To Ann Cleare and Alice Coltrane, for grace and expansiveness. 

I took an ocean swim with Ann that reminded me of the motion of waves, which I had grown accustomed to, living in San Diego. I thought of moving through water – the rhythm of breathing, the pulls outside and inside, searching for space and air. Memories of some music floating on the horizon:  Ann Cleare’s on magnetic fields, and Alice Coltrane’s Radhe-Shyam from her 1977 album Transcendence. 

La Jolla, CA – New York – La Jolla – Las Vegas, NM, 2014

Barry Crawford, flute; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Adrian Morejon, bassoon; Patrick Pridemore, horn; Benjamin Herrington, trombone; Jennifer Elowitch, violin; Miranda Cuckson, violin; Louise Schulman, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello; Doug Bailliett, contrabass; Matthew Gold and Pablo Rieppi, percussion; Christopher Oldfather, piano; conducted by James Baker

Oceans in oceans

Murmuration (live Version)

https://cassandramiller.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/bel-canto/

Bel Canto

Commissioned by Ensemble Kore with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts

Recipient of the 2011 Jules-Léger Prize for New Chamber Music (Canada’s highest honour for composition)

Marie-Annick Béliveau, mezzo-soprano
Geneviève Déraspe, alto flute
Xavier Brossard-Ménard, clarinet
Jonathan Barriault, guitar
John Corban, violin
Pemi Paull, viola
Yegor Dyachkov, cello

The piece is above all a portrait Maria Callas. It’s based on the opening statement (the opening sighs) of Puccini’s Vissi d’arte – Maria Callas’ live version of it, with all the full generosity of her vibrato, swoops and portamenti (all the things outside of notation). At the beginning, it’s as if we hear her young voice, and towards the end, the voice of her later years.

The path of the piece through time is not only about the ageing of an extraordinary woman, but also about the listener. Time slows down to allow for an engagement with detail, for a closeness or submersion in the sound, and possibly for clarity or meditative stillness.

Two simultaneous ensembles perform here without coordinating with each other. This makes for layers of melody, creating a sonic depth of field – echoing perhaps the depth of the Greek landscape in which I felt the warm revelation that originally inspired this piece. Moreover, to separate the ensemble into two smaller groups, without conductor, enables an intense chamber-listening between the players. This intimacy allows them to carry out with great musicality all of the non-notatable things I mentioned earlier – the swoops and vibrato, and all the unnamable subtleties of vocality.

Bel Canto

Bel Canto, Ensemble Kore with Marie-Annick Béliveau (2010)

Check out a new track from 130701's Montreal-based composer Olivier Alary, who has previously collaborated with Bjork and released on FatCat and Aphex Twin's Rephlex label.
'Mirages' is the first of a series of instrumental pieces based on the idea of porous memory and blurring the line between fiction and reality. It was written for a 15-piece chamber orchestra comprised of a string quintet, wind quintet, second clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, and percussion. It was recorded in Montreal, spring 2018.

Mirages

Olivier Alary - Mirages (for 15 Musicians - Rehearsal)

The Rain Like Curses

Coro della Facoltà di Musicologia di Cremona
Dir. Giovanni Cestino

XVI Festival Internazionale della Musica Corale "Nella Città dei Gremi"
Recorded on 12th July 2019
San Giuseppe Church, Sassari

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Ave maris stella
Dei Mater alma
Atquae semper Virgo
Felix caeli porta.
by Venanzio Fortunato (?) or Paolo Diacono (?)

Ave del mare Stella,
Madre di Dio pregiata,
Vergine alma, et beata
porta, che n’apri il ciel lucente e bella.
by Francisco Soto de Langa

https://cfm.cr.it/progetti/xvi-festival-internazionale-della-musica-corale-nella-citta-dei-gremi/

Photo - Clerks singing Ave Maris Stella from BL Add. 49999, f. 58

Ave (2018)

And/Or (2019) - 14 musicians and electronics - Turning Point Ensemble - live-recording

This work explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation to create timbral and musical situations that are:
organic and/or synthetic,
mechanical and/or lyrical,
symmetrical and/or asymmetrical,
integrated and/or separated,
on-the-beat and/or off-the-beat,



Performers: Turning Point Ensemble
Conductor: Owen Underhill
Electronics: Anthony Tan

And/Or (2019) - 14 musicians and electronics - Turning Point Ensemble

Composer Keiko Devaux, winner of the 2020 Azrieli Prize for Canadian Music talks to Paul Steenhuisen on The Soundlab New Music Podcast.
Devaux’s “Arras”  will premiere at the Azrieli Music Prizes Gala on Oct. 22, 2020 at 8:00p.m.

Watch the livestream free. More info: azrielifoundation.org/ampgala

The Soundlab New Music Podcast: In-depth interviews with international contemporary music artists. Hosted by Paul Steenhuisen. http://www.soundlabnewmusic.com/keiko-devaux/

World premieres of the 2020 AMP winning works will be performed on Oct. 22, 2020 by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne led by Lorraine Vaillancourt, featuring mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó and soprano Sharon Azrieli.

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Balado : La compositrice Keiko Devaux, lauréate de la Commande Azrieli de musique canadienne 2020

La compositrice Keiko Devaux, lauréate de la Commande Azrieli de musique canadienne 2020, s’entretient avec Paul Steenhuisen dans le cadre du balado Soundlab consacré à la musique actuelle.

Arras, la composition primée de Devaux, recevra sa première lors du Concert gala des Prix Azrieli de musique, le 22 octobre 2020 à 20h00. 

Regardez la diffusion du gala gratuitement. Pour plus de renseignements : http://azrielifoundation.org/galapam

Le balado Soundlab propose des entrevues en profondeur avec des créateurs de musique contemporaine des quatre coins du monde. Animateur : Paul Steenhuisen. www.soundlabnewmusic.com/keiko-devaux/

Les œuvres des trois lauréats des PAM 2020 seront présentées en première mondiale le 22 octobre 2020, et seront interprétées par le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne sous la direction de Lorraine Vaillancourt, avec la mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó et la soprano Sharon Azrieli.

Podcast: Composer Keiko Devaux, Winner of the 2020 Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music

live performance of Salvatore Sciarrino's Due Studi for solo cello

AlterEgo live in Stoccolma

Salvatore Sciarrino - Due Studi

Cello and electronics version of Animus II - world premiere Live in Strasbourg - Festival Musica 2019

Murmuration (live Version)

k ko