step, turn, kick sunday, march 20, 2011 the music...

Step, Turn, Kick... Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Music Gallery

SUPPORTERS Robert Aitken, Tim Andreeff, Lanrick Bennett Jr., Marie Berard, Evan Berman, Alastair Boyd, Lawrence and Linda Cherney, Austin and Beverly Clarkson, Daniel Cooper, Maryse Maynard and Robert Cram, Jean-Francois Denis, Julia Dublin, Eve Egoyan, Ira Eisen, Robin Elliott, Edward Epstein, David Fallis, Clelia Farrugia, John Ferth, Lynda Franklin, Elizabeth Frécaut, Rachel Gauntlett, Josh Grossman, Larry and Sharon Grossman, Miles Hearn, Arlene Sharon Koor, Kathleen McMorrow, Roger D. Moore, Louise Morley, Jane Mowbray, Sharon Lovett and David Olds, Juliet Palmer, Will iam Peltier, Faye Perkins, Ed Rothberg, Angela Rudden, the late Ann Southam, Eileen Stranks, Alan Tregebov, Rhea Tregebov, Jason van Eyk, Jennifer Waring, Emerald Foundation, Julie-Jiggs Foundation, Anonymous VOLUNTEERS Allison Cameron, Alex Eddington, Juliet Palmer, Angela Rudden, Adam Scime

Acknowledgements

METCALF FOUNDATION STRATEGIC INITIATIVES GRANT Continuum is in the final year of a three-year grant from the Metcalf Foundation to develop the ensemble through rehearsing, touring and recording, thereby elevating the entire operation and achieving the ultimate goal of increased administrative capacity.

Continuum gratefully acknowledges the following organizations and individuals:

The Ontario Arts Counci l is an agency of the Government of Ontario

Continuum 2010/11 Concert Series

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PROGRAM MARC SABAT (CA/DE) John Jenkins (2001/11)* (f l, cl, bsn, hrn, vln, vcl, harps)

MICHAEL FINNISSY (IE) Doves Figary (1976-77/81) (solo cello)

MARTIJN PADDING (NL) Mordants (2002) (v ln, pno) Intermission

Ensuite (2011) (fl, cl, vln, vcl, harps, perc)

CASSANDRA MILLER (CA) Ouverture*

NICOLAS GILBERT (CA) Courante(s)

LINDA C. SMITH (CA) Sarabande+

LORI FREEDMAN (CA) Quelles Filles*

* Canada Council commission + Ontario Arts Council commission

CONTINUUM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Jennifer Waring, Artistic Director ENSEMBLE Anne Thompson, flute Max Christie, clarinet Eric Hall, bassoon Derek Conrod, French horn Carol Lynn Fujino, violin Paul Widner, cello Laurent Philippe, piano, harpsichord Natalie Pfeiffer, harpsichord Ryan Scott, percussion The Music Gallery 197 John Street Toronto

Program Notes


Marc Sabat John Jenkins (2001/11) The pitches and durations used in John Jenkins (2001, rev. 2011) are taken from J.S. Bach’s Ricercar a 6 in Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079 (1747), mm. 29-103 (all but the exposition). Their vertical relations have been disturbed by presenting the individual notes largely in sequential, rather than simultaneous, order. Like an unfolded architectural diagram, the resulting melodic material retraces Bach's harmonic and motivic constructions. This music, contained in its entirety in the keyboard part, undergoes a second projection back into the six non-keyboard instrumental parts, where shadow tones are added to facilitate the realization in 5-limit Just Intonation, based on a lattice of interlocking pure fifths and thirds. John Jenkins (1592-1678) was an English composer who wrote primarily instrumental consort music, often originally intended for home performances by amateur musicians, and is also known as the inventor of the “lyra consort”, an exotic mixed ensemble consisting of violin, lyra

viol, bass viol, theorbo, and harpsichord. John

Jenkins was written at the request of Jennifer Waring (for Continuum, Toronto) and Daniel Matej (for Musica Aeterna, performing at the 2000 Bratislava Evenings of New Music). It was commissioned with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Marc Sabat

Canadian composer Marc Sabat has been based in Berlin since 1999. His work with acoustic instruments and electronics draws inspiration from investigations of the sounding and perception of Just Intonation, American folk and experimental musics, and the relations between musical and visual artforms. His pieces have been resented internationally in radio broadcasts and at festivals of new music including the Donaueschinger Musik-tage, MaerzMusik, Darmstadt and Carnegie Hall. Recordings and scores are available from Plainsound Music Edition, World Edition (Köln) and mode records (New York). Sabat is currently awarded a one year residency at the German Academy in Rome, Villa Massimo.

