I've added a new page to my site on Sound Art & Ecology . . . please be sure to visit!

A short review by Joe Banno of the Washington Post came out today for a Kronos Quartet concert at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre in Maryland on October 30th, 2008.

"... Elsewhere on the program, Canadian composer Derek Charke's "Cercle du Nord III" wove Inuit throat-singing and barking sled dogs into a taped rhythm track that chugged along under toe-tapping minimalist writing for the quartet ...

... These composers could hardly have hoped for more dedicated or virtuosic advocacy than what the Kronos gave them."

A review by Colin Marshal of the Santa Barbara Independent came out today for a Katona Twins concert at the Santa Barbara, Museum of Art on October 14, 2008.

"... Spanning over three centuries and no fewer than five countries, the evening’s eclectic program included an astonishingly fast-fingered arrangement of the overture to Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito; an entertaining (if less than perfectly polished) rendition of the universally recognizable overture to Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Villa-Lobos’s haunting, and at times slightly goofy, Alma Brasileira; and the contemporary Canadian composer Derek Charke’s Time’s Passing Breath, a piece layering the dual guitars atop a prerecorded bed of crystalline bells, their rings electronically stretched and skewed nearly beyond recognition. If such a diverse, enticing sample is representative of their repertoire, it would be surprising indeed if any audience member left without wanting to hear what other musical surprises the brothers Katona have up their black sleeves." Time's Passing Breath

WARNING! Gustnadoes Ahead will have it's world premiere at the 2008 National Flute Association Convention. It was commissioned for the High-school soloist competition.

Between 4:05pm and 5:50pm (Atlantic Time) there will be a radio broadcast of the Katona Twins in concert. Included in this program is the world premiere of Time's Passing Breath www.dradio.de (note you have to choose the stream for "Deutschlandfunk".)

A review of "What do the Birds Think?" by Bruce Hodges. Read the full blog here.

"Structure is important to Derek Charke, who takes a poem by Al Purdy and dissects it letter by letter, while analyzing it numerically. Although his description of What Do the Birds Think? is almost impossibly complex, the results would be engaging no matter how they were created. Charke asks the players for high frequencies, percussion accents, a shrieking second section and a more agitated final one, before the piece ends with the cello in a long bout of static, as if a radio station had gone off the air."

Canadian Premiere of Tundra Songs with Tanya Tagaq and Kronos Quartet. Isabel Bader Theatre, Toronto, ON at the Luminato Festival. June 12 and 13, 2008

A great review of the Xanthos Ensemble concert came out today in the New York Times by Steve Smith. Included is a short review of "What do the Birds Think?"

"Among four newer pieces, only Derek Charke’s “What Do the Birds Think?” could be said to extend the modernist tradition. The work’s animated outer movements call for a catalog of unorthodox expressive techniques. In between, an onstage trio (alto flute with muted violin and cello) is juxtaposed with an offstage duo (bass clarinet and percussion). While physical separation was impossible here, the layered sounds still proved fascinating."

If you happen to be in New York City on the 24th be sure to check out the following concert:
Xanthos Ensemble http://www.xanthosensemble.com Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. Roulette http://www.roulette.org/ 20 Greene Street New York City, New York Admission is $15 (students and seniors $10)

"Xanthos Ensemble, currently Ensemble in Residence at The Boston Conservatory, will perform a program to include Charles Wuorinen’s New York Notes, Pierre Boulez’s Dérive, and Mario Davidovsky’s Flashbacks, and world premiere of Three Nature Songs by Ohio native Daniel Knaggs, student of Bright Sheng. Also included on the program will be works by Brooklyn resident Donald Hagar and Canadian composer and flutist Derek Charke."

If you happen to be in New York City on the 24th be sure to check out the following concert:
Xanthos Ensemble http://www.xanthosensemble.com Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. Roulette http://www.roulette.org/ 20 Greene Street New York City, New York Admission is $15 (students and seniors $10)

"Xanthos Ensemble, currently Ensemble in Residence at The Boston Conservatory, will perform a program to include Charles Wuorinen’s New York Notes, Pierre Boulez’s Dérive, and Mario Davidovsky’s Flashbacks, and world premiere of Three Nature Songs by Ohio native Daniel Knaggs, student of Bright Sheng. Also included on the program will be works by Brooklyn resident Donald Hagar and Canadian composer and flutist Derek Charke."

Just returned from a successful performance and recording of David Felder's Dionysiacs in Cleveland, Ohio. Performers included Tino Scirri, Derek Charke and Alice Teyssier, Kathleen Chastain, Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman and Anne Thompson

A review of Tundra Songs by Mark Swed of the L.A. Times (quoted here in part) Read the entire review

"Tagaq appeared at the end of the evening as well for a new work by Derek Charke commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which presented the concert. Before that, the Kronos played short, engaging pieces by the Norwegian group Xploding Plastix, the popular Icelandic band Sigur Rós and the Finnish accordion and sampling duo Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen, along with an arrangement of a Swedish folk song as haunting as a Bergman film. Kronos also revived Kaija Saariaho’s "Nymphéa," a sensual sonic landscape of bows scraping on amplified strings that the Finnish composer wrote for it 21 years ago.

Charke, a Canadian composer, provided a long, compelling program note about traveling to Nunavut's capital, Iqaluit, to prepare for his collaboration with Tagaq and recording nature sounds, which accompany the Kronos and the singer in "Tundra Songs." But one remarkable aspect of this extraordinary half-hour piece in five connected sections is that you can't tell what is what. This is music that goes far beyond the composer's vivid descriptions of howling dogs, whizzing snowmobiles, buzzing mosquitoes, honking geese and hoof-clicking caribou.
The score also goes beyond the notes on the page. Tagaq, who sat (though hardly still) behind the quartet, had music in front of her. But her eyes were elsewhere. She seemed to take her cues from the music absorbed in her body. She became one with the strings and the prerecorded soundscape.

Charke's style is not far out. He has a command of likable post-Minimalist techniques. He creates grooves. He matches string textures, through devices such as circular bowing, with atmospheric sounds. But he understands Tagaq's ability to inject a life force into sound, and the piece took off. In the central movement, Tagaq recited an Inuit myth, "Sedna's Song," about a drowned goddess whose severed fingers became the creatures of the sea. It was mesmerizing.

"Tundra Songs" is the 600-and-somethingth piece written for Kronos over more than three decades -- and another keeper. The playing all evening was passionate and superb. If ever an ensemble has found a fountain of youth, it is this one."

World Premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

The premiere of Tundra Songs with Kronos Quartet and Tanya Tagaq was a resounding success!

Pauline and I are traveling to San Francisco and Los Angeles at the end of April for the world premiere of Tundra Songs at the Disney Hall with the Kronos Quartet and Tanya Tagaq on May 3.Then it's off to Cleveland to play flute for a concert and recording of David Felder's "Dionysiacs" with the Slee Sinfonietta. At the end of May Xanthos Ensemble from Boston is performing What do the Birds Think? in New York City.We head to Toronto for the Luminato Festival in June where Kronos is playing Tundra Songs again for two evenings, June 12 and 13. Straight after this we hop on another flight to Winnipeg to visit Pauline's family. In July it's back to Wolfville to participate in the Acadia Wind Conducting Symposium. Then more travel in August, to Kansas City to hear WARNING, Gustnadoes Ahead at the 2008 National Flute convention. Updates and photos will be posted as soon as I find time

January 24 – 27, 2008

Shattering the Silence 2008 Mark Hopkins and Derek Charke, Festival Directors Rodney Sharman, Guest Composer www.shatteringthesilence.ca