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Leaf Music and Maryse Legault Present “Around Baermann”

Maryse Legault is thrilled to present her debut album, Around Baermann, featuring works written by and for the nineteenth-century virtuoso Heinrich Baermann, including masterpieces dedicated to him by his friend and collaborator Carl Maria von Weber. Performed alongside her accomplice Gili Loftus on fortepiano, Around Baermann is Legault’s love letter to one of the most formative players and developers of early clarinet technique and repertoire

Speaking on the creation of the album, Legault says, “By choosing to make my recording debut with a project around one of the most important and influential clarinet virtuosi, I wanted to make a strong impression as a daring and imaginative performer. The repertoire chosen for this recording is particularly colourful and challenging, especially when played on historical clarinet. My goal was also to program some pieces that have never been recorded before, or never on period instruments, to be able to make a relevant contribution to the historical clarinet catalogue of albums available today.” 

Known for his generosity and kind demeanour, Baermann built his reputation throughout Europe by touring extensively, performing Weber’s works as well as his own compositions. Considered an accomplished composer, he conceived works featuring the clarinet in various orchestrations. He developed a particularly lyrical clarinet language, obviously influenced by his accomplice Weber but also by his wife, the opera singer Helen Harlas. 

Maryse Legault received her master’s degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag in June 2017, specializing in historical clarinet performance in the studio of Eric Hoeprich. Maryse had the opportunity to perform with many ensembles and under the direction of many conductors, including Alexander Weimann, John Butt, Teodor Currentzis and François-Xavier Roth. 

Maryse Legault 

Release Date: June 2, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

 maryselegault.com 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

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Leaf Music, Peter Takács, and Sibbi Bernhardsson Present: “Schubert: Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 137”

American Pianist Peter Takács and Icelandic Violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson are excited to present “Schubert: Violin Sonatas”, their first collaboration together, and their first release on Leaf Music. Recorded in the spring of 2020 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Schubert: Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 137 is a rousing rendition of some of Schubert’s most lively yet least known compositions. Largely unknown at the time of Schubert’s death, the Sonatas for violin and piano were composed during a prolific two-month span in March–April of 1816.  

In addition to completing his Fourth Symphony (“Tragic”) during this creative outpouring, the nineteen-year-old penned some two dozen songs and a twelve-movement Stabat Mater (D. 383) for choir and orchestra. Schubert himself was a capable violinist (and violist) and had already written a significant body of work for strings, but this was his first foray into the violin sonata proper. 

Regarding the album and his collaborator, Takács says, “It was a delight working with Sibbi on this album. He is a master of his craft and a consummate professional. I think we’ve captured the essence of Schubert’s violin sonatas on this recording, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with those who will appreciate its depth and breadth.” 

Hailed as “a marvellous pianist” by the New York Times, Peter Takács has established himself as a distinguished performer, teacher, and lecturer. Winner of the William Kapell International Competition, he has appeared in recital, chamber music, and with orchestra in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has given master classes throughout the world and has been an adjudicator in many prestigious international competitions. In 2015-16, he inaugurated a new recital series entitled “Key Pianists”, performing three all-Beethoven programs at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. His recording of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas was released on the Cambria label in July 2011 to critical acclaim. He is Professor of Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he has been teaching since 1976. In the Beethoven 250th anniversary year 2020, in recognition of Mr. Takács’s achievements, Oberlin Conservatory received a generous gift to establish a Peter Takács/Beethoven Piano Sonata Prize, to be awarded annually to a piano student selected for outstanding Beethoven interpretation. His 2022 release of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas on the high-resolution platform nativeDSD was voted Album of the Year. 

Icelandic violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in 2017 after performing for the previous 17 years with the Pacifica Quartet, with which he won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, Musical America Ensemble of the Year honors, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, Bernhardsson appeared in more than 90 concerts worldwide each year, including engagements in Wigmore Hall (London), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall (New York), and other major venues. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival, and has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jörg Widmann, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, Johannes Moser, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland quartets.  

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Release Date: April 21, 2023 

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). 

