centrediscs

centrediscs Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs Celebrates its 30th Anniversary with Three 2011 JUNO Award Nominations February 1, 2011 (Toronto, ON) - Centrediscs, the recording label of the Canadian Music Centre, is thrilled to announce that three (3) of its recent releases have been nominated for 2011 JUNO Awards in the category of “Classical Composition of the Year”: Clark Ross’ Last Dance, Larysa Kuzmenko’s Piano Concerto and R. Murray Schafer’s Duo for Violin and Piano. Ross, Kuzemnko and Schafer are all CMC Associate Composers of the Canadian Music Centre. Samples of the tracks can be found at the JUNO website. Text Box: Piano Atlantica, 3 Concerti, and Wild Bird are available online at www.musiccentre.ca / www.musiccentre.ca and in major classical music retailers. Clark Ross – Commissioned through the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, Last Dance weaves notions of tango or “habanera” rhythm, drawing from Ross’ Latin American roots. Says Ross of this piece: “For me, these sections evoke a nostalgic, bittersweet feeling, as if in remembrance of something (or someone) beautiful that has been lost.” Last Dance can be found on the Centrediscs recording Piano Atlantica. Ross’ at times rollicking and at times contemplative Last Dance brings this fine disc to a close. David Olds Larysa Kuzmenko – Commissioned by the CBC though music producer David Jaeger, Piano Concero is structured in three movements, leading the listener through variations on a theme incorporating ethereal and atmospheric tones as well as sinister and majestic qualities. Piano Concerto can be found on the Centrediscs recording 3 Concerti. The Work is flamboyantly virtuosic and Petrowska Quilico takes full advantage of the opportunity to rise to the occasion... It is a well-crafted, dramatic work that would be well at home on any mainstream orchestral concert and, deserves to be heard more often. David Olds R. Murray Schafer – The initial stages of Duo for Violin and Piano meld a borrowed chord sequence from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony with increasing tension between the instruments culminating in what Schafer likened to “confetti thrown in the air.” The third movement takes its inspiration from folk music, in particular Balkan aksak rhythms and a Romanian dance tune. Duo for Violin and Piano can be found on the Centrediscs recording Wild Bird. Schafer’s works open and close the disc. His tremendous three-movement Duo, premiered in 2008, is a real gem, and the best work on the CD for me. Terry Robbins The Canadian Music Centre would also like to congratulate Associate Composers Jocelyn Morlock and Peter Togni, who were both nominated for 2011 JUNO Awards in the category of “Classical Composition of the Year.” Morlock’s work Exaudi was released on ATMA and Togni’s work Quomodo Sedet Sola Civita (How doth the city sit solitary) was released through ECM. The JUNO Awards ceremony, to be broadcast nationally on CTV television, will take place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sunday, March 27, at which time all winners will be announced. Clark Ross has been Visiting Composer at Wheaton College, Illinois (2007), Composer-in-Residence at Ireland's Waterford New Music Week (2003), and has won Young Composer's Awards in national competitions by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also received over 20 commission grants from various funding agencies, including the Canada Council, the CBC, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. Clark is the founder and Artistic Director of the Newfound Music Festival, held every February in St. John's, and was a founding member and later President of Continuum, the Toronto-based new-music group. He serves on the national boards of both the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. Larysa Kuzmenko is a Toronto-based composer and pianist. Her music has been performed and broadcast throughout the world. Her works have been commissioned, performed and recorded on CD by many outstanding artists. Kuzmenko’s works demonstrate a strong affinity towards the mainstream tradition of classical music. She imbues her music with strong melodic sense, and a firm rooting in traditional, albeit extended tonal processes. R. Murray Schafer has achieved an international reputation as a composer, an educator, environmentalist, scholar and visual artist. Born in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1933, he was raised in Toronto. He received the Canadian Music Council's first Composer of the Year award in 1977 and the first Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music in 1977. In 1980 he was awarded the Prix International Arthur-Honegger; in 1985 he received the Banff CA National Award in the Arts, and in 1987 he became the first recipient of the $50,000 triennial Glenn Gould Award. Schafer holds honourary doctorates from universities in Canada, France and Argentina. About Centrediscs Centrediscs, recording label of the Canadian Music Centre, with 4 JUNO Awards and 31 nominations to date was created in 1981 as Canada’s foremost label of Canadian contemporary concert music, recording the works of CMC Associate Composers. Visit www.centrediscs.ca for more information. About the Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music. The CMC exists to promote the works of its Associate Composers in Canada and around the world. The Centre makes available on loan over 20,000 scores and works of Canadian contemporary composers through its lending library. The CMC sells more than 1300 CD titles featuring music of its Associate Composers and other Canadian independent recording producers. The Centre also offers an on-demand publishing service, music repertoire consultations, and is easily accessible through five regional centres across Canada, as well as through its website.