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Wesley Shen, harpsichord
January 18, 2019, Toronto, ON

"Toile de Jouy" (or simply “toile”) refers to a type of decorating pattern in which a complex scene is depicted and repeated on a simple, usually white background. It originated near Versailles in the mid-18th Century and was extremely popular, perhaps in part because a ban on cotton in France had just been lifted. The scenes depicted on the fabrics were often pastoral or historical, such as the flight of the first hot air balloon. In "toile de jouy", I wanted to explore the complexity and ornateness of this type of design. The textile required a vast amount of creativity and technical detail to pull off - it is perhaps one of the most virtuosic fabrics of its time. The harpsichord is the perfect Versaillesian conduit to embody this rococo textile.

http://www.monicapearce.com

Compositions

Monica Pearce - Toile de Jouy

Harbour Symphony (1986)
By Hildegard Westerkamp

It sounded like a herd of happy elephants caught in a traffic jam. —Globe and Mail
Is it going to sound like Oh Canada? —Richmond Review.
Mere words are inadequate to describe what took place when the Symphony began. —
Harbour and Shipping Magazine.

On May 2nd 1986, nearly 150 boats of all sizes and shapes gathered in Vancouver Harbour around Canada Place to perform the first–ever Vancouver Harbour Symphony for boathoarns. The piece was composed on commission from the Canada Pavilion for its Expo 86 opening. It is probably the largest environmental music event ever to be mounted in Vancouver.

Special thanks to Bernard Bomers, Special Events Coordinator for the
Canada Pavilion, who first conceived and commissioned the event; Joe Carter for pioneering the Harbour Symphony idiom (on a smaller scale) in St. John’s Newfoundland, and for helping direct and conduct this one; to Brian Lewis, Marine Consultant, and Mary Jane Green, Logistics Coordinator. Special thanks also to Vancouver’s Marine Community for participating so enthusiastically in all facets of the event and for performing vigorously; to Bob Swanson who designed, and who’s company Airchime made most of the boat horns heard in
this piece; and finally to Ina Dennekamp for playing on Swanson’s horn-set the beginning of Song of the Sockeye, put to melody by Phil Thomas, based on a poem found on a notice board in River's Inlet and written by an unknown fisherman describing his life in the 1930s.

Final thanks go to the late Howard Broomfield, as well as to Victoria
Fenner, Peter Thompson, and Leon Wolf, who recorded the live performance of the Harbour Symphony in the following places in and around the harbour: on the water from one of the participating boats, in the Main Street docks area, in Stanley Park near the nine-o’clock gun and on Canada Place.

In this version you are hearing a mix of these recordings, plus the radio communication before the piece begins and after the conclusion of the event, when the many boats are directed to leave the harbour in a coordinated fashion.

The Harbour Symphony was composed in memory of my brother, Helmut Westerkamp, who, as a cadet sailor on the German training ship “Pamir,” went down in a hurricane in the mid-Atlantic on September 21, 1957.

https://hildegardwesterkamp.ca/

Hildegard Westerkamp - Harbour Symphony

"Begin" for unaccompanied girl's choir.

Performers: Raise Her Voice from Oakville Choir for Children and Youth

Performance venue and date: July 1st, Podium on the Edge Canadian Choral Festival "Float" event, St. John's NFL.

Duration: 06:36

Program note: 
Begin is a 6’ composition for SSA a capella chorus. Based on Toronto writer Tanis Rideout’s poem “Begin”, music describes two young woman swimmers swimming across Lake Ontario in the 1950's. Sailing through the geological landscape of Lake Ontario, music expresses how nature and history defines the relationship we have with water. Theatre elements such as making sound effects, body percussion, and “rapping” of swim terminology are used to highlight the drama of the text. Written for “Raise Her Voice” girls chorus, this composition conveys an empowering message how young women faced and conquered huge challenge with perseverance and courage.
This work is commissioned by Choral Canada for Oakville Choir for Children and Youth with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, New Chapter Canada 150 Grant. The work was selected for performance at the 2019 ISCM World Music Days in Tallinn, Estonia; one of the six works representing Canada.

https://www.alicepyho.com/

Alice Ping Yee Ho - Begin

"Aurora Borealis" - composed for orchestra

In a review published in the "Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music", Dr. Margaret Lucia wrote: “Aurora Borealis"…is a strong, well-crafted orchestral…fanfare and is very clearly Stroobach's signature work. Prominent timpani and brass are answered by violins in an antiphonal style. The middle section is somewhat reminiscent of Bartok's "Game of Pairs" (the second movement of his "Concerto for Orchestra") in the angular, intervallic writing for bassoon and clarinet.”