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Duo Oriana and Leaf Music Present: “How Like a Golden Dream”

Duo Oriana is thrilled to present How Like a Golden Dream, their first record on Leaf Music set to be released on March 17, 2023. Recorded at Humbercrest United Church in Toronto of October of 2022, How Like a Golden Dream is a reflection on the ways people have communed with the night-time throughout history. Soprano Sinéad White and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery lead the listener through old Irish meditations and English Renaissance melodies, lingering on the nature of night, darkness, and the stories and rituals that have emerged out of the human’s relationship with night-time.

Our modern world makes it easy to forget the importance night-time once held, both as a practical, sensory depriving event, as well as the symbolism and connotations that attached themselves to it for millennia. On this record, White and Stuchbery endeavour to rest in the perspectives of these early people and to inhabit the daily descent into fear, hope, and prayer as the light fades away.  

Part of the inspiration for this record comes from the duo’s desire to inject previously unearthed or largely disregarded material into the modern spotlight. Speaking on the ways in which this music is still relevant today, Stuchbery says, “Part of the wonder of approaching these old folk songs is that the composer, arranger, and performer at any point in the song’s existence could be any and all of the people who have ever sung it—including ourselves”.  

Soprano Sinéad White and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery are a Toronto based duo breathing life into song traditions that span centuries and evolve in the present day. Both are specialists in the performance of renaissance and baroque music and first started working together in the early music scene in Toronto. The desire to keep making music during the most restricted days of the COVID-19 pandemic brought them together as a duo for the first time to collaborate virtually for a recording and video of an old Irish lullaby. This led them to assemble a program of music from Ireland, Scotland, and England, which reflected their own respective heritages. A film version of this concert is available online presented by Humbercrest United Church as part of their 2021 summer concert series. They are 2022-23 Artists in Residence at St. James Cathedral in downtown Toronto, where they will be presenting concerts, workshops, and integrating their music into cathedral worship.  

White and Stuchbery both have extensive experience in the discipline of historical performance. White is currently a DMA student at the University of Toronto and Stuchbery a recent graduate of the Masters in Interpretation of Early Music at ESMUC in Barcelona. Their formation in this field grounds them in performance practice, yet also inspires them to creativity with new arrangements and compositions. The duo are also actively working to expand the repertoire for lute and voice, through research of little known historical sources and in the composition of new music. They can also be heard together in larger ensemble contexts, such as with the indie early music company Aureas Voces, Tafelmusik, or Theatre of Early Music. 

Duo Oriana ~ How Like a Golden Dream 

Release Date: March 17, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

How Like a Golden Dream

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David Rogosin and Leaf Music Present: “Theme: Variation”

Theme : Variation 

David Rogosin is thrilled to present Theme : Variation, his third record on Leaf Music set to be released on March 3, 2023. Theme : Variation is an exploration of the many ways in which a musical theme or idea can be varied and transformed. The idea for this album was born out of Rogosin’s fascination with variation and his desire to chronicle specific keyboard works in variation form.  

Theme : Variation traces an arc spanning 400 years of composition, beginning with Orlando Gibbons’ The Italian Ground ca. 1605 and culminating in Variations on a Fantasia of J.S. Bach (2017), an original work from Rogosin’s colleague and friend Kevin Morse. The result is an album whose explorative zeal is matched by its sweeping scope.  

Theme : Variation sees Rogosin navigate through hundreds of years of compositional variation with aplomb. The liner notes, found in the accompanying booklet and written by Rogosin, are an indispensable companion as you listen through the record. Rogosin meticulously explains the variations and technical underpinnings of each track while highlighting important or noteworthy morsels for the discerning listener to catch. Interspersed with technical explanations are personal asides, offering insights and anecdotes surrounding his relationships with the compositions. 

Pianist David Rogosin has performed across Canada, the American Midwest, the Caribbean, and France. Praised for the brilliance, clarity, and passion of his playing, he is highly regarded for his solo recitals and his chamber music collaborations. He has a particular passion for the two-piano repertoire. Rogosin has two previous solo recordings: Incandescence, featuring the music of Messiaen, Dallapicolla, Bartók, and Brahms, and Evocation, featuring the music of Scarlatti, Haydn, Albéniz, Mompou, Ravel, and the Canadian composers François Morel and Ann Southam. David Rogosin is Professor of Music at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, where he has taught since 2001. Aside from teaching piano and related classical topics, he also teaches World Music and Jazz Improvisation. 

