(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and virtuoso guitar duo Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan announce the February 14 release of their new recording Re/String (LM298). Re/String features six new concertos commissioned for two guitars and strings, recorded with Montreal ensemble collectif9. The six composers include Canadians Amy Brandon, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Patrick Roux,Bekah Simms and Harry Stayflakis, alongside British composer Stephen Goss. These pieces were premiered in Ottawa in March of 2022 with Thirteen Strings under conductor Kevin Mallon.
The pieces are stylistically diverse, with some referencing the guitar’s roots in rock and metal, while others explore alternate tunings and innovative textures between the guitar and bowed strings. The music is virtuosic, mysterious, unsettling, and hauntingly beautiful.
Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan have set a benchmark in the guitar world with their award-winning recordings, orchestral commissions and competition performances. In addition to active international solo careers, the duo regularly tours North America, playing programs of original arrangements and new Canadian commissions. They won second (2023) and third (2021) prize at the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America’s International Ensemble Competition, arguably the world’s most important guitar competition. The ensemble’s discography includes three albums, including multiple prize nominations and the Classical Recording of the Year at the 2021 East Coast Music Awards.
Known for its innovative programming and unique approach to chamber music, Montreal string nonet collectif9 has performed extensively across North America, Europe, and Asia. The ensemble is dedicated to the exploration of new repertoire and new artistic partnerships with composers, video artists, poets, lighting designers, and other inspired collaborators, creating multidisciplinary projects that come to life in acoustic or amplified settings. Collectif9 has released four albums and produced a series of film-concerts. The group has received two JUNO nominations for its recordings, among other awards and recognitions.
Re/String was recorded in St. Augustin, Quebec, in September of 2024, and produced with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Listen to Re/String on your favourite streaming platform.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Nashville, Tennessee, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca
“Virtuosity (that is) relentless, precise, and, above all, dazzling.” – the WholeNote
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Dorian Komanoff Bandy and Catherine Cosbey announce the January 24 release of their new recording Mozart: String Duos (LM297), including two never-before-recorded violin duets.
Mozart: String Duos presents vivid, period-instrument performances of Mozart’s two spectacular Duos for Violin and Viola (K. 423 in G major and K. 424 in B-flat Major), alongside newly discovered historical arrangements of the Violin Sonata K. 305 and arias from La clemenza di Tito. Following historical convention and drawing on groundbreaking research, Cosbey and Bandy insert extensive embellishments and cadenzas, capturing a degree of improvisatory freedom rarely heard in performances of Mozart’s string music. These pieces, as well as the arrangements, would have introduced many eighteenth-century listeners to Mozart’s music. Today, they conjure scenes of domestic music-making among family and friends.
Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin K. 305 was transformed into a duet for two violins by an anonymous Parisian arranger in 1799 (eight years after Mozart’s death). This version and the opera arrangements were recently discovered in rare book libraries in Texas and Germany and may not have been heard since the early 1800s. They reveal how deftly musicians adapted Mozart’s music for performance at home.
Dorian Komanoff Bandy, associate professor at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, is one of early music’s most energetic and versatile proponents. His repertoire spans four centuries and six instruments, and his performances have been praised for their “impressive emotional scope” and a “virtuosity [that is] relentless, precise, and above all, dazzling.” A leading Mozart specialist, Dorian has conducted award winning productions of Mozart’s operas on both sides of the Atlantic, and is the author of Mozart the Performer: Variations on the Showman’s Art, which he’ll discuss in an upcoming virtual forum on January 21.
Violinist Catherine Cosbey is a member of the Cavani String Quartet and was a founding member of the Linden String Quartet. Her performances, described by the Strad Magazine as “polished, radiant, and incisive,” have taken her to leading venues and festivals across the US, Canada, and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Esterhazy String Quartet Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A frequent guest educator at festivals across North America, she currently serves on the violin and chamber music faculty at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.
Both musicians perform on eighteenth-century German instruments. The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax, in June of 2024. Get your CD copy of Mozart: String Duos or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Fierbois announce the release of a new recording Sing To Me Again, being released on January 10, including a live performance at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at 7:30 p.m.
