I think I was around 11 or 12 years of age when I told my parents I wanted to be a musician when I grew up. I didn’t say it with that casual/dreamy tone kids reveal they want to be an astronaut or pro athlete…no, I was VERY serious! And I guess the words of […]

Of my multitude of musical friends, Pat is one who’s perspectives on music I listen to very often. We grew up together, played in bands together and have always shared a special bond as we’ve moved through life. So it was no surprise that Pat had much to share after reading my recent blog post […]

This week, Lisa and I attended a performance by the Ladom Ensemble, a wonderful Canadian chamber group that performs new music along with unique arrangements of old music, all within the brilliant confines of their diverse blend of instrumentation and varied musical inspirations. I had seen Ladom’s videos online but had never seen them live. […]

Thanks to technology, there’s a multitude of ways that people can ingest music these days. But no doubt, Spotify is one of the major players. Having recently gone public, they’ve now cemented themselves in the top echelons of online entertainment giants like Google, Facebook, and Netflix. I personally made the Spotify leap about a year […]

Mix of MANY genres. Songs and compositions that feature the female voice that will rip your heart out and bring you to tears. What have I missed? Please let me know!

This week, I received wonderful news that the Mivos Quartet has agreed to collaborate with me in bringing my large-scale string quartet project, The Thailand HRDs, to musical life. Mivos will come to Toronto in August to spend 2 days in the studio to record all 35-movements. At present, we’re working really hard to also […]

…or the more pertinent question…are churches the best places to hear live music? I’ve been thinking about this lately as my friend, Liz Parker, is pretty adamant that performances of classical music would be better attended if they avoid churches. As Liz stated in a recent conversation on Facebook, “church is associated with somewhere you […]

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I’m presently contemplating whether or not I should do another piano concert tour. Perhaps not such a large scale one like the Green Keys Tour, but still something substantive that would take up a lot of time to organize, rehearse and execute. While my personal enthusiasm to share my music first-hand remains very strong, I […]

This week, I’m guest blogging for the Canadian Music Centre. It’s my fourth and final blog post in a series where I explore compositions by my colleagues that are on social justice themes or impactful contemporary events. This month, I’m exploring Hildegard Westerkamp’s École Polytechnique, a riveting and emotionally jarring composition that takes us back […]

I was curious to know what other musicians are addressing climate change. After doing a call-out for suggestions on social media plus doing some googling of my own, I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of great songs and compositions out there. So I compiled the Spotify playlist below. Warning, there’s a lot of […]

This week, I’m guest blogging for the Canadian Music Centre. It’s the third in a series of blogs where I explore compositions by my colleagues that are on social justice themes or impactful contemporary events. This month, I’m exploring Adam Hill’s Oilblood, a chamber work with a fresh take on Handel while making an important […]