David Rogosin  

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Theme : Variation  

Release Date: March 3, 2023  

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

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VC2 Releases new album: “I and Thou”

VC2 cello duo are thrilled to announce the release of their new album, I and Thou, set for release on February 10, 2023. I and Thou is the duo’s second full-length album, and the first to feature a host of special guests, both in performance and composition, with each delivering a special contribution to the record. I and Thou’s central themes are our relationships with each other and the world around us. Derived from a central tenant of Martin Buber’s philosophy, the expression “I and Thou” refers to the idea that human being’s primary source of meaning is found in relationships. The composers and performers on I and Thou are those with whom VC2 share a special relationship.

I and Thou feature a number of guest composers, including Jocelyn Morlock (The Violet Hour), Vincent Ho (Heist 2), Laura Sgroi (Discord), Chris Paul Harman (Suite for Two Cellos), Youell Domenico (Duet for Two Cellos), Kelly-Marie Murphy (Final Glimpse), and Kati Agócs (violoncello Duet  “I and Thou” 1. With dignified elegance 2. With great tenderness).  

Speaking on the themes of the album, cellist Bryan Holt says, “Since the album deals with relationships, we decided to feature several composers who have played a pivotal role in our development as VC2.” Cellist Amahl Arulanandam adds, “There are so many different sound worlds you’re going to hear, all of these composers have a very unique voice. But, the one thing you can expect to hear is a lot of cello!” 

VC2 cello duo is an innovative cello duo ensemble that captivates audiences through their performances of classical masterworks, unknown gems and boundary pushing music. Comprised of cellists Amahl Arulanandam and Bryan Holt, CBC Radio says VC2 is “a tight unit, with excellent intonation and expression.” They present artistically challenging, yet accessible programs in venues ranging from intimate cabarets to Roy Thomson Hall. 

VC2 ~ I and Thou 

Release Date: February 10, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

 vc2celloduo.com 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

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“Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs” Released by Leaf Music

(Halifax, NS) Halifax’s Leaf Music is releasing Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs, with award-winning soprano Maureen Batt and collaborative pianist, Tara Scott. This new work is an exploration of Judeo-Spanish poetry and song. Composer Elisha Denberg (elishadenburg.com) notes that Sephardic traditions were shared in his family through the teachings and performances of his uncle, Moshe Denburg and grandmother, Miriam Ben-Ezra Denburg, and he’s used “the poems’ traditional melodies as springboards to a newly rendered work, in the Jewish tradition of ‘renewing days as of old.’” The work was supported by a commission from the Ontario Arts Council. Texts and translations are edited by Daisy Sadaka Braverman.

The four songs range from a simple lullaby (Durme, durme, or Sleep, sleep), to the intense solo vocal, liturgical/cantorial chant of Ir me kero, madre, a Yerushalayim (I want to go, mother, to Jerusalem). Inspired by the Hineni (Here I am), a synagogue prayer chanted on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), this prayer is sung by the cantor asking God to accept both personal and communal prayers on behalf of the entire congregation. The traditional melody is used in the refrain, En El me arimo Yo (In Him I place my trust).
 
Elisha Denburg has composed vocal music and chamber works for ensembles such as Access Contemporary Music, TorQ Percussion Quartet, Halifax Camerata Singers, The Array Ensemble and Essential Opera, who commissioned his one-act opera about the first female rabbi, Regina. His music can be heard on CBC Radio 2’s The Signal with Laurie Brown, About Time with Tom Allen, and Tempo with Julie Nesrallah. His three-movement work Sonatina for Vibraphone & Harp is featured on Angela Schwarzkopf’s JUNO-winning album detach.

