A blog posting about my studies at SUNY Buffalo is online at the University at Buffalo’s Center for 21st Century Music blog: Edge of the Center.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra needs your vote! The WSO has entered a proposal for a concert at Carnegie Hall in 2014, and it's now in the public voting stage. They need more votes to get this to happen. The proposed concert has a work of mine, a new work by Vincent Ho (resident composer with the WSO) and Murray Schafer's new symphony. 

Although public votes aren't the only criteria, they will help. If you could take a moment to vote for this it would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the link:

http://springformusic.com/2011/10/2014-program-27/

Voting is open until Nov. 4, 2011.

Cheers!
Derek

A new flute quartet is now available. Raga Saat is the companion work to Raga Cha. The work is available from me, and will be available soon from the Canadian Music Centre.

To learn more about this work visit: Raga Saat

Symphony no. 1 ‘Transient Energies’, performed by Symphony Nova Scotia, is now available on the CBC website.

http://music.cbc.ca/#/concerts/Symphony-Nova-Scotia-Charke-2011-04-07

By STEPHEN PEDERSEN
Concert Review

© Sat, Apr 9, 2011, Chronicle Herald, Halifax

It was blockbuster night for Symphony Nova Scotia on Thursday at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.

Only two pieces filled the program, which will be repeated Sunday at 2 p.m., the world premiere of Derek Charke’s Symphony No. 1 Transient Energies and the great Brahms Violin Concerto.
Read More...

Charke brings Transient Energies to the symphony
By STEPHEN PEDERSEN

© 2011-04-06, Chronicle Herald, Halifax

Symphony Nova Scotia brings the outside world into the concert hall on Thursday.

In a concert, which also features concertmaster Robert Uchida playing the Brahms Violin Concerto, the orchestra premieres its latest commissioned work, Transient Energies, by Acadia University flutist-composer Derek Charke.
Read More...

BY KATE GALLAGHER, TC DAILY PLANET
February 16, 2011

Friday’s program opened with Derek Charke's Cercle du Nord III, a piece written for Kronos that begins with the sounds of the Canadian far north: sled dogs barking, wind howling, boots crunching on snow, and then the sounds of civilization: truck tires on snow, a car door slamming. As the quartet began to play, a driving pace was established that continued throughout the work. I often find it difficult to visualize what instrumental music may be trying to suggest, even after reading the program notes, but as Cercle du Nord III took off, my mind was flooded with images of sled dogs racing across a vast frozen landscape, their panting and the sound of the paws breaking the crust on the snow the only noises to interrupt the frozen landscape. Even in this world the sounds of humanity were never far away; I was pulled from my imagined world by Inuit throat singing also featured prominently in the work. I had never heard throat singing before and was struck by the depth and intensity of the music.

Quoted in Part. Read the full article here: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/kronos-quartet-walker-art-center-review

Sea to Sea
St. Lawrence String Quartet (Centrediscs)





In Sea to Sea, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (currently the resident string quartet at Stanford University in California) acknowledges its roots with six new compositions by Canadian composers. These tend to acknowledge their roots, too, referencing Canadian fiddle tunes and birdsong, Inuit folk songs and throat singers. This risks a certain provincialism – it’s a bit like sewing a Canadian flag on the back of one’s jacket – although at their best the allusions serve as mere points of departure, soon enough obscured. Derek Charke’s smeared lines and quivering textures have an immediate appeal; Brian Current’s Rounds is more bracingly abstract; Marcus Goddard contrasts whip-snapping exchanges with a delicate lyricism. The SLSQ plays with its trademark commitment, precision and fantasy, giving all the pieces a cosmopolitan polish.

© By Elissa Poole Link

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra Announces Its 90th Season (Jan 26, 2011 11:08 ET ) The TSO continues its tradition of orchestral commissions and première performances with four TSO 90th season commission premières. In the first programme of the 2012 New Creations Festival, TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian conducts the TSO and the Kronos Quartet in the world première of a TSO commission from Canadian composer Derek Charke, his Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (Mar 3, 2012).

Click here for the full press release.
Click here to visit the TSO’s website.

Students and faculty from Acadia University say their music festival is different every year. This year, they pushed for variety by holding one of the events at a new location: the Seaport farmer's market.

Read the complete story: http://unews.ca/story/item/acadia-music-festival-hits-Halifax-market/

Just released: ‘Sea to Sea’ with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Includes “Sepia Fragments” by Derek Charke plus works by Brian Current, Suzanne Hérbert-Tremblay, Marcus Goddard and Elizabeth Raum.

SEA TO SEA
St. Lawrence String Quartet 
Various 
2010 Centrediscs / Centredisques 
CMCCD 16310 
Purchase