Emilie Gelinas-Noble, viola
Alanna Ellison, harp
Tyler Versluis, organ

VI. ...hope to turn again...

Program Notes:

We all inhabit familiar spaces. The most familiar of places, those that we feel most attached to and contained by, are fertile grounds for the unexpected.

In massive, cookie cutter style apartment complexes of the mid-20th and 21st centuries, we see individuals decorating identical spaces in myriad ways, expressing culture, tastes, and trends. If you enter different units in the same building, you have a feeling of a familiar space – a space which might appear different in the most superficial of ways, but at its core, is simply a replica of a space. How we interact with these familiar spaces is determined by the relationships that we have formed with our own space. We explore different spaces in a similar way, imbuing these spaces with simultaneous meaning and purpose.

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Performed by Open Union
Modular Synth: Peter Bell
Electric Guitar: Patrick Ellis

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Bio:

Paolo Griffin is a composer based in Toronto, Canada, whose music explores focused/unfocussed listening, repetition, generative composition, and microtonality, while maintaining a focus on close collaboration and creative spontaneity with the performers he works with.

Paolo is the Artistic and Executive Director of Freesound, a Toronto-based collective that consists of a core group of the city's most adventurous young musicians and interpreters of contemporary music. Freesound present concerts throughout the year with an interest in the work of emerging composers.

A fierce advocate of accessible arts and inclusive practices, Paolo is also the Managing Director of Xenia Concerts, a Toronto-based charity that focuses on presenting accessible concerts and musical events for autism and neurodiverse communities. Through his work with Xenia, Paolo has helped to shape such programs as Sound.colLAB - a collaborative project in which seven neurodivergent artists have co-created an original piece of music under the mentorship of
professional musicians.

2022-23 engagements include lectures at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, and the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival's Widening the Circle initiative where he appeared as a mentor composer. Other events include premieres with the Continuum Ensemble, with saxophonist
David Zucchi in Toronto, and at the Aurore Renaissance Music Festival in Helsinki. Paolo's music has been featured in at festivals across Canada, including Ottawa Chamberfest, Toronto Summer Music, and Big Lake Arts Festival. His music can be heard in concert and on the radio
by performers and ensembles such as Continuum Ensemble (CA), Residentie Orkest (NL), The New European Ensemble (NL), Avanti! Chamber Music (FI), Thin Edge New Music Collective(CA), Duo Holz (CA), Freesound (CA), and more.

Paolo holds degrees from the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague where he studied with Peter Adriaansz and Martijn Padding. Other teachers have included Linda
Catlin Smith, Anthony Tan, Juhani Nuorvala, Chaya Czernowin, Mayke Nas, Matthew Whittall, Jukka Tiensuu, Rodney Sharman, Gary Kulesha, Nobert Palej, Huba de Graaff, Jan van de Putte,
Ana Sokolovic, Peter Ablinger, Christopher Theofanidis, Mario Garuti, Dmitri Tomozco, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Chen Yi.

Paolo's sits on the board of Musicworks Magazine. His work and research is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canadian New Music Network.

Paolo Griffin - Familiar Spaces (2022)

Small ensemble piece influenced by harry Somers

North Watershed

Composer: laura hawley
Text: by Jeni Couzyn
Recorded live by: Vancouver Chamber Choir; Kari Turunen, Artistic Director

For mixed choir, a cappella

Sheet music available at https://www.laurahawley.ca/catalogue/tapestry/

Tapestry (hawley) 4 Around You I Turn

Tapestry (hawley) 3 Warrior

Tapestry (hawley) 2 Remembering Angels

Tapestry (hawley) 1 A Speck In The Cosmos Beholding The Cosmos

Sheet Music available at https://www.justinhbush.ca/product/sleep-safe-till-tomorrow/12.

Copyright Justin H. Bush, 2022.

