been featured on over twenty albums on ATMA Classique, Really Records, and Centrediscs. With composition premieres on four continents, his music has been showcased internationally in theatre, feature films, and on radio/TV networks, including BBC Radio 3, Bravo, CBC, CBS, Discovery, HBO, and Vice, and featured in publications such Gramophone, The Strad, BBC Music Magazine, Toronto Star, and Vancouver Sun.  Frank’s 2021 album Music for Self-Isolation was listed in the “Top 5 Classical Albums of the Year” by CBC Classical, and his other 2021 album, Project Dovetail, was included in CBC Music’s “Must-Hear Fall Albums.”  Frank has been a panelist at the Classical:NEXT conference speaking on the topic of “artivism” and was featured in Chris Gunness’s UK Classical Magazine podcast.   

Born in Ottawa, and a University of Toronto graduate under Christos Hatzis, Frank lives and composes by the lake in Toronto with his wife, who is also his manager. Frank is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer and the inaugural recipient of the Kathleen McMorrow Music Award for contemporary composition.   

Recorded at Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene will be released on October 20, 2023, on all platforms. SHHH!! Ensemble thanks the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of this project.  

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.  

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MEDIA CONTACT:  

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt,  peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).

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Leaf Music and ICOT Present: “Recurrence”

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and ICOT (formerly known as The Iranian Canadian Composers of Toronto) are delighted to announce their forthcoming album Recurrence, recorded in May at Humbercrest United Church in Toronto.

Recurrence had its genesis at the beginning of the pandemic, when the notion of repetition assumed a novel and unsettling meaning for many people. The album explores the idea of repetition through different iterations in the natural and artificial worlds. In five new, far-reaching compositions, the concept of repetition and its consequences are teased apart in myriad ways through the unique lens of each composer; some took to ecology, some to politics, and one was inspired by the late fashion designer, Alexander McQueen. The result is five exceptional artistic works, each unique in its aesthetic and sonic exploration into the vortex of repetition. Shahi’s Eroded imagines musically the cycle of coastal erosion, while Kayan Emami has created a musical reflection of a young Iranian boy and his boat in Kian in Rainbows, (also paying homage to recently deceased composer, Jocelyn Morlock). Maziar Heidari’s piece, Arrays, alludes to the beauty and potential in mathematics and music of recurrence. 

Speaking about the album, ICOT executive director and composer Saman Shahi says, “Recurrence is one of ICOT’s most ambitious projects in scale and concept. Some of Canada’s best and brightest composers and performers are paired with a powerful core concept: how much of our human experience is shaped by patterns, cycles, and routines. Humans find meaning, comfort, dread, fear, and expression in repetition be it in our memories, our daily lives, the politics we witness, the traumas we face, or the nature we behold; this is what this album is trying to investigate and probe.” 

Recurrence features the compositions of renowned composers Maziar Heidari (also a conductor), Saman Shahi (also a pianist), Keyan Emami, Jordan Nobles, and Nicole Lizée and will be available everywhere on October 13. The project was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and FACTOR. 

The recording features a stellar group of Canada’s finest musicians, including the New Orford String Quartet (Jonathan Crow (violin), Andrew Wan (violin), Sharon Wei (viola) and Brian Charles Manker (cello); Scott Peterson (double/electric bass); Leslie Allt (flute); Peter Stoll (clarinet); Beverly Johnson and Ryan Scott (percussion). 

ICOT (icot.ca) is a non-profit arts organization founded in 2011 by five Toronto-based composers and musicians with the mission of creating new works that bridge Canadian and Iranian culture through music and art. ICOT’s current members are Saman Shahi (executive director), Keyan Emami (artistic director), and Maziar Heidari (music director). ICOT has produced two operas, two ballets, twelve orchestral works, dozens of chambers and vocal works, and three calls for scores that allowed ICOT to collaborate with over twenty composers from eight different countries. ICOT’s music has been performed by Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, Symphony on the Bay, Soundstreams, and Ton Beau String Quartet and they’ve taken part in Toronto Symphony’s 2022 Open House, Tirgan Festival, 2017 Ottawa Chamberfest, and Hamilton Philharmonic’s 2014 “What Next” Festival. ICOT’s first commercial recording, Persian Piano Night, was released in 2018 by Pardis Records.  

Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.  

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For media only: 

Icot.ca 

For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca  (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell). 

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Isabelle David and James Wright added to the Leaf Music roster

Halifax-based classical record label Leaf Music is pleased to welcome two additions to the label’s roster, pianist Isabelle David and composer James Wright.

Praised for her “poetic and flexible virtuosity” (Helsingin Sanomat), Quebecoise pianist Isabelle David has performed internationally, at venues like Musiikkitalo (Helsinki), Jordan Hall (Boston), Carnegie Hall (New York), and Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall (Montréal). She is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, and Canimex Canadian Music Competition Grand Prize.


Set to release on May 27, 2022, her debut solo album, Souvenirs of Auguste Descarries includes 14 works from the distinguished Quebec pianist and composer Auguste Descarries. This prominent pianist holds a special place in Ms. David’s musical background, as the teacher of her maternal grandmother, pianist Louis Lussier. This special
connection, in conjunction with her discovery of Descarries’ manuscripts, led Ms. David to pursue a doctorate in music performance whereby she devoted four years of research to his piano works. Her work was awarded a Joseph-Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and eventually led to
the creation of this album.

After having taught at Wilfrid Laurier, McGill, Carleton, and the University of Ottawa, Canadian composer/musicologist James Wright is a Full Professor of Music in Carleton’s School for Studies in Art and Culture. Amongst his many accomplishments, he is distinguished as being the first musicologist in the history of McGill University to be awarded a Governor General’s Gold Medal.


November 4, 2022, is the anticipated date for the release of his album, De Mille Feux, which features Wright’s composition for string quartet, Ellen at Scattergood. This work is a commission by David Cray as a gift for his wife, Ellen, and as a reflection of their time together on Lac Scattergood, Quebec. American composer Dr. John Cornelius II writes: “Ellen at Scattergood is a really decisive string quartet with attitude! The pacing of the movements really allows the listener to get inside the piece, and it takes traditional forms and genres (Tarantella, Waltz, Rondo) and turns them on their ear. This is a brilliantly sophisticated work that has nothing to prove, except its composer’s audacity.” The album was recorded in July 2020 by the Andara Quartet of Montreal: Marie-Claire Vaillancourt (violin), Jeanne Côté (violin), Vincent Delorme (viola), and Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy (cello), with Veronica Galicia (recording engineer).

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“MESSIAH” – Ensemble Caprice, Karina Gauvin, Ensemble Vocal Arts Quebec, Matthias Maute, Jaap Nico Hamburger

Excerpts from the Handel’s Masterpiece Featuring Acclaimed Soprano Karina Gauvin

Plus New Works by Composers Jaap Nico Hamburger and Matthias Maute

Leaf Music is proud to present a new recording of highlights from Handel’s Messiah, featuring soprano Karina Gauvin and bookended by two new choral works by Montreal-based composers, Jaap Nico Hamburger and Matthias Maute. Maute also conducts Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec and Ensemble Caprice in these vibrant new choral recordings, which will be available for purchase, download, and on all streaming platforms as of November 5, 2021.

Matthias Maute conducts Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec and Ensemble Caprice in performances of Handel’s Messiah throughout the month of December, including Maison symphonique in Montreal (Dec 12) and Palais Montcalm in Quebec (Dec 17). See the complete schedule here

While Handel’s masterpiece has been heard and recorded often, the musicians experienced a feeling of renewal this year: “During the live recording, in an empty hall, it felt like we all were hearing this famous oratorio for the very first time,” says Maute, “After the long drought brought on by the pandemic, this first reunion of choir and orchestra in a wonderful concert hall felt like the rebirth of the spirit of music!”

While sanitary restrictions necessitated a small number of singers – the ensemble has just 12 voices – this is not out of character for the work, though many are used to hearing massive musical forces for the bombastic Hallelujah chorus. Handel himself had a choir of only 16 singers at his disposal when he travelled from London to lead the first performance of his oratorio in 1742 in Dublin. “The flexibility and lightness of a12-voice choir reveals fascinating layers of the work,” comments Maute.