Soprano Maureen Batt (maureenbatt.com) focuses on celebrating Canadian classical contemporary music and is an ECMA and JUNO nominee and winner for her discography. She’s the co-artistic director of Essential Opera, and founded Crossing Borders, a contemporary Western classical music recital series that has toured programs in the United States, Canada and Colombia and produced digital broadcasts. Maureen is a frequent festival adjudicator and has been regularly on the faculty of the Halifax Summer Opera Festival. Having premiered many new opera roles by Canadian composers, she most recently won the Classical Recording of the Year at the 2022 ECMAs for her Lighthouse project with Grej.

Tara Scott (piano) is one of Atlantic Canada’s most renowned collaborative pianists. She’s worked across Canada with singers, instrumentalists and choirs, and co-founded Halifax Summer Opera Festival, now in its sixteenth season. She’s been Music Director for shows with Neptune Theatre, Eastern Front and Essential Opera, and has performed with Opera Nova Scotia, Opera New Brunswick and Halifax Theatre for Young People. Tara maintains a busy private piano study and teaches at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. This EP is Tara’s second commercial release, her first being the JUNO-nominated Breathing in the Shadows with song cycles by Saman Shahi.
 
The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax in October of 2022.  
 
This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters, with support from Music Nova Scotia and Arts Nova Scotia. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.
 
Release Date:  February 3, 2023
UPC 3191684102160
Catalog Number LM2032 

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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).

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The Rosebud String Quartet and Leaf Music Proudly Present: “Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614”

Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614

The Rosebud String Quartet is thrilled to present Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614, their first record on Leaf Music, set to be released on January 13, 2023. The album is comprised of three works, one from Mozart and two from Haydn. Both works are characterized by their late appearance in their composer’s creative life. Recorded at the Domaine Forget International Music Festival in Saint-Irénée, Charlevoix, Quebec, Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614 sees the Rosebud String Quartet imparting its nuanced and careful dynamism to these two special works.

The quartets of Haydn have played, and continue to hold a seminal role in the creative expression of Rosebud String Quartet. Violist Keith Hamm says, “The Quartet Music of Joseph Haydn has always been extremely important to us. It provides an infinite set of expressive possibilities. I always feel like the music possesses the full range of human emotion strung together by playfulness and humour.” 

The Rosebud String Quartet was formed in 2013 at the inaugural Rosebud Chamber Music Festival, an annual summer chamber music showcase in rural Alberta. Comprised of principal players from the Edmonton Symphony and the orchestras of the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet of Canada, the RSQ is one of Canada’s most dynamic ensembles with a unique voice and a deep love for the music of Haydn.  

The RSQ performs regularly across Canada at festivals such as Ottawa Chamberfest, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Stratford Summer Music Festival, Le Domaine Forget, Music By The Sea, and in concert series that include Chatter ABQ, Stereo Live, Echo Chamber, Xenia Concerts, Off Centre Music Salon, and Music Mondays where they were featured on CBC Radio’s In Concert. 

Rosebud String Quartet will host an album launch show for Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614 on January 13, 2023 at the Campbell House Museum.  

Rosebud String Quartet ~ Haydn Op. 77 & Mozart K. 614 

Release Date: January 13, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

 rosebudquartet.com 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

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Leaf Music and Kate Read Proudly Present “After”

Kate Read is thrilled to present After, her first record on Leaf Music set to be released on November 18, 2022. After is the culmination of a pandemic’s worth of time and experimentation directed towards melding the organic with the electronic. After features famous works from Bach, Muhly, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, as well as two newly commissioned works from Canadian composer and professor Andrew Staniland and composer Benton Roark.

Inspiration for After began to form during the pandemic, when, like many artists, Kate Read found herself alone and in need of some solace. She found this solace in two forms. One, perhaps expected, was through the works of Bach and Muhly. The other, however, was through experimenting with electronics. This eventually led to the masterful combination and integration of baroque and electronics heard on After.  

Speaking on the power of music to provide solace in times of difficulty and stress, Read comments, “I continued on to spend a lot of time with Nico Muhly’s “Keep in Touch”. Interestingly, in playing this piece I found that my sense of isolation was alleviated, despite Muhly’s words: “Every dimension of the piece accentuates the “in-betweenness” of these two strange voices: …Antony’s (Hegarty) voice, so stately on his own records, is here reduced to abrupt, extemporaneous gestures, mirroring, not alleviating, the viola’s isolation.” 

