Tag: Guitar

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Leaf Music, Lara Deutsch & Adam Cicchillitti Present: “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. 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).

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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”.  

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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 

leaf-music.ca 

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

How Like a Golden Dream

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Charke Cormier Duo Releases “Bathymetric Terrains”


(Halifax, NS) Nova Scotia Duo Release Bathymetric Terrains
 
Nova Scotia’s Charke-Cormier Duo releases its latest recording, Bathymetric Terrains, at The Music Room on Saturday, February 15 at 2:00 p.m.   The album, on the Leaf Music label, is available February 14 and is distributed by Naxos of America.  Bathymetric Terrains muses on the ecology of oceans and tidal bays; bathymetry is the measurement of water depths.
 
Derek Charke (flutes) and Eugene Cormier (guitar) formed the Charke-Cormier Duo in 2014, releasing their debut recording, Ex Tempore, in 2018.  The album was nominated for the 2019 ECMA Award for Classical Album of the Year, and the composition Ex Tempore won the 2019 ECMA award for Classical Composition of the Year. The Whole Note magazine called the album “a fabulous debut!” The duo publishes their music under the Charke-Cormier Duo Collection with Doberman-Yppan in Québec. Both performers are highly accomplished musicians who are on the faculty of Acadia University’s School of Music.  
 
Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer Derek Charke (www.charke.com) is a JUNO and ECMA award-winning composer and flutist.  His music is eclectic – often defying categorization due to wide-ranging influences.  Dr. Charke is a professor of music at Acadia University Wolfville, where he teaches composition and music theory.  He also heads AEMS, the Acadian Electroacoustic Music Studio.   
 
Dr. Charke can see the fragile ecosystem of The Minas Basin from his home in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, including the seabed that is exposed when the tide is out twice daily: “For a while now I’ve wanted to compose something about these hidden landscapes.  The composition includes multiple flute, guitar, and voice parts.  The solo parts are performed live while the backing tracks, processing, and soundscapes are projected through speakers.  For live performances, a video of various seascapes from around Nova scotia is projected on a screen.”

See a trailer video here:  

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhkQqQvZdRw[/embedyt]
 
The album was produced, engineered and mastered at Derek Charke’s studio in Wolfville, NS and at AEMS, the Acadian Electroacoustic Music Studio (sponsored by CFI-JELF, and the NS Research and Innovation Trust), with additional mastering by Jeremy VanSlyke.  
 
This project is funded in part by Arts Nova Scotia and Acadia University.
 
This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.

FOR BROADCAST USE:

Nova Scotia’s Charke-Cormier Duo is releasing a new album, Bathymetric Terrains, at The Music Room on February 15 at 2:00 p.m.  This recording features flutes and guitar, and relates to the fragile ecosystems of the Minas Basin.  Bathymetry is the measurement of water depths.

The CD features music written for the Duo by composer Derek Charke, who is a professor of music at Acadia University.  In seven movements, the music references flowing water, the various levels of the ocean and explores the imagery of the ocean through rhythm and melody.

That’s the Charke-Cormier Duo, launching their new recording, Bathymetric Terrains at the Music Room on Saturday, February 15 at 2:00 p.m.  The event is free and all are welcome.