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Luminous Voices Celebrates First JUNO Nomination

Halifax, NS; March 9, 2021 – Calgary based professional choir, Luminous Voices are thrilled to be nominated for a JUNO award. Announced earlier today during the official press conference, the ensemble received their first JUNO nomination for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral for their album, Sea Dreams. This celebration is just in time for the announcement of their upcoming album, Artem Vedel, set to be released May 7, 2021 through Halifax-based label Leaf Music. 

“We are thrilled and deeply honoured to be nominated in this very special 50th anniversary year of the JUNOS!! To be recognized among other vocal/choral luminaries during this difficult COVID-19 year means the world to us.” – Dr. Timothy Shantz, Founder & Artistic Director

Sea Dreams features the work of the same title by Canadian composer Peter-Anthony Togni. “Sea Dreams” is written for double mixed choirs and two flutes and features two top Canadian flutists Sara Hahn-Scinocco and Sarah MacDonald. The piece was commissioned by Luminous Voices and Sara Hahn-Scinocco with the support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Paul and Elwyn Brown, and was premiered on February 25, 2018 at the Bella Concert Hall, Taylor Centre for the Performing Arts, Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.

“Sea Dreams is a work that reflects my relationship to the ocean and my thoughts about a journey of faith, a journey full of questions, fears, longings, hopes, dreams, and the gifts of disappointment,” says Halifax-based composer Peter-Anthony Togni. “Each choir represents a ship on the water. Getting into a boat or on a ship is a kind of leap of faith: we can only pray and trust that the journey will be successful.”

Sea Dreams also includes other works by Togni, including Totus Tuus, Requiem et Lux, Earth Voices, Psaume 98, and more. Guest artists include bass clarinetist Jeff Reilly, soprano Katie Partridge, and tenor Oliver Munar.

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“Ex Tempore” from Charke Cormier Duo wins East Coast Music Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Charke-Cormier Duo “Ex Tempore” named Classical Composition
of the Year award at 2019 East Coast Music Awards

 

May 4, 2019 (Charlottetown, PE) – Derek Charke and Eugene Cormier, members of the Charke Cormier Duo accepted the East Coast Music Award for Classical Composition of the Year this evening at the East Coast Music Awards’ “Classical Stage” at Trinity United Church in Charlottetown, PE for their work “Ex Tempore.”

The work appears on an album by the same name released on the Leaf Music label on May 4, 2018.  The work, for flute and guitar, includes improvised passages so no two performances are exactly alike.  Hear the album…

Derek Charke (flute / composer) and Eugene Cormier (guitar / arranger) are professors at Acadia University’s school of music.  In 2018, the group’s recording of Celso Machado’s “Sambossa” from Musiques Populaires Brésiliennes earned a coveted position on Spotify’s Top 50 Classical Picks playlist, helping the group generate buzz across North America, Europe, Brazil and Mexico and over 35,000 on-demand audio streams of the work on the Spotify platform alone.

“The track Ex Tempore, composed by Charke, is a composed/improvised work for bass flute and guitar that lives up to its title. Note-bending during lengthy dramatic extended-technique bass flute phrases is heard against the guitar-driven rhythm and tonality, all in a spontaneous yet controlled direction, until the final satisfying guitar tone fades.”   Read more…
– Tiina Kiik, The Whole Note Magazine, Aug. 2018

Leaf Music is an independent recording label with an emphasis on high quality classical recordings by Atlantic Canadian artists and composers. The label is based in Halifax Nova Scotia and was established in 2012 by Fredericton-born music producer Jeremy VanSlyke.

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About Leaf Music

Leaf Music is the first integrated recording label in Atlantic Canada with a focus on the production of high quality classical recordings.  The label’s catalog is distributed worldwide by Naxos of America.

Learn more at www.leaf-music.ca

For more information please contact:

Jeremy VanSlyke
Leaf Music
902.802.1526
info@leaf-music.ca