University of Toronto Faculty of Music

A CONCERT OF

ELECTROACOUSTIC

MUSIC

Sunday, March 12, 1995 2:00 pm Walter Hall Edward Johnson Building

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For G: Gustav Ciamaga Images David Myska

Fiona Wilkinson, flute David Myska, electronics

Wee hour in “E” Otto Joachim Ghosts Gary Kulesha

David Bourque, bass clarinet Gary Kulesha, piano

Intermission

Views beyond... Dennis Patrick Three Women Maurice Methot Maurice Methot, guitar.

The Mega4Mega4 Christos Hatzis

Douglas Perry, viola

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Gustav Ciamaga retired from full-time teaching in July’94. During the past 32 years he has been an active member of the Faculty of Music’s Theory and Composition Division

__ and Electroacoustic Music Studio.

For G: (1988) is one of eight works ( others include For B:, For H:, etc.) written for departed colleagues. the ‘G’ in this instance is jazz musician and educator Gordon Delamont with whom I studied theory and composition in the late 40’s.

David Myska composes for the electroacoustic medium as well as for instruments and the voice. His music has been performed in Canada, the United States, England, France, and Australia. His documentary film scores have accompanied exhibitions at the New York Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Recent compositions include LES ETOILES for large orchestra and SECOND PIANO TRIO “THE

. SCORPION”. He has graduate degrees from the University

of Toronto and Harvard University and is presently an Associate Professor of music at the University of Western Ontario.

Images for flute and synthesis (1991-92)

A few years ago, I was invited to visit a friend’s east ‘coast retreat. This secluded property included an oceanside dwarf forest high above the water. Among the tree branches were suspended wind chimes in many assorted media, sizes and shapes. The day was warm, clear and very blustery. The shimmering light, clangorous sounds and smashing breakers

left a permanent impression. Most of the electronic sounds used in this piece are processed flute samples.

Fiona Wilkinson, a graduate of the University of Toronto, studied with Robert Aitken, Louis Moyse, and Jeanne Baxtresser. She performs with Trio Lyra, The Aeolian Wind Quintet, Triptych, the Oliver Whitehead Jazz Quartet, and is presently Professor of Flute and Chamber Music at the University of Western Ontario.

Otto Joachim (b1910) is the oldest composer in Quebec and yet one of the youngest. Obliged to leave his native Germany in 1934, he came to Canada from China in 1949. He has had premieres at the Champs Elysées, Lincoln Center, etc. with the Boston, Chicago, Toronto, and Montreal Symphony Orchestras. His “Katimavik”, written for EXPO ‘67, is said to be the first Canadian electronic 4 channel composition. His many honours include the Grand Prix Paul Gilson; Grand Prix Calixa Lavalée; Chevalier de Ordre National du Québec; and a honourary doctorate from Concordia University.

Wee hour in “E” (1993) is the forerunner of a non- electronic composition for 13 instruments and speaker to be premiered later this year by the S.M.C.Q in Montreal.

Gary Kulesha has appeared as both a conductor and pianist in both traditional repertoire and contemporary works. His activities have included concerts, radio broadcasts, and commercial recordings. Currently the Composer in Residence with the Canadian Opera Company,

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his opera "Red Emma" will be premiered by the COC in the fall of 1995.

The title,Ghosts, refers primarily to the appearance of flickering “ghosts” from the many works I have written for bass clarinetist Davie Bourque. It also alludes to the fact that one summer, while we both worked at the Stratford Festival, we co-rented a haunted house to live in. Although I do not believe in the “supernatural”, I have had both of my two “paranormal” experiences in the company of David. Ghosts was commissioned by David Bourque through the Canada Council in 1988.

David Bourque, a graduate of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, is the bass clarinetist of The Toronto Symphony. He has appeared as a soloist with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, and has performed for many CBC Radio broadcasts.

Dennis Patrick directs the University of Toronto's Electroacoustic Music Studio (UTEMS) and is a member of the Theory and Composition Division of the Faculty of Music. In addition to an interest in the use of computers in music, Patrick composes music for CBC Radio Drama. In June, the four hour dramatization of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient is being broadcast in Australia.

Views beyond...(1995) is derived from an algorithmic fragment that reflects a nostalgia I have felt this past winter. The twenty year old images of downtown Toronto, originally photographed and arranged here by my wife Barbara, provide a visual dimension to this nostalgia.

Maurice Methot is currently a Lecturer in Computer Music at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His works have been performed at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnessins Institute, and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as well as at an extensive number of rock, pop, new music, and jazz venues. His current interest lies mainly in a combination of algorithmic | compositional approaches and realtime control of video, audio, and MIDI files.

“Three Women” utilizes a computer algorithm based on a dynamical system called the Feigenbaum equation to manipulate digitized video and audio taken from interviews with three women of different cultural and economic backgrounds. The control system is made up of an inexpensive MIDI guitar controller, Kurzweill K2000 digital synthesizer/sampler, and an original "MAX" application which enables realtime control of MIDI, audio, and visual information.

Christos Hatzis was born in Volos, Greece. He began his music studies at the local branch of the Hellenic Conservatory and then later in America. At the Eastman School of Music, he completed his undergraduate studies under the guidance of Joseph Schwantner. Warren Benson, Samuel Adler and Russell Perk. In 1982, Mr. Hatzis earned his Ph.D. from SUNY at Buffalo, where he studied composition with Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller and Wlodzimierz Kotonski. He emigrated to Canada in 1982, became a Canadian citizen in 1985 and has lived in Toronto ever since. He is the recipient of over thirty commissions

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and grants from the Canada Council, the Ontario Art Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Arts Council of Great Britain and the London Arts Board, among others. His music has represented Canada and Greece at international gatherings such as the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music in Stockholm, the ISCM World Music Days In Oslo, the. Prix Futura in Berlin and the Prix Italia. In addition to the attention that his music draws at international festivals and the frequent performances of his music globally, Christos Hatzis is also regularly broadcast by CBC Radio and other international networks. He has recently been appointed Associate Professor of Composition at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Upcoming projects include an “Encounters '95” concert on April 4 featuring the music of John Taverner and Christos Hatzis and a trip to Baffin Island with CBC producer Keith Horner in June to record Inuit throat singers.

The Mega4 Meta4 was commissioned by Douglas Perry with a grant from the Ontario Arts Council. It is the fifth and final piece of Earthrise, a pentalogy of electroacoustic works. With the exception of the opening pentatonic theme, the Mega4 Meta4 is constructed entirely from quoted material (mainly from the four earlier pieces of Earthrise and from Albinoni's Adagio.) The quoted material is used as a starting point and, once stated, it is developed, repeated and juxtaposed on top of other, sometimes non- compatible material in such a way that the overall effect is that of dynamic pluralism and constant motion in opposite directions. The Mega4 Meta4 takes its name from my first

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pe computer, an Atari Mega4 ST. In the context of my compositional output it represents the arrival point of a long and all-consuming preoccupation with various musical cultures and with findings a means of synthesizing heterogenous elements in an eclectic, yet seamless whole. Douglas Perry, a graduate of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, is principal viola of the Canadian Opera Orchestra and a founding member of Tafelmusik. This season he performed at the International Viola Congress in Chicago, recorded Luciano Berio’s VOCE II, and toured Japan. Recently he recorded C.P.E. Bach’s sonatas for flute, viola, and pianoforte on period instruments.

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