Categories: Concerts, Making Music
One of the exciting projects I have been working on this year is a new large-scale composition focused on bringing awareness to the invisible health impacts and struggles of having a brain injury. I composed the piece for bass clarinetist, Kathryn Ladano, a brain injury survivor herself. All of our work will culminate in a […]
Categories: Concerts, Love, Making Music
People often ask me, what is it like to listen to your music being performed? Honestly, it’s always this wonderful out-of-body experience. This was the case x 10 as I sat with such a great audience to experience the magic of vocalist, Meredith Hall, and pianist, Brahm Goldhamer, presenting the world premiere of my large-scale […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
We had a wonderful time at the Canadian Music Centre celebrating this week’s release of From Oblivion to Hope, my album collaboration with the amazing Odin Quartet! From Oblivion to Hope has a serious and pessimistic tone to start. But, as we go from piece to piece, the tone evolves to something more optimistic, ending […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
I am pleased to announce that one of Canada’s foremost new music presenters, NUMUS, has commissioned me to compose an ambitious new work for bass clarinet, instrumental cameos, and fixed electronics called Anatomy of the Recovering Brain. Acclaimed bass clarinetist, my friend and collaborator, Kathryn Ladano, and I started conversations about this project 1.5 years […]
One day when I look back at my blessed life, the week I just spent in Vancouver will certainly be part of that reflection. My collaboration with Leslie Dala and the Vancouver Bach Choir on the premiere of my cantata, Memories of Self-Isolation, culminated on Saturday with a spectacular dress rehearsal and performance at St. […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
The next phase in my extensive collaboration with the Odin Quartet was a smashing success! It was a pleasure to attend their Music Mondays concert where they presented the world premiere performance of Hope, a work Odin commissioned dedicated to the idea that our collective humanity still has much to feel optimism about, despite our […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
Very happy to announce that I have been commissioned by the Vancouver Bach Choir to compose a cantata for vocal soloists, chorus and chamber ensemble. This will be a sequel to Music for Self-Isolation. Called Memories of Self-Isolation, this new work will explore perspectives and challenges faced by a cross-section of society as a result […]
Very excited to share that Lisa and I will be in Europe this May! It’s been quite a while since we crossed “the pond” and we’re really looking forward to the sights, sounds, and experiences that await us. Here are the highlights of what we have to look forward to… The European premiere of my […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music, Music
This week was the world premiere and recording of my composition, The Thailand HRDs, commissioned by Protection International. Based off of the photo essay by Luke Duggleby entitled, For Those Who Died Trying. This collection of pics gives you a look at this amazing experience. UPDATE NOV 16, 2018 This project has culminated in the […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
This week, there’s going to be an amazing flurry of musical activities in my life! It’s all based around the world premiere performance and recording sessions for my composition for string quartet, The Thailand HRDs. This week has been years in the making. It’s such a wonderful feeling to have it all build up to […]
Categories: Concerts
One of the exciting reasons I enjoy being both a creator and connoisseur of modern classical music is that we live in a unique time where new music can be presented with live acoustic instruments accompanied by pre-recorded electronics that the instrumentalist plays along to – think of it like really artsy karaoke:)! This tradition […]
Categories: Concerts, Performing
Last week I performed at the wonderful Music & Beyond Festival in Ottawa. The festival had a day to celebrate the environment and I opened it with a 10am concert putting the ‘Earth in the Light‘ and closed the day with a 10pm concert ‘Earth at Night‘ where I performed my always-fun-to-play-in-the-dark, 60-minute piano piece, […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
It was earlier this year that the violinist, Ralitsa Tcholakova, asked if I could compose a piece for violin and piano that recognized the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. What resulted was A Secret Streamlet, a flowing piece inspired by a defiant letter that the then Czech playwright and activist, Vaclav […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
When Michael Westwood asked me to compose a new piece for the November 9 concert in his Toronto chamber music series, I said sure! When he suggested that the piece be on a theme around memories, I got more than I bargained for. Various chapters in my life flooded my heart and soul, many very […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
This is the musical dilemma I placed myself in when I started composing Thirty Minutes of a Three Million Minute Journey. The piece attempts to encapsulate the experience of Syrian refugees walking from their war-ravaged country into Europe in search of a better life. I wanted this elongated chamber work to maintain the same mood […]
