 |
|
|
What's New
Selected
Chamber *Musical
excerpts are
|
October, 2011 I haven't made an entry in a long time because I've been SO BUSY writing lots of music such as my latest work, Mary's Wedding. I've been composing this opera for the last 3 years, and at last it will receive its world premiere in Victoria, B.C. on Nov. 10, 2011 by the Pacific Opera Victoria and run for 2 weeks. The piece is scored for solo singers, chorus and full orchestra and is about 2.5 hours in length. Mary's Wedding started out as a play by Stephen Massicotte which he adapted for the opera according to my musical plan. In a nutshell, it's a love story set at the time of WWI, and takes place both in Canada and overseas. Boy meets girl of higher society class, they fall in love, her mother doesn't approve, he goes to war to escape his problems, you guessed the ending. It's told in a dream she has the night before her wedding, two years after the war has ended, and so the scenes are somewhat surreal and non-linear. Written in 2000, the play has received over 70 productions, and some very good reviews. I could tell you more about the story, etc., but you can get good info at the POV website for Mary's Wedding 2009-2011 Yikes! Several years have passed since I've entered any news. During that time, however, my music has received many performances and I've composed plenty. I'll update on those years soon! July, 2008 I recently returned from St. John's, Newfoundland, where the Hot Earth Ensemble premiered my latest piece, Dreamlander Variations, for flute, harpsichord and cello at the Sound Symposium XIV on July 8. It was commissioned by CBC and recorded for broadcast. July 15, 2007 During 2006-07 I composed my Symphony No. 2: The Great Wave, a 36-minute, four-movement work for full orchestra. During the compositional process I was approached by the director of the Festival de Lanaudière who offered to premiere the piece during at the festival. This premiere took place on July 15, 2007 at the Festival Amphitheatre in Joliette, Quebec performed by the Sinfonia de Lanaudière conducted by Stéphane Laforest before an audience of 3000. As you may appreciate, it is very expensive to rehearse and mount a performance of a new symphony, and so I was delighted at this fortuitous turn of events, especially after I had put so much hard work into composing the piece. November 10 & 11, 2006 War
Machine Blues, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Mario
Bernardi, conductor, Jack Singer Hall, Calgary; October 16-21, 2006 Recording
session for a new CD of my music by Joseph Petric, accordion, Normand
Forget, oboe and the Penderecki Quartet for Centrediscs.
Works for the disc include The Winds of Thera for
accordion and string quartet, Pythikos nomos for
oboe/oboe d’amore/English horn and string quartet, Hymenaeus
for violin and viola, and Primavera (after Botticelli)
for oboe and accordion. The sessions will take place at the
Maureen Forrester Recital Hall in the Aird Centre of Wilfrid Laurier
University, Waterloo, Ontario. This project is funded by the
Canada Council, Bishop’s University, and Robert and Mona Bandeen and
produced by Richard Truhlar of Centrediscs and Franz Lehrbass of the
CBC. August 16, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Tupper House. Parrsborough, Nova Scotia; August 15, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Cecilia's Retreat, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia; August 14, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, St George and Andrew United Church, Annapolis Royal, Nova
Scotia; August 13, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Amphitheatre, Village Historique Acadien, Pubnico West,
Nova Scotia; August 13, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Osprey Arts Centre, Shelburne, Nova Scotia; August 11, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, St. John's Anglican Church, Port Williams, Nova Scotia; August 10, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, St. Paul's Anglican Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia; August 9, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Malagawatch Church, Highland Village, Iona, Nova Scotia; August 8, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, United Church, Merigomish, Nova Scotia; August 7, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman
Forget, oboe, Sherbrooke Village Courthouse, Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia; August 6, 2006
The
Great Square of Pegasus, “Markab”, Phillipe Djokic, violin,
Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival, Elkhorn Resort, Riding Mountain
National Park, Onanole, Manitoba; August 6, 2006
Primavera
(after Botticelli), world premiere,
Joseph Petric, accordion and Norman Forget, oboe, St. John's Anglican
Church, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; July 31, 2006
The
Winds of Thera, Joseph Petric, accordion and the Penderecki
Quartet, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Maxwell’s Bistro and Club,