The new recording also includes a short dialogue between Handel and two living composers, with new choral works from the two Mécénat Musica composers in residence, Jaap Nico Hamburger’s Hope and Belief, on a Yiddish text by Isaac Leib Peretz,and Matthias Maute’s O magnum mysterium, which aims to grasp something of the elusive mystery of music. These two works set the theme for the Mécénat Musica Mini-Concerts Santé in the summer of 2020, which delivered music to thousands during lockdown, spreading the magical force of music to help get through the crisis.

Two-time JUNO Award-winning conductor, composer, recorder and flute soloist Matthias Maute has achieved an international reputation. In 2016 he was named artistic director of the Bach Society of Minnesota and in 2019 of Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec. Maute is co-artistic director of the Montreal Baroque Festival and artistic director of the Mécénat Musica Concerts Noncerto concert series and has released 20 recordings on various labels.

Maute founded Ensemble Caprice, praised by The New York Times as “imaginative, even powerful; and the playing is topflight.” Known for an innovative and adventuresome approach to an expanding musical repertoire, Ensemble Caprice has performed in 11 festivals, embarked upon its first Latin American tour, and made its third trip to China in addition to an inaugural tour in South Africa. Instigator of the Mini-Concerts Santé, Ensemble Caprice received the Opus Award for Musical Event of the Year 2020 for this project. Through 1,700 musician hires of professional singers and instrumentalists who perform with 184 classical music organizations, $464,000 were paid directly to the artists who were out of work due to COVID-19.

In 2019, Maute was named Artistic Director of Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec, a professional choir steeped in the grand tradition of choral music in Quebec. The choir’s director, Maute, received one of his two JUNO awards for his album with choir, entitled Vivaldi and His Angels, From 2021 to 2023, Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec is embarking upon a unique project: Art Choral, the history of choral singing through six centuries.

Renowned for her performances of Baroque repertoire, Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin sings the music of the 20th and 21st-centuries with equal success. She has received many prestigious distinctions, including “Soloist of the Year,” awarded by the Communauté internationale des radios publiques de langue française, the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize in London. Performing in opera and with symphony orchestras throughout the world, Gauvin boasts a discography of over 50 titles, garnering three Grammy nominations, and multiple JUNOs and Opus Prizes.

Messiah
Release Date: Nov 5, 2021
Physical/Digital Release
Stream/Download HERE

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New Harp Concerto – World Premiere Performance

Canadian composer Jaap Nico Hamburger presents the world-premiere performance of his new concerto for harp and orchestra. This work was commissioned by the Government of the Netherlands on occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The performance which aired April 18, 2021, features the world-renowned harpist Lavinia Meijer live from the Museon with the The Residentie Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Vincent de Kort.

The concerto is in three movements, intertwined with brief addresses by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Mayor of The Hague.

Jaap Nico Hamburger | Harp Concerto  can be viewed online:

Jaap Nico Hamburger is the Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montréal. His compositions include commissions from Turning Point Ensemble, Ensemble Caprice, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Arts-Quebec Vocal Ensemble, and an original contribution for the project ‘400 years of Dutch Keyboard Music’. He was commissioned by the Dutch Government and the United Nations’ International Court of Justice to compose a new concerto for harp and orchestra, premiered by Lavinia Meijer. Other commissions include works for Discovery Channel, and broadcasting companies in the UK and the Netherlands. He is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer, President and CEO, Orange Music Inc., a music production company; and, a former member of the Board of Directors of City Opera Vancouver.Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he started his musical education at the age of three, and studied piano with Ruben Lifschitz, Alexandre Hrisanide and Youri Egorov. He graduated from the Royal Sweelinck Conservatorium of Music, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with a soloist degree in piano. He has lived in Canada since August 2000. In 2020, Hamburger released Jaap Nico Hamburger: Piano Concerto and Chamber Symphonies Nos. 1&2 through Canadian classical label, Leaf Music. https://www.jaaphamburger.com/

Harpist Lavinia Meijer performs solo concerts in venues worldwide from Carnegie Hall NYC to the Berlin Philharmonie, being one of the most important, pioneering and exciting musicians of our times. Ms. Meijer has performed on international stages such as Carnegie Hall, NYC; Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Paradiso, Amsterdam; Musikverein, Vienna; Carré, Amsterdam; Philharmonie, Berlin, Cité de la Musique, Paris; Bronfman Auditorium,Tel Aviv; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and Seoul Arts Center. Recently she released both Voyage, her seventh solo album with music by Debussy, Tiersen, Satie and Ravel, a live-recording with bandoneonist, Carel Kraayenhof: In Concert and The Glass Effect, to celebrate Philip Glass’s 80th birthday in 2017. https://www.laviniameijer.com/ 

