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Orchestral highlights My orchestral writing began in student years with PLANES, a serial piece sonically representing abstract mathematical concepts, which was premiered 13 years later by the Winnipeg Symphony and Kazuhiro Koizumi. My next piece was very different: a concerto for button accordion and orchestra called DANCING ON WINGS OF FIRE, inspired by a Balinese cremation ceremony and African/North American pop music. I wrote it for myself as soloist, and have performed it with several orchestras, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (who commissioned it in 1990) and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. These have been some of the high points in my musical life. TEMPLE STEPS was also written for the WSO. It's a piece whose architecture mixes Balinese temple structure with Bolognese arcades; it also refers to American soul music. PILGRIMAGE for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra relates very much to the Prairies: Alberta (where I lived in 1979), Manitoba (where I live now) and its Boreal forest, and the subtle lands of Saskatchewan in between. RHYTHM OF SPRING incorporates my continuing interest in natural processes and the proportions of the Fibonacci Series. I've also written several string-based chamber orchestra pieces for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Brandon Chamber Players: THE RESTLESS WIND, DANCING WAVES, and CONCERTO FOR CELLO AND STRING ORCHESTRA (written for soloist Paul Marleyn). These three are among my most 'local' pieces, each inspired by a different aspect of the climate, geography, and emotional landscape of southern Manitoba. From 2005 is NORTH WIND, which I wrote for dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) virtuoso Xiao-Nan Wang and the WSO and Andrey Boreyko. Xiao-Nan moved to Winnipeg from China in the early 90s, and has modified his traditionally-diatonic instrument to play chromatically. The "North Wind" is a cataclysmic event, whose diminishing echoes return throughout the piece to challenge the soloist. 2007 saw two premieres. The first was BEATING HEART, a double concerto for violin and button accordion based on Irish traditional music, with movements "Invocation", "Lament", "March" and "Reels". I wrote it for Atis Bankas and the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival. Niagara-on-the-Lake is also an ancestral home for my family, as my father's ancestors moved here in 1815; in fact, the premiere took place in St. Mark's Church, where several family members from the early- and mid-1800s are laid to rest. The other premiere was MANIMASII AURA for button accordion and chamber ensemble, written for Inuit accordion virtuoso Simeonie Keenainak and the CBC Orchestra with Alain Trudel. It's based on a traditional Inuit square dance tune, played many times over, as it would be in a real square dance in Nunavut. The orchestra part contains the "aura"-- psychological, emotional and spiritual references to the land, animals, the aurora borealis, and the spirit of the performer and the music (as conveyed so well by Simeonie!). In 2008 WOLF DREAMS (with Kolomayka) was premiered by a 14-piece ensemble conducted by Alain Trudel, in the GroundSwell Series. This piece is inspired by memories from childhood of my Grandmother's stories of wolves in the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine. It touches on both the noble, mystical, wild image we often have of wolves as well as the darker, vicious, predatory side. List of orchestral works WOLF DREAMS (WITH KOLOMAYKA) (1111 1110 1P strings [11111]) (2008). Written with a grant from the Manitoba Arts Council. Premiered May 20/08 by an ensemble conducted by Alain Trudel; GroundSwell Series, Westminster United Church, Winnipeg. MANIMASII
AURA for solo button accordion [A/D] and chamber ensemble (1111 1100
strings BEATING
HEART for solo violin, solo button accordion [G/C] and chamber orchestra
(1111 1000 1 [bodhran] strings; solo violin, solo button accordion)
(2007) Also exists in version without winds: (0000 0000 1 (Bodhran) strings; solo violin, solo button accordion). NORTH
WIND (2*22*2 4231 T1 H strings; solo dizi [Chinese bamboo flute] in
C [bottom note G]) (2005) CONCERTO
FOR CELLO AND STRING ORCHESTRA (2003) NIGHT
STREETS for jazz big band (5 saxes, DANCING
WAVES for string orchestra (2002) TROPICS
for orchestra (222*2 4231 T3 H strings) (2001) RHYTHM
OF SPRING for orchestra (2*22*2 4231 2H strings) (2001) PILGRIMAGE
for orchestra (2*2*2*2 4231 2H strings) (2000) THE
RESTLESS WIND for chamber orchestra (1111 0000 strings) (1999) SURGE for wind band
(223*1 4221, Euphonium, TEMPLE
STEPS (2222 4231 1H strings) (1995) DANCING
ON WINGS OF FIRE (1111 1110 1 strings, solo button accordion [A/D])
(1991) LIMITATION (strings 3-3-4-2-0) (1975) MOSS GROWING ON RUINS (112*1 4000 1 strings 1-1-1-2-0) (1974) PLANES
(2*22*2* 4231 T2 strings) (1973) FOUR PIECES FOR STRING ORCHESTRA (minimum 4-3-2-2-1) (1972) |
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