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Michael Finnissy Doves Figary (1976-77/81) Based on “Doves Figary” or “Chestnut” the 85th tune in Playford’s English Dancing

Master. Michael Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London in 1946 and studied at the Royal

College of Music. He later studied in Italy with Roman Vlad. He went on to create the music department of the London School of Contemporary Dance, and has been associated as composer with many notable British dance companies. He has also been musician in residence to the Victorian College of the Arts, the City of Caulfield in Australia, and the East London Late Starters Orchestra. In 1999 he was made Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton. Finnissy has been featured composer at the Bath, Huddersfield, and Almeida festivals, and his works are widely performed and broadcast worldwide. As a pianist he is particularly associated with the commissioning and performing of new British work; The History of Photography in Sound received its complete


Martijn Padding Mordants (2002) I like to write pieces for my friends. For several years now I have worked closely with the Dutch piano-violin duo Gerard Bouwhuis and Heleen Hulst, an exiting duo who recently recorded all the sonatas of Charles Ives. For them I wrote a solo concerto and many other pieces. Mordants are ornaments used a lot in the Baroque era. I like them because they are short and full of energy. I use them heavily here, but prime emphasis in this piece lies in the constant close relationship between the violin and the piano. They hardly move independently; even when the piece moves very fast they stick together. Recently I have become more interested in ambiguity in music: saying yes, but meaning no. In Mordants this becomes clear through the “double” violin part. There is a “real” part and a “shadow” part of very high flageolets. In the coda, the violin briefly sounds as if coming from the grave, an effect produced by attaching a rusty paperclip to the G string.

Martijn Padding

Martijn Padding studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, piano with Fania Chapiro and musicology at the University of Utrecht. His oeuvre ranges from solo instrumental works to large-scale orchestral compositions and music theatre; his compositional aesthetic precludes any hierarchical relationship amongst, for instance, modernistic elements, influences from popular culture and historical-based doctrines. His compositions, accordingly, treat a broad spectrum of subjects and personages including Thelonious Monk, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg. His compositions are often the result of a close working relationship with the musicians themselves. Padding’s collaboration, since 1998, with the avant-garde quintet Ensemble LOOS has resulted in a number of works, both with and without electronics. The ensemble played the premiere of the opera TATTOOED TONGUES, to a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 2001. Padding’s works are performed by prominent ensembles, soloists and orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad. Additionally he has made radio document-aries, and was the longtime piano accom-panist of the modern dance company led by Krisztina de Châtel. Nowadays Martijn Padding is a member of the composition faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

Cassandra Miller Ouverture (2011) A playful re-writing of the Ouverture nach französischer Art by J.S. Bach BWV 831.

Cassandra Miller

Cassandra Miller combines a love of warmth with a love for the absurd, and she explores the complexity of emotion that can result from simplicity. She is engaged with the notions of virtuosity and excess, and by the strangeness of concert traditions, baroque through modern. She searches for new notation systems that stimulate personal interpretation and

connection between performers.

Cassandra Miller holds a M. Mus. degree from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (the Netherlands), and a B. Mus. from the University of Victoria. Her compositions have been performed by the Janacek Philharmonic (Czech Republic), both the Victoria and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, and numerous chamber ensembles in Europe and

Canada.

New works have been commissioned by Ensemble Kore (Montreal), Zinc & Copper Works (Berlin), Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), RedShift Music Society (Vancouver), Vancouver New Music, and Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (the

Generation project).

She currently lives in Montreal, where she is the artistic and general director of Innovations en concert, an organization which presents concert series, focusing on underground/fringe elements of Montreal contemporary music/sound art, encouraging a new canon of creative music in Quebec.