Conductor Vincent de Kort, born in the Netherlands, is very much in demand as a symphonic as well as an opera conductor. Recently he made very successful debuts at the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as well as at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (invited by Valery Gergiev). He is a regular guest at the opera houses of Dresden, Stockholm, Edinburg, Leipzig, Tokyo, Vienna, Vilnius, Tours, Luzern, Bern, Magdeburg, Johannesburg, Hawaii, Kazan. He studied with Mariss Jansons in Oslo and in St. Petersburg with the legendary Professor Ilya Musin, who was also the teacher of Valery Gergiev, and was the assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and William Christie. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Honorary Award of the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Kiev, Ukraine http://www.vincentdekort.com/ 

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Jaap Nico Hamburger: “Chamber Symphonies Nos.1&2”

In honour of Remembrance Day and the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands, Canadian composer Jaap Nico Hamburgerpresents Chamber Symphonies Nos.1&2, featuring Ensemble Caprice and l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. While confronting serious and challenging themes, these works are imbued with hope and optimism.

Jaap Nico Hamburger is the Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montréal. His compositions include commissions from Turning Point Ensemble, Ensemble Caprice, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, and an original contribution for the project ‘400 years of Dutch Keyboard Music’. He was recently commissioned by the Dutch Government and the United Nations’ International Court of Justice to compose a new concerto for harp and orchestra, to be premiered by Lavinia Meijer and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2021. Other commissions include works for Discovery Channel, and broadcasting companies in the UK and the Netherlands. He is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer, President and CEO, Orange Music Inc., a Vancouver music production company; and, a former member of the Board of Directors of City Opera Vancouver.

Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he started his musical education at the age of three, and studied piano with Ruben Lifschitz, Alexandre Hrisanide and Youri Egorov. He graduated from the Royal Sweelinck Conservatorium of Music, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with a soloist degree in piano. He has lived in Canada since August 2000. This release follows the August 21, 2020 release of Jaap Nico Hamburger: Piano Concerto, on Leaf Music.

Chamber Symphony No. 1 “Remember to Forget”
Ensemble Caprice under the direction of Matthias Maute 
Produced by: Martha de Francisco 
Recorded in studio:  Église St-Augustin, Mirabel, QC  (17/11/2019 – 18/11/2019)

“Remember to Forget” is a phrase from Tenach, The Old Testament. The sentence alludes to the notion that doubt (“I should have…I could have…”), rather than being critical (“Where can I improve?”), is inherently self-destructive. We are not necessarily in control of the outcome of events, but that should not deter us from working hard and striving for the best, all toward the positives in life. “Remember to Forget” is a tone poem, using the colours and structures of sound to advance that story, inspired by the biography of György Ligeti (1923-2006).This symphony in two movements is an apostrophe to one of the great musical minds of the age. Ligeti’s own influences stretched back to the 15th century and the richness of polyphony, from folk inspirations and a drenched chromaticism through to jazz and polyrhythm of every description. His work is best known through the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 – A Space Odyssey. This work is a metaphor of a train journey, moving from youth to catastrophe, and through survival to rebuilding, forgiveness, and ultimately to the lessons of the biblical Joseph: to live, work, build, create, and love to the best of your abilities, under all circumstances, every day. 

Chamber Symphony No. 2 “Children’s War Diaries”
 l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the direction of Vincent de Kort 
Produced by:Misha Aster
Recorded live at the Violins of Hope concert: Maison symphonique de Montréal (02/11/2019)

