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Canadian music

What the rose foretold

I don’t consider myself particularly superstitious, but maybe I should reëvaluate that assessment. I do hold to certain ritual acts, especially on New Year’s Eve, when coins must be tossed out the front door, and a dark stranger is admitted bearing gifts of coal, gold and whiskey to bring warmth, good fortune, and happiness for the new year. These rituals are ‘performed’ annually, more to amuse guests than to appease the Fates. But listen. Growing in my garden is something peculiar, almost preternatural –  a plant that has become a mysterious oracle – a rose that is seemingly able to… Read More »What the rose foretold

Winter Nights UK premiere

I’m back home after 50 days travelling in Malta, Italy, Switzerland and England. There’s so much to process, I think I could probably write a book, but for now I’ll let someone else do the writing. My cantata ‘Winter Nights’ was performed at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Conductor Dan Harding just posted his blog about the experience, so I will re-post his prose and pictures here for you to enjoy.

Water

WATER: an environmental oratorio

Wednesday is World Water Day (March 22, 2023) and that’s a good reason to let you know about some new Canadian music that’s all about water. ‘WATER: an environmental oratorio’ imagines two different worlds. In a fantastical world, Water is personified, surrounded by singing spirits. In the everyday world, played out in a fictional Northern Ontario town, a beleaguered Mayor must decide whether to support a developer’s factory, or protect the purest water on the planet. Soloists Katy Clark,  Marion Newman, Jean-Philippe Lazure, and Phillip Addis bring these roles to life on May 28, 2023, at 3pm with the  Grand… Read More »WATER: an environmental oratorio

Resound choir

‘Songs My Mother Taught Me’

When Thomas Burton asked me to compose a new choral piece for ‘RESOUND’  on the theme of motherhood, it did not take me long to find the perfect text. My mum, Shirley Martin, turned 90 last April and my sister Cori Martin wrote a poem in her honour entitled ‘Mother’. That is the text and the resulting choral piece you will hear on Saturday March 25, 2023 in Port Perry, Ontario at the historic Town Hall Theatre. Thomas Burton, conductor and collaborative pianist Cheryl Duvall will premiere ‘Mother’ for SATB choir and piano. Two other new works will also premiere on… Read More »‘Songs My Mother Taught Me’

Winter Walk

The Year Without Music

When the German critic Oscar Schmitz called England ‘das Land ohne Musik’ that was not true. My blog headline is similarly inaccurate. Yes, 2020-21 has been a year without live music and it’s been devastating. But there has been innovation and creativity bubbling away under the surface. Conductors, patrons, performers, researchers, composers and technicians have been working on projects with confidence that live music will come back into our lives once this blasted pandemic has passed. Solitude does have its advantages. For some people, isolation is fuel for creative fire. I’m one of those for whom hacking out music alone… Read More »The Year Without Music

Tate Pumfrey

Unusual Times.03: Tate Pumfrey

We all know that young musicians have been struggling to have their voices heard this year. But undaunted Tate Pumfrey, a York University graduate student in composition, has been busily creating new music, and has found some excellent collaborators across the globe to perform and disseminate his work.  Tate composes for many genres, but extensively for the organ. What better instrument to perform, record and post on social media during a worldwide pandemic? There are no complicated COVID protocols to implement since one, solitary performer executes all the complex counterpoint and harmony all by themselves, in a large, well-ventilated church… Read More »Unusual Times.03: Tate Pumfrey

Llandovery Castle WLU

Opera Laurier

All our hard work researching, creating and workshopping our opera ‘Llandovery Castle’ in 2018 will come to fruition in the first staged performance this weekend. Opera Laurier, which produces highly polished student performances at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, will perform the opera three times – Friday Feb 28 and Sat Feb 29 at 7:30pm, and Sunday March 1st at 3pm, 2020. If you recall, this is the opera that tells the story of 14 Canadian nurses who lost their lives when their WW1 hospital ship was torpedoed in the Celtic Sea in June 1918. The opera had its fledgling… Read More »Opera Laurier

Howard Dyck’s review: ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak’

Pax Christi Chorale, a 100 plus voice Toronto choir, scored another impressive triumph yesterday with the world premiere of Stephanie Martin’s new oratorio “The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak”. David Bowser, Stephanie’s successor as Artistic Director of PCC, gave us fine readings of English repertoire (Britten, Elgar, Vaughan Williams) before the intermission. The new choral work is a charming retelling of the famous Aesop fable about the sun and the wind arguing who is the more powerful. Stephanie Martin’s highly effective score was enhanced in no small measure by playwright Paul Ciufo’s delightful libretto. This is… Read More »Howard Dyck’s review: ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak’

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak (SWMC) In May 2017 Pax Christi Chorale gave me a beautiful parting gift: a commission to write a big new piece for them. Here’s what happened. De-programming with my colleague Paul Ciufo at O’Brien’s Irish pub after our first operatic project The Llandovery Castle, I recalled a childhood storybook shared with a group of wide-eyed, cross-legged kids in the public library. Book upon her knee, the librarian entranced us with Aesop’s ancient fable of ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak.’ The Story Two elemental protagonists, arguing… Read More »The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

Nursing sister Mary Agnes McKenzie

Those splendid girls

These are the names of the 14 nurses who died on June 27, 1918 when their Canadian hospital ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ was torpedoed in the Atlantic. Matron Margaret “Pearl” Fraser (New Glasgow NS) Christina Campbell (Victoria BC) Carola Josephine Douglas (Toronto ON) Alexina Dussault (St-Hyacinthe QC) Minnie Asenath Follette (Port Greville NS) Margaret Jane Fortescue (York Factory Man) Minnie Katherine Gallaher (Kingston ON) Jessie Mabel McDiarmid (Ashton ON) Mary Agnes “Nan” McKenzie (Toronto ON) Rena Maude “Bird” McLean (Souris P.E.I.) Mae Belle Sampson (Simcoe ON ) Gladys Irene Sare (Montreal QC) Anna Irene Stamers (Saint John NB) Jean Templeman (Ottawa… Read More »Those splendid girls