"Aurora Borealis" is written in the tradition of a Franz Liszt tone poem - a one movement programmatic work. The rhythmic motive of the sixteenth note followed by the quarter note, which is heard throughout, conveys the majesty and awe one feels when viewing the Northern Lights. The more sparsely orchestrated middle section blends the different woodwinds together with the strings, to illustrate the beautiful colours of the Northern Lights. I also deliberately used the higher pitches in many of the instruments to represent the fact that the magnificent display of the Aurora Borealis is high up in the heavens. 

"Aurora Borealis" was performed and recorded onto a compact disc of the same name (https://collections.cmccanada.org/final/Portal/Composer-Showcase.aspx?component=AF-Query-Composer&record=eb48a3f6-04d5-42cd-9de6-092a8b5ca83f&lang=en-CA) by the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro David Currie. This project was awarded funding from FACTOR (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records), the Council for the Arts in Ottawa and the Corel Endowment for the Arts.

Since this recording "Aurora Borealis" has received seventeen performances by leading orchestras across Canada and Europe and has been broadcasted on radio stations around the world.

Evelyn Stroobach is a professional musician and an award winning, published composer. She is currently a PhD candidate in Music Composition in the UK. Stroobach has won regional, national and international awards for her works.  Recently, Stroobach was honoured in the Senate and the House of Commons at the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada for her participation as composer on the newly released "Aboriginal Inspirations" CD (www.musiccentre.ca/node/147580).

Read her full bio here:
https://collections.cmccanada.org/final/Portal/Composer-Showcase.aspx?component=AAIL&record=eb48a3f6-04d5-42cd-9de6-092a8b5ca83f

Aurora Borealis

Evelyn Stroobach - Aurora Borealis

Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra by Maya Badian
- Mircea Badian (1967-1989) In Memoriam -
Movements: 
I. Preludio [Marimba] (4:49)   
II. Aria [Vibraphone] (3:47) 
III. Perpetuum mobile [Marimba/Vibraphone] (2:42).

Instrumentation:
Marimba and Vibraphone, soloist (1 player) / 1(picc),1,1,0,asax / 0,1,0,0 / timp, perc(3) / strings.

Performers:
Marie-Josee Simard, marimba and vibraphone   
Jahja Ling, conductor
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra 
Dr. Maya Badian, composer
Vancouver, Canada
March 7, 1989
Duration: 11 minutes

Program notes:
“Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra by Maya Badian is acknowledged as the first concerto ever scored for these instruments in Romanian music history. 
The idea for the concerto came from her son Mircea who, at 20 already a virtuoso percussionist, wanted to perform the world première of the work. The concerto is dedicated to the dearest memory of Mircea Badian, who made tremendous contribution in assisting his mother to compose the parts of the virtuoso percussion instruments.  
I. Preludio (marimba and orchestra). The solo marimba is ingeniously treated as a melodic instrument. The movement is in a free form with the opening theme surrounded by micro-structures of indeterminate pitches, based on different cells from the theme and performed by the four members of the orchestra’s percussion section. These indeterminate sounds gradually become actual pitches, scored for winds and brasses. Transforming music from “noise” into “sound” is a marvellous technique, suggestively named by Pierre Boulez illusions acoustiques.  Toward the end of the Preludio, the marimba solo once again recalls its theme.  
II. Aria, the second movement (vibraphone and orchestra), is built with a pure combination of timbres that justifies the movement’s title. The predominance of solo voices generates the lyric expression of this movement. 
III. Perpetuum mobile, the final movement (marimba/ vibraphone and orchestra), focuses on the virtuoso aspects of both solo instruments, within a complex moving soundscape. The main ideas from the previous movements now include alternations between noise and determined pitch as well as between solos and full orchestra, being presented in a tumultuous vision, and gradually involving the whole orchestra in fortissimo. This approach emphasizes the global effect of this concerto as a strong and powerful statement imbued with subliminal textures. 
This Concerto represents a major work in Maya Badian’s output.” - Fred Popovici.

