'Sister' by Edmund Finnis (2013) Lucy Railton - Cello, Aisha Orazbayeva - Violin

Piano 1, Aya Yamamoto
Piano 2, Donia Jarrar

This piece was inspired by what began as a night -time drive with friends beneath the desert sky on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. We would drive out into the desert, with nothing but the moon and stars, the bedus lights, to guide our way. Leaving the heavily polluted city sky behind us, the stars would appear one by one as the curtain of pollution was slowly lifted. The constant whir of the car engine was like a steady pulse that put us to sleep.
In the morning when we returned to the city, the traffic and disorderly, overcrowded streets welcomed us. Driving in that city is a constant brush with death, with cars driving the wrong way down one-way streets as policemen yawn and turn their heads, horse and donkey-drawn carriages blocking the sides of the highways, children hopping rides on the backs of buses, women driving with their babies on their laps, three or four men on one motorcycle, and pedestrians getting injured on a daily basis. Drivers will not even stop or move out of the way for an ambulance.
Eventually we made it to Khan El-Khalili, Cairos famous bazaar and souk in the Islamic District. The souk is filled with coffee shops and hookah bars, where we spent the day. Its narrow alleys and cobblestoned streets are filled with beautiful Egyptian silver jewelry stands, gold, spices, perfumes, accessories, oils and dessert shops where lokmit aadi, deep fried doughnut holes, are made.
My friends and I ended the day with a visit to Cairo Jazz Club, one of the best venues for live music in the city. There was dancing, there were drinks, and then there was dawn. We walked along the Nile. There were no stars, only a reflection of the citys lights on the river water.

-Donia Jarrar 

Cairo, I Love You (for two pianos)

Svadba by Ana Sokolovic

An a cappella opera that takes place the night before a fiancée, Milica, leaves for her wedding. Her girlfriends keep her company all night long and engage in raucous ‘girltalk’, invoking pagan rituals as they prepare her for the impending wedding. What elevates this ‘girltalk’ to a supernaturally exhilarating experience is Ana Sokolovic's style of composition. Using existing Slavic/Balkan peasant folk tales, myths and traditions as her text source, she draws on her native Balkan folk music as a source of inspiration for all her music. She transforms the music and text into her own unique onomatopoeic language and transports listeners to a world of magic realism. The singers have to use every single possible vocal technique - combining opera singing with Balkan folk singing, overtones, extreme chest voice, heightened nasal voice, whispering, creating a wildly inventive intense palette of colours.

Svadba by Ana Sokolovic

Performed by Halyna Honcharenko, Iryna Danylejko and Anna Pidgorna
Text by Anna Pidgorna

“Вcтавай, вставай, Галю, геть вже тобі спати!
Ой, виходь же, Галю, в поле жито жати.”

А в Марусі коси русяві 
Як пшиниця жовтісінькая.
А я їх же розплєтаю, 
Плече білі тай накрию, 
Нєжно розчесаю. 

“Ой пійдемо, Галю, в бору погуляти,
Ой пора же, Галю, калину збирати.”

А в Марусі губи солодкі
Як калинонька примержшая.
А я тую калиноньку,
Візму тай паламаю,
Тай розчавлю ягоди червоні,
Губи жарко поцєлую. 

“Ой, пійдемо, Галю, в ставу одяг прати,
Ой, пійдемо, Галю, пісні поспівати.”

А в Марусі оче ясниє 
Як зірочки в ставу.
А білизна в водє чорній,
Білі руки, білі ноги, 
Білі плече, білі грудє…
А я в ставок тихо зайду 
Тай в глибині втону."


“Get up, get up, Halya, that's enough sleep for you!
Come out, come out, Halya, to reap rye in the field.”

But Marusya's blondish locks are
Like the yellowest wheat.
I will unbraid them, 
And covering her white shoulders, 
Gently comb them. 

“Let's go, Halya, for a walk in the pine-woods,
It's time, Halya, to gather the guelder rose.”

But Marusya's lips are as sweet
As the frost-nipped guelder rose.*
I will take the guelder rose,
Take it and break it,
Crush the red berries,
And kiss her lips hotly. 

“Let's go, Halya, to the pond to do the washing.
Let's go, Halya, let's sing some songs.”

But Marusya's eyes are  
As bright as the little stars in the pond.
And the linens in the black water,
White arms, white legs, 
White shoulders, white breasts...
I will walk into the pond softly 
And drown in the depth.

Drown in the depth (trio)

TEXTUREN 
for soprano, flute, saxophone, percussion, piano, violin and electronics
performed and written for the WET INK ENSEMBLE

Libretto based on botanist Michael Sundue's "A monograph of Ascogrammitis, a new genus of grammitid ferns (Polypodiaceae)". Brittonia 62(4): 357-399. © 2010 The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx

on hat [now] ART 186

WET INK ENSEMBLE & guests
Ariana Lamon-Anderson (clarinets), Eliot Gattegno (saxophones), Ian Carroll (trombone), Andrew McIntosh (viola), Eric Moore (cello), Scott Worthington (contrabass)

Carl Christian Bettendorf - conductor

Rozalie Hirs - poetry
Michael Sundue - taxonomy 


TEXTUREN

For amplified harpsichord and piano.  rocKeys duo.  Katelyn Clark, harpsichord and Luciane Cardassi, piano.  Live recording.  Friday Evening at the Rolston.  Rolston Recital Hall, The Banff Centre.  Feb 4, 2011.

Dubbelspoor by Louis Andriessen

This is the live recording of an improvised piece performed on organetto.  It was performed live at the church in Skagastrond, Iceland, in March 2013.  

Organetto improv on e iceland 2013

Anna Pidgorna (b. 1985) is a composer and media artist who combines her interests in sonic objects, visual art and writing to create works that are dramatic and picturesque. She works in both the acoustic and electronic realms, and is quickly rising on the contemporary music scene. Her mini-opera for voice and electronics, "Mirror, mirror," was premiered by Janice Jackson at Halifax's Oscillations Festival in February 2012. "Light-play through curtain holes" for solo accordion was recently included in ISCM Canadian Section's official submission to World New Music Days 2013. Pidgorna was born in Ukraine and is heavily influenced by her heritage. Ukrainian folk themes appear as bird song in her first orchestral work, "Tintamarre," and form the backbone of her second chamber opera, "On the Eve of Ivan Kupalo." Ms. Pidgorna completed her undergraduate studies at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2007 and is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Calgary. This year she will be participating in a prestigious workshop with Kaija Saariaho and Anssi Karttunen at Carnegie Hall, and the National Art Centre's Composers Program in Ottawa. Days.