Based in St John’s, Kate’s diverse talents can be heard at festivals such as Sound Symposium and Tuckamore, performing with the Atlantic String Quartet (winners of MusicNL Classical Musicians of the year, 2021) and as principal violist in the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. In demand as a session musician Kate is also the violist of Dark by Five, resident ensemble at Gros Morne Summer Music and the Harbourlight Piano Quartet. Kate is also principal viola with Opera on the Avalon and collaborates with many musicians around town including Duo Concertante, Vernon Regher, Duane Andrews, Benton Roark and Tiber Reardon. Favourite memories of Sound Symposium include playing the ice breaker on the coast guard ship for the Harbour Symphony and an improv session with John Wyre, Bill Brennan and Paul Bendzsa. 

Kate Read ~ After  

Release Date: November 18, 2022 

Physical/Digital Release 

 kateread.ca 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca

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Leaf Music and The Andara Quartet Proudly Present: “De mille feux”

Leaf Music and Andara Quartet present the group’s second album De mille feux, available November 4, 2022. Recorded during two sessions almost two years apart at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, De mille feux is the result of the collaboration between the Andara Quartet and four remarkable composers. The four pieces, from composers Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, Kelly Marie-Murphy, and James Wright, each allow the quartet to display their full dynamic and tonal range.

De mille feux translates to of a thousand lights, which in turn gestures toward the choice between embracing light or darkness when faced with the “innumerable traumas and nihilisms of the twentieth century, and the recently discovered perpetual expansion of interstellar voids, myriad forms of terrestrial energy continue to burst forth with light, passion, and life!” De mille feux is a celebration of turning toward and contemplating the good, particularly when circumstances make doing so difficult.  

In September 2014, the members of the Andara Quartet—Marie-Claire Vaillancourt (violin), Jeanne Côté (violin), Vincent Delorme (viola), and Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy (cello)—met for the first time at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, while preparing the Ravel String Quartet in F major under the tutelage of Denis Brott. Since then, their passion, dynamism, quality of execution, and unique repertoire have brought them critical acclaim across Canada and internationally. 

Andara Quartet ~ De mille feux 

Release Date: November 4, 2022 

leaf-music.ca 

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca 

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Christina Raphaëlle Haldane Releases Debut Album: “Tu me voyais”

Christina Raphaëlle Haldane is thrilled to present Tu me voyais, her first record on Leaf Music set to be released on October 21, 2022. Tu Me Voyais is the result of the collaboration between Haldane and Carl Philippe Gionet, along with several other artists, writers, and composers who have contributed their own offerings.

The album is anchored around Gionet’s new arrangements of Twelve Acadian Folk Songs, tailored for Haldane’s voice. These re-imaginings are set in the 19th century lieder aesthetic or art song where voice and piano play equal solo parts within the musical architecture.  

Carl’s approach to the Acadian folk song arrangements is rooted in the oral tradition, where music and texts are passed orally from generation to generation, without the use of musical notation. He selected folk songs that were already committed to his memory, passed on to him orally from family members and childhood musical activities. In the arrangements, Carl has remained as faithful as possible to his musical memory. He has also taken liberties with the traditional texts, often re-working the order of the storytelling, making omissions, and creating repetitions to enhance the dramatic arc of the pieces. 

Christina Haldane’s career spans the UK, Europe, Asia and North America, and she is currently based in Canada’s Atlantic provinces. She has interpreted many lead opera roles, having performed for opera houses such as The Finnish National Opera, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Scottish Opera and Musica Viva Hong Kong. Her specialty is performing Handel’s Heroines, Comedic Bel Canto roles and Contemporary opera. Christina enjoys performing and curating recital and chamber music concerts, and she is often invited to perform with leading orchestras. Her exploration of contemporary music has led to many collaborations with composers, and she continues to bring their vocal works to life. Christina is a bilingual English and French speaker with Acadian heritage, and she is proud to be a citizen of Canada and Great Britain.  

Christina Haldane – Tu me voyais 

Release Date: October 21, 2022

https://christinahaldane.com/ 

Tu me voyais is available to stream on all major streaming platforms.