Winds - my/maSCENA

CD Review | Wanderlust (Leaf Music, 2023)

By Kristen Whittle on 6 October 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Strings, Winds

Wanderlust Lara Deutsch, flute; Adam Cicchillitti, guitar Leaf Music, August 2023 Flutist Lara Deutsch and guitarist Adam Cicchillitti bring travel to life in Wanderlust. The concept for the album originated during the pandemic, when travel was virtually impossible. The duo tactfully uses music’s ability to transport listeners, embarking on a journey through sound. The album opens with Jason Noble’s “Folk Suite, ” in which each movement features extended techniques, performed by flute and guitar, to emulate a different part of the world. The third movement, “Ceilidh,” which is meant to emulate the joy and business of a Newfoundland kitchen party,…

CD Review | Around Baermann (Leaf music, 2023)

By Justin Bernard on 29 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Romantic, Winds

Around Baermann Maryse Legault, clarinet; Gili Loftus, fortepiano Leaf music, 2023 Upcoming clarinetist Maryse Legault is specialized in period instruments. She released her first album, Around Baermann, on the Leaf Music label. The album is “a love letter to the tumultuous music of the early nineteenth century,” she wrote on her website. According to Legault, the album is the culmination of years of research and a testimony of her unshakeable desire to perform recitals that feature period instruments. Pianist Gili Loftus, Legault’s friend and collaborator for over 10 years, has joined her on this recording, playing the fortepiano. The album…

Robert Conquer, Trombone, 2022 Michael Measures

By Zenith Wolfe on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Winds

In 2022, young trombonist Robert Conquer has an outstanding accomplishment to show for his decades of musical training: the Michael Measures First Prize, available annually to one exceptional musician enrolled in the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) summer training program. Though he has only been part of the NYO for four years, it has quickly become one of the most influential parts of his musical career. “The NYO Canada program is, hands down, one of—if not the—best orchestral training (opportunities) one can receive in Canada,” he said. “It’s been a musically transformative experience every time I’ve participated in it.” The key…

CD Review | Chasing Light & Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum (Centrediscs, 2022)

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 July 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano, Winds

Chasing Light & Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum Tom McCaslin, tuba; Akiko Tominaga, piano Centrediscs, 2022 Originally commissioned by tuba maestro John Griffiths in the 1990s, the works composed by Elizabeth Raum and featured on the album Chasing Light & Sound have become staples of the solo tuba repertoire. Since Tom McCaslin was a student of John Griffiths, he is aiming quite high by recording this album. When paired with Akiko Tominaga’s strong piano-playing style, McCaslin’s gentle tuba-playing style tends to get overpowered. He opts to give Tominaga room to express herself, so the busy piano melodies make…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Copland, Nielsen, MacMillan – Clarinet concertos (Delphian)

By Norman Lebrecht on 8 January 2021 Classical Music, Winds

The sound I miss most in our orchestral silence is the unexpected wail of a clarinet, in pain or pleasure like a cat in coitus, at the moment a symphony seems to be drifting towards the intermission. No way is the clarinet going to let this music end without a howl. Of all clarinet concertos, and I include Mozart’s, Aaron Copland’s is my favourite by a Siamese smile. Grifted from a dying cadence in Mahler’s ninth symphony, it meanders down the back-lots of Hollywood through some jazz riffs and pony clops to an upbeat, slightly phony all-American fadeout. That’s all,…

Arin Sarkissian and Robert Conquer win First Prizes at the 2020 OSM Competition

By Newswire on 17 December 2020 Music Competition, Winds

Montreal, December 12, 2020 ▪ The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is thrilled to announce the names of the first prize winners of the OSM 2020 Competition: Arin Sarkissian in the WOODWINDScategory and Robert Conquer in the BRASS category. This entirely digital 81st edition of the OSM Competition ran from October 5 to December 12, bringing together Canada’s most talented young musicians and launching the artists of tomorrow. Arin Sarkissian, flute, (Ontario), 21 This Toronto native has performed with a number of youth orchestras in recent years. The winner of several prizes in competitions for young artists, Arin Sarkissian is currently…

Nadia Labrie: New Recording, New Instrument

By Justin Bernard on 4 February 2020 Chamber Music, Winds

Nadia Labrie launches a new installment of her ongoing series of recordings entitled Flute Passion on Feb. 12. As a follow-up to her previous Analekta album devoted to Schubert, Labrie turns her attention to Bach, a composer she first fell in love with during her student days and whose music she wanted to dedicate a recording to someday. “I had been thinking about doing Bach for my series almost as long as I did about Schubert,” Labrie confides. “I first thought of it when I was 20, and it became an idée fixe. In my spare time, I’d go back…

Photo: Brent Calis

Lara Deutsch: Eyes on the Prize

By Arthur Kaptainis on 2 October 2019 Classical Music, Music Competition, Winds

The timing was not perfect. Lara Deutsch had strep throat. But the flutist was instructed in no uncertain terms to appear as requested for a meeting at such-and-such an hour and in such-and-such place in Montreal. “I was told that it couldn’t be at any other time,” Deutsch said from her home in Ottawa. “And I was told that I really had to be there.” The appointment was worth keeping. On her arrival Deutsch learned that she was the 2019–20 winner of the Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer, a prize valued at $125,000 that includes $50,000 in cash, a series of…

Paul Merkelo : The Enlightened Trumpet

By Newswire on 6 September 2019 Winds

Haydn, Telemann, Leopold Mozart & Hummel Concertos OXFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA conducted by MARIOS PAPADOPOULOS NEW RELEASE FROM SONY CLASSICAL – SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 “A spectacular soloist” (Montreal Gazette) … who “knows no limits” (Der Spiegel) For Immediate Release, September 6, 2019 … Recognized among the finest trumpet virtuosos of his generation, Paul Merkelo releases The Enlightened Trumpet, his first recording for Sony Classical. Hailed as “a spectacular soloist … a most impressive master of his instrument” (Montreal Gazette) who “knows no limits” (Der Spiegel) and with “unusual lyrical gifts” (Gramophone), Merkelo has been Principal trumpet with the Orchestre symphonique de…

2018-2019 Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordéon Remembered

By Adrian Rodriguez on 4 September 2018 Folk, Popular Music, Winds

Saturday, September 1 was one of the busiest journeys of the five-day Festival with 6 indoor concerts, a Masterclass with Russian accordionist Roman Jbanov, a Trad Quebecois dance event and free concerts held all over the town in different outdoor stages and restaurants. I also wanted to visit the Accordion Museum at the historical Manoir et four a pain Couillard and the photographic exhibition by Julien Simard which documented 30 years of the festival’s history. My first order of business was to meet with accordion prodigy Andrea Di Giacomo. The 22-year-old left the audience in awe at the Opening night…

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