Gregory Oh

subscribe to facebook group here

It\’s good to have spring back, yes? Yes.

TONIGHT: A new music battle of the bands, but all friendly like. RCM New Music Ensemble, U of T Sax Ensemble and U of T Chainsaw Ensemble play Steve Reich, Sean Griffin and world premieres by Robert Lemay at the Music Gallery, tonight, Sat March 26, at 8pm. $10/$5. Students free.

Via Salzburg has a an emerging composer competition. Deadline Apr 29.
http://www.viasalzburg.com/?page_id=500

It\’s happening out of town, but check out Kitchener\’s Open Ears Festival if you get a chance. April 27-May 1. Susanna Hood does John Oswald\’s Spinvolver, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Nicole Lizee, Tony Conrad, Tanya Tagaq, Toca Loca CD Release, Eve Egoyan and more more more!!!
http://www.openears.ca/index.htm

I\’m breaking my own rule here (no pop), but it\’s my rule. My super favourite songwriter, Christine Fellows, will be having her CD release at the Music Gallery on March 26. If you saw her show with Shary Boyle at the closing of the Images Festival last year, you\’ll be as excited as I am. http://musicgallery.org/node/405

Lots of great concerts this month. Norma Beecroft show (17th), the AMP boys come to town (10th) and Terry Riley\’s Cactus Rosary (16th).
And now, listings for April! (after the jump)

1/ MERCER-PARK DUO PLAY KEVIN LAU @ WALTER HALL, APR 3

April 3, 7:30 p.m. Walter Hall
Free admission
Rachel Mercer, cello
Angela Park, piano
and the Karen Kieser Prize-winning composition by Kevin Lau

Prokofiev: Sonata for Cello and Piano in C major Opus 119
Kevin Lau: Starsail (winner of the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music)
Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello and Piano in g minor Opus 19

2/ RCM NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE – APR 5 @ COC, APR 8 @ MAZZOLENI

Brian Current, director
Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 12 – 1 p.m.
Bradshaw Ampitheatre, Free
Friday April 8, 2011, 7:30 PM
Mazzoleni Concert Hall, $10

Under the direction of Brian Current, the young artists of The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble present an eclectic and exciting program including works by Magnus Lindberg, Vincent Ho, Linda Catlin Smith, and R. Murray Schafer\’s Arcana for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble.

3/ ALLISON CAMERON + PAUL CLIPSON: LIVE IMAGES @ MUSIC GALLERY, APR 8

Friday, April 8, 2011
An American filmmaker and a Canadian composer improvise a live A/V mash-up
Co-presented as part of the Images Festival
Doors at 8pm, concert and screening at 9pm
Tickets $15 general admission, $12 students, seniors + members
Available via www.imagesfestival.com

The Images Festival and the Music Gallery are pleased to present a collaborative film projection and live music performance by Toronto composer Allison Cameron and San Francisco filmmaker Paul Clipson. We are delighted to bring these two accomplished artists together for the first time to create a new work especially for this event.

4/ NEW MUSIC CONCERTS: ART MUSIC PROMOTION @ MUSIC GALLERY, APR 10

Sunday, April 10, 2011, Introductions at 7:15pm, concert at 8pm
Old-fashioned virtuosity embraces electronic pioneering as the NMC ensemble tackles new Canadian repertoire
Tickets $35 regular admission, $25 member + arts worker, $10 student
Available via www.newmusiconcerts.com

Paul Steenhuisen – New work (2011)*
Keith Hamel – New work (2011)*
Andre Ristic – New work (2011)*
Robert Pritchard – New work (2011)*
Gordon Fitzell – Evanescence (2001/2006)
* World Premiere

New Music Concerts presents a new consortium of Canadian composers in a programme of works combining instrumental virtuosity with cutting edge technology. We are of course familiar with the individual members of this group – all have been a part of our series at one point or another – but are intrigued by their new collective approach to promoting their art. The concert they have proposed includes new interactive works by Keith Hamel and Robert Pritchard. Jules Léger Prize winning composer André Ristic has promised a new work for string quartet “plus”, and Paul Steenhuisen is creating an extended work for female voice, bass flute, bass clarinet, horn, string quartet, percussion, piano, harp, and electronics involving source recordings made on his recent trip to India. Gordon Fitzell, who first appeared on New Music Concerts’ series as part of \”Generation 2000\” with the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal, contributes Evanescence, an existing work for chamber ensemble and interactive electronics. Performers include the Accordes string quartet, Robert Aitken and core members of the New Music Concerts Ensemble.

5/ ARRAYMUSIC: ELECTRIQUE @ MUSIC GALLERY, APR 16

Saturday, April 16, 2011, Introductions at 7:30pm, concert at 8pm
An offering of three new commissions, including the latest by Nicole Lizée

Tickets $20 regular, $15 member, senior + student
Available via www.arraymusic.com

Nicloe Lizée – New Work (2011)
Darren Copeland – New Work (2011)
Terry Riley – Cactus Rosary (1993)

Electrique features a new work by Montréal composer Nicole Lizée for turntables ensemble commissioned by Array. Nicole, Array’s guest performer on turntables, works with scratch DJ techniques that are fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting. Along with turntables, she has written for many of Canada\’s top orchestras and ensembles employing other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, Simon and Merlin hand held games and karaoke tapes.