Sing to Me Again (LM286)presents re-imagined works from Eastern Europe, with a unique blend of traditional folk influences, rich melodies, and the dark, powerful sound of Caitlin Broms-Jacobs’ oboe, paired with the warm and rich resonance of Madeline Hildebrand’s piano.
Two of Winnipeg’s finest musicians, the duo styles themselves after the Joan of Arc’s sword (Fierbois). Fierbois means “proud wood” in Old French (a nod to the piano and oboe;) an iconic strong woman, Joan of Arc never used the sword to inflict harm, only to inspire. Fierbois’s first album features passionate and unusual repertoire sourced by the musicians, representing silenced voices of the 20th century, underplayed composers or those whose voices have been restricted in artistic expression. The works of Gayane Chebotaryan, Fikret Amirov and Holocaust victim Pavel Hass are joined by art songs by youthful Czech composer Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940), and lyrical works reflecting the album’s title by Mikhail Glinka, Canadian Srul Irving Glick and Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin.
Known for their joyful and electrifying performances, pianist Madeline Hildebrand and oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs have been friends and musical collaborators since 2014 when they first performed together on Winnipeg’s prestigious Millennium Recital Series. Caitlin is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and has frequently performed as guest principal oboist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Madeline has recently performed with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet and currently teaches at Brandon University and the Canadian Mennonite University. Fierbois will tour Western Canada with Prairie Debut in the 2025-26 season; learn more here: https://www.caitlinbromsjacobs.com/fierbois
The new album was produced with the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Film and Music, The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, FACTOR and numerous individual donors. It was recorded at the Lorne Watson Recital Hall, Brandon University, in December of 2023. Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS)Leaf Music announces the launch of Dialogues (LM295), a new recording by cellist Noémie Raymond and pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen, available September 20 in digital and physical format. Dialogues includes two major works, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s monumental Cello Sonata in G minor, Op, 19 from 1919, and Rebecca Clarke’sViola Sonata (Version for Cello and Piano) from 1901.
The album explores the duality between these two masterpieces, created by composers and virtuoso performers born thirteen years apart, who both emigrated to the United States. Despite their distinct styles, the works share a remarkable emotional depth and instrumental virtuosity. Dialogues is a true musical conversation linking two eras, two artistic visions, and two talented artists. The musicians add “a dialogue between you and us.”
Less well known than his orchestral works, Rachmaninoff’sSonata (composed simultaneously as his famous Piano Concerto No. 2), marked his return to composition after a difficult period following the unfavourable reception of his First Symphony in 1897. Rebecca Clarke, a pioneer of “English impressionism,” wrote her Sonata three years after emigrating to the US, where she experienced an artistic rebirth following a tormented childhood. Recalling works by Debussy and Ravel, the piece placed second in a prestigious competition for composers and today has emerged in its rightful place in the standard repertoire for viola.
The album launch will take place at the Piano Nobile at Place des Arts in Montreal on September 20th. A concert tour will follow, including the opening of the 24/25 season at Chapelle-Historique-du-Bon-Pasteur in Montreal on September 29 (2024), a recital at Carnegie Hall on March 20 (2025), a recital at the Bradshaw Amphitheater in Toronto on April 17 (2025) and a recital at the Berlin Philharmonic in autumn 2025.
Get your CD copy of Dialogues or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform.
Dialogues was recorded March 6-8, 2024, in Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, and produced by Jeremy Van Slyke for Leaf Music with sound recording by René Laflamme and editing, mixing, and mastering by Nathan Cann.
Noémie Raymond, critically acclaimed for her exceptional talent and deep, rich timbre, has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Midori and Pinchas Zukerman. She debuted at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2016 and was recognized as one of CBC’s “30 Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2018.
Steinway & Sons artist Zhenni Li-Cohen is praised for her captivating playing and recordings of rare works. She will soon perform with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic.
About Leaf Music: Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
We acknowledge that Leaf Music’s work spans many Territories and Treaty areas, and that our home is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian violinist Mark Fewer announce the launch ofAlikeness (LM296), available August 16 in digital and physical format. Alikenessfeatures the Newfoundland Symphony OrchestraSinfonia together with percussionist. Aiyun Huang, soprano Deantha Edmunds, and violinist/conductor Mark Fewer in an all Canadian, all strings-based program.
