Happy New Year!

Here are a few highlights from January 2012:

On January 12 Janice Jackson performs Oikos/Ecos at the Open Waters Festival in Halifax.

January 18, 19 and 20: Carmen Braden (an Acadia University Composition Alumni) is presenting a paper on 'Tundra Songs' at the conference Music and the Imaginary of the North and the Cold in Montreal, at L'Université du Québec à Montréal. Three Studies for Flute (which was written in Inuvik, NWT) will also be performed by flutist MariÈve Lauzon during the conference.

On January 21 Cercle du Nord I receives a performance by the Quebec group Erreurdetype27 at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

Disturbances of Circadian Rhythm was selected as an official selection for the 2013 ISCM World Music Days in Košice, Bratislava and Vienna.

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://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20110407chark

There was a great turnout for the launch of Tidelines Installation last night at the Acadia Art Gallery.

Be sure to drop by the installation between now and October 22. There will be an artist roundtable on Sat. Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.

Acadia Art Gallery

New studio recording of Song of the Tides has been posted. Click here to listen. Mark Hopkins, conductor with the Acadia University Wind Ensemble. Rod Sneddon was the recording engineer. This work will be on an upcoming CD featuring the Acadia Wind Ensemble. More news will be posted when this CD is available.

A demo recording of Oikos / Ecos, a new work that was premiered by soprano Janice Jackson at Shattering the Silence 2010, has been posted. Oikos refers to the Greek word for our home. The text is personal responses to various news articles.

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Aurora Dances has been completely revised and updated as of May, 2010. This new version is (1) for a smaller and more practical orchestra and (2) has been reworked slightly, both harmonically and more important, structurally. Overall the work flows better. Three minutes of music were ultimately removed, and several ideas were completely reworked. The work is essentially the same, but hopefully flows better and is structurally more consistent. Both the score and parts will be available from the Canadian Music Centre by the end of May, 2010.

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"Darwin's Origin of Species is not only one of the most important scientific works of all time, but one of the most beautifully written. In The Origin Cycle, eight contemporary composers from Australia set fragments of Darwin's great book to music, for performance by soprano Jane Sheldon and a chamber ensemble.This one took place in Halifax and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and featured the regions best chamber musicians."

Listen to a CBC Concerts on Demand recording. I was playing flute in the ensemble. And if you're wondering; they used a picture from a different performance on their website!

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Symphony Nova Scotia has just posted their 2010/2011 season. It includes a new 30 minute work that I'm starting on shortly!

Thursday April 7, 2011, 7:30 pm
Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Dalhousie Arts Centre

This concert will also be performed Sunday April 10, 2011 as an Encore Matinee. Featuring: Robert Uchida, violin, Bernhard Gueller, conductor

Derek Charke: TBA (movements to include themes on Coal, Wind, Water, and Oil)
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D

Symphony Nova Scotia concertmaster Robert Uchida takes on Brahms’ fiery Violin Concerto, one of the most challenging concertos ever written for violin. We’ll also hear a brand-new work by acclaimed Nova Scotia composer Derek Charke, who uses the theme of climate change and power consumption in Nova Scotia to create an innovative, acoustic-electronic soundscape.

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The Acadia University Wind Ensemble, under the leadership of Mark Hopkins, premieres a new version of "Falling From Cloudless Skies" at the College Band Director’s National Association Northeast Conference.

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Tiresias is pleased to announce preparations for a new CD, Halos of the Moon, to be released on Redshift Records. This new project celebrates the cultural ties between Canada and Japan. Being both descended from Japanese-European ancestry, Iwaasa and McGregor have been fascinated with the concept of cultural hybridity since they began collaborating together. This CD will feature works that define Japanese-Canadian music from different angles: the album will feature works by Canadian composers Elliot Weisgarber, Hiroki Tsurumoto, Kara Gibbs, Anthony Genge, and Derek Charke, as well as Japanese composers Toru Takemitsu and Jo Kondo. This project was the recipient of generous funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Hear the complete performances with the Winnipeg Symphony and Tanya Tagaq at CBC Concerts on Demand:

