November 2023

Compositions by Coreen Morsink

by Coreen Morsink
cello: Sigrid Vandenbogaerde

Finalist at the 2014 Sorodha Composition Competition

Conversations with a Rose

Destine for solo violin.  
Commissioned by Filipino artist Mart Henry Bongabong for the new painting series ‘Mamlakah’.  

Each piece is inspired by a verse from the Biblical passage of Matthew on the theme of Mamlakah.  The intense, chromatic nature of the paintings radiate changing, scattered light which is reflected in the compositions through a sense of synaesthesia.  (The crossing of sound/colour senses). 

Composed by Caroline Bordignon.
Performed by violinist Mirjam Bartol.

Recorded in London, U.K.
January 2023.

Destine

Destine (2022)

Under the Pomegranate Tree for Alto Flute and Baritone Saxophone by Coreen Morsink
World Premiere by Chenoa Anderson, alto flute and Allison Balcetis, baritone saxophone, October 1, 2023, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 

Recording used with permission from Chenoa Anderson and Allison Balcetis.

Score will be available for purchase in the near future from Tetractys Publishing
www.tetractys.co.uk/section726143_275293.html

Under The Pomegranate Tree by Coreen Morsink,  played by Chenoa Anderson and Allison Balcetis

(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

AmyBrandon Simulacra MvtII

AmyBrandon Simulacra MvtI

First Two movements of "Fairy Tales for Princess Katerina" composed and played by Coreen Morsink
Movement 1: Moonlight, Movement 2: Magic Forest.  For complete recording listen/purchase at: http://coreenmorsink.bandcamp.com/track/fairy-tales-for-princess-katerina

Fairy Tales For Princess Katerina By Coreen Morsink, First And Second Movement

erosion for solo violin composed by Coreen Morsink, live recording by Mizuka Yamamoto, Athens Greece.  Recording converted to A=432.  

erosion for solo violin, by Coreen Morsink played by Mizuka Yamamoto, violin

No. 2,3,4 and 10 from the 12-1 Preludes by Coreen Morsink.  These particular preludes use the strings of the piano which have been altered by putting blu-tak to make certain strings a quarter-tone lower (approximately!) The full set of preludes can be bought at http://demerararecords.com/ or heard/watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DjF13UTWEA Thank you for listening! 

12 - 1 Preludes For Prepared Piano 2,3,4 And 10 By Coreen Morsink

This version of "Andromache's Recitativo, Aria and Subtext" has been altered using Audacity programme to A=432hz.  The sound quality is slightly less nice than the original which Carla Rees recorded at standard A=440hz.  Many thanks to Carla Rees for her open-mindedness about pitch, frequency and microtones! This piece would not have existed without her fabulous collaboration and help with fingerings and techniques for this rare instrument.  

Permission to use the text from the play "Andromache" by Euripides translated by Philip Vellacott has been given by ‘The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of Philip Vellacott’.  Score available for purchase at http://www.tetractys.co.uk/photo_10848381.html

Andromache, by C. Morsink, extract converted to A=432hz, played by Carla Rees

Coreen Morsink is a Canadian/Greek composer focusing on music springing from ancient Greek sources as well as unusual tuning systems. Her pieces use compositional techniques which combine old and new with explorations into microtonality, multiphonics and extended techniques.