Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Canadian violinist Mark Fewer announce the launch of Alikeness (LM296), available August 16 in digital and physical format. Alikeness features the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Sinfonia together with percussionist. Aiyun Huang, soprano Deantha Edmunds, and violinist/conductor Mark Fewer in an all Canadian, all strings-based program.
Fewer says the album is inspired by the human capacity to learn, adapt, and collaborate, and encourages listeners to find their own “alikenesses” within the music while fostering a deeper connection with one another: “Continually experiencing new things but using what is already inside of us, as a way to make our worlds larger, expanding ad infinitum… If we don’t immediately understand something, we use a memory to help us relate. Over the course of my own life as a musician, it has been those inquiring artists who relate to one another as open systems who have inspired me the most.”
The NSO Sinfonia, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, was founded by Peter Gardner and features core string players from the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.
Violinist and conductor Mark Fewer has been interpreting music in virtually every genre and setting for over three decades, premiering over 200 works, including more than 50 written for him. His unique discography features multiple JUNO and Grammy-winning recordings and an Opus Prize for a Serge Arcuri tribute. He has served as Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at Stanford, William Dawson Scholar at McGill, and is currently Head of Strings at the University of Toronto. After 16 years as the founding artistic director of the SweetWater Music Festival, he is now in his sixth season and the Artistic Director of Stratford Summer Music.
Deantha Edmunds, Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer, was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2023 for her work empowering Indigenous people and sharing their stories. Her performances, writing, and compositions have earned national and international acclaim.
Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Aiyun Huang holds a DMA from UC San Diego and is the Head of Percussion at the University of Toronto, directing its Percussion Ensemble. She gained international recognition by winning First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2002 Geneva International Music Competition.
The album opens with the world premiere of Deantha Edmunds’ Angmalukisaa (“round” in Inuktut), a personal composition about human connections; Edmunds’ four songs are arranged by Bill Brennan, Andrew Downing, Jeff Johnston, and Robert Carli. The next three works feature Fewer as violin soloist and conductor: Épisodes by Serge Arcuri, (written for the Montreal Baroque Orchestra in 1998,) blends the baroque “concerto grosso” form with modern elements; Matt Brubeck’s The Simple Life, has been newly arranged by Andrew Downing for strings; and the third movement “C” from B-A-C-H by Robert Carli (after J.S. Bach’s surname), was composed in 2013 for the Sweetwater Music Festival. The album concludes with Alikeness, Yoshiaki Onishi’s arrangement of an eight-movement suite by Jaroslaw Kapuściński. The suite was originally composed in 2015 for the St. Lawrence String Quartet and percussionist Aiyun Huang.
Get your CD copy of Alikeness, or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform. Alikeness is available on all streaming platforms.
Alikeness was recorded January 14-17, 2024, in St. John’s, and produced by Jeremy VanSlyke and Nathan Cann for Leaf Music with assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts.
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).
