ACWC 40th Anniversary - February

September 2024

Dark Waters is an imaginary title that paints a mental picture of the mysterious “altered state” of nature. By using the unique timbre of a woodwind quintet and strings, the music describes the vicious cycle or transformation of water. The quiet rumbling woodwinds gestures against slow moving sustained strings lines represents a persistent energy which is everlasting. This musical gesture is subdued at first but becoming increasingly volatile, and rises to an intense “tutti” figure that symbolizes the unifying force of destruction.

Dark Waters UT Wind Ensemble Leah Manning January  23, 2010. Walter Hall

Composer: Katerina Gimon
Performance: Voices of Concinnity
Publisher: Cypress Choral Music Inc.

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

All Together We Are Love (SATB) -  by Katerina Gimon

I’m super excited to share my latest release, an original setting of “Little Child of Long Ago” by Canadian poet Marjorie Pickthall, for SATB choir with piano accompaniment. 

This piece invites both choir and audience to reflect on the timeless wonder of the Christmas story, making it a heartfelt addition to any choral repertoire—perfect for community and high school choirs.

Digital copies are available through Sheet Music Plus https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/little-child-of-long-ago-22805538.html and Sheet Music Direct https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1578808/Product.aspx 

Thank you to Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir - Virtual Singers for the beautiful recording!

Listen to the full recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djEo4JDoAlg Please subscribe for more wonderful listening!

Little Child Of Long Ago - Gerda Blok-Wilson

she danced in the rain (tuba version) - composed in 2018 by Cait Nishimura. This recording is from a live performance by Masahiro Amano (tuba) and Shiho Ojima (piano) in 2024.

she danced in the rain

she danced in the rain (tuba version) - Cait Nishimura x Masahiro Amano

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

Tookah Sapper, soprano
Kelly Horsted, piano
text by Duncan McFarlane

Re-imagining coloratura and scat singing, this piece is also an homage to Harold Arlen’s 'Stormy Weather' (lyrics by Ted Koehler), which begins: 

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't together,
Keeps rainin' all the time

It’s a poignant love-song, one that Kalypso – the nymph/demi-god of Homer’s Odyssey – could well have sung. After the storm which shipwrecked him on his way home from Troy to Ithaca (and to his waiting wife, Penelope) Odysseus was swept on to Kalypso’s island, and she held him there (against his will, but not really) for seven years.

Both torch song and art song, Kalypso’s plea is set in a warm, tender, jazz-rich, Chopin-esque language, and there are many musical connections here with Penelope, particularly in both pieces’ middle sections, which reach for something more bare and visionary. Each woman calls out to Odysseus, tries to summon him back to her, and in this moment their music speaks in the same tongue.

Kalypso (for soprano and piano)

Atropos
Kontraband Kollektif
4 part voice
Laura Swankey, Mingjia Chen, Maria-Carmela Raso, Lieke van der Voort
Humber College Studio, 2016-2017

Third and title song of the EP Atropos, this song is part of an aural account of illness, suicide, loss and and my personal conflicting feelings surrounding these events. For more in depth information, please refer to an interview done in 2018: https://acourseindying.com/interview-when-your-father-commits-suicide/

Kontraband Kollektif was created in 2016 by Lieke van der Voort. Refusing to tie herself down to a single musical project and longing for extended collaborations, Lieke decided that an open concept collective would be the ideal situation. Kontraband Kollektif is an always shifting, moving and inclusive collaborative: anybody can be a part of it.

http://www.kontrabandkollektif.com/index.html

Lieke van der Voort - Atropos

Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars - Vocal Version
Performers: Carmen Braden (voice), Mark Adam (vibraphone)
Location: On Carmen Braden's 2019 album Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars (Centrediscs)

Program Note:
In extreme northern and southern latitudes, summer nights are bright as the sun stays above the horizon or dips just below before rising in a glow of unending twilight. Darkness is gone for months, and so are the stars and aurora. Under the glow of these soft star-less nights, I wrote 5 short songs imagining where the stars go when we can’t see them anymore. Below are the lyrics for each of the songs. 

1. Where do the stars play when they disappear in the summer?
Where do the stars play when they disappear in the summer? 
They play among the shadows fallen, far away.

2. Comet River
When there is no gravity
Downstream means nothing,
nor upstream.

3. A clandestine meeting with an aurora
When she sends her light around me
When she sends her arms of light around my outward star
We shine green fire
Like sky dew shining on new sky leaves.

4. Sway me around, Orion!
Sway, oh sway Orion!
Come, sway me around!

5. When the Moon hangs lonely in the blue Sky,
When the Moon hangs lonely in the blue Sky,
Then the Moon calls out
“Far away Star, 
come home and bring the snow.”

https://www.carmenbraden.com/

Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars

Carmen Braden - Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars

Words by Christine Moncrief
Vocals by Emily Grignon
Composed, recorded, and mixed by Amanda Lowry

Shiva Roses was written as part of a theatre project called Us/We/Ours, which explored themes of disability and distress, and was co-created by Terre Chartrand, Amanda Lowry, and Christine Moncrief, with artistic guidance from Tanya Williams and Heather Majaury. An early version premiered at the UnHinged Festival of Disturbing Theatre; more recently, it was performed at the IMPACT 19 International Theatre Festival, with support from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.

Amanda Lowry - Shiva Roses

Thy Light, O Liberty!
Text by Hannah More (1745-1833)
SSA
Meghan Jamieson, Victoria Marshall, Will Reid
Recorded June 2020

https://www.emilyhiemstra.com/

Emily Hiemstra - Thy Light, O Liberty!

Tiffanie Samuels, soprano
Melisande Sinsoulier, piano

Inspired by the poem of the same name by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998), “In the Summer” is a humble, tender, yet deeply passionate declaration of love. The piece, written especially for the “A Woman for All Seasons” concert (May 2019, University of Toronto), attempts to reflect the honest and understated self-awareness of Qabbani’s narrator; one who seems to know full well that they cannot capture in words alone all that they feel, and embraces that fact with neither pride nor shame, but with a sense of awe. Live recording from the premiere, performed by Tiffanie Samuels (Soprano) and Melisande Sinsoulier (Piano)

Nephenee Rose - In The Summer

Association of Canadian Women Composers

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

Nephenee Rose - In The Summer

ACWC / ACC