Four new works by living composers will be on the program when the Gryphon Trio and Nordic Voices get together for a concert on January 27.
Music Toronto presents the concert, which features recently commissioned works by Cree composer Andrew Balfour, Canadian-Polish composer Norbert Palej, Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan, and Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak.
Performers
The Gryphon Trio — violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker — are one of Canada’s preeminent classical music ensembles. They are known for their diverse repertoire, ranging from classical European based works to 21st century multimedia works, and beyond.
Founded more than 30 years ago, they have released over 20 albums, and garnered three JUNO Awards. Their discography includes works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Ravel, Shostakovich, and Piazzolla, Valentin Silvestrov, Christos Hatzis, and Kelly-Marie Murphy.
The trio has served as ensemble-in-residence at Music Toronto for more than 25 years, along with touring extensively across North America and Europe. They have commissioned more than 100 new works, including music and multimedia, and collaborated with an impressive list of musicians and artists from a range of fields outside music.
As dedicated educators, they have presented masterclasses across North America, and serve as Artists-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Jamie Parker holds the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance, Annalee Patipatanakoon is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music, and Roman Borys is Artistic and Executive Director of Toronto’s long-running chamber music series, Music Toronto.
Nordic Voices is a six-voice a cappella group, formed in 1996 by six graduates of the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Opera. Along with performing, as a group, their backgrounds include choral conducting, teacher training, and composition. They have performed across the globe, from South Africa to Taiwan to Bolivia and Canada.
Their repertoire includes everything form early music to new commissions from Norwegian composers and others, and their programs often include a broad mix of music.
Nordic Voices are musical adventurers who look to expand the ways in which the classically trained voice can be used, including new vocal techniques.
As recording artists, they’ve released several albums and contributed to many others, and garnered awards that include the Fartein Valen-award, the Rolf Gammeleng-award, and in 2014, the prestigious “Performer of the year” from the Norwegian Society of Composers.
Program
Omaa Biindig by Cree composer Andrew Balfour
Andrew Balfour’s Omaa Biindi incorporates texts in Ojibway and Norwegian. It is in essence a kind of ritual journey to the North, South, East, and West, incorporating Water and Earth, and finally, in the often overlooked direction of inwards, towards the self.
DAL by Canadian-Polish composer Norbert Palej
Norbert Palej’s DAL receives its world premiere at the concert. The work is set to poems by by Tadeusz Miciński, Juliusz Słowacki, and Stanisław Wyspiański, taking their voices from Poland’s literary past and adding a contemporary musical soundscape infused with folk music.
Scar Tissue by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan
Jeffrey Ryan is Music Toronto’s composer-in-residence. Scar Tissue is a collaboration with Giller Prize-winning author and poet Michael Redhill that was commissioned by Gryphon Trio. The work examines memory, and the marks we bear that are left by history.
Will Sing Life Again by Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak
Frolyak’s Will Sing Life Again is the heart of the program. It is a setting of Poem about a Crow by
Ukrainian writer and war journalist Viktoria Amelin, who was killed in 2023 while documenting
war crimes in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine. Will Sing Life Again, an intense, haunting work, premiered in the summer of 2025 in Norway. The crow becomes a symbol of both mourning and endurance, a symbol of collective memory and loss, where remembrance can also be an act of renewal.
Concert Details
Gryphon Trio with Nordic Voices takes place on January 27 at the Jane Mallet Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Gryphon Trio will perform three additional concerts with Nordic Voices at Western University
Don Wright School of Music (January 23), Wilfrid Laurier University (January 29), and Burlington
Performing Arts Centre (January 31).
- Find details and information about the Toronto concert [HERE].
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