Nicolas Gilbert Courante(s) (2011) Music compositions are often the composer’s phantasms come true. This can be obvious or not, depending on the composer’s re serve. As I do not see myself as particularly prudish, I will admit it bluntly: this (these)

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Courante(s) is (are) my phantasms become music. There is probably something a bit perverse in all this, but I will let you find that out on your own. I had been thinking for a while of composing a race-like piece. A race to something positive, a jubilatory race, nothing like an escape. So why not interpret this commission of a courante literally? Why not create a “running dance”? This is precisely what I did, while colouring this short work with a few characteristics of the baroque courante and with some allusions to authentic courantes of the repertoire. And all this, using almost exclusively the colours of the major mode, in order to make the result as optimistic and euphoric as possible.

Nicolas Gilbert Nicolas Gilbert (born 1979) is a composer and novelist living and working in Montreal. He studied composition and analysis at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with composers Michel Gonneville and Serge Provost, and at McGill University with composer John Rea. His music is performed around the world by orchestras, ensembles and soloists such as the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Vancouver Symphony, the Polish Radio Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony, the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the SMCQ, the Molinari Quartet, Quasar, Continuum, and cell ist Matt Haimovitz. He is recipient of numerous grants and awards including the 2008 “Composer of the year”

Linda C. Smith Sarabande (2011) I have always loved the Baroque dance suite form, and my love of slow music drew me in particular to the sarabandes. In university, I played harpsichord, and worked on many such suites by Louis and Francois Couperin, Lully and Rameau among others. I also took a course in Baroque dance, which gave me an understanding of the rhythmic life of the suites. While there is no specific reference to Baroque style in my piece, I explored the feeling of a sarabande, its particular l il t in 3/4 time (with departures into 3/8 and 4/4); in the end, the work became its own kind of slow dance.

Linda Smith

Opus Prize awarded by the Quebec Music Council and ten SOCAN Awards for Young Composers. His two novels, Le recital (2008) and Le joueur de triangle (2009), are published by Leméac and have received positive reviews.

Lori Freedman Quelles Filles (2011) Writing music for a contemporary music ensemble based on the notion of “gigue” or “gig” I was confronted with the challenge of creating a situation for the players to perform in and out of an extremely standardized form. Assuming that each of the six instrumentalists may have had an experience only peripheral to either the baroque or the popular eras, the gig you will hear tonight is a spontaneous exploration of a known entity with a unknown result. May this dance be dedicated to the French Canadian singer-songwriter Mary Travers (aka La Bolduc).

Lori Freedman Lori Freedman has been conspicuously described as “a musical revolutionary in the front ranks of the avant-garde”. With full throttle in both contemporary and improvised music streams she is known internationally for her provocative and creative performances. Over forty-five composers have written solo bass clarinet music for her and her work has

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Composer Linda Catlin Smith grew up in New York City and lives in Toronto. Her teachers include Allen Shawn in NY, and Rudolf Komorous, Martin Bartlett, John Celona, Michael Longton and Jo Kondo at the University of Victoria. She was Artistic Director of Arraymusic, one of Toronto's major contemporary music ensembles in Toronto, from 1988 - 1993. She is a composition instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally, and she has been supported in her endeavours by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Chalmers Foundation, K.M. Hunter Award, and the Banff Centre. Linda's music has been recorded by Eve Egoyan, Arraymusic, Evergreen Club Gamelan, Penderecki Quartet, Continuum, Les Coucous Benevoles and on her solo CD, Memory Forms. A new CD of Ballad, a 45-minute work for cello and piano (performed by Andy Smith and Eve Egoyan), has just been released on the World Editions label.

416 924 4945 continuummusic.org

Mechanical Advantage

Monday, May 9, 8:00 pm

The Music Gallery, 197 John Street

$25 / $15

been recorded on forty CDs, most recently Bridge (CQB/DAME), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné

(Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact), See Saw and Thin Air (Wig). She received the 19s98 Freddie Stone Award for the “demonstration of outstanding leadership, integrity and excellence in the area of contemporary music and jazz.” Highlight collaborations in the recent past are with Joëlle Léandre, Mauricio Kagel, Rohan de Saram, Frances-Marie Uitti, Philippe Leroux, George Lewis, and Helmut Lachenmann. Her compositions have been performed by the Queen Mab Trio, Upstream Octet, Arraymusic Ensemble and l’Ensemble Supermusique.