"CONCERTO FOR MARIMBA, VIBRAPHONE AND ORCHESTRA by Maya Badian explores the virtuosity of the two solo instruments and the technique of the soloist. Like a musical sculpture, this concerto sensitively blends the peculiar timbres of percussion instruments." (E. Douglas Hughes: Promenade Program Notes, March 6 & 7, 1989, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra).

http://www3.sympatico.ca/badian/

Maya Badian - Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra

This Time, 1992

Performed by the Ardeleana Trio on Spinners of Starlight
Laurie Glencross, flute
Bonnie Shewan Jeffrey, piano
Brenda Muller, cello

"This Time is informed as simply and directly as possible by the heart. It is the unfolding of feeling through the careful choice of sonorities, through waiting and through periods of intense activity."
-Brenda Muller, cellist

Ann Southam - This Time

Composed by Ann Southam
Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano

“I didn’t think anyone would play this piece. But when Christina performed it, I loved the sound and what was happening as the hands interacted. And I loved the little tunes and motifs that could be heard in the interaction between the hands. It takes a whiz-bang pianist to make those heard. I don’t know how she does it!” – Ann Southam, composer

“Inspired by Riley and Reich, she [Southam] sounds nothing like them (though one often senses a Riley- like Zen thing there) and as the music moves in modules at the player's discretion, one never gets the sense of a process at work. It all flows, naturally and inexorably, tonal but capable of surprise, as carefully chosen dissonances startle like drops of blood on snow.” – Phil Kline, New Sounds Radio (New York Public Radio, 2019)

“Toronto virtuosa Christina Petrowska Quilico becomes the first pianist to perform Ann Southam’s Rivers cycle in its entirety tonight. The 19 solo piano pieces, written from 1979-1981, last a total of two hours, and demand extraordinary physical stamina from the player. Petrowska Quilico, whose recording of the cycle has just been released on the Centrediscs label, has the monster technique to pull it off. Built on intricately and unpredictably interlocking melodic patterns, the pieces carry the listener into shimmering, at times ecstatic, realms.” – Tamara Bernstein, the National Post

https://christinapetrowskaquilico.com/

Ann Southam - Rivers (Set 3, No. 8)

Für Dich - For You (2005)
for 8 (or 2)-channel audio
by Hildegard Westerkamp
Commissioned by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM)
Premiere: August 16, 2002, Valhalla Summer School of Music, Silverton, BC, Canada

Full programme note:
https://hildegardwesterkamp.ca/sound/comp/1/foryou/

Hildegard Westerkamp - Für Dich - For You

Clarisse Tonigussi, soprano
Narmina Efendiyeva, piano

acwc.ca/members/edith-covach/

Cantata Argentina

Edith Covach - Te Recuerdo

Requiem for Judith
by Sylvia Rickard

Leslie Dala, piano 
Robyn Driedger-Klassen, soprano
Leah Giselle Field, mezzo soprano

"In 1997 I was in a small choir at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. My alto partner, Judith Harreman, was suddenly stricken with a fast-growing cancer. Treatment helped her recover for about 2 weeks, then she suddenly died. All of our choir members were filled with grief. Our teacher, Catherine Young, asked me if I would consider writing a song for Judith. I agreed heartily. My friend, Sheilagh Ogilvie wrote a poem “for Judith”. By strange coincidence Sheilagh’s orthodontic surgeon was Judith’s husband! Catherine Young, soprano and our mutual friend, Norma Selwood, mezzo soprano, and my friend, Toshiko Tampo, pianist, gave the first performance of this requiem at the Conservatory. We all loved Judith and we deplored her early demise; she had two teen-age children. I really felt sad while writing this song." - Sylvia Rickard

Watch here: https://youtu.be/RlXVHp3k9lo?t=3470

Sylvia Rickard - Requiem for Judith

A fun, energetic polka that brings to mind a barn dance or outdoor garden party, written by Island composer Natalie Williams Calhoun for the Atlantic String Machine's 'The Harris Project'.

Rochford Square Polka

Title: Winter's Tale
Instrumentation: Flute Alone
Composer: Colleen Muriel
Performer: Colleen Muriel 
Location of Performance: St. Peter's Church, West Molesey, Surrey, England
Date of Performance: February 13, 2010

elflauto.ca

Colleen Muriel - Winter's Tale

Indigo (suite for piano)

4 short movements. The names of these movements are -

Indigo
Blue in Green
Green in Blue
Jesus and The Ferryman

Composed by Colleen Muriel in 2014 
Performed by pianist  Eric Stevens in London, England 
Commissioned by Winifred Hall 

www.elflauto.ca

Colleen Muriel - Indigo

Performed by the 2022 National Youth Choir of Canada/Chœur national des jeunes du Canada 

Conductor: Dr. Jean-Sébastien Vallée
Composer: Carmen Braden*

*Canadian composer

Make Me a World

Crooked by Nature by Carmen Braden (NYCC/CNJC 2022)

Glimmering Moonlight, piano solo, performed by Kathleen Feenstra, September 2022, at Kathleen's Piano Studio, Chilliwack BC.

www.sardispiano.com

Kathleen Feenstra - Glimmering Moonlight

composed by Susan Griesdale: see susangriesdale.com

Ophelia Dances Alone Sound Recording - Susan Griesdale

Forever in Bloom

Piano - Za Klavir: No. 5 / solo piano / composed and performed by Nina Platiša / recorded at Port William Sound studio in Mountain Grove in 2023 / 1 of 27 original compositions featured on Nina's 2023 album debut Za Klavir: For the Piano.