Fewer says the album is inspired by the human capacity to learn, adapt, and collaborate, and encourages listeners to find their own “alikenesses” within the music while fostering a deeper connection with one another: “Continually experiencing new things but using what is already inside of us, as a way to make our worlds larger, expanding ad infinitum… If we don’t immediately understand something, we use a memory to help us relate. Over the course of my own life as a musician, it has been those inquiring artists who relate to one another as open systems who have inspired me the most.”
The NSO Sinfonia, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, was founded by Peter Gardner and features core string players from the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.
Violinist and conductor Mark Fewer has been interpreting music in virtually every genre and setting for over three decades, premiering over 200 works, including more than 50 written for him. His unique discography features multiple JUNO and Grammy-winning recordings and an Opus Prize for a Serge Arcuri tribute. He has served as Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at Stanford, William Dawson Scholar at McGill, and is currently Head of Strings at the University of Toronto. After 16 years as the founding artistic director of the SweetWater Music Festival, he is now in his sixth season and the Artistic Director of Stratford Summer Music.
Deantha Edmunds, Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer, was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2023 for her work empowering Indigenous people and sharing their stories. Her performances, writing, and compositions have earned national and international acclaim.
Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Aiyun Huang holds a DMA from UC San Diego and is the Head of Percussion at the University of Toronto, directing its Percussion Ensemble. She gained international recognition by winning First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2002 Geneva International Music Competition.
The album opens with the world premiere of Deantha Edmunds’ Angmalukisaa (“round” in Inuktut), a personal composition about human connections; Edmunds’ four songs are arranged by Bill Brennan, Andrew Downing, Jeff Johnston, and Robert Carli. The next three works feature Fewer as violin soloist and conductor: Épisodes by Serge Arcuri, (written for the Montreal Baroque Orchestra in 1998,) blends the baroque “concerto grosso” form with modern elements; Matt Brubeck’sThe Simple Life, has been newly arranged by Andrew Downing for strings; and the third movement “C” from B-A-C-H by Robert Carli (after J.S. Bach’s surname), was composed in 2013 for the Sweetwater Music Festival. The album concludes with Alikeness, Yoshiaki Onishi’s arrangement of an eight-movement suite by Jaroslaw Kapuściński. The suite was originally composed in 2015 for the St. Lawrence String Quartet and percussionist Aiyun Huang.
Get your CD copy of Alikeness, or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform. Alikeness is available on all streaming platforms.
Alikeness was recorded January 14-17, 2024, in St. John’s, and produced by Jeremy VanSlyke and Nathan Cann for Leaf Music with assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and trans-Atlantic chamber folk ensemble Skye Consort& Emma Björling announce the launch ofOde & Ballade (LM287), available May 17 in both digital and physical versions. Ode & Ballade by Skye Consort & Emma Björling presents stories of medieval saints and sacred wells, fair maidens outsmarting presumptuous knights, beautiful or boisterous drinking songs, thieves meeting their fate, heartbreaking love songs, groovy dance tunes, and celebrations of the return of Spring. The album combines elements from world music and classical traditions to narrate poems, tales, legends, and sonnets from Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, France and more.
Skye Consort & Emma Björling (skyeconsort.org) was formed in 1999 to bring an art-music aesthetic to the folk music of different world traditions. The ensemble performs music from Scandinavia, Ireland and the British Isles, French Canada, and tunes of their own devising. They find enchanting stories and melodies, bringing them into the 21st century with worldly chamber-folk settings. The band has performed and toured extensively with various collaborators and released seven full-length albums. In November and December of 2018, in collaboration with Emma Björling, Skye Consort created a new repertoire sourced from Scandinavian, Québecois, and Celtic roots. Skye Consort & Emma Björling won the OPUS award for Best World Music Album 2019.
