The SHHH!! Ensemble — percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham — is one of the very few piano/percussion duos in the world. They’ve made a name for themselves by combining high level performance with imaginative repertoire, and a fondness for new music.
On October 5, they’ll be performing Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy’s double concerto, Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters, with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra led by Maestra Melanie Leonard.
The piece was commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2022 for SHHH!! Ensemble, and it premiered in 2023 at the Winnipeg New Music Festival. It’s the first time the duo has revisited the work since then.
Zac Pulak: The Interview
“Our duo started — we initially started thinking about the idea in 2017,” says of SHHH!! Ensemble.
As he points out, they became partners in life before they became musical partners. The two musicians had been working on individual projects and residencies.
“Other people there kept asking us, have you ever tried playing together?”
Eventually, they did, and a unique career has been the result. One of the challenges, though, with such unusual instrumentation, is the lack of repertoire in the traditional classical canon. It’s not such a problem, though, if you are willing to build the repertoire from the ground up.
“Both of us are big supporters and fans of new music.”
Composer Kelly-Marie Murphy
“We’ve been working with Kelly for quite a bit,” Pulak says. Murphy composed a work for Zac as a soloist in 2017.
“We talked about having a larger scale piece with our duo.”
The Winnipeg orchestra and new music festival answered that call with the commission. “We got this massive piece, this big beautiful orchestral piece,” he says.
They’ll be working with her on another piece in the near future. Part of the appeal of her music is her versatility as a composer.
“That’s one of the things I like about Kelly. She’s got a definite style, but there’s so much variety within that style.”
The duo has found that composers are generally enthusiastic about writing for the duo and their instrumentation. “Definitely, that’s been the case, I’d say 100% of the time. It’s a different sort of ensemble.”
What they create isn’t always so easy to play, as with Murphy’s double concerto.
“Just from a technical standpoint […] the parts are not easy,” he says. But, the challenge is always worth it. “It’s a pleasure to work on it. It’s amazing to put together,” he adds.
In terms of thematic material, the title of Murphy’s work comes from a Museum of Modern Art exhibit of the same name. Each movement in the work is inspired by a specific work of art. The third movement, titled Humanly Impossible, is based on a photo by Herbert Behr of 1932, with a man’s head attached to a mannequin.
“It’s slightly disturbing, but also comical. I think that kind of captures the personality of the third movement,” he says. “It’s not humanly impossible, but it’s quite difficult.”
Revisiting the work is an occasion the duo appreciates. “It’s been really nice to go back and dig into it. It’s been fun […] it’s only been a couple of years, but our duo has played so much since then.”
They’ve developed as an ensemble, and performed many works in between.
“[It’s great] to see how it comes together a little more seamlessly than the first time.”
Concert Details
The rest of the program will feature the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra performing Rossini’s William Tell Overture and Shostakovich Symphony No. 15.
- Find more details about the October 5 concert at Ottawa’s Carleton Dominion Chalmers Centre [HERE].
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