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Mari Alice Conrad: "Snag" for string octet
15:37
Mari Alice Conrad

Mari Alice Conrad: "Snag" for string octet

Image photo: Wes Bell ( www.wesbellphoto.com/fine-art ) SNAG - Box Springs Road, Cypress County, AB, Canada Gelatin Silver Print 2016 Performed by the Primrose and Thunder Bay String Quartets on June 24, 2023 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for the Evolution Chamber Music Residency. Members of the Primrose Quartet include Ryan Char , violin, Cameron Alan-Lee, violin, Clement Pickering, viola; Shannon Ross, cello. Members of the Thunder Bay String Quartet include: Chris Stork, violin; Kimberly Durflinger, violin; John Sellick, viola; Bryce Penny, cello. Snag - Mari Alice Conrad I. four wires II. three wires III. two wires, above the horizon The composer wishes to acknowledge fine art photographer Wes Bell, for permission to integrate three photos from his series, Snag, into the composition. For more information on Wes Bell please visit his website: www.wesbellphoto.com/fine-art Composer notes: In my work I search for meaning and connection in the landscapes around me. I have learned that my own environment, if mindfully explored, can summon deep questions about being human and reveal beauty in the unexpected, everyday moments. I was struck by the expression of mundane beauty in the work of Wes Bell, an Alberta fine art photographer, and his photography collection Snag. The series of photographs include black and white images of tattered plastic caught in barbed-wired fences that line the prairies of southern Alberta. Bell’s images are powerful and transport me to my childhood where my parents would fly kites with me in the same open fields and blue skies of southern Alberta. Things are different now. I am no longer swaying carefree in the wind like a kite but am caught like a piece of plastic on a fence in a complex and delicate snare of memories of a time passed and the fear of what will come. Bell’s collection explores similar poignant themes such as the fear of the unknown, vulnerability, grief, and loss, evoking a powerful relationship between place and human experience.
EvoFest: Evolution Concert Series - Indigo Trio, SHHH!! Ensemble, and Kalliope
02:32:14
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

EvoFest: Evolution Concert Series - Indigo Trio, SHHH!! Ensemble, and Kalliope

Join us for a free livestream concert featuring Banff Centre's Evolution: Classical program participants, including the Indigo Trio, SHHH!! Ensemble, and Kalliope – all from the comfort of your own backyard lounge chair! Scroll down for programs. 5:30 pm MDT. (7:30 pm EDT) Duration of each group below: Approximately 45 minutes Program: Indigo Trio Welsh Fiddle Tune - Farmer Boy Jean Cras - String Trio - Movement 1 Paul Wiancko - Sanguine Clockwork J.S. Bach - Golberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria Neil Young, arr. John Sellick - Old Man Our program seeks to explore the common ground of our human experience through the lens of our prairie identity. As prairie musicians, we are shaped by our memories growing up in this place, the natural landscape found here, and the communities that we live in. No two musicians play alike, yet they share a common language. Similarly, music across the world is diverse beyond explanation, but at the same time a shared piece of everyone’s puzzle, understood and valued by all. Program: SHHH!! Ensemble EXTRAterrestrial: Andy Akiho - Karakurenai Kevin Hanlon/J.S. Bach - SHHHuffle/O How Fleeting O How Hollow Mari Alice Conrad - The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Shall Be Used Exclusively for Peaceful Purposes Georges Aperghis - Retrouvailles Monica Pearce - leather Jocelyn Morlock - Spirit Gradient Human experience and the beyond. Straight lines and strange loops. Cosmic connection. EXTRAterrestrial explores the universe and our place in it. Program: Kalliope Mesomedes, arr. Kalliope - Hymn to Kalliope Antonia Bembo - Ha Que L'absence John Dowland - Flow My Tears Guillaume de Machaut, arr. Kalliope - Douce dame Jolie trad. Scottish - Queen among the heather J.S. Bach, arr. Oscar Castro-Neves - Air on a 6 String Ellen Torrie - From You Hildegard von Bingen - O Virtus Sapientae arr. Kalliope - The Moon and the Pleiades (Midnight Poem) Seikilos/trad. Irish, arr. Kalliope - Seikilos Epitaph/She moved through the fair Kalliope are a new collaboration intent on expanding beyond the traditional confines of early music and creating a seamless performance incorporating many aspects of their joint artistic interests. Their new program “Muse & Mode” is an exploration of song and storytelling from Ancient Greece to the 21st Century. The curation invokes ancient archetypes of human storytelling and plants them in music spanning centuries, self-accompanied on a diverse array of instruments. With support from: Indigo Trio - In partnership with Prairie Debut and National Arts Centre SHHH!! Ensemble - In partnership with Pontiac Enchanté and National Arts Centre Kalliope - In partnership with Scotia Festival Music Room and National Arts Centre
Compocon 2020
01:07:18
Journey Song - Mari Alice Conrad
06:31
Babel Chorus