Ode & Ballade features Emma Björling (lead voice, percussion), Seán Dagher (lead voice, Irish bouzouki, banjo), Amanda Keesmaat (cello, voice), Alex Kehler (nyckelharpa, violin, voice) and Simon Alexandre (nyckelharpa, violin, voice). The musicians sing in three languages (Swedish, French, English), and the words “ode” and “ballade” resonate with meaning in all three: poem, song, tale, sonnet, folly, chant, and dance. The music of this album combines elements from world music and classical traditions to offer audiences thoughtful arrangements and creative compositions: a Swedish Polska accompanied by Québec foot percussion and 18th-century Scottish-style chords, a French song with Norwegian-sounding interludes between the verses, a Purcell/Playford-style dance tune with Swedish texts and accompanied on the banjo.
The album was recorded in July and August of 2023 at Alchemist Studio in Montreal, with recording, editing, and mixing by Stratsimir Dimitrov and Jeremy VanSlyke as Executive Producer. The recording was produced with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian pianist David Potvin announce the launch of Catharsis (LM274), available April 19 in digital and physical format. Catharsisexpresses an emotional release experience, often of complex, deeply held, or repressed emotions which transform into peace, tranquility, and a shift of perspective. This album’s pieces were selected from David’s tour across Canada, where he performed music exclusively by composers who live and work in Canada: Chris Derksen’sGrowing Forgiveness, Keiko Devaux’sMurmuration, and Jean Coulthard’s13 Preludes for Piano, and Canada Mosaic: The Contented House (arranged for piano by David Potvin), pieces which have never been recorded before.
Derksen’s Growing Forgiveness, an artistic response to the tension she felt in certain relationships during the pandemic has a truly serene ending following the piece’s driving climax. This is followed by Coulthard’s 13 Preludes, imbued with deep emotional expression, and a rising tension which peaks near the end. Then Devaux’s Murmuration is uses pianistic and electronic gestures describe the movement of small birds moving in large flocks. Catharsis concludes the album with a piano arrangement of Coulthard’s Canada Mosaic: The Contented House, a meditative reflection that includes the well-known melody, A la claire fontaine.
Hailed by La Scena Musicale as a rising star, Montreal-based pianist David Potvin (David-potvin.com) is quickly establishing himself as one of Canada’s most exciting contemporary pianists. As winner of the 45th Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, he toured across Canada in the fall of 2022 with a diversely curated program of Canadian repertoire, including the works on the new recording.
David has been featured in solo and chamber recitals across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Recent projects include the world premiere of a new piece by Kalaisan Kalaichelvan at the Banff Arts Centre, the album Breathe In, Breathe Out, featuring music by composer Edward Enman, a recital with violinist Martin Beaver, and a recital in collaboration with the Canadian Music Centre celebrating the works of Quebec composer Jacques Hétu. Other performance awards include prizes at the 2018 Shean and 2017 Stepping Stone competitions.
David maintains a private piano studio where he teaches in both of Canada’s official languages and is a member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s prestigious college of examiners. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto, where he studied with acclaimed pedagogue Marietta Orlov and won the DMA recital competition. Born in Billtown, Nova Scotia, David will tour with Debut Atlantic in the fall of 2024 (debutatlantic.ca).
Catharsis was recorded at Domaine Forget de Charlevoix and produced by Haruka Nagata. The album is dedicated to the memory of Marietta Orlov (1932-2020).
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian violinist Karl Stobbe announce the launch ofYsaÿe, J. S. Bach & Paganini: Works for Solo Violin (LM294), available March 22 in digital format.
This is part of a six-album series of violin repertoire to be released individually over the next few years, based on the repertoire of J.S. Bach. Karl Stobbe traces the important relationship between luthiers, players, and composers through this album, through the compositions of three giants in solo violin playing and composition—Bach, Paganini, and Ysaÿe. Recorded on a violin made in 1806 by the French master Nicolas Lupot, Stobbe interprets Bach’s virtuosic B minor Partita, three of Paganini’s most technically treacherous but musically ingenious Caprices, and Ysaÿe’s fourth Solo Sonata—an homage that melds Paganini’s flair with Bach’s profound counterpoint and complexity.
