A lovely irony that More Rivers was premiered beside an ocean! But that did not diminish the specialness of the ...
From Oblivion to Hope…the premiere!
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 many current challenges. I’m grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for funding Odin’s commission of this work.
Odin Quartet with composers Ronald Royer and Frank Horvat
This is just one part of a multi-phase project with Odin. Thanks to the support of FACTOR, we’re recording an album of my various compositions for string quartet. Called “From Oblivion to Hope,” the album will have a serious and pessimistic tone to start. But, as we go from piece to piece, the tone will evolve to something more optimistic, ending with the aforementioned heartfelt work, Hope. The idea of going from the negative to the positive is a mindset and a mental health issue I’m very fascinated by these days especially in the context of the pandemic and its outcomes.
Day 1 of recording took place at the Canterbury Music Company a month ago, it was a great day…
We’ll be spending another couple of days in the studio to finish off the album at the end of this month.
My composition, ‘The Four Seasons…in High Park’ will be the centrepiece of the album. So we’ve devised a plan to make music videos for each of the 4 movements, filming right in picturesque High Park, in each of the 4 seasons, to celebrate the beauty of the varied nature that Toronto is blessed to have access to.
I have been fortunate to compose a lot for string quartet over the years. I love the possibilities sonority-wise and rhythmically. I love Odin’s no-musical-barriers/limitations spirit. They’re quality musicians and fine human beings so it’s no surprise that we have already produced some amazing music together.
We’re hoping to start filming in High Park this fall, plus more recording, filming, live performances and album and video releases scattered throughout the rest of this year and next. Stay tuned to my social media channels, my blog posts and my e-newsletter for updates on our progress.
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