Anne Thompson, flute Anne Thompson is Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Western Ontario. She studied with Geoffrey Gilbert, Will iam Bennett and Marcel Moyse and holds a Masters of Music from the Yale School of Music, where she was a student of Thomas Nyfenger. She has performed throughout the US and Canada and has worked with orchestras including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Royal Winnipeg and National Ballet Orchestras.

Max Christie, clarinet Max Christie is the principal clarinet of the National Ballet Orchestra and the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto, where he is also a member of Continuum; he also performs frequently with New Music Concerts both as soloist and as an ensemble member. He was often heard on CBC Radio's Two New Hours, and has recorded the music of Michael Torke, Rudolph Komorous, Melissa Hui, Harry Somers, R. Murray Schafer, and MC Maguire. Mr. Christie has performed across North America and Europe, and has appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony, the Kitchener Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Esprit Orchestra. He instructs privately The Glenn Gould School and at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

Eric Hall, bassoon Eric Hall is the principal bassoonist of the Canadian Opera Company, the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago. He has also performed with the National Ballet of Canada, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Music Concerts and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra in Chicago. He can be heard on numerous recordings of the Canadian Opera Company and the Grammy nominated Grant Park Orchestra as well as radio broadcasts on CBC radio and on WFMT, Chicago's fine arts station. Eric was a member of the Manhattan Wind Quintet and as a chamber musician, has performed around the world at festivals in Banff, Heidelberg, Spoletto, Edinburgh, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Mr. Hall has also appeared as soloist with the Grant Park Orchestra, the Niagara Symphony, the New World Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra and the Iowa based Waterloo Symphony.

Derek Conrod, French horn Derek Conrod is a member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), Aeolian Winds, National Ballet Orchestra (Toronto), Music in Common and the Stratford Festival Orchestra, and teaches at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester) and the University of Western Ontario. A frequent recitalist and lecturer on historical horns, Derek has performed on more than 30 discs with Tafelmusik, Arradia, American Bach Soloists (San Francisco), and

Performer Biographies

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Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), and has appeared as a soloist with Tafelmusik at the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center and at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. In 1995 he served as music consultant for the Stratford Festival’s acclaimed production of Amadeus.

Carol Lynn Fuj ino, violin Carol Fujino has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s string section since 1991, and played in several other Toronto orchestras preceding her career with the TSO. She is a veteran of the musical theatre tradition, having played in most of Toronto’s major productions in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. As soloist, Carol Fujino performed in the TSO’s Pops Series, playing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in A minor, and in 1993, Saraste’s Navarra for Two Violins. As a chamber musician, Carol Fujino regularly performs with Five Small Concerts (presented by the Associates of the TSO), is a member of the Accordes String Quaret, has appeared with the Amici Chamber Ensemble, performed in Cuban-themed concerts with the Juno Award-winning Gryphon Trio at Toronto’s hip Lula Lounge, and played the viola for the now-defunct Modern Quartet, a group dedicated to performing new compositions. Carol was also regularly heard on CBC Radio 2’s Two New Hours (1978 – 2007), notably in two works featuring her as soloist: Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 and Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa on the Esprit Series in 2004.

Paul Widner, cello Paul Widner is a much sought after cell ist in Toronto and has performed throughout Europe, the United States and Canada as soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. He is on the faculty of the Glenn Gould School and the University of Toronto and is the assistant principal cellist of the Canadian Opera Company orchestra. His expertise has been in the field of contemporary music. He is the principal cellist with the Esprit orchestra, founding member of the Continuum ensemble and performs regularly with New Music Concerts, Arraymusic and Soundstreams. He has debuted and commissioned numerous Canadian works. He has recently performed as soloist in the North American premiere of the Penderecki “Triple Concerto” and “Seven Words” by Sofia Gubaidulina. Mr. Widner records with CBC records and other indepen-dent labels. He has performed at numerous music festivals including Huddersfield, Chicago, Amsterdam, Athens as well as the Edinburgh Festival. Laurent Philippe, piano & harpsichord Laurent Philippe’s particular interest in vocal repertoire has led him to associate with many Metropolitan Opera Artists and he has worked as a coach for many opera companies including The Canadian Opera Company, Michigan Opera Theatre, Florentine Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera San José and Seattle Opera. His conducting credits include assisting Sir Andrew Davis at the BBC