As a concertmaster, chamber musician, soloist, and performer, Karl Stobbe (www.karlstobbe.com) is recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished violinists, known for his dedication to violin excellence. Stobbe completed a Master of Music at Indiana University with a minor in Violin Repair and Construction. His passion for the construction and mechanics of the violin is an integral part of his professional musical life and continues to influence his performances and teaching. Noted for his generous, rich sound and long, poignant phrasing, he is described by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “an artist with soulful musicianship,” and by London’s Sunday Times as “a master soloist, recalling the golden age of violin playing… producing a breathtaking range of tone colours.” Karl has performed in many of North America’s most famous concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, the National Arts Centre, Roy Thompson Hall, Segerstrom Hall, and the Orpheum Theatre. He plays on a violin made in 1806 by French luthier Nicolas Lupot, and a bow made just a few blocks away in1790 by Francois Xavier Tourte.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgement Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, through they come from the ends of the earth!
– Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West (1889)
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian Baroque ensemble Infusion Baroque announce the launch ofEast is East (LM276), available March 15 in both digital and physical copies. East is East is a transcultural collaboration drawing on both ancient and contemporary inspiration from the East and the West. Offering a fresh approach to music on Baroque instruments and historical performance practice, this new recording is sure to delight fans of early music and Hindustani, Turkish and Persian traditions. Joining the quartet ensemble are guest musicians Amir Amiri (santur and composer), Vidita Kanniks (vocals), Thibault Bertin-Maghit (double bass), Hamin Honari (tombak and daf), Hank Knox (harpsichord), and Shawn Mativetsky (tabla).
Infusion Baroque (infusionbaroque.com) draws new audiences to early music through a truly captivating concert experience, deftly combining seasoned musicianship with storytelling elements. Playing music of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries on historical instruments, the four women of Infusion Baroque enthrall audiences across North America with their creative and interactive programming. Founded in 2013, Infusion Baroque won the Grand Prize and Audience Prize at the Early Music America’s Baroque Performance Competition in 2014. Since then, they have performed extensively in North America with series such as the Montreal Baroque Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, Stratford Summer Music, Early Music Now (Milwaukee), San Francisco Early Music Society, Indianapolis Early Music, Houston Early Music, and the Gotham Early Music Scene in New York City.
Their performances have been described as “dynamic and alive” (Early Music America) with “polish, energy, and finely honed style … merrily breaking established traditions” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Their research and creative programs focus not only on important figures of the past, but also relatively unknown composers and musicians. They have released three albums with the Leaf Music; their second album, Kreüsser, features world-premiere recordings of Georg Anton Kreüsser’s Op. 10 quintets and was nominated for a Prix Opus Album of the Year. Since 2017, one of their main initiatives has been The Virtuosa Project, a series of concerts, lectures, videos, and recordings highlighting historical female musicians. Their third album, Virtuosa, consisted of works composed or performed by women from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries, and reached over 500K streams within the first six months of release.
The album was recorded in April of 2023 at Studios Piccolo in Montreal, produced by Jeremy Van Slyke with recording by Veronica Galicia Lopez and editing and mixing by Nathan Cann.
We acknowledge the support of FACTOR and the Canada Council for the Arts with this project.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
“Combining the wit of Dorothy Parker with the wisdom of Emily Dickinson, Atwood adds a steely grace and richness all her own. If there is beauty in despair, one may find it here”. (Library Journal, 2020)
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music is excited to release Zombie Blizzard (LM277), an eclectic digital album of concert arias by internationally acclaimed Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and composer Aaron Davis.
In Zombie Blizzard Davis has set to music seven poems from Atwood’s 2020 collection, Dearly. The poems- Zombie, Blizzard, Health Class, Princess Clothing, Shadow, Digging up the Scythians, and Dearly – address themes of love, loss, feminism and …. Zombies! Davis’s musical compositions are sung brilliantly by internationally acclaimed soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, withthe Hannaford Street Silver Band, Toronto’s premier brass ensemble, and Davison piano, George Koller on bass and Mark Mariash on drums. Zombie Blizzard also features recitations by Margaret Atwood of the seven poems.
The new recording gets its launch in Toronto at the Jane Mallett Theatre with all the performers on Sunday, March 3 at 3:00 p.m. with the New Classical FM as the official radio sponsor. For tickets and more information, head to https://tix.to/zombie.