6/ MUSIC GALLERY: THE MUSIC OF NORMA BEECROFT, APR 17

Sunday April 17 • The Music Gallery presents
Celebrating the career of a 20th century Canadian music pioneer
Doors 7pm, concert 8pm
Plus! Pre-concert, on-stage interview with Norma Beecroft at 7:15pm
Tickets $20 regular, $15 member + senior, $10 student — BUY NOW!

Programme:
The Living Flame of Love (1968) for SATB choir
Tre Pezzi Brevi (1961) for flute and harp
Hommage à Debussy (2010) for flute and harp
New commission for flute, harp and percussion
Troissonts (1982) for viola and two percussionists
Amplified String Quartet (1991) for string quartet and tape

Performers:
Univox Choir, Dallas Bergen, dir.
Stephen Tam, flute
Sanya Eng, harp
Ryan Scott, percussion
Douglas Perry, viola
Accordes String Quartet

One of the most remarkable figures of her generation, Norma Beecroft has built a career not only based on her award-winning compositions and pioneering work in the electroacoustic community, but also as a producer, radio host and advocate.

In addition, she co-founded New Music Concerts in 1971, was president of the Canadian Music Associates and Ten Centuries Concerts, won a Major Armstrong Award for excellence in broadcasting for her documentary The Computer in Music and also made documentaries about Jean Coulthard, Harry Freedman, Bruce Mather, Barbara Pentland, Harry Somers, Gilles Tremblay, John Weinzweig, Murray Adaskin and Violet Archer.

In the words of the musicologist Jennifer Bain, “to recount the musical and professional life of Norma Beecroft is to provide a fascinating perspective on new music in the latter half of the twentieth century in Canada and abroad.” Beecroft studied composition with John Weinzweig in Toronto, and with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss at Tanglewood. While at Darmstadt, she heard a live performance (possibly the premiere) of Stockhausen\’s Kontakte and was introduced to the ideas of John Cage when she fell upon a class being led by David Tudor.

This program features works spanning six decades, including her classic Tre Pezzi Brevi, published by Vienna’s Universal Edition, and the more recent Amplified String Quartet.

7/ COC ENSEMBLE: SOKOLOVIC @ COC, APR 28
Thursday, April 28, 2011
12 – 1 p.m.
Artists of the COC Ensemble Studio
with a new work by Ana Sokolovic

The Telephone/A Hand of Bridge
Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Giancarlo Menotti, young artists of the COC Ensemble Studio present a double-bill of two witty and entertaining one-acters: Menotti’s comic two-hander, The Telephone, and Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, with libretto by Menotti. The program opens with a new work by Canadian composer Ana Sokolovic—a whimsical ode to the telephone: Dring, dring.

8/ HAUSCHKA @ MUSIC GALLERY, APR 28
Doors 7pm, Concert 8pm
Tickets $30.00 + S/C, on sale SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20 at 10am at UnionEvents.com, Ticketmaster, Rotate This & Soundscapes

Hauschka is the alias of Düsseldorf-based Volker Bertelmann, who signed to FatCat’s in 2007. Having studied classical piano for ten years, his work as Hauschka is based upon an exploration of the possibili-ties of the \’prepared\’ piano. Creatively undermining the preconceived idea of the piano as a pure-toned, perfected instrument waiting for a gifted virtuoso to play on it, Bertelmann instead modifies it by placing an assortment of material (gaffa tape, kitchen foil, felt wedges, bottle tops, ping pong balls, guitar string, etc) within its innards.

What results are vivid, unconventional pieces made in a spirit of playful research-enthusiasm. Two well-received albums, 2007’s Room To Expand and 2008’s Ferndorf backed by an engaging series of live shows have seen the artist’s profile steadily rise.

9/ AMIR AMIRI: NEW ANCIENT STRINGS @ MUSIC GALLERY, APR 30
Saturday April 30, 2011 • The Music Gallery presents
Amir Amiri / Ziya Tabassian + Araz Salek
Exploring pathways through the past and future of Persian music
Doors 7pm, concert 8pm
Tickets $15 regular, $10 member, senior + student

New Ancient Strings is the title of an album by kora masters Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko, in which they reconsidered the range and musicality of their instruments. The Music Gallery transplants this concept eastward to Iran to journey through the past and future of Persian music.

Amir Amiri / Ziya Tabassian
The Montreal-based duo of Amir Amiri (santur) and Ziya Tabassian (percussion) are accomplished solo performers who have worked together once before at the Banff Centre. Amiri brings vast knowledge and technique to his instrument, investigating every aspect of its dulcimer-like tones. While he is classically trained, Amiri has always sought to explore the limits of his music, stretching beyond the constraints of classical thought. Tabassian demonstrates a similar fearlessness with his art. His solo album Tombak (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2006) featured composition and performance for solo hand drums that is both highly rhythmic and electro-acoustic in its subtle use of timbre. Together they use Persian motifs as a starting point for intense improvisation.