Tag: Canadian

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Essential Opera & Leaf Music Present: “Etiquette”

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Composer Monica Pearce’s one-act opera Etiquette is being released by Leaf Music and Essential Opera. The twenty-one minute work features three influential 1920s women: author, critic and satirist Dorothy Parker (known for her wit and wisecracks), author and socialite Emily Post, and American-born British politician Nancy Astor. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in politics, and At Home (the book by Emily Post) was published in 1922, noting the importance of etiquette in all aspects of life: “Consideration for the rights and feelings of others is not merely a rule for behavior in public but the very foundation upon which social life is built.” When reviewing the work, however, Parker observed that, “Those who have mastered etiquette seem to arrive at exquisite dullness.” 

Commissioned by Essential Opera, this world-premiere recording was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia. The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax. A stylish short film is also being released in the coming months.  

Monica Pearce composed the music, and the librettist is John Terauds. The recording features sopranos Maureen Batt and Erin Bardua, Mezzo-soprano Lucy Hayes Davis, pianist Tara Scott, and clarinetist Brad Reid. 

Essential Opera’s recent productions include short opera films by Canadian women composers. Founded in 2010 in Toronto by Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt, the company has commissioned many new works, receiving support from SOCAN, Ontario Arts Council, Arts Nova Scotia, and The Canada Council for the Arts. Their mission is to give audiences opportunities to experience opera at its most essential, with a dynamic and evolving definition of what is essential. 

Monica Pearce is a Canadian composer specializing in opera, chamber music and everything toy-piano-related. After completing her Bachelor of Music at Mount Allison University with a focus on piano and composition, Monica has a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto and co-founded emerging composer collective, the Toy Piano Composers, with Chris Thornborrow. Her compositions have been performed and commissioned by many leading ensembles. She won the Harry Freedman Award for her harpsichord work toile de jouy and was nominated for Classical Composer of the Year by the 2022 East Coast Music Awards for Maureen Batt’s recording of Aunt Helen. In 2022 she released her debut album Textile Fantasies, a multi-work piece including eight works inspired by textiles and patterns. Called “vivid,” “pleasantly intricate,” “imaginative and meaningful,” by reviewers, this recording features performances by keyboardists Cheryl Duvall, Wesley Chen, Barbara Pritchard, and Joseph Ferretti, tabla player Shawn Mativetsky, and renowned ensembles TorQ Percussion and SHHH!! Ensemble. Monica is active as a librettist and worked with composer Cecilia Livingston on the Dora-nominated opera on the life of Anne Frank entitled Singing Only Softly.  

Release Date: September 29, 2023 

Digital Release 

essentialopera.com 

https://leaf-music.ca/product/lm2040/ 

MEDIA CONTACT: Peggy Walt | peggy@leaf-music.ca 

 

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Leaf Music & Tutta Musica Orchestra Present: “Ovation”

Ovation

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Two years into Covid-19, New Brunswick’s Tutta Musica Orchestra celebrated everyday heroes of the pandemic, presenting six concerts in various New Brunswick communities. Each concert included a newly commissioned musical piece by Vancouver composer Jaelem Bhate, using themes of courage, resilience, and community. Now the orchestra brings these works to a wider audience through their soon-to-be-released recording, Ovation, on the Leaf Music label. 

Tutta Musica consists of sixty musicians who are the Teaching Artists of Sistema New Brunswick, a highly successful program of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. The musicians are graduates of some of the finest university and conservatory music programs in North and South America. They strive to make live music more accessible, more engaging, and more relevant to more people throughout the region. Working in many genres from rock and roll to Acadian music to opera, Tutta Musica collaborates with artist in creative writing, comedy, theatre, and dance, creating original content which features New Brunswick themes, culture, and people. The ensemble is conducted by 

Maestro Antonio Delgado, who is also Musical Director of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and of Sistema NB. 

The two major works on this recording are Manuel de Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2 and Jaelem Bhate’s contemporary work, Ovation. This new piece was composed in just seven weeks, consisting of three aptly named movements: i. Courage, ii. Resilience and iii. Community. The melodies and harmonies of these movements are generated by the same chord construction (a C minor 11 tetrachord) in which the intervals between notes are those of fourths). The effect is strongly allusive to the subject of Covid. To quote the composer: “It was difficult to find a balance between triumph and sorry…I wanted to write something that we could all relate to, despite the sometimes-intense feeling surrounding how Covid was handled by different entities. All three movement speak to some of the base human emotions I think we all felt through the past two and a half years, no matter our politics or beliefs.” 

