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”.
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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
MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca
How Like a Golden Dream
