Toronto based vocalist, pianist and composer Anastasia Minster’s next album Song of Songs, her third, features a 30-piece orchestra and a jazz trio, and a style that fuses jazz and classical elements.
Two singles from the upcoming album, “Dancing with a Ghost” and “Song of Songs”, will be pre-released on August 16 and September 11, respectively. Both will be followed by a video. The full album, also titled Song of Songs, drops on October 8, 2024.
We spoke to Anastasia about music, gigs, and the new album.
Anastasia Minster: The Interview
She calls the music noir chamber pop, and her music could easily fall into a neoclassical bin as well. Building atmospheric layers of orchestral instrumentation, with the addition of a jazz trio, she adds her clear soprano on top. Despite the focus on vocals, though, she allows the orchestral colours to shine through the texture of the music.
“I wanted this record to flow from classical to jazz back to classical,” Anastasia explains.
Her background in terms of formal training lies in the field of jazz vocals. She’s self taught at the piano and as a composer.
“I’ve been writing songs and composing and performing starting about 2016, 2017,” she says. Her first studio album, Hour of the Wolf, was, overall, a jazzy pop release. Western classical music has always been on the horizon, however, inserting itself more and more into her work. “It’s been an evolution,” she says. “In 2020, I released my second album, Father. I have this idea to work with the orchestra, and explore that.”
Father incorporates as soloists cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, and JUNO-nominated trumpet player Tara Kannagara. The arrangements also include piano, strings, synthesizer, upright bass, bass clarinet, and percussion — a jazz ensemble with extra orchestration, in effect.
“My journey with music, I started listening to classical music from a very, very early age — about five or six.” Her very first collection of vinyl records included Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which left a big impression on her. “I think it’s just there,” she says of the influence of classical music on her own compositions. “It’s so deep.”
For Song of Songs, she wanted to push that idea even farther. But, just how do you put together a 30-piece orchestra? Let’s just say it took a while.
“Yes, it really did,” she laughs. “It must have been three, four years ago,” she says of when the idea first crossed her mind. “I have always been fascinated by classical music. I’ve always dreamed of incorporating it into my music, but I felt like I wasn’t ready.”
That changed when she met Colombian-Canadian composer and orchestrator Felipe Téllez. “When I met him, I felt like, this is someone who is going to help me.”
Discussions started in earnest about two years ago. “About 2022, we really started to think about it seriously,” she says.
Felipe had a connection to the Canadian Studio Symphony and its leader Lorenzo Guggenheim. Lorenzo, a native of Argentina, founded the Canadian Studio Symphony in 2022 for the express purpose of exploring new material in a recording scenario. He’s also the Music Director of the Oakville Symphony and founder of the University of Toronto Campus Philharmonic Orchestra, and a graduate of the National Arts Centre Orchestra mentorship program. He’s conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, and Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
The Canadian Studio Symphony (CSS) is a flexible group that assembles for specific projects. The musicians include members of the National Ballet of Canada orchestra, including NBC Associate Concertmaster Lynn Kuo (who serves as Concertmaster of the CSS). For Song of Songs, the orchestra includes a full complement of strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion.
While she describes Felipe as a skilled organizer along with his musical talents, Anastasia knew what her job would be. “I had to take care of the funding,” she says. Naturally, the scope of the project demanded considerable capital to get off the ground.
The album was funded by the Toronto Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and a successful Kickstarter campaign. “It went very well,” she says. “It was a little bit over funded.”
It’s also essential to secure the right space, and the right engineers who understand orchestral music. She recorded the album’s eight tracks at Union Sound, Revolution Recording, and Genesis Sound studios, all in Toronto.
“They know how to record the orchestra,” she says. In fact, the orchestral parts were done in a three-hour session. “Without any prior rehearsal,” she says. “They’re so amazing, those musicians.”
The orchestra played to a pre-recorded grand piano and vocal track, along with a customized click track that accounted for her stylistic interpretation. “They did a great job.”
She added her favourite soloists to the mix.
“Raphael [Weinroth-Browne] is an absolutely incredible cellist,” she says. They have been frequent collaborators over the years. “He has a signature sound.” He created multi-layered arrangements for cello for a couple of the tracks on the album.
Singer and trumpet player Tara Kannagara is also back on the new album. “She’s a wonderful musician,” Anastasia says. Tara performs as a soloist on the new album on the trumpet and flugelhorn.
The Song of Songs is a conceptual album, and takes its inspiration from the titular poem in the Bible. Along with the Biblical source, the album’s lyrics were inspired by ancient Greek mythology, the films of Wim Wenders, and the literature of Hermann Hesse. As a whole, the release looks at love from different angles, from its joy to its darker side. She’s spent a considerable amount of time researching the psychology of both romantic and non-romantic love.
“I have a deep interest in psychology,” she says. “I wanted to plan this album, in a way, as a kind of journey.” The songs begin with a view of love that’s innocent, then experiencing trauma and loss, to circle back to unconditional love.
See & Hear
Prior to the release of either single, Anastasia will be performing a solo piano gig of originals and covers on August 7 at Reids Distillery. Find out more [HERE].
You’ll find Anastasia’s earlier releases, and the new singles and album when they’re released, [HERE].
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