Sleep safe till tomorrow - Flugelhorn and Piano

Sheet Music available at https://www.justinhbush.ca/product/the-promise-of-rest/9.

Copyright Justin H. Bush, 2017.

The Promise Of Rest - SATB a cappella

Sheet Music available at https://www.justinhbush.ca/product/agnus-dei/8.

Copyright Justin H. Bush, 2017.

Agnus Dei - SATB a cappella

Paolo Griffin - Familiar Spaces (2022) - Live at Centrala, Birmingham

I Am Not Yours - SATB a cappella

This piece sets Sara Teasdale’s beautiful, stormy poem about love and independence. It’s about wanting to be swept away by emotion—without losing yourself completely.

Winner of the 2024 Chronos Vocal Ensemble Composition Competition
Demo performed here by the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir
Live premiere by Chronos Vocal Ensemble coming soon!

Preview Score - https://cypresschoral.com/composers/gerda-blok-wilson/i-am-not-yours/ 

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCq_67IEnA8

“Lost as a candle lit at noon, / Lost as a snowflake in the sea.”

#ChoralMusic #IAmNotYours #SaraTeasdale #NewMusic #SATB #ContemporaryChoral #RockyMountainChamberChoir #ChronosVocalEnsemble #CanadianComposer

I Am Not Yours

Gerda earned a Bachelor of Music (UBC), Professional Teaching Certificate (UBC), Kodály Teaching certificate (VAM), Master of Education (U of Calgary)-Kodály music. 

She is founding director of the 110 member Vancouver CanSing Choirs (Youth/Adult), conductor for SelfDesign home schooling choir, Artist-in-Residence for St Patrick’s Chamber Choir and provides support for grade 8-12 choir.    

 Recently, Gerda offered choral development for Simon Fraser, Lord Tennyson Choirs, original musical theatre at General Wolfe, and conducting development for the BC Kodály Association-Douglas College.

 Gerda’s career has included performance tours in England, New York, across Canada, commissioned choral pieces by Raminsh, Telfer and Bosma and performance honours at Carnegie Hall (Missa Brevis by Raminsh), Ottawa (Unisong Festival), Musicfest Canada (Calgary/Vancouver/Ottawa), Performing Arts BC and National Festivals.  She has conducted the BC Music Educator’s Honour Elementary Choir and her choirs have been   demonstration choirs at festivals including Musicfest Canada and BC Performing Arts Festival.

Gerda was conductor for the award-winning Bel Canto Choirs (Prince George), PG Jazz, Cantata Singers, PGSSHigh School choir.  She served as Music Resource Teacher for SD#57 and taught summer music education courses at UNBC.  She has 4 mini-musicals published by THEMES AND VARIATIONS and continues to arrange and compose music for choirs. 

Open Union is an experimental music duo made up of composer-performers Peter Bell (modular synthesiser) and Patrick Ellis (electric guitar) based in Birmingham and London.

Described by the treasured composer Howard Skempton as being, ‘sometimes subtle and unstable; sometimes rich and dense’, the duo aims to build up strong collaborative relationships to create new verbal and text based works. Their current collaborators are Christine Cornwell, Wilson Leywantono, May Chi, Paolo Griffin and Seán Clancy.  

The duo have performed across the UK at events such as Ealing Extranormal, AMOK, Don't Mind Control, Birmingham Modular Organisation and CODA Festival. In 2025, they supported Passepartout Duo at Centrala Space, Birmingham as part of their UK Tour, and in 2023, undertook a mini tour of The Netherlands as part of the Sounding Here concert series, where they performed at Splendor in Amsterdam and Batavierhuis in Rotterdam.

In July 2025, they co-hosted a portrait concert with saxophonist David Zucchi featuring music by Paolo Griffin at the Hundred Years Gallery.

Composer of contemporary classical music. Toronto.

I'm a Canadian composer based in Port Moody, BC.

Composer-arranger of TV and concert music.

New tracks tagged #canadian composer