Falling from Cloudless Skies - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Cercle du Nord III - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Tanya Tagaq
13 Inuit Throat Song Games - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Tanya Tagaq
WARNING! Gustnadoes Ahead - Michelle Cheramy, flute and cd

Some photos from the Winnipeg New Music Festival:


Steven Stucky, Derek Charke and Alexander Mickelthwate


Derek Charke, Tanya Tagaq Gillis & Vincent Ho


Pauline and Derek


Giving a lecture at FortWhyte Alive

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival "Breaking New Ground"

I'm honoured to be invited as one of the Distinguished Guest Composers for this year's Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival. My wife and I will be in Winnipeg for the entire festival. On Sat. Feb. 6 the Winnipeg Symphony will perform the world premiere of Falling from Cloudless Skies, and on Thur. Feb. 11, Tanya Tagaq will join the symphony in performing two new arrangements of 13 Inuit Throat Song Games and Cercle du Nord III, which were originally commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. As part of a SOCAN residency grant I will also be participating in the Arctic Climate Change Youth Forum 2010 at FortWhyte Alive in Winnipeg on February 5, 2010, and will visit the University of Manitoba to give a talk on my music.

January 28 to 30, 2010

NewFound Music VII: Crossing Boundaries MUN's annual mid-winter festival celebrating the music of our time with concerts, workshops and seminars. Explorations of new classical music under the influence of rock, pop, jazz and world music, visual art or social issues. A side trip to the music of South America. Guest-composer-in-residence will be Derek Charke. Presented in collaboration with SOCAN.

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Thank you to everyone involved in our 4th annual Acadia New Music Festival, Shattering the Silence. It was a great success! Today however, I'm off to St. John's, Newfoundland to be a part of the Newfound Music Festival, where, as part of a SOCAN residency grant, I'll give a couple of school presentations, a talk on my own music and a lecture on Acoustic Ecology. Additionally I'm playing two of my own pieces for flute and electronics and giving a flute mastercasss. I'm looking forward to being a part of this, and meeting the students and other musicians.

10 Electroacoustic Studies are finished today! I've been slowly working on these studies in order to practice my EA skills. I think in 2010 I'll create a longer EA piece; we'll see what happens. You can listen to all 10 studies here. For all of the studies I've been using a combination of Digital Performer and Max/MSP to edit the soundfiles. Here's the soundfile for the last one, created using mostly airy and aeolian flute sounds, on a piccolo, C and alto flutes.

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The St. Lawrence String Quartet premieres "Sepia Fragments" which was Co-commissioned by The Kathleen and Alan Huckabone Family of Petawawa, Ontario, and CBC Radio 2 on the following four concerts:



Backstage with the quartet. Festival Theatre, Acadia University

UPEI Thursday, November 12, 7:30 PM Dr. Steel Recital Hall http://www.upei.ca/music/upei-music-department-concert-series

Acadia University Friday, November 13, 7:30 PM Festival Theatre http://www.acadiau.ca/artsacadia/apas/index.html

Memorial University of Newfoundland Saturday, November 14, 8:00 PM D.F. Cook Recital Hall. http://www.mun.ca/music/concerts/

University of Toronto Monday, November 16, 7:30 PM Walter Hall All five works on this concert were co-commissioned by CBC Radio and will be recorded for future broadcast on Sunday Afternoon in Concert and The Signal. http://www.music.utoronto.ca/events/calendar/

The Third Annual Acadia New Music Festival, Shattering the Silence 2009 was a success! 

Thanks to everyone who was a part of this years festival. I'd especially like to thank the many volunteers who worked behind the scenes to make this happen, and of course all of the performers and composers who did a phenomenal job! 