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. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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Tutta Musica Orchestra – Ovation

Release Date: September 22, 2023  
Physical/Digital Release 

For more visit:  www.leaf-music.ca/lm289b

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact 
Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca

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Leaf Music, Rachel Mercer & Kevin Lau Present: “Kevin Lau: Under a Veil of Stars”

Kevin Lau: Under A Veil Of Stars

(Halifax/Kipuktuk, NS) The St. John-Mercer-Park Trio is proud to present Kevin Lau: Under A Veil of Stars, an album that seeks to be both intimate and cosmic, to find the universal in the particular, and to celebrate the sacred energy music alone has the power to transmit. Kevin Lau: Under A Veil of Stars sees three outstanding musicians actualizing the themes of escapism, surreality, and temporality. Over nine tracks, Under A Veil of Stars careens through several moods and themes, each offering the listener a chance to interpret the meaning through their unique lens, before culminating in the album’s centerpiece: the three-movement Under a Veil of Stars. This piece chronicles the themes and motifs of life’s overarching three stages – childhood, adulthood, and old age. 

Kevin Lau: Under A Veil of Stars is at once intimate and grandiose. Kevin Lau writes: “Intimate. Cosmic. Two words that describe not only my ideal musical vision—music that invites us into an experience with the warm, welcoming touch of the familiar, only to then show us the universe—but also the piano trio ensemble itself, which is somehow both very small (three musicians!) and very grand, symphonic even. I am thrilled to have my four piano trios represented on this album, along with a handful of piano trio subsets that I felt complemented these works.” 

One of Canada’s most versatile and sought-after composers, Kevin Lau has been commissioned by some of Canada’s most prominent artists and ensembles, and his work has been performed internationally in the USA, France, Denmark, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. A prolific composer of orchestral, chamber, ballet, opera, and film music, he was appointed Affiliate Composer of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2012; to date, he has produced seven works for the TSO. Shortly after, he was commissioned to write two ballets with choreographer Guillaume Côté: a full-length ballet (Le Petit Prince) for the National Ballet of Canada and a half-hour ballet (Dark Angels) for the National Arts Centre Orchestra. His music is represented on many commercial recordings, including two JUNO Award–winning albums (Mosaïque, Ensemble Made in Canada; Detached, harpist Angela Schwarzkopf). He is currently composer-in-residence of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra; his most recent work, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano Lizzy Hoyt, marks his fourth commission with the MCO. Kevin’s creative output, often inspired by the fantastical and the surreal, is unified by the search for deep connections amidst surface diversity—connections that serve as a metaphor for the reconciliation of seemingly fundamental differences. 

Described as a “pure chamber musician” (Globe and Mail) creating “moments of pure magic” (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across five continents. Grand prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel is Principal Cello of the NAC Orchestra in Ottawa and Co-Artistic Director of the “5 at the First” Chamber Music Series in Hamilton. She collaborates regularly with her long-time duo partner, pianist Angela Park, and was cellist of the JUNO Award–winning piano quartet Ensemble Made in Canada (2008–2020), the AYR Trio (2010–2020), and the Aviv Quartet (2002–2010). An advocate for new Canadian music, Rachel has commissioned and premiered over thirty works, including solo and chamber work, and cello concerti by Stewart Goodyear and Kevin Lau. Rachel can be heard on the Naxos, Naxos Canadian Classics, Centrediscs, Analekta, ATMA, Dalia Classics, and EnT-T record labels and released a critically acclaimed album of the Bach Suites on Pipistrelle in March 2014, recorded on the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius Cello from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. Rachel plays a seventeenth-century cello from Northern Italy. 

Violinist Scott St. John, from London, Ontario, is Concertmaster and Artistic Partner of the innovative ROCO Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas, and teaches chamber music at the University of Toronto. He performs frequently with the St. John-Mercer-Park Piano Trio and returns often to the summertime Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Early violin success with teacher Richard Lawrence in London, Ontario, gave Scott a path to further studies with David Cerone, Arnold Steinhardt, and Felix Galimir. After playing a Carnegie Hall debut, he lived in NYC and worked for Young Concert Artists. Scott has held the position of Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and from 2018 to 2021 he was Director of Chamber Music at The Colburn School in Los Angeles. As a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, he was Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University. Scott won a JUNO Award for recording Mozart with his sister Lara St. John and founded the Felix Galimir Award for chamber music students at University of Toronto. Scott loves chamber music, Dvorak, new music, music by less-known composers, and a great espresso. 