Children’s War Diaries” Five diaries of teenagers who were murdered during the Second World War inspired this piece. These children did not survive, but their diaries did. Twenty years after reading these diaries, composer Jaap Hamburger’s 89-year-old mother, Jannie Moffie-Bolle, published her autobiography “Een hemel zonder vogels” (“A sky without birds”). She too was a teenager at the outbreak of the Nazi war in Europe.  The book, among other things, describes her experiences in multiple Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 2010, Jaap travelled with her to Israel on the occasion of the presentation of her book at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem. The architecture of the Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem is uniquely sobering. It memorializes 1.5 million murdered children, approximately 95% of all Jewish children ages 0-18 years old in occupied Europe. This staggering number is what led Raphael Lemkin to introduce the term “genocide” in his 1944 landmark publication, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. When Jaap – overwhelmed by the starkness of the Children’s Memorial – had left the building and stepped into the blazing Jerusalem sunlight, the contours of a new symphonic work came to mind, virtually complete. The composer went home and wrote it down. “Children’s War Diaries” is a symphony for chamber orchestra in five short movements.

Jaap Nico Hamburger: Chamber Symphonies Nos.1&2
Release date: Nov 6, 2020
Listen Now HERE

JaapHamburger.com

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Saman Shahi: “Breathing in the Shadows”

Breathing in the Shadows is the debut album from Iranian-Canadian composer, Saman Shahi, set to be released September 25, 2020 through Halifax-based label, Leaf Music. The album includes three song cycles, two of which are based on poetry by women from across the globe. The title cycle, “Breathing in the Shadows” tells stories of oppression through alienation, resistance, and self-actualization. Resonating with many communities that historically have lived through the experiences of these struggles, the poems have an inherent musicality, evocative imagery, and a powerful message of unity and hope. The poets represented in this cycle are Forough Farrokhzad (Iran), Carilda Oliver Labra (Cuba), Dora Gabe (Bulgaria), Zhai Yongming (China), and Titilope Sonuga (Nigeria). Breathing in the Shadowsfeatures Maureen Batt – Soprano and Tara Scott – Piano. This cycle was commissioned by Maureen Batt with the support of the Ontario Arts Council and premièred through the recital series Crossing Borders.

The second cycle “Orbit” is a work commissioned by tenor Fabián Arciniegas , set to the poetry of Serbian-Canadian Jelena Ćirić. Winner of the inaugural Canadian Amateur Musicians’ Association (CAMMAC) composition competition in 2019. Set within three movements, the poetry highlights the murky areas of human relationships, uncertainties and inner battles we all experience while interacting with others. “Orbit” features Fabián Arciniegas  – Tenor and Tara Scott – Piano. 

In the third song cycle “Songs of a Wandering Soul,” Saman explores his musical identity rooted in his Western Classical training, minimalism, Contemporary Art music, Progressive Rock, Jazz and Iranian traditional music.  The music leaps back and forth between these worlds much like an immigrant trying to figure out a new place to belong.  The poetry used in this cycle is drawn from Shahi’s teenage years where he was trying to navigate his new life in Canada with words in the early days of blogging. The work displaces the pulse constantly to create an inner sense of groove that changes from measure to measure. “Songs of a Wandering Soul” features Tiffany Hanus – Soprano, Saman Shahi – Piano, Peter Lutek – Woodwinds, Derek Gray – Percussion, Scott Peterson – Electric and upright bass, Natalie Wong – Violin and Cheryl Ockrant – Cello. 

‘Breathing in the Shadows’ is a collection of pieces that I have grown to embrace as some of my most authentic and honest work. I am so humbled to be surrounded by colleagues who believed in my work that enabled the coming to fruition of this album in such high quality and artistic finesse. – Saman Shahi 

Saman Shahi is an award-winning and published composer, pianist, conductor and educator based in Toronto. He’s active in classical music, new music, Iranian traditional music, rock and electronic music, and because of his constant activities in Canada and abroad he has become a sought after performer and composer. Saman’s compositions, including some of his short film scores have been performed in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. As a pianist and conductor, Saman has been an avid performer and advocate of new music in Toronto, and he regularly performs with a variety of Ensembles and musicians. Saman is an Affiliate Member of the Canadian League of Composers, Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre as well as a SOCAN member. He is also one of the founders and the executive director at the Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto, ICOT, a 7 year old art organization that bridges cultures through music and art. Saman is also an active member of the Circle music band, a rock fusion group in Toronto. He was appointed as the music director at Peterborough concert band in 2019. Saman also works as a composer-educator with the Canadian Opera Company.

Breathing in the Shadows
Release date: September 25, 2020
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SamanShahiMusic.com