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Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall as well as performances at the helm of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony. Laurent's curent activities include visiting the Young Artists of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London before traveling to Colorado where he holds the position of Associate Director of the Opera Young Artist Program of the Crested Butte Music Festival. He is currently on the Faculty of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

Natalie Pfeiffer, harpsichord Natalie Pfeiffer studied recorder with Prof. Gerd Lünenbürger and harpsichord with Prof. Mitzi Meyerson at the Universität der Künste Berlin. She received several awards, among them from the Deutsche Musikrat, and has performed in concerts across Germany and abroad since 1993. In addition to her interest in Baroque repertoire she is also active in contemporary music projects. She studied the Alexander Technique with Walter Carrington in London (2003-2006), and now works as a freelance musician and teacher in Germany. Her recordings include sonatas and symphonies by Frederick the Great and a CD of French and German harpsichord duos for the "Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Berlin".

Ryan Scott, percussion Ryan Scott is one of Canada’s most illustrious and sought after percussionists. He has performed numerous concertos including the North American premieres of Concertante for Marimba, South Fire Summer and Saidoki

(Demon) by Maki Ishii, Doppelkonzert by Unsuk Chin, and commissioned and premiered Concerto for Marimba by Erik Ross with the Esprit Orchestra. He has premiered over 75 new works for percussion most recently by Michael Colgrass, Peter Hatch, Christos Hatzis, Michael Oesterle, Bruce Mather and Andrew Staniland. He is a core member of several leading new music ensembles, is principle percussionist of the Esprit Orchestra, has been a percussionist in the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra since 1996, and this season is joining NEXUS for concerto and recital performances in Japan, Canada and throughout the United States. Twice nominated for a Juno, he has recorded for NAXOS, hatART, Artifact, CBC, CMC and Innova records. In October 2011, he will release his first solo album MAKI ISHII LIVE with the Esprit Orchestra on the Naxos/Innova label.


About Continuum

Formed in 1985, Continuum Contemporary Music presents concerts featuring the core ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, as well as unusual instrumental combinations. Over the past 25 years, Continuum has performed the work of emerging Canadian composers alongside works by established national and international composers in its concert series, at festivals, on tour, over the air waves and through recordings. The organization has been responsible for commissioning and premiering close to 150 new works by Canadian composers, has toured Canada and Europe, and has released three compact discs. Continuum was co-recipient of the 1994 Jean A. Chalmers Award for its focus on new works for voice.

Jennifer Waring, Artistic Director Josh Grossman, Administrator Francine Labelle, Publicity Laura Will is, Bookkeeping

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lanrick Bennett Jr. Evan Berman Chris Des Brisay Alex Eddington Clelia Farrugia Jonathan Lau Jane Mowbray Faye Perkins Matthew Ramenaden Ed Rothberg

CONTACT 300 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON M5S 1W3 416 924 4945 [email protected] continuummusic.org

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Support Continuum

Continuum Contemporary Music relies on donations to help provide financial support for our ongoing programming. Each year, we look for new ways to thank you for your support. We issue tax receipts for donations, we will also acknowledge you in our printed programs and on our website and, depending on your contribution level, we can offer you some free concert tickets. And we're happy to do all that. But this year, we think we may have stumbled upon something brilliant: you give us money...and we give you a CD. In January, we released our most recent recording, Raw, featuring works by James Rolfe, on the Centrediscs label. We recorded it in March, 2010, and we think it's very good. And that you should have a copy. So here's how it works. You giv e us money - as much as you'd like, as long as it's at least $20 - and we'll send you a CD. And, if you top up your CD order with a donation of at least $10, we'll send you a tax receipt, acknowledge you in our printed program and acknowledge you on our website. We think that's called a win-win situation. Use the form below to request your CDs and please consider topping up your order with a donation. We appreciate your support, and look forward to sharing with you our new recording.

416 924 4945 continuummusic.org

Mechanical Advantage

Monday, May 9, 8:00 pm

The Music Gallery, 197 John Street

$25 / $15

step, turn, kick sunday, march 20, 2011 the music...

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