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New Music Video for ‘Blackwood Sketches’

After Cover Art

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) – Leaf Music announces the release of Blackwood Sketches a new music video featuring acclaimed violist Kate Read. The video will premiere on YouTube on October 18, 2024.  

Blackwood Sketches was originally featured on Kate Read’s debut album, After, a project that blends Baroque repertoire with experimental electronics, offering a stirring mix of antiquity and modernity.

Composed by Andrew Staniland Blackwood Sketches for viola and electronics, the composition won the 2024 ECMA Classical Composition of the Year earlier last May. Staniland drew inspiration from David Blackwood’s Fire Down on the Labrador print series, particularly the work Black Ice, which depicts a powerful scene of an iceberg, a lifeboat fleeing a burning ship, and a submerged whale beneath distant stars. Staniland translates these elements into a series of musical vignettes, where low strings and synth tones conjure the presence of the whale, and eerie sounds imitate creaking ice and wood. Additionally, score markings such as dolce – preciously small amongst the vastness, reflect humanity’s smallness against nature’s overwhelming scale.  

The music video is directed by Cecil Johnson, produced by Jeremy VanSlyke, animation by Anna Shepard, and editing by Halley Hellmich and Cassie Mann. We are grateful to FACTOR (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings), the Government of Canada, and Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters for supporting this project. We are also grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts NL, who supported the sound recording of Andrew Staniland’s Blackwood Sketches.

Kate Read, based in St. John’s, NL, is a versatile performer known for her work with the Atlantic String Quartet, winners of MusicNL’s Classical Musicians of the Year award (2021), and as principal violist with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. A sought-after session musician, her collaborations extend to a wide variety of artists, and she can regularly be heard at festivals such as Tuckamore and Sound Symposium.  

Her first album, After, was released by Leaf Music and was nominated for ECMA and MusicNL awards. She is planning a new album with her experimental duo, Loopstitch, with Michelle LaCour. The duo won the 2024 Gerry Porter Award for improvisation at the Sound Symposium this summer.

Previously, Kate was a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London for six years, performing regularly with renowned ensembles such as the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Philharmonia, and the London Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated educator, she has served as a Sessional Professor of Viola at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 2015. Kate actively participates in educational outreach programs with the Atlantic String Quartet, performing in public schools, senior homes, and a sensory-friendly concert series.

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New Music Video from Saint John String Quartet

For over 30 years the Saint John String Quartet [SJSQ] has stood among Canada’s leading chamber music ensembles. The stylistic and energetic troupe is highly sought after for special collaborations within different musical genres – a reflection of their versatility and flexibility. From their sixth recording Canadian Hits: Unplugged, the ensemble takes us on a visual journey through Stan Rogers iconic “Northwest Passage”.

Through the depths of a lush forest canopy to the cliffs overlooking the Bay of Fundy, video director – Lauchlan Ough highlights the beauty of New Brunswick, Canada perfectly while SJSQ effortlessly serenades us with one of Canada’s best-known folk songs. The music is fittingly paired with the dramatic nature landscape filmed at Minister’s Face Nature Reserve overlooking the Kennebecasis River and the wide-open coastline of the Bay of Fundy. All being captured at dawn and dusk and creatively paralleled with the dense harmonic climaxes and expressions of the music.

WATCH AND SHARE “NORTHWEST PASSAGE” HERE

 Saint John String Quartet (violinists David Adams and Danielle Sametz, violist Christopher Buckley and cellist Sonja Adams) has stood among Canada’s leading chamber music ensembles for over 30 years. Renowned for their flexibility, SJSQ is equally comfortable collaborating with blues artists and rock superstars as with its own performances of Classical masterworks.

SJSQ performs over 125 concerts annually and serves as musicians-in-residence for Symphony New Brunswick and the University of New Brunswick. They have performed for many heads of state and at prestigious venues in Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and in October 2019, South America.

Credited with numerous recordings including their sixth and most recent Canadian Hits: Unplugged. Previous albums have earned a Juno nomination (Classical Composition of the Year) and won an East Coast Music Award (Best Classical Album of the Year) and a Music NB award (Best Album of the Year). Their albums feature innovative works and under-appreciated classical gems.

Recognized for many ground-breaking achievements, including their profound contributions to musical development in New Brunswick, the SJSQ presented the first chamber music concert ever broadcast online.

SAINT JOHN STRING QUARTET
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WATCH AND SHARE “NORTHWEST PASSAGE”HERE

www.sjsq.ca