Nouvelles

“The Winds of Thera” A New Compact Disc of the Music by Bishop’s Professor Andrew Paul MacDonald

Sherbrooke, QC - 11 January, 2008

A new recording of compositions by Andrew Paul MacDonald has been released on the Centrediscs label, thanks to financial support provided by the Canada Council, Bishop’s University Foundation, and Mona and Robert Bandeen. “The Winds of Thera” features the Penderecki String Quartet, accordionist Joseph Petric, and oboist Normand Forget playing music entirely composed by this Bishop’s University professor.  Inspired by ancient Greece, the selections consist of his Pythikos nomos (a quintet for oboe/English horn/oboe d’amore and strings), The Winds of Thera (a quintet for accordion and strings), Hymenaeus (for violin and viola) and Primavera (After Botticelli), a new work for oboe and accordion which was composed especially for this project.

Twenty-one of MacDonald’s over eighty compositions have now been recorded on thirteen compact discs to date, and two recent pieces for violin and piano on the ATMA and Centrediscs labels were both nominated for the 2005 East Coast Music Award.  In 2004 Centrediscs produced its first compact disc entirely devoted to MacDonald’s music, performed by violinist Jasper Wood and pianist Audrey Andrist.  That disc met with enormous success, winning both the 2005 East Coast Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year and the 2005 Canadian Independent Music Award for Favourite Classical Artist/Group.

The compositions of Andrew Paul MacDonald have won many prestigious prizes, including the 1995 Juno Award for “Best Classical Composition” for his Violin Concerto. His works are frequently broadcast on CBC and Société Radio-Canada, and have been performed in Australia, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Taiwan, Turkey, the United States and Canada. 

Founding Artistic Director of Ensemble Musica Nova and founder of the Hot Jazz Trio, MacDonald performs in concert as a classical, blues and jazz guitarist and as a conductor, and is professor of composition and electronic music at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke (Lennoxville), Québec.

-30-