Za Klavir: For the Piano

Za Klavir: No. 5

Program Notes

Iridium is a hard, brittle, elemental metal and is the second-densest metal (after Osmium) with a density of 22.5. It is often alloyed with platinum. This creates a connection to Varèse’s Density 21.5 for flute alone, which has played a large part in my musical life. Iridium is one of the rarest metals found in the earth’s crust (found in Alaska, amongst other places); it exists mostly in the core of the earth. If Iridium were formed into the shape of a gold bar, it would shatter under its own weight. 

Iridium is in three short continuous movements, 6 minutes in total. We begin in the core of the earth: pulsating, molten, and hot. Metallic whooshes, pulses, and drones play against the live flute flutters, bends, and other special effects. After about two minutes, we emerge onto the earth’s surface into the mountains of Alaska in an ethereal, evocative mix of ocean waves, gulls, wind, whale songs, and celestial voices,  and the live and recorded flutes dance through the harmonic series on C. In about the fourth minute, the pulsating, ominous pressure returns, and gradually the Iridium shatters into many pieces. 

Iridium is composed for two flutes and fixed electronics. The electronics consist of 74 imported found sounds, 72 recorded flute clips, and 25 Ableton sounds Some of these shared the same track, so there is a total of 20 tracks against which the two live flutes play. The density of the sounds you hear is intended to reflect the density of the metal. The recorded flutes, which I recorded in my home studio,  serve as a bridge between the live flutes and the electronics.  The coordination is fluid and organic, with time marked in the score in seconds, and an approximation of the electronics notated in the score, and the performers are given flexibility.

Iridium for two flutes and electronics perf. by Sarah Bassingthwaighte

"Morning, Taipei 101" features the first 14 seconds of a theme from my orchestral piece "Urban Suite". Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Suno AI, feeding it melodies from my own works to see who make music better. So far, AI still has a way to go in modern music, but it might surpass human creativity in a year or two!
Visit my YouTube and watch the video I created:
https://youtu.be/pDohUCN5SDg?si=HjY7ah33YWhN3gl5

《Morning, Taipei 101》，前14秒的音樂動機來自我十年前創作的管弦樂作品《Urban Suite》第一樂章，由法國號獨奏開展，全曲描寫了我初次到溫哥華從機窗俯瞰的感受。近期開始使用Suno，將自己過去的作品主旋律作為seed餵養AI，與AI進行PK

Morning, Taipei 101

Check out the video on my YT:
https://youtu.be/JJOTpB6yhDg?si=9AMbPveqEtgY8JvA

Home Sweet Home

Watch the music video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eWMeVEAwwCY?si=3ECNKoCsfC7t6vch
#stablediffusion #aivisuals #luma

White Silence  (白色靜默)

In the Woodlands

Original Music Recorded by Fionaliza (Fiona Elizabeth Armstrong)

Audio Engineer: Julian Bertino Sound

Album Art Photographer: Authentic Living Photography

Magnolia

Convention Centre Reflections

Prairie Mecca Montage II

Mecca Illuminations

Writing this, I was looking out at a snow covered field and the clear blue sky, feeling tranquil. This is the audio representation of that feeling!

Tranquil Blue Sky - spa

Nothing Can End: I - Child I Long For (for baritone and piano)

Nothing Can End: II - Language Is the House (for baritone and piano)

Nothing Can End: III - What Does a Mother Say to Her Child (for baritone and piano)

"Solitude" is a reflective piano solo written for the upper intermediate level student. Multiple pianistic techniques are employed including hand crossovers, melody projection, and a wide keyboard range. The mood is introverted, passionate, thoughtful, expressive.

Solitude

"Within the Still Moment" is a flirtatious duet for flute and piano composed using contemporary and modern idioms.

Within the Still Moment

Performed by the Ethos Collective at Pyatt Hall, Vancouver, BC. 

Just The Hipbones And The Fingers (2015)

New Music Ensemble: Chicago Introduction
Fulton Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Nov 5th, 2017

Daniel Pesca (Artist-in-Residence at University of Chicago), piano

Program Notes:
"Isles" resulted from my reading of "the Lost Salt Gift of Blood", a collection of short stories by the Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod. Drawing inspirations from the writer’s hauntingly beautiful depiction of the Canadian maritime landscapes, this piece displays three musical “isles” in three movements set in contrasting landscapes and moods: shimmering and light, resoundingly violent, and silently turbulent.

