End of May

It's been a busy winter for me this year in Montreal, and the summer is shaping up to be very active as well. Finally I am sitting down to share a bit of what's going on with you! Where do I start? 

I've continued my work performing early music, playing baroque guitar and archlute as a solo and continuo player. You can check out some recordings made in March and April on the music page of this website. The solo baroque guitar and archlute tracks were recorded by the inimitable Phillip Tock, and the Ciaccona performed by myself, Magdalena How, Mikayla Jensen-Large (Sopranos), and Tristan Best (viola da gamba) was recorded by Jon Kaspy. I had the pleasure of performing in two concerts "The Stag, the Pilgrim and the King" and "Monstres & Héros" of Les Méandres first season. This is an ensemble founded by recorder player Jérémie de Pierre and keyboardist Justin Luchinski which focuses primarily on the french baroque repertoire. Life and work as a historic plucked string player is just starting and is growing at an exciting rate!

Highlights for the modern guitar have included performing the Villa Lobos guitar concerto in the final round of the McGill concerto competition in February and performing April 1st for the live at CIRMMT series on classical and electric guitar. I was part of a sectet who premiered Brice Gatinet`s "Conversons" and performed the incredible piece "Quid sit musicus?" by Philippe Leroux. Both pieces were written for ensemble (SATB, guitar, cello) and spacialized electronics which required a huge amount of set up. It was the third piece of Brice's that I have premiered and I understand and feel his musical style very well now, it's a pleasure to work on his music. 

And what's next? June 1st I travel to Wisconsin for the Fresh Inc Festival run by Chicago based contemporary music group the Fifth House Ensemble. There, with the Cygnus Trio and other musicians and composers in attendance I will be part of a number of performances premiering new works for ensembles and receiving training from some of the best musicians in this area. I am also very much looking forward simply to travelling a little bit.

Remember to check out my recently updated music page which now includes two pieces played on baroque guitar: Toccata por la X by Giovanni Battista Granata, and Chaconne by Henry Grenerin, one piece on archlute: Toccata septima from Girolamo Kapsberger's first book of lute music, an anonymous piece Ciaccona di Paradiso e dell'inferno performed with two singers, gamba and archlute, and of course AMALGAM by Charles Zoll written for and performed by the Cygnus Trio

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