Hiraeth (Migration No. 2) for solo flute (excerpt) by Emilie LeBel, performed by Mark Takeshi McGregor. Available on the album "Lutalica" on Redshift Records. Download the Lutalica album for free at: redshiftrecords.org/releases/tk468/

Canadian composer Emilie LeBel hails from Toronto (Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat territory) but presently teaches at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta (Treaty 6 territory). She composed Hiraeth (Migration no. 2) at the request of Mark Takeshi McGregor in 2017. LeBel states that Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation: it means a homesickness, a nostalgia, a yearning, a grief for the lost places of one’s past. The second work in LeBel’s Migration series, Hiraeth explores a microtonal language that alternates between the intensely lyrical and the unsettlingly constricted — reflecting the traveller’s desire to be free and unfettered, all the while longing for a home to which they cannot return, or a home which maybe never was.

Emilie LeBel: Hiraeth, Migration No. 2 (excerpt)

Described as a “mind-blowing” musician of “huge physical energy” (Times Colonist), flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor is one of Canada’s leading interpreters of classical, contemporary, and experimental music. As a soloist, chamber musician, and interdisciplinary artist, Mark has performed extensively across five continents, including appearances at Vancouver New Music Society, Little Chamber Music Series That Could, Innovations en Concert (Montreal), GroundSwell (Winnipeg), Honolulu Festival, Internationale ADEvantgarde-Festival (Munich), the Melos-Ethos Festival (Bratislava), Núcleo Música Nova’s International Symposium of New Music (Curitiba, Brazil), and the 2017 ISCM World New Music Days (Vancouver). An outspoken advocate of new music, Mark is the principal flute of the Aventa Ensemble in Victoria, flutist of the Vancouver-based Tiresias Duo with pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and flutist of the McGregor-Verdejo Duo with guitarist Adrian Verdejo. McGregor has given many local and world premieres, and considers the commissioning of new works by contemporary composers to be a cornerstone of his work as a musician.