“My desire is always to rebel, to swim against the stream” – were the words playing in my head preceding my first meeting with the grand dame of the contemporary music world – Sofia Gubaidulina. After taking one look at her, a fragile, modest woman, it was hard to imagine how difficult a life…

Dear Friends, On June 9, I look forward to giving the Canadian premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s magnificent accordion concerto, Fachwerk, with Esprit Orchestra in Toronto’s iconic Koerner Hall. I hope to see you there! Read on for more details… I believe Fachwerk (2009) is among the best and most exciting works that exist for accordion…

By Alex Pauk   I first became aware of Claude Vivier a decade before he became my friend. We met at a university composers’ forum in Montreal held at McGill’s Redpath Hall in the early 70s. There, Harry Somers, a more senior composer who also later became my friend, had been invited to give an…

What if sound waves never died? Where would sound physically exist if it did live forever? What if the sound waves were absorbed or embedded into the objects and natural world around us? How could we retrieve them? How would they have changed? The aim of archeology is to study and understand objects and cultures…

In the great ‘inspiration vs. perspiration’ debate I must admit that I’ve always been more inclined towards the latter. How exactly the creative process unfolds, with its multitudes of tiny deductions and trial-and-error calculations, remains mysterious to me, to be sure. But I tend to think that ideas are mined through hard work; active attention,…