Ambitus has a specific meaning for a musician — the distance between the highest and lowest notes in a composition. This Latin term for going round was originally an accusation of exerting soft power in Ancient Rome, and is the root of the English word ambition.
This dual meaning is at the heart of Ambitus. It was written in the spirit of Luciano Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza series, an ambitious endeavour for a composer. From a musical perspective, the work is an exploration of range and register, and also timbre and virtuosity.
Ambitus was composed by Toronto-based Gregory Lee Newsome, commissioned by Daniel Cooper for Mark Takeshi McGregor.

Gregory Lee Newsome: Ambitus for alto flute and Max/MSP

Associate Professor of Music Technology & Digital Media at the University of Toronto.

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.