For Immediate Release
July 23, 2019
(Dartmouth,NS) Halifax Violinist Releases Single from New Recording, Into the Stone
Halifax violinist Gillian Smith has released her first single from her debut album, Into the Stone, featuring music for solo violin by Canadian composers. The featured piece is Dance II from Ana Sokolovic’s Cinque Danze per violino solo. Other featured composers on the upcoming album include Kati Agócs, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Veronika Krausas and Chantale Laplante. The album is supported by The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), and is on the Leaf Music label. You can hear the single, which is available now on digital music services including iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify, here: https://leaf-music.lnk.to/5danzeNo2.
The album launch for Into the Stone will take place on Wednesday, September 25 at 7:00 p.m. at Paul O’Regan Hall at the Halifax Central Library featuring performances by Gillian Smith with special guest, Jennifer King (piano). Admission is free.
Gillian Smith will launch Into the Stone in Toronto at the Glenn Gould Studio on Saturday, October 5 with special guest Emily Rho, piano.
A dynamic and intuitive performer, Gillian Smith enjoys a varied and exciting performance career as a violinist. Deeply committed to performing music by contemporary composers, she has recorded two CDs with members of the Acadia New Music Society on the Centrediscs label: Live Wired, which features the music of Derek Charke, Jérôme Blais, and Anthony Genge, and In Sonorous Falling Tones, which features the music of Derek Charke and which was nominated for an East Coast Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year in 2018. She can also be heard on a recording of the chamber music of Carmen Braden that will be released on November 2019.
Gillian Smith has appeared at such series and festivals as the Acadia Performing Arts Series, the East Coast Music Awards, Inner Space Concerts, the Music Room Chamber Players, Open Waters Festival, Shattering the Silence Festival, and Sunday Music in the Garden Room. She has also performed and recorded as an orchestral musician with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony, and Symphony Nova Scotia.
A dedicated teacher, Gillian Smith serves as an instructor of violin and viola at the Acadia University School of Music and as head of the upper strings department at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. Her students have won top prizes and awards in regional and national competitions.
Gillian Smith holds degrees in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.Mus.), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.Mus.), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A). Her teachers have included Jorja Fleezanis, Camilla Wicks, Peter Salaff, and Philippe Djokic.
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Note to editors: For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@culturalaffairs.ca, (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