Angela Park has established herself as one of Canada’s most sought-after pianists. Praised for her “stunningly beautiful pianism” (Grace Welsh Prize, Chicago), “beautiful tone and sensitivity” (American Record Guide), and for performing “with such brilliant clarity it took your breath away” (Chapala, Mexico), Angela’s versatility as both soloist and chamber musician has led to performances across Canada, as well as in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Mexico. Angela was a founding member of the JUNO Award–winning Ensemble Made in Canada, a group she performed with from 2006 to 2022. She has a long-standing duo partnership with cellist Rachel Mercer, performing extensively as the Mercer-Park Duo, the St. John-Mercer-Park Trio with violinist Scott St. John, and with Mayumi Seiler (Seiler Trio). They performed with violinist Yehonatan Berick as the AYR Trio from 2010 to 2020. Other important collaborations include duos with violist Sharon Wei, piano duo concerts with Stéphan Sylvestre, collaborations with violist Rivka Golani and flutist Susan Hoeppner, and trio concerts with clarinetist James Campbell and soprano Leslie Fagan. From 2011 to 2014, Angela was Visiting 

Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano–Woodwinds at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Angela has been Assistant Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano at Western University since 2019.

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Rachel Mercer & Kevin Lau – Kevin Lau: Under A Veil Of Stars

Release Date: September 15, 2023  
Physical/Digital Release 

For more visit:  www.leaf-music.ca/lm273b

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact 
Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca

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Leaf Music & City Opera Vancouver Present: “Chinatown”

Chinatown

(KJIPUKTUK) Alice Ping Yee Ho, City Opera Vancouver, and Leaf Music are proud to present Chinatown, a sweeping opera that tells the collective story of thousands of Chinese immigrants who left their homeland between the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries in search of a better life for them and their families. The first opera in Hoisanese and English and the first to fuse authentic Chinese folk dialects and cultures into the world of English opera, Ho’s Chinatown is a tribute to the legacy of the people who toiled under the promise of prosperity, and instead received abuse and hardship. 

Chinatown revolves around the intertwining lives of Saihin and Xon Pon, two young men from  Hoisan county in South China who have come to Canada in search of prosperity. We follow their story as they meet, work together, endure hardships and have families of their own. A collaboration between composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, librettist Madeleine Thien, and Hoisanese translator Paul Yee, Chinatown brings together decades of lived experience from thousands of Chinese immigrants in an intimate and emotionally arresting musical and dramatic soundscape. 

Ho says the opera is intended to be an artistic depiction of the realities facing early 20th century Chinese newcomers. “This album represents an important work that tells the stories and experiences of early Chinese immigrants. It’s clear by the standing ovations and positive reviews that the opera Chinatown is a beautiful and moving story of racism, resilience, and family.  I hope this album will inspire the audience the same way as it was imagined in the theatre – the experience of an epic journey of music and drama, both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.” 

Founding artistic director, Dr. Charles Barber says, “We conceived the idea for CHINATOWN in mid-2017. It was approved and budgeted by the Board, and so began its development. We spent a year searching for the storyteller. Having chosen Madeleine Thien, we commissioned a scenario and thereafter a draft libretto. The Vancouver Foundation made a stupendous lead grant in support of this project, and this process. One year later, we began taking Maddie’s draft to multiple private and public workshops, with professional actors road-testing its language and structures. Translator Paul Yee joined to lead us in the incorporation of Hoisanese in the opera.”  

“Alice Ping Yee Ho was commissioned in 2020, and thereafter we held public music workshops — again in Chinatown venues, and with professional singers. Delayed by COVID, from concept to curtain took five years. CHINATOWN exists because of the inspired collaboration of Alice, Maddie, and Paul, and the many friends and artists who joined in generous support. We thank them all.” 

“For five nights in September 2022, at the Vancouver Playhouse, our audiences heard the results: a story of strength and resilience in the face of great adversity and loss. We believe this piece is a fitting tribute to those who lived and worked in Chinatown, for which they left everything. In this recording, we hope you will be as moved as were they—and we thank you for listening.”  

