This is a weird mash-up/plunder of 4 songs: Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap, Partita for 8 Voices (IV. Passacaglia) by Caroline Shaw, Baby Come Back by Player and Africa by Toto. Hope you enjoy the craziness!

Baby, Come Back To Africa With Your Partita And We'll Play Hide And Seek

Premiere performance of my piece for the McGill Wind Orchestra as their composer-in-residence! February 16th, 2018, Pollack Hall, Montreal. 

This piece, based on Gerard Manley Hopkins' sonnet 'The Sea and the Skylark', features spatialization of the solo trios in the middle of the hall and four speakers projecting the fixed media material in the very back of the hall (which some caused issues for recording the trio members). Hope you enjoy!

Between the Sea and Rhyl (2018) - for wind orchestra, two solo trios, and fixed media

Performed by Violet Saathoff (oboe) and Poppy Kipfer (piano) at McGill University during Violet's recital, April 14th 2018.

[lacri[mosa]ic] (2018) - for oboe and piano

Movements: I. Prelude: Today, I touched                      (0:00-5:00)     
                      II. The Sun, and so it engulfed me.       (5:13-10:00)
                      III. The cool mouth of the Sky    (10:26-16:45)
                      IV. Finale: Fed me still life.   (17:03-24:30)

Commissioned by the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP) for their Canada 150 concert of music spanning 100 years on July 1st, 2017. Performed by the brilliant Iris Ensemble. Hope you enjoy!

UMAGNOLIA (string quartet no. 1)

Performed by the lovely and incredibly talented Will Thain (violin), Erin Patterson (cello) and Jérémie Gates (piano) in Montreal, March 2018.

Program note: Garmonboziac (2017) is inspired by the television show Twin Peaks, created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, and the subsequent prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (directed by Lynch). The malevolent spiritual entities from Twin Peaks reside in the extra-dimensional hell known as ‘The Black Lodge’, where they sometimes feast on people’s pain and sorrow (through the surreal imagery of creamed corn). This inspired the structural and motivic material in the piece, where different rhythmic and melodic cells “feast” on one another. I was also inspired by the show’s particularly brilliant portrayal of ‘The Black Lodge’. Inside the Lodge, the actors performed each movement and read all text backwards, which was then edited to play forward for the scene. This produced an unsettling effect of unnatural movement and speech. The reversed/forward sound and motion are perceived at the same time, which I try to recreate in Garmonboziac.

Garmonboziac (Montreal Performance 2018) - for piano trio

Commissioned by baritone singer Parker Clements, with Hua-Chu Huang, Ori Solomon, Christian Wrona, and Patrick Theriault on strings. Premiered in London, ON, on April 7th 2018. 

This piece was the Third Prize winner in the Vocal category of the SOCAN awards.

Text from Robert Frost's poem 'Into My Own', the first featured poem of his first published collection 'A Boy's Will' (1915).

Into My Own - for baritone singer and string quartet (2018)

Piece for baritone singer, percussion, double bass and piano, inspired by Craig Rubadoux's dreamy painting 'Last Tango'. Premiered by Jonathan Nussman (baritone), Erin Donovan (perc.), Travis Harrison (double bass), and Geoffrey Conquer (piano) at the Lunenburg Acamdey of Music Performance. 

June 22, 2018.

Last Night We Danced on Coarse Sand (2018)

Premiered by Julia Barber (soprano), Tristan Durie (flute) and Julia Kim (cello) in Toronto, ON. Text from Ursonate (1932) by Kurt Schwitters.

Urs..on..at..e (2018) - for soprano, flute, cello

Double choir piece composed in 2017! Conducted by Ian Bannerman and performed by members of Pro Coro in Edmonton on January 17, 2019.

H(e)aven - for double choir

Commissioned by the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, topiarylife was premiered by the LAMP Trio (Mark Fewer, violin; Adrian Brendel, cello; Walter Delahunt, piano) on November 18th, 2018.

topiarylife (2018) - for piano trio

Piece for chamber ensemble, premiered at LAMP on June 21st, 2019. 

In three movements (attacca):
I. As a kernel planet exhales//She travels on soles (0:00-3:27)
II. In blood fluorescence//Inhaling trust (3:28-6:54)
III. You said your name was Portia//We cried. (6:55-9:50)

Sax quartet: James Conquer, Nicole Strum, Haley Plauger, Jack Smith
Vibraphone: Max Lindsay   
Percussion: Fraser Krips
Double Bass: Travis Harrison    
Piano: Emily Rho

breath inside a grain of sand - for chamber ensemble (2019)

Composer, vocalist, instrumentalist and filmmaker. Fraser's music has been described as "fresh" with "pithy modesty" (New York Classical Review, 2017).

Gavin The Hawk Fraser

Popular tracks