Journey Song - Mari Alice Conrad

We are excited to share with you the world premiere of ‘Journey Song’ by composer Mari Alice Conrad as part of our Choral Composer Mentorship Program (CCMP) in partnership of the Canadian Music Centre. Thank you Grace Church on the Hill for hosting this recording at its beautiful Parish Hall From Mari Alice: Working with Babel Choir in the inaugural CCMP was a true honour. They set me up for success as an emerging composer and organized a mentorship program that was welcoming, supportive, and inspiring. Working with mentor Dr. Matthew Emery was vital to my development as a composer - from learning how to idiomatically write for voice and choir, to the business of choral music in Canada. Babel choir, Dr. Choi, and its board of directors made it feel like I was working with family. They were loyal to my composition and worked hard to bring it to life despite the challenges of the pandemic. They also curated opportunities for all of the composers to meet and get-to-know each other as well as getting-to-know the singers, as well. They went above and beyond!! Hearing the final product was both moving and exciting knowing how many challenges it took to overcome during the past 18 months of the program. This project was a testament to the adaptability of choral music in Canada and was overall a profound and enriching experience that I will never forget. Bravo Dr. Elaine Choi, Canadian Music Centre, and Babel Choir! Thank you! Program Notes: Journey Song captures sacred moments in time—the moments of personal journey one experiences in finding a place for their own “voice” in the all-encompassing Great Song of Life. Sewell’s imagery of untamed nature, light, and water parallel the joy, growth, and movement experienced in the journey of life. The isolation found in stillness and silence, reveals the reality that one’s voice may veer in unexpected directions, but, in the process, develops perspective and wisdom that ignites a hope to compel the journey forward. For me, contentment is found in acknowledging that the moments in the journey construct and illuminate the unique beauty of one’s voice—an enduring voice that is constantly and unintentionally contributing to the endless, interconnected harmonies of the Great Song. A heartfelt appreciation to Anna Marie Sewell, for her support and permission to set her poetry to music, and to the extraordinary voices of Babεl Choir in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and their director Dr. Elaine Choi, who have enabled my own creative journey to blossom. ~ Mari Alice Conrad April 2020 Journey Song by Anna Marie Sewell I am the Silence Between Two Rivers and from this silence, let me follow the Song O Great Song, at the rising of a well-spring O Great Song, as I tumble from this silence to the ceaseless singing sea let me follow you, swallow you, and sing Enough light for the journey, and breath enough enough fire for the journey, and love enough enough road for the journey, and will enough and all along the way to hear the song that we are. O Great Song, in which we all fly home Great Song, a moment and we’re gone O Great Song Great River of Song *An excerpt from this poem was first published, under the title 'Journey Prayer' in Anna Marie Sewell's book Fifth World Drum, 2009, Frontenac House, Calgary. #choralmusic #torontomusic #torontochoir #welovechoir #choirlove #socialdistancesing #choralmusic #canadianchoir #choralcomposer #choir #composer #worldpremiere
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