It is a timely, significant and often beautiful work that proves well worth the wait. The overwhelming strengths of the show are the singers, the orchestral ensemble, and Alice Ping Yee Ho’s enchanting score  –The Vancouver Sun 

~ 

Alice Ping Yee Ho is an award-winning Hong Kong–born Canadian composer known 

for her “distinctly individual” style and “organic flow of imagination.” A two-time Juno Award nominee and a recipient of the Dora Mavor Moore Award, Symphony Nova Scotia’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, Barlow Endowment Commissioning Prize, and Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, her works have been performed by ensembles across the globe, including the Toronto Symphony, Finnish Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Polish Radio Choir, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, and Luxembourg Sinfonietta. 

One of Canada’s most acclaimed writers, Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver. She is the author of four books of fiction, most recently Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which received the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages, and her essays and stories can be found in The New Yorker, Granta, Brick, Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. 

Paul Yee grew up in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the 1960s. He did volunteer projects there in the 1980s and worked as an archivist while doing an MA in Canadian history. He is a published author of over twenty works. His non-fiction includes Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver; his fiction includes children’s books and stories for adults, including A Superior Man, published in 2015. Chinatown is his first opera. 

~ 

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. 

About Canada Council for the Arts 

The Canada Council for the Arts contributes to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and supports its presence across Canada and around the world. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” The Council’s grants, services, initiatives, prizes, and payments support Canadian artists, authors, and arts groups and organizations. This support allows them to pursue artistic expression, create works of art, and promote and disseminate the arts and literature. Through its arts funding, communications, research, and promotion activities, the Council fosters ever-growing engagement of Canadians and international audiences in the arts. The Council’s Public Lending Right (PLR) program makes annual payments to creators whose works are held in Canadian public libraries. The Council’s Art Bank operates art rental programs and helps further public engagement with contemporary arts through exhibition and outreach activities. The Council is responsible for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which promotes the values and programs of UNESCO to contribute to a future of peace, reconciliation, equity, and sustainable development. 

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Alice Ho – Chinatown 

Release Date: September 8, 2023  
Physical/Digital Release 

For more visit:  www.leaf-music.ca/lm281b

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact
Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca

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Leaf Music Distribution and Christine Vanderkooy Present: “Schubert Late Piano Works”

Shubert: Late Piano Works

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Pianist Christine Vanderkooy presents a new album, Schubert: Late Piano Works, distributed by Leaf Music Distribution. Recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio during Toronto’s lockdown in December of 2020 on “Bertha” the nine-foot New York Steinway, the recording comprises two works composed by Schubert in the twilight of his life: Sonata in C-minor, D. 958 – the first from his late sonata trilogy – and Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946. While these works were long passed over following their creation in 1828, these deeply human compositions have been establishing their place as inimitable masterworks amongst pianists and audiences alike.

Written just a year following the death of his admired Beethoven, Schubert completed “some of his most sophisticated, poetic, and deeply felt works for the piano…permeating the deepest layers of the soul…moving us, sometimes with the masterful shift of just one note or rest, from the desolate to the sublime,” Christine writes in the liner notes.

Praised for her “sensitive and passionate artistic interpretation,” Christine Vanderkooy has performed as a soloist across Canada, the US and Europe. Her previous recording, Schubert and Schumann, enjoyed critical acclaim including a cover story for Tempo magazine. As well as radio play on CBC Radio and stations across the continent. Christine has been frequently invited to adjudicate festivals and competitions and has twice been invited to judge the Canadian JUNO Awards. Her national reputation as a piano pedagogue has led to workshops and masterclasses across the country.

Christine studied and taught at McGill University where she earned a Doctor of Music in Piano Performance. Her major teachers included David McIntyre, Boyd McDonald, Tom Plaunt, Sara Laimon and Marc Durand. She joined the University of Windsor in 2017 as Associate Professor of Music and Education. 

The recording was made possible by funding from the University of Windsor, including a research start-up grant and the Research Stimulus Fund Grant from the Faculty of Education, as well as an SSHRC Exchange Grant.

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Christine Vanderkooy– Shubert: Late Piano Works

Release Date: September 1, 2023 
Physical/Digital Release 

For more visit: http://leaf-music.lnk.to/cv2023

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews,
please contact Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca.