Fredericton-born Measha Brueggergosman-Lee has created many crossover albums and toured extensively with award-winning pianist and composer Aaron Davis, and again blurs the lines between musical genres with Zombie Blizzard, composed for soprano, jazz trio and brass orchestra. The album gives expression to her long-term admiration for and friendship with Margaret Atwood. CBC Music included Zombie Blizzard in their listing of “Canadian albums we can’t wait to hear in 2024.”
Measha Brueggergosman-Lee holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities and is permanent Artist-in-Residence with the Canadian opera company, Opera Atelier. The JUNO award winner has presented innovative programs at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Madrid’s Teatro Real as well as at the Schwarzenberg, Edinburgh, Verbier and Bergen Festivals. She is completing her second year of a master’s degree in theology and released her best-selling memoir Something is Always on Fire in 2018.
Other milestone recordings in 2023-24 include a song cycle by Robert Fleming for the Canadian Art Song Project, a remix album featuring multi-lingual, multi-national hip hop artists, a new work composed for her by Canadian-Dutch composer Jaap Nico Hamburger and MEASHA – Live at Westben. She also was the executive producer and director of Forgotten Coast, a 30-minute television episode broadcast on CBC Gem telling the story of her Black Loyalist heritage through the lens of hip-hop artist Jay Vernon, with orchestrations by Aaron Davis and Edwin Huizinga performed by the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Alexander Shelley.
Margaret Atwood, poet
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry in a decade, followed in 2022 with Burning Questions, a selection of essays from 2004 to 2021. Her next collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood was published in March 2023. Atwood has won numerous awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright, and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
Aaron Davis, composer
Aaron Davis is an eclectic composer, arranger and pianist who has worked with many of Canada’s finest musical talents. He was a founder of the world-beat band Manteca, for whom he wrote and played keyboards for twelve years and is a founding member of the Holly Cole Trio with whom he’s been playing, recording, and touring the world since 1986.
Aaron has co-produced four of Measha Brueggergosman-Lee’s CDs and directed the music of her film Songs of Freedom. He’s also composed film scores for over 120 movies and created orchestral and chamber arrangements for many artists, including the Art of Time Ensemble, Alison Krauss, Natalie MacMaster, The Hannaford Street Silver Band, Jah Mila, Leahy, the Canadian Brass, Kevin Breit, Kuné, Canada’s Global Orchestra, Quartetto Gelato, and the Iseler Singers. Aaron has released three CDs of his own compositions, and is the recipient of two Juno Awards, two Gemini Awards and numerous Genie and Gemini award nominations.
Canada’s award-winning professional brass band was formed in 1983 by a group of professional musicians with a love of brass music and ensemble playing. Since then, Hannaford has been reinvigorating the brass band tradition, to critical and popular acclaim. Its mission is to honour the traditions of this art form while placing it in a contemporary context with a uniquely Canadian point of view. The HSSB has redefined the brass band genre by engaging in innovative creative projects, facilitating more than 40 commissions, and recording thirteen CDs, continually pushing boundaries, and exploring new paths. Since 2020, the band has released several classical music films, including Nine Daies Wonder by Bramwell Tovey with Mark Fewer, and Canadian Trilogy, 3 Films of Music by Canadian Composers that spotlight works commissioned from Kelly-Marie Murphy, Vivian Fung, and Barbara Assiginaak.
David Pell, Artistic Director
David Pell has served as Artistic Director of the Hannaford Street Silver Band since 2010 and is a faculty member of the University of Toronto, the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He is Principal Trombonist of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and has been a member of the Winnipeg Symphony, the Victoria Symphony, and Orchestra London Canada. He is a member of Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra and performs regularly with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, as well as new music ensembles Continuum and New Music Concerts. He has also performed with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Symphony Nova Scotia, and with the Canadian Brass and Stockholm Chamber Brass.
David earned a doctorate from the Music and Health Research Collaboratory at the University of Toronto and is an active member of two other treasures of Canadian brass music: the True North Brass Quintet and the Canadian National Brass Project.
The support of the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Nova Scotia Cultural Investment Fund in the creation and recording of these songs is gratefully acknowledged. Listen to Zombie Blizzard wherever you stream your music: https://leaf-music.lnk.to/lm277. Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca (902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
