September 2025

Taking Flight

In Moonlight (feat. Lorna Crozier, Doriann Forrester & Esther Ewing)

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Nova Scotian composer Amy Brandon is releasing her cello concerto Simulacra, now available on Bandcamp. 

Recorded in January of 2023 with acclaimed cellist Jeffrey Zeigler (jzcello.com) and Symphony Nova Scotia, the work was conducted by Karl Hirzer (karlhirzer.com) in a live performance as part of Upstream Music’s Open Waters Festival at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax. 

The dramatic and sonically shifting work was commissioned by Zeigler with assistance from Arts Nova Scotia and Canada Council for the Arts, and recorded by John D.S. Adams of Stonehouse Sound. 

Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, a former member of the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet, lives in New York and is Assistant Professor of Chamber Music and Innovation at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He is considered one of the most innovative and versatile cellists of our time, described by the New York Times as “fiery,” and a player who performers “with unforced simplicity and beauty of tone.”

This single is the first release from a new album anticipated in early 2024, which will include chamber pieces by Brandon performed by Quatuor Bozzini, Ensemble Paramirabo, Chartreuse Trio, and the Alkali Ensemble. All the music on the new album was written since 2017 and recorded between 2019 and 2022. 

The title of the cello concerto, Simulacra, refers to Baudrillard’s famous book on semiotics, and the concept of ‘a copy that does not have an original’, or the idea that sometimes we create our identities out of nothing, becoming hyperreal, says composer Brandon. Throughout the piece, timbral elements undergo continuous transformation, eventually ending in an uneasy balance.

Composer Amy Brandon's pieces have been described as “...gut wrenching and horrific” (Critipeg), and "otherworldly, a clashing of bleakness with beauty" (Minor Seventh). Her performances, installations and acoustic works have been presented at the Gaudeamus Festival (Screen Dive), National Sawdust (NYC), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Winnipeg New Music Festival. She has received Canadian and international composition awards and honourable mentions including the Leo Brouwer Guitar Composition Competition (Grand Prize 2019) and an East Coast Music Award 2022 for Composer of the Year. She teaches composition at Dalhousie University at the Fountain School of Performing Arts.

For more information, please visit amybrandon.ca

AmyBrandon Simulacra MvtIII

The Birth Song 誕生歌(Bilingual Song)
from children's opera The Monkiest King 淘氣小猴皇
for SA children chorus (2 groups of "Elements" characters)
by Alice Ping Yee Ho 何冰頤 and Marjorie Chan



The Monkiest King - Scene 1 Birth Song

Song of The Clouds 彩雲之歌
from children's opera The Monkiest King 淘氣小猴皇
for erhu, pipa, piano and SATB chorus
music & Chinese lyrics: Alice Ping Yee Ho
作曲及中文歌詞: 何冰頤


Song of the Clouds

loft hours

pour 3 violoncelles, viola, chorale mixte, baglama électrique, danse kayamba (Kenya), chant traditionnel de Colombie (Copla de Ordena, voix de Maria Olga Pineros), cor français, tuba et piano, percussions orchestrales, tabla, batterie électronique du compositeur
https://bergerrond2.bandcamp.com/album/la-r-p-tition-du-m-me-acte

Vincent Bergeron, composition musicale, drum numérique, édition audio et mixage

La répétition du meme acte

L`espace Qui Séparait Les Entités De Leur Habitat Naturel

This piece was performed at a student composers concert at Wilfrid Laurier University in the spring of 2017.

Performers: Morgan Lovell, Isaac Maliach, Dylan Murphy, Chris Yoon, Jeremy Hunter

Revolve

expérimentation réalisée dans le cadre du projet du cours d'art sonore, réalisée dans la passerelle de l'UQAC aux aurores ; inspiré du travail de Jacob Kirkegaard, processus de "sonic time layering"

free download, free to use

one hour in five minutes

Enescu (Original Mix)

154 - pour voix du compositeur
from Des Voix au Hautbois, released March 21, 2019 
Vincent Bergeron, composition vocale, chant, enregistrement et mixage, en 2019
---
3 compositions entrelacées en forment une seule 
pour l`album Des voix au hautbois* 
https://bergerrond2.bandcamp.com/album/des-voix-au-hautbois

*17 minutes en bonus à l`achat

01- ... - A

Performers:

Amanda Lowry (flute), Erik McKintyre (trumpet), Veda Hingert-McDonald (violin), Carl Ng (saxophone), Morgan Lovell (cello), Gregory Turner (piano), Brayden Krueger (marimba), Max Lindsay (percussion)

This composition is made up of a collection of different guidelines ranging in specificity, so that the resulting music is left up to the various improvisatory choices of the performers. 

This piece was performed on April 6th 2019 at the composition students' Grad Festival at Wilfrid Laurier University.

what I heard through your ears

Composer Amy Brandon's pieces have been described as “...gut wrenching and horrific” (Critipeg), and "otherworldly, a clashing of bleakness with beauty" (Minor Seventh). Her performances, installations and acoustic works have been presented at the Gaudeamus Festival (Screen Dive), National Sawdust (NYC), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Winnipeg New Music Festival. She has received Canadian and international composition awards and honourable mentions including the Leo Brouwer Guitar Composition Competition (Grand Prize 2019) and an East Coast Music Award 2022 for Composer of the Year. She teaches composition at Dalhousie University at the Fountain School of Performing Arts.

Association of Canadian Women Composers

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

AmyBrandon Simulacra MvtIII

amybguitar

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