Lovers and mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany

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Leaf Music, Lara Deutsch & Adam Cicchillitti Present: “Wanderlust”

Wanderlust

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music, flutist Lara Deutsch, and guitarist Adam Cicchillitti are excited to release their new album, Wanderlust. Wanderlust is a collection of folk-inspired pieces that trace their heritage back through a variety of global folk music traditions. Conceived in the heart of the pandemic, flutist Lara Deutsch and classical guitarist Adam Cicchillitti have curated seven luscious pieces, each exploring classical music spanning the coasts of Japan to Newfoundland’s Celtic roots. The album will be released on August 25.

Flutist Lara Deutsch commented that “this album is reflective of the pandemic’s silver lining: being grounded inspired us to take listeners on a musical “world tour” when they couldn’t otherwise travel. It’s the first of many albums for our duo, as we’re committed to sharing lesser known (but amazing!) repertoire for flute and guitar with audiences everywhere.” Wanderlust stokes the fires of far-flung adventures residing in all of us. 

The duo will be celebrating the launch with live evening performances in Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax in September: Friday, September 8 at Salle Joseph-Rouleau (Jeunesses Musicales du Canada in Montreal), Tuesday, September 12 (allsaints event space, Ottawa), and Wednesday, September 27 (in partnership with Scotia Festival of Music, The Music Room, Halifax). Tickets for the Halifax performance go on sale on September 5 (https://www.scotiafestival.com),

Named one of 2020’s “Rising Stars” by BBC Music Magazine, flutist Lara Deutsch is a versatile soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player known for her engaging warmth and ability to connect with audiences. Recipient of the $125,000 Prix Goyer for 2019-2020, Lara is an avid chamber musician: recent performance highlights include recitals for the National Arts Centre (NAC) and Facebook’s #CanadaPerforms initiative, Newport Classical (Rhode Island, USA), the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s Virée Classique, and Ottawa’s Music & Beyond Festival. Among her favourite collaborators are pianists Philip Chiu and Frédéric Lacroix, guitarist Adam Cicchillitti, and harpist Emily Belvedere, with whom she founded Duo Kalysta.  She has recorded two chamber music albums on the Leaf Music Label: Origins (2019, Duo Kalysta) and Night Light (2022, with Philip Chiu), both of which were named to Top 20 lists for their respective years by CBC Music. Lara performs on a 14k gold Haynes flute, generously loaned by Canimex Inc. of Drummondville, Québec. She is represented by Latitude 45 Arts.  

The renowned American magazine Classical Guitar called Montreal-born guitarist Adam Cicchillitti “a virtuoso at the top of his game” and CBC Music described him as an “ardent ambassador for classical guitar.” Adam has commissioned over two dozen new works since 2019 and recorded three albums with the Analekta record label. His album Focus, dedicated to new Canadian music for two guitars, was awarded “Classical Recording of the Year” at the East Coast Music Awards in 2021, and Intimate Impressions was nominated in the same category in 2022.  

Adam’s set a benchmark in classical guitar with his award-winning recordings, competition performances, arrangements, and teaching. He regularly collaborates with many of Canada’s most esteemed soloists and orchestras, including flutist Lara Deutsch, baritone Philippe Sly, bandoneonist Denis Plante, the Orchestre classique de Montréal and Forestare. He’s toured Canada several times with Prairie Debut, Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales. In 2022, his duo with guitarist Steve Cowan commissioned and premiered six new concertos for two guitars and the chamber orchestra, Thirteen Strings. They were awarded third prize in the Guitar Foundation of America’s most prestigious international guitar ensemble competition in 2021 and second place in the finals in New York this summer. Adam is only the second guitarist to win the grand prize of the Canimex concerto competition in Sherbrooke, Québec, and has been a finalist and multiple-prize winner in over a dozen national and international competitions. He is a specialist in child pedagogy, is the founder of the guitar school at Ottawa Suzuki Strings and holds a doctorate in music interpretation from McGill University. Adam is sponsored by Augustine Strings and plays a guitar by Sergei de Jonge. 

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. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada. 

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Lara Deutsh & Adam Cicchillitti – Wanderlust

Release Date: August 25, 2023 
Physical/Digital Release 

For more, visit:  www.leaf-music.ca/product/lm269 

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca.

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Leaf Music, Dorian Bandy Present: “Lovers and Mourners”

Lovers and mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Dorian Komanoff Bandy is thrilled to present Lovers and mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany, his first record on Leaf Music, set to be released on August 18, 2023. Recorded at Église St-Augustin in Quebec, the album is an exploration of one of the most fertile periods for the development of violin writing and performing. Bandy draws on some of the periods’ most sombre, meditative works to deliver an album of refined elegance and measured delivery, featuring himself (baroque violin), Hank Knox (harpsichord) and Elinor Frey (viola da gamba). 

