Esprit presents world premieres by Andrew Staniland and Bruce Mather March 26th

Brand New and Pre-Loved features world premieres by Andrew Staniland and Bruce Mather

On Thursday, March 26, 2009, Esprit Orchestra presents Brand New and Pre-Loved, a concert featuring the world premiere of Andrew Staniland’s Big Bang! commissioned for Esprit by CBC Radio Music, the world premiere of Hommage à John Hawkins by Bruce Mather, the Canadian premiere of La Belle Chocolatière by Dutch composer Mayke Nas, and Omar Daniel’s Trope, which was commissioned and premiered by Esprit in 2000.

Conducted by Alex Pauk, Esprit’s founding music director, the concert features the extraordinary Taiwanese-Canadian percussionist Aiyun Huang in her debut with Esprit Orchestra. An artist who challenges the boundaries of percussion and theatre, Ms. Huang is a founding member of Toca Loca and has performed with distinguished artists including Nexus, Trio le Cercle, Steven Schick, Steve Drury, Rivka Golani, George Russell and others in Canada, the United States, Taiwan, France, The Netherlands and Mexico. Ms. Huang is devoted to the creation of new works for percussion and has commissioned works from numerous composers including Canadians Gary Kulesha, Linda Bouchard, David Jaeger, Inouk Demers, Heather Schmidt, Chris Paul Harman and Alice Ho. Ms. Huang is a graduate of the University of Toronto and currently serves as Chair of Percussion at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

Big Bang!, Andrew Staniland’s concerto for percussion and orchestra, celebrates the International Year of Astronomy 2009 and offers listeners the musical equivalent of the incredible density, heat, and exponential expansion of the first moments of the Universe. Staniland is a rapidly becoming one of Canada’s most in demand composers with a host of awards to his credit including top prizes in the SOCAN young composers competition, and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music. He is currently Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As finalist in the 2009 CBC Evolution Composers Competition, Staniland will be sequestered in Banff but he will participate in Esprit rehearsals and experience the premiere of Big Bang! via satellite.

Bruce Mather is one of Quebec’s preeminent composers and a talented pianist and teacher. His Hommage à John Hawkins is an elegant and refined tribute to an important figure in the history of classical music in Canada, the late composer, pianist and educator John Hawkins.

La Belle Chocolatière is a jaunty work by Dutch composer Mayke Nas, named after the famous Droste cocoa tin with the image of a handsome nurse on it holding a tin of cacao powder featuring the same image of a nurse. The repetitive nature of this picture within a picture is referred to as the Droste effect and Mayke Nas applies this effect in her musical work.

With a flurry of awards and honours to his credit, Canadian composer Omar Daniel has created solo, chamber and orchestral works which have been performed extensively around the world. In Trope, Daniel borrows from a traditional medieval chant form, incorporates fragments from some of his earlier pieces, then interpolates, layers, magnifies and embellishes old and new material to create musical excitement.

Concert and Ticket Details

Brand New and Pre-Loved takes place on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 8 p.m. at the Jane Mallett Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (27 Front Street East). A pre-concert talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Tickets to Brand New and Pre-Loved are $15 for students, $24 for seniors and $32 for adults. Group rates (8+ people) are $25. For tickets contact the St. Lawrence Centre Box Office at 416-366-7723 or www.stlc.com .

About Esprit Orchestra

Esprit Orchestra is Canada’s only orchestra devoted exclusively to performing new orchestral music and developing a legacy of Canadian orchestral music. Founded by composer/conductor Alex Pauk in 1983, Esprit Orchestra is comprised of a core of 45 dedicated musicians with the special skills required to perform contemporary orchestral music. Esprit commissions and premieres new works each season and ensures continued public access to these works through encore performances, radio broadcasts, compact disc and film recordings, and national and international tours. For more information visit www.espritorchestra.com.

Esprit Orchestra performs works by Chin, Ades, Louie and Rea

Esprit Orchestra offers a rare opportunity to hear works by two Grawemeyer Award–winning composers in Breathless

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Toronto, ON (January 7, 2009)…On Friday, February 6, 2009, Esprit Orchestra presents Breathless, a concert highlighting the musical elements of speed, texture, colour and virtuosity. Breathless features works by two recipients of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in composition, Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto for piano, percussion and ensemble, and Thomas Ades’s Three Studies from Couperin. The program also includes works by two renowned Canadian composers: Alexina Louie’s Infinite Sky with Birds and John Rea’s Figures hâtives for violin and orchestra.

Conducted by Alex Pauk, Esprit’s founding music director, the concert features pianist Stephen Clarke, percussionist Ryan Scott and violinist Marie Bérard, Concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.

Unsuk Chin is a highly successful Korean-born composer who studied with Ligeti in Hamburg and now resides in Berlin. Her Double Concerto – a culmination of Chin's exploration of “prepared” piano and percussion sonorities – is a free-flowing, agile piece that makes the ear and mind race.

Superstar English composer Thomas Adès, possesses a distinct and identifiable voice described as "the combination of cutting-edge intellectualism and an emotional connection”. His Three Studies from Couperin is based on and incorporates melodic material from a Couperin harpsichord piece; it blends the melodic strains of the French Baroque with modern musical language, infused with 18th-century style and attitude.

Canada’s Alexina Louie is one of the country’s most frequently performed classical composers and a two-time Juno Award-winner of international renown. Infinite Sky with Birds is a colourful piece inspired by the vision of a free-wheeling, large flock of birds quickly taking flight. Infused with light, brilliant orchestral colours, motion and speed, this piece was originally commissioned by the National Arts Centre.

Award-winning composer John Rea has written music in several genres: chamber music, music-theatre, electroacoustic music, and compositions for large ensembles such as orchestra, ballet, choral, and opera. Encompassing a variety of styles and influences, Rea’s music frequently makes reference to historical European and non-western traditions. A frequent theme in his compositions is the interplay of fantasy and reality. His work Figures hâtives (Hurried Figures) is about ways in which people listen to and experience music and in particular, the idea of “fast” or “hurried” listening.

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Concert and Ticket Details

Breathless takes place on Friday, February 6, 2009 at 8 p.m. at the Jane Mallett Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (27 Front Street East). A pre-concert talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Tickets to Breathless are $15 for students, $24 for seniors and $32 for adults. Group rates (8+ people) are $25. For tickets contact the St. Lawrence Centre Box Office at 416-366-7723 or www.stlc.com .

About Esprit Orchestra

Esprit Orchestra is Canada’s only orchestra devoted exclusively to performing new orchestral music and developing a legacy of Canadian orchestral music. Founded by composer/conductor Alex Pauk in 1983, Esprit Orchestra is comprised of a core of 45 dedicated musicians with the special skills required to perform contemporary orchestral music. Esprit commissions and premieres new works each season and ensures continued public access to these works through encore performances, radio broadcasts, compact disc and film recordings, and national and international tours. For more information visit www.espritorchestra.com.