The short version:
– I am still ill with whatever hit me August 2015. Ill with severe fatigue, paresthesias (tingling — mine without numbness), and myalgias (muscular pain).
– I do not have a diagnosis. I have a few theories from various doctors, but no real diagnosis.
– I am still unable to do my usual work: voice teaching, singing, piano playing, composition.
– I am slightly better than I was, and there are theories for that as well.
The long version:
I’m excited to announce that my composition a small piece of sky will be performed at the Ritornello Chamber Music Festival in Saskatoon on 30 May 2015.
The festival runs from 29-31 May at three different venues. Carissa Kolopoushak and Jaqueline Woods have been producing this festival for seven years and always have an exciting lineup featuring a number of local musicians as well as musicians who have grown up in Saskatchewan and studied and worked around the world.
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For the past few months I’ve been working with the University of Saskatchewan Drama Department as Musical Director for their upcoming production of Coram Boy.
The action takes place in the 18th century. The benevolent Thomas Coram has recently opened a Foundling Hospital in London called the “Coram Hospital for Deserted Children”. Unscrupulous men, known as “Coram men”, take advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee. The story follows a range of characters, focusing on two orphans: Toby, saved from an African slave ship; and Aaron, the deserted son of the heir to an estate, as their lives become closely involved with this true and tragic episode of British social history (from Wikipedia)
I’m very proud of the cast and choir learning a number of very difficult pieces of music for this play and want to thank Robert Grier for being an excellent assistant music director and conductor and Natasha Martina for her directing and holding it all together.
Coram Boy previews on March 18, opens on March 19, and runs until March 28 (no performance on Sunday, March 22).
There are several ways to buy tickets:
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I’ve been working on a collaborative piece with new media artist Ellen Moffat for the past number of months and am very excited to announce the premiere this November 7 & 8.
Book. Chair. Table. is a three-movement work based on three poems from Gertrude Stein‘s Tender Buttons. I’ve been calling it a new media chamber music theatre piece. I’ve written the music for voice, oboe, double bass, and new electronic instruments. Ellen Moffat has created new electronic instruments which integrate amplified sound, recorded texts, and video projection.
Book. Chair. Table. will be performed by Lia Pas on voice, Erin Brophey on oboe, Richard Carnegie on double bass, and Ellen Moffat on electronic instruments.
Book. Chair. Table. was composed with the support of a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
PERFORMANCE:
CORE Series V – In Transformation
Friday, 7 November 2014 – 7-11pm – buy tickets here
Saturday, 8 November 2014 – 7-11pm – buy tickets here
Tickets $15.00
at PAVED Arts (424 20th Street West, Saskatoon)
***These performances consistently sell out so please get your tickets quickly!***
A bit more about the piece: Continue reading
On September 20, 2014, I’ll be premiering a new piece at La Caravan Dance Theatre‘s fundraiser, La Soirée. Please join us if you can. Tickets are available through La Caravan.
On Thursday, 22 May 2014, I will be performing my new interdisciplinary piece ossa . ora at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival’s GET LIT CABARET in Regina.
ossa . ora is an imagistic interdisciplinary piece that begins with finding a child’s baby teeth in a jar and goes on to explore through object collage, haiku, text animations, and song what perceptions are evoked by this discovery.
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I’ll be showing my new piece-in-progress – ossa ora – this Sunday in Regina as part of New Dance Horizon’s Blueprint Series. I am creating this piece to be shown in late May as part of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival (also in Regina).
Blueprint Series #2
When: Sunday, April 13 at 2pm
Where: New Dance Horizons (2207 Harvey St)
Tickets: $15, available at the door.
For further information, please call (306) 525-5393 or e-mail events@newdancehorizons.ca
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My very mutable piece a small piece of sky is being performed on November 29 and 30, 2013 as part of the PAVED Core Series.
From the PAVED website:
PAVED Arts presents an evening of contemporary sound and video/film work featuring the Saskatoon Symphony Chamber Players (The Core) and works by Jennifer Sparrowhawk, Alice Teichert & Hri Neil, Gerald Saul, Callen Diederichs, Reilly Forbes & Devin McAdam. The Core Series was the recent recipient of an artsVest™ Outstanding Partnership Award between collaborators PAVED Arts, the Saskatoon Symphony and Affinity Credit Union.
Last year Macarena Yanez of Makifotos did some amazing photos of me as an aside to my much-needed new promo pics. However, in between Maki opening her new photo studio, me doing a new edit of my poetry manuscript, my appendectomy, and life in general, Maki and I finally got it together to post some of the photos on my website.
Please visit Maki’s site and check out her various projects. Most of the photos you see on my site were a collaborative effort between myself, Maki, and Amanda Zinovich of A-Z makeup artistry.
My videopoem susurrations is featured on Street Anatomy today.
Street Anatomy is one of my favourite blogs. Its curator, Vanessa Ruiz is “obsessed with the beauty and intrigue of human anatomy” as am I.
Please click on the link above and then visit the rest of the Street Anatomy site.