I. As Birds Bring Forth the Sun

Rise up, my love (2017)
SSAATBB a cappella
Publisher: Manuscript
Duration: 3:35

Written for Spiritus Chamber Choir, Calgary AB, and their director Tim Shanz. This is a setting of the famous text from “Song of Solomon” alongside text from “Ubi Caritas” and “Set me as a seal.”

Visit www.laurahawley.ca to view the full text.

Rise Up My Love

Performed by AK Coope (clarinet) and Daniel Tones (percussion)at the Canadian Music Centre in Vancouver, BC, October 15, 2018

Cedar (2018)

White Lace

"Insects and Machines" 
Commissioned by the Red Bank Chamber Music Society 
World Premiere:  American String Quartet, May 5, 2019 in Red Bank, NJ

String Quartet No. 4 (2019)

Recorded Live at the Rolston Recital Hall, October 18th, 2019 as part of the Musicians in Residence Program at the Banff Centre concert series.

Inni means Bison in Blackfoot. This song was composed about the presence and disappearance of the Bison on the plains. The composition was supported by the Coastal Jazz Society Indigenous Artist in Residence in 2017.

Flute, Alto Flute - Jessica McMann
Viola - Karen Shepherd
Piano - Beverley McKiver
Composer: Jessica McMann

Recording: The Banff Centre for the Arts

Inni

composer: Marie-Claire Saindon
performers: National Youth Orchestra Canada
Recording (album): Migrations
publisher: Cypress Choral Music

visit https://cypresschoral.com to study the score while you listen

Buy the sheet music

Terre Neuve - SATB - by Marie-Claire Saindon

SAKURA SONGS – VOLUME II
four haiku songs/cycle for soprano or mezzo-soprano, flute, cello and piano
duration: 5:30
haiku: various
also included: arr. of Sakura, Sakura for flute/cello/percussion (played by singer) and piano
AvP 132

View on the CMC Shop: https://cmccanada.org/shop/61056/

Sakura (from Sakura Songs, Vol. 2)

Chasing the Raven was recorded by the SOCCO string quartet as part of a live broadcast on King.FM in Seattle on May 27th, 2016.

It was inspired by watching a number of small birds chasing a raven, each getting close to harass it, then quickly flying out of the larger bird's reach.  The raven seemed unperturbed and maintained its dignity as it continued on its way.  There was so much energy and acrobatic flying on the part of the smaller birds, I found I had to stand and watch.  In the piece, this is reflected in the short fragments, that move between the members of the quartet.  A more sedate, calm melody which appears in the middle, represents the raven. 

For first nation cultures in the northwest, the raven also represents creativity and intelligence. As I thought more about this piece, I felt that as a composer I am often 'chasing the raven', trying to capture new ideas and inspiration, making this piece as much about my own creative process, as the birds I saw that day.

Diane Berry - Chasing The Raven

Sprit*Essence by Mary Gardiner

Ardeleana Trio
Laurie Glencross, flute; Bonnie Shewan Jeffrey, piano; Brenda Muller, cello

“This work came about in response to an article which upheld the premise that the spirit of humankind, beset these days with anguish over the state of the world, can still find beauty, and it is the artist’s task to reflect beauty as well as anguish. The work has three distinct sections. The first has a continuous figure suggesting serenity. Although each instrument asserts itself in turn, all finally return to serene co-existence. A short interlude allows the performers, using musical gestures provided, to create an atmosphere evocative of a new day. An ancient Hebrew folk dance is the basis for the final section, full of exuberance. The work ends with a return to the initial theme of serenity…”

Recorded in 1993 in Toronto, Ontario, at Humbercrest United Church.

Mary Gardiner - Spirit*Essence

Performed by Marianne Wiens, violin; Tony Christie, cello; Joanne Bender, piano - June 7, 2011.

http://www.joannebender.com/

Joanne Bender - I Sing in the Shadow of your Wings

Divertimento for woodwind trio (flute, oboe, clarinet) in three movements.
Florin Leonte (flute), Nicusor Mardarescu (oboe), Silviu Butnaru (clarinet).
Recorded on July 10th 2016 at the Romanian Opera in Iasi.

https://dianacotoman.com/en/

Diana Cotoman - Divertimento

Association of Canadian Women Composers

The ACWC is a professional organization for Canadian women composers, their supporters, and the performers of their music.

ACWC / ACC

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