Lovers and Mourners focuses on three seventeenth century composer-performers: Johann Jakob Walther, Heinrich Biber, and Johann Georg Pisendel. Bandy guides the listener through a series of variation sets and themes, simultaneously offering faithful interpretations of the music while injecting his own unique touch. Speaking about the creation of the album, Bandy says, “These composers created a body of work that is by turns quirky, beguiling, heartfelt, and brazenly virtuosic.  It deserves far wider appreciation than it has so far received.” 

Dorian Bandy is a musicologist and performer specializing in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. He is the author of Mozart the Performer, as well as numerous academic articles.  He leads a vibrant career as a conductor, baroque violinist, and historical keyboardist, with a repertoire spanning four centuries and performances – acclaimed for their vitality, drama, and warmth — that have taken him to venues across Europe and North America, including London’s Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s Symphony Space. This recording was made possible thanks to an SSHRC Development Grant. 

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. We are also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.

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Dorian Bandy – Lovers and Mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany 

Release Date: August 18, 2023 
Physical/Digital Release 

For more visit:  www.leaf-music.ca/product/lm263 

MEDIA CONTACT:  
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews please contact Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca.

Lovers and mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany

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Leaf Music, Frédéric Lambert, and Ali Kian Yazdanfar Present: “Iridescence”

Iridescence

Frédéric Lambert and Ali Kian Yazdanfar are thrilled to present Iridescence, their first record on Leaf Music set to be released on June 23, 2023. Recorded at Le Domaine forget de Charlevoix in Saint-Irénée, Québec, Iridescence is an opportunity to not only consider colours and details often hidden from view, but also to imagine how a change in perspective can lead to striking flashes of brilliance. Opening a window onto a world of prismatic possibility and potential, violist Frédéric Lambert and double bassist Ali Kian Yazdanfar lead the listener through five works that extend across genre and form, creating a listening experience that is as varied as it is reflective.  

The first piece, “Fisherstreet Duo”, was written by Evan Chambers as an homage to the tiny village of Doolin, Ireland, which is now a hub for lovers of traditional music from all over the world. “Thème varié” (1976), by Jean Françaix, is a virtuosic showpiece, intended to display the full tonal and technical range of the double bass. “Duo for Viola and Double Bass” (2010), by Gareth Wood introduces a personal dimension to the album. The piece was written expressly for Ali Kian Yazdanfar, and is intended as an arena in which the two performers can demonstrate their chemistry together. In manus tuas is based on a sixteenth-century motet by Thomas Tallis. While there are only a few slices of the piece that reflect exact harmonic changes in Tallis’s setting, the motion (or lack thereof) is intended to capture the sensation of a single moment of hearing the motet in the particular and remarkable space of Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut. The final piece, Escenas del Sur (2008), by Efraín Oscher, is a tribute to the survivors of the dictators that ruled over 1960s South America. 

Speaking on the inspiration for the album, the duo says, “Iridescence is a chance for the public to consider the viola and double bass in a new light.  The rich and textured sound of each of these two instruments is perfectly suited to each other, and the character and sonority give a different perspective which colours the emotions evoked in the listener.” 

“As Iridescence exhibits a large range of contrasts – drama and lightheartedness, tension and bliss, tradition and modernity, we believe the unique choice of pieces holds a special relevance to the listeners of today. Our goal has always been that Iridescence might enrich the lives of those listening.  Whether through the hint of new perspectives and possibilities, a reminder of previous times, or just a thorough appreciation of the present, we hope this recording can foster a greater awareness and understanding of ourselves and the world around us.” 

One of the most prominent double bassists of his generation, Ali Kian Yazdanfar maintains an active career not only as principal double bass of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, but also as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Although he started playing the bass at seven years old, he didn’t take the usual music-school route to becoming a professional. In fact, his science and mathematics background led to a physics degree from Johns Hopkins University, and, directly upon graduating, he won his first audition to become a member of the Houston Symphony. He went on to win his next three auditions, for the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., for principal bass with the San Francisco Symphony, and for principal bass with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, where he currently plays. 

