Centrediscs will be celebrating the launch of a new release titled Shadow & Light with a listening party in Toronto on May 31, 2023. The album features three double concertos for piano and violin by contemporary Canadian composers.
The double concerto is a form that dates back to the Baroque period, where it became quite popular. It’s a way to spotlight the virtuosity of soloists against the richness of orchestral accompaniment.
Violin and piano, often experienced as a duo performance, are not often paired in a concerto. The listening party will give attendees the chance to mingle and chat with the composers and artists on the album. That includes Canadian Music Centre associate composers Alice Ping Yee Ho, Christos Hatzis, and Larysa Kuzmenko, along with pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, and violinist Marc Djokic.
Sinfonia Toronto provides the orchestral base for the album, with Nurhan Arman conducting.
“With all the stars aligned, it was our good fortune to document three wonderful Canadian contributions to this engaging form together with two soloists who possess vast experience with new music,” Nurhan Arman said in a statement.
The Composers
Larysa Kuzmenko
The Toronto-based composer and pianist is also a Juno nominee. Her popular pieces for ensembles and various solo instruments are rooted in an extended tonal and melodic mode, and have been commissioned and performed by ensembles from across Canada, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra directed by Peter Oundjian and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Rune Bergmann, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra directed by Bramwell Tovey, the Gryphon Trio, flutist Susan Hoeppner, pianists Anton Kuerti and Christina Petrowska-Quilico, and cellist Shauna Rolston. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.
Alice Ping Yee Ho
Born in Hong Kong, Alice Ping Yee Ho has become one of Canada’s most prominent living composers, with a body of work in a range of genres. She is a multiple award winner, including the 2022 Nova Scotia Symphony’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, 2022 Barlow General Commissioning Award, 2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 2016 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, and a 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award “Outstanding Original Opera” for her opera The Lesson of Da Ji, among others.
Her pieces have been performed by ensembles and soloists that include the Finnish Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, China National Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Radio Choir, the Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Victoria, Nova Scotia, Hamilton, Kitchener Waterloo, and Windsor Symphonies, the Luxembourg Sinfonietta, Penderecki String Quartet, and many more.
Christos Hatzis
Greek-born Canadian composer, writer and educator Christos Hatzis is also a Juno Award-winner and currently a professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. His works, which have been performed widely across Canada as well as internationally, are often noted for their spirituality, and use of non-traditional instruments and soloists, including marimbas and Arabic singers, among others. He has composed works in a variety of forms, including scores for dance and ballet.
His works have been commissioned by artists such as Hilary Hahn, percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Winnipeg and Montreal Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet among others. He often spotlights social issues such as climate change and Indigenous issues in his work, which has also been recorded on Naxos, Deutches Grammophon, and other labels.
The Soloists
Christina Petrowska Quilico
Christina Petrowska Quilico, C.M., OOnt, FRSC, has a recording legacy of more than 50 releases and counting, including four that were nominated for Juno Awards. She has performed widely in North American and Europe, and is professor emerita, senior scholar at York University. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020, “…for her celebrated career as a classical and contemporary pianist and for championing Canadian music.”
Marc Djokic
Halifax-born violinist Marc Djokic has a busy career as the Concertmaster of l’Orchestre classique de Montréal and Music Director of ART CRUSH Ensembl’arts, as well as a sought after soloist. He is a multiple award winner, including the 2020 ECMA Classical Recording of the Year for his debut album Solo Seven. He has toured through Canada as well as internationally, and has performed with the TSO, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and others.
Entry is free to the Canadian Music Centre event, with pre-registration required. Information [HERE].
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