All told there were 6 full concerts, two lecture presentations by Jeff Hennessy and Russell Hartenberger, 2 composer master classes, including one by Ian Crutchley, a percussion master class with Dr. Hartenberger and a film on Elliott Carter. We only had one weather cancellation on the second morning but we rescheduled and managed to pull it all off. All the events went smoothly, and all had something special to offer. Audience turn out was WAY up this year which makes me believe we're starting to get the word out about new music in the Annapolis Valley!

The percussion ensemble played extremely well on Wednesday, probably the best I've ever heard them yet. The Thursday concert was perhaps the most eclectic but also the most exciting with such a diverse array of talent; the vocal ensemble, symphonic band and various faculty and student performances. The Acadia String Ensemble played a moving rendition of Charles Ives's the Unanswered Question. Also thanks to Ron Tomarelli for the Prokoviev and Ken Shorley for his work. The Friday concert was fun to play in. It was refreshing to be able to present Raga Cha the way it's supposed to sound, with a loud amplified flute quartet. The Wind Ensemble did an admirable job in their first performance of Lollapalooza and I'm excited to hear it again.

The Gala concert was remarkable. The performers did an excellent job on all the pieces, especially Zwilich's Trio, and I was particularly moved to hear John Luther Adams' work, The Farthest Place, performed to such an exacting standard. Chenoa Anderson sounded great on my new work, even though it took a second try to get the computer to cooperate! D'Arcy Gray pulled off Bone Alphabet with finesse. Can't forget Bob Bauer who wrote us a wonderful new gamelan inspired work, and Simon Docking who graced us with a performance of music by Tristan Murail. I'll announce as soon as I can when CBC Radio 2 is going to broadcast parts of this concert on the Signal.
Also thanks to all student composers, both in the emerging composers concert and in the CMC sponsored film event. There were many promising new works and many positive comments about the quality of writing. Plus thanks to all of the ensembles and solo performers who took time to learn and play such wonderful music for our festival this year. 

I am particularly grateful to Russell Hartenberger for giving his time so graciously, also to Mark Adam for his tireless contributions, even with a full on cold.

Finally I must also thank my co-conspirator Mark Hopkins for all of his work in organizing and conducting. We're both looking forward to doing it all again this time next year! 

Cheers, Derek

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".)

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

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

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!

January 24 – 27, 2008

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

Stan Fisher, Clarinet / Blue Engine String Quartet / Donna E. Smyth, Poet / Featuring "Silenced" a new work by Derek Charke / Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 7:30pm / Festival Theatre, Wolfville, Nova Scotia More

October 22 - November 1 , 2007

The Katona Twins perform Time's Passing Breath at the Colombia Guitar Festival

The free improv duo returns on the last Tuesday of each month at On The Verge Restaurant and Music in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Mark Adam on percussion and Derek Charke on Flutes with special guests from time to time.

New CD released by Composer Michelle Boudreau contains Derek Charke's "Cercle du Nord II" and a performance by Derek on flute of Michelle's work "La chasse caribous", part of her work "L'Intruse" from 2002.

ONG OF THE TIDES performed at the 2006 NSMEA Conference on Friday Oct. 27, 2006 at Trinity United Church, Temperance St., New Glasgow.

Kronos Quartet presents the European Premiere of CERCLE DU NORD III at the Vienna Concert House, Vienna, Austria.

London Flutes present the World Premier of four new works for flute quartet at a series of events throughout May 2006.

Each programme include new works by British composers Hywel Davies, Edmund Jolliffe, Tara Guram, and Canadian composer Derek Charke. The evening concerts in Brighton and London each follow one of the quartet’s highly successful one-day flute workshops for flutists of all abilities and ages. Tickets are £10, £8 concessions and £5 for students attending the Brighton and London one-day flute workshops. All tickets include a glass of wine or soft drink, and are available online or on the door.
Doors open at 7pm.

Sunday 14th May 2006, 7.30pm, Brighton College, Brighton, UK Sunday 21st May 2006, 7.30pm, Lauderdale House, London N6, UK Saturday 27th May 2006, 7.30pm, Bristol Music Club, Bristol, UK