Taking inspiration from his Iranian roots, he has commissioned and performed many new works for solo double bass. Recent highlights include the world premiere in 2018 of a new bass concerto by Behzad Ranjbaran, as well as a 2023 program centred around three new works for double bass and piano by Iranian composers that explore the complex experiences of those with roots in multiple cultures. 

Ali is also an associate professor at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, and his former students hold posts in major orchestras of Canada, the United States, and Europe. He also presents master classes during the summer at Orford Music in the Eastern Townships, Quebec. In addition, he regularly appears at or has been on the faculty of festivals such as the National Orchestral Institute, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYOUSA), Le Domaine Forget, the Chautauqua Institute, and Bass Club (England). He is often invited to give master classes worldwide; some appearances include the Juilliard School, the New World Symphony, the Manhattan School of Music, the Curtis Institute, the Sydney Conservatorium, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the University of Southern California, the Peabody Institute, and Bass Europe congresses in Prague and Copenhagen. 

Frédéric Lambert has a doctorate in viola performance from McGill University, where his advisor was André Roy. His further development as a performer led him to play for masters such as Robert Vernon, James Dunham, Steven Dann, Bruno Pasquier, Régis Pasquier, and Ani Kavafian. He is regularly invited to join eminent ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Frédéric is a founding member of the Lloyd Carr-Harris String Quartet. In 2005, the quartet triumphed at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, winning not only the Gold Medal in the Senior String Division, but also the Grand Prize. The quartet then played several concerts in France, England, Italy, the United States, Australia, and Canada. 

Mr. Lambert joined the Molinari Quartet in 2007. The quartet has given itself the mandate to perform twentieth- and twenty-first-century repertoire for string quartet; to commission new works; and to initiate discussions between musicians, artists, and the public. A recipient of twenty-four Opus Prizes awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique for musical excellence on the Quebec concert stage, the Molinari Quartet has been described by the critics as an “essential” and “prodigious” ensemble and even “Canada’s answer to the Kronos or Arditti Quartet.” The Molinari Quartet has established itself as one of Canada’s leading string quartets. Its recordings on the ATMA Classique label have received unanimous international critical acclaim, including being selected two times as Editors’ Choice in Gramophone magazine and rave reviews in The Strad, Fanfare, and Diapason, among others. Its recording of the complete György Kurtág quartets received a Diapason d’or in December 2016 and a prestigious Echo Klassik award in July 2017. 

Frédéric is passionate about teaching. He is a lecturer for the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and teaches violin and viola at Université du Québec à Montréal. For more than a decade, he was a cultural columnist for Ici Radio-Canada Première, along with Catherine Perrin and Stéphan Bureau. In January 2022, he launched his podcast, La prescription avec Dr Fred Lambert, a weekly cultural program that is available on all platforms. Frédéric Lambert is the principal violist in the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval. 

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Frédéric Lambert and Ali Kian Yazdanfar 

Release Date: June 23, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

leaf-music.ca 

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

Iridescence 

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Leaf Music & Charles Hamann Present: “Canadian Scenes”

Charles “Chip” Hamann is thrilled to present Canadian Scenes, his second solo record with pianist Frédéric Lacroix and their first record with Leaf Music. Recorded over four days at the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts in Kingston, ON, Canadian Scenes is comprised of five works commissioned works between 2009 and 2022 and features a broad array of compositional flavours and styles. Intent on creating new repertoire for oboe and piano, Hamann recruited some of his favourite composers to provide pieces for Canadian Scenes, whose contributions helped the record become a sweeping sketch of Canadian compositional talent and identity.   

Hamann encouraged his composers to draw on Canada’s natural landscapes for inspiration as they began writing their pieces. Harnessing their unique connections to nature and filtering it through the Canadian lens has produced five works that are at once deeply personal and nationally collective. The works featured on this album also reverberate differently when listened to in a post-Covid world. Themes of isolation, loneliness, and grief are heard seeping through the lines. 

Speaking on what “Canadian Scenes” represents to Hamann as an artist, he says, “I am thrilled to present five incredible new oboe pieces inspired by Canada and nature. Each work reflects the challenges of life during the time of the Covid pandemic filtered through five vibrant and unique compositional voices. These works are destined to enrich the canon of oboe recital repertoire and reflect a moment when solo and small chamber works took on outsize importance for all musicians.”  

“Having approached each composer myself to create a new work over the span of a few years, my wish is that these new pieces will resonate broadly, and eventually be featured in concerts, recitals, and competitions in Canada and abroad—the classics of tomorrow. I hope listeners will be emotionally touched by the music and think about their relationships to nature, art, and life in Canada in the 21stCentury.”  