Ottawa; July 27, 2006
The
Phoenix: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, Kerry
DuWors, violin and Choi, piano, Vancouver Recital Society “Summer
Combustion 2006”, Addison Auditorium, Crofton School House, Vancouver; July 25, 2006
Elektra of Atreus, Erica Goodman, harp, world
premiere, Festival of the Sound/HarpFest, Parry Sound,
Ontario; June 8, 2006
Kassandra’s Tears, Jasper Wood, violin and Audrey Andrist,
piano; CD broadcast on WREK Radio, Atlanta, Georgia; June 8, 2006
Run
Before the Wind, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Gregory Vajda, national broadcast on CBC; June 8, 2006
The
Phoenix: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, Duo
Concertante; CD national broadcast on CBC; June 7, 2006
Tapestries, Bojana Milinov, viola and the Orchestre de
l’Université de Montréal, XXXIVth International Viola Congress, Salle
Claude Champagne, Université de Montréal; May 6, 2006
Kassandra’s Tears, Jasper Wood, violin, Laura Loewen, piano,
world premiere, Lorne Watson Recital Hall, Brandon, Manitoba;
recorded for broadcast by CBC; May 6, 2006
The
Dream of Amphíon, Heather Kim Atagan, piano, Westminster
Choir College, Rider University, Princeton, New Jersey; April 12, 2006
“Hundreds of Crocuses”, from The
Birth of Spring, Eleanor Gang, soprano, Bishop’s Chamber
Orchestra, Andrew MacDonald, conductor; March 26, 2006
The
Red Guru: Symphony No.1, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra,
Carlos Prieto, conductor, broadcast on “Symphony Hall”, CBC Radio 2; March 26, 2006
At
Gary’s Rocks, 3rd mvt. of Music
For The Open Air, STRATA, Bandeen Hall, Lennoxville; March 24, 2006
Of
Water and Wood, STRATA, Bandeen Hall, Lennoxville; March 3 & 4, 2006
Run
Before the Wind, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Gregory Vajda, Centre In The Square, Kitchener, Ontario;
recorded for broadcast by CBC; March 2, 2006 Run Before the Wind, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gregory Vajda, River Run Centre, Guelph, Ontario;
A
repeat of the February 18 concert by Catherine Meunier and D'Arcy Gray
at Bandeen Hall in Lennoxville. February 17, 2006
Catherine Meunier and D'Arcy Gray will perform The
Illuminations of Gutenberg for two marimbas in a concert at
the Chapelle historique du bon pasteur in Montreal. This
concert will also feature the world premiere of a new solo marimba
piece which I'm currently writing for Catherine. November 15, 17 & 20, 2005
Classical guitar virtuoso Rémi Boucher performed the world premiere of
my solo piece, Don Quixote: Knight of the Sad Countenance,
on his recent tour of Russia. The concerts took place in Vladivostok on
November 15, Khabarovsk on November 17 and in Moscow on November 20. November 9 & 10, 2005
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Peter Oundjian,
performed the world premiere of War Machine Blues,
in two special Remembrance Day concerts "Music of Remembrance" at Roy
Thomsom Hall in Toronto. Commissioned by the TSO with the
generous assistance of the Canada Council, this 10-minute piece is a
protest against war and is suitably inspired by the work of Jimi
Hendrix and Blind Willie Johnson. Recorded for broadcast by
the CBC. October 23, 2005
The CBC recorded both Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performances of
Symphony No.1: The Red Guru and the piece, along with an
interview with the composer, was broadcast on a special Two New Hours
programme, at 10:00 p.m. September 23, 2005
The Brandon Chamber Players, conducted by the composer, performed the
world premiere of The Return of Ulysses for string
orchestra in their opening concert of the season in Brandon,
Manitoba. This progressive piece, featuring sections of
aleatory, sound mass and vocalizations was written in 1988 and revised
in 2002 for a SOCAN-funded reading by I Musici de Montreal.
We're delighted that it finally received a well-deserved and successful
premiere! April 22 & 23, 2005
Symphony No.1: The Red Guru, was premiered in
Calgary at Jack Singer Hall by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto. This 40-minute composition
in two parts was written in response to the horrific events of 9/11 and
ends on a note hopeful for peace. It received standing
ovations on both nights from audiences who were clearly very moved by
the beautiful performances. The piece, along with an
interview with the composer, was recorded for broadcast by the CBC. March 3, 2005 Another Award For Macdonald's Music! "The Great Square of Pegasus", the Centrediscs CD
of Andrew Paul Macdonald's music which Jasper Wood and Audrey Andrist
recorded, has just won another award the 2005 Canadian Independent
Music Award in the category of Favourite Classical Artist/Group.
February 21,
2005 "Two things make this disc by the outstanding young
Canadian a must-ear. Wood has it all. He makes music with strength and
interpretative flair, but he has also picked music that allows him to
shine and to make the Canadian composer whose work he's chosen shine
with him." |