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Heralded for the “exquisite liquid quality” of his solo playing (Gramophone), Charles “Chip” Hamann was appointed to the principal oboe chair of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1993 at the age of 22. Mr. Hamann has also served as guest principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Quebec’s Les Violons du Roy.  

Mr. Hamann’s solo debut album, the double CD collection Canadian Works for Oboe and Piano with pianist Frédéric Lacroix, was released in 2017 on the Centrediscs label and his playing was lauded for “well-rounded tone, sensitive phrasing and…breathtaking sustained tones” (The Whole Note) and “exquisite musicianship.”(The Double Reed) He and Mr. Lacroix have presented solo recitals across Canada and the United States and both teach at the University of Ottawa School of Music, where they have collaborated closely together with the oboe studio for many years. Mr. Hamann has commissioned numerous solo works from leading Canadian composers and continues to champion new repertoire. 
 

With the NAC Wind Quintet, Charles Hamann’s performances of music for wind instruments by Camille Saint-Saëns with pianist Stéphane Lemelin for the Naxos label, including the op. 166 Oboe Sonata, won Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award in 2011. Mr. Hamann was also featured in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for violin and oboe BWV 1060 with Pinchas Zukerman on NACO’s 2016 Baroque Treasury album for Analekta that earned him praise as a “superb colleague” (Gramophone) and for “a gorgeous, expressive sound.” (Ludwig van Toronto) 
 

Charles Hamann has appeared as concerto soloist with Les Violons du Roy, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska, the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, and Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings. He has appeared many times with NACO, both in Ottawa and on tour, in major concertos including Bach, Mozart, Strauss, and Vaughan-Williams. 

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Charles Hamann ~ Canadian Scenes 

Release Date: June 9, 2023 

Digital Release 

leaf-music.ca 

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

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Jaap Nico Hamburger & Leaf Music Present: “Concerto Antico: à travers un miroir fumé”

‘Concerto Antico: à travers un miroir fumé’ from celebrated composer Jaap Nico Hamburger – featuring Matthias Maute conducting Orchestre classique de Montreal and Ensemble Caprice –  is set to be released April 7, 2023, through Leaf Music. Produced by Jeremy VanSlyke, this multi-faceted concerto was recorded at Salle Claude Champagne in Montreal, Quebec. ’Concerto Antico’ was commissioned by the OCM, Ensemble Caprice, and supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. 

Reflecting on the historical relevance of music Hamburger says, “What makes a work a distinct reflection of its own time? In the early 18th century, music made much use of dance forms, and was often created to be entertainment for ‘the privileged’ in society. So how are we different from people in the eighteenth century? If anything, the socio-economic developments of the past two hundred years have significantly widened not just the circle of listeners to music but, as the recent pandemic has shown, the mass participation of the entire society in the dominant conversations of the day.” 

“Concerto Antico is written in five short movements that start in the here and now, then return to the style of the 18th century, and gradually work their way back to the future. The music ends where it started but is transformed. History may repeat itself, but we as an audience, affected by our shared experiences, have changed.”   

‘Concerto Antico: à travers un miroir fumé’ is dedicated to the memory of Maestro Boris Brott and the first single from Hamburger’s forthcoming album ‘Tzimtzum’, arriving on Leaf Music in September 2023. 

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Jaap Nico Hamburger is the current Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montréal. His compositions include commissions for orchestra, opera, chamber music and solo works. His music has been performed and recorded in Canada, The Netherlands and Israel. In 2021, he was commissioned by the United Nations and the Government of the Netherlands to compose a new concerto on occasion of the 75th anniversary of the International Court of Justice.  Other commissions include works for Discovery Channel as well as European broadcasting companies. He is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer. His Chamber Symphony No. 2 ‘Children’s War Diaries’ was nominated for the Matthijs Vermeulen Award (2021) and received a JUNO nomination for classical composition of the year (2022).  

Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he started his musical education at the age of 3, and studied piano with Ruben Lifschitz, Alexandre Hrisanide and Youri Egorov. He graduated from the Royal Sweelinck Conservatorium of Music in Amsterdam, with a soloist degree in piano. He has lived in Canada since August 2000.   

Release Date: April 7, 2023 

Physical/Digital Release 

 Jaaphamburger.com 

leaf-music.ca 

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