Dear friends, I’m so pleased that I’ve been afforded the opportunity to share with you the celebration of Alexina Louie being presented with the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize at Esprit’s concert on October 6th. The Council asked her a few questions about her art for PR purposes and used snippets of the…

I have always wanted to compose a work about the Niagara Falls. Countless times I have walked along the Niagara River, from the upstreams to the falls, and along the Lower Niagara Water Rapids. Water goes through a series of transformations during its journey downstream. Inspired by the falls and this idea of transformation, I…

Taking My Rocks To Nunavik My ‘way into’ the Inuit culture was connecting with the remarkable throat singer Evie Mark. In 2007/2008 Evie and I corresponded by phone and email. She provided me with recordings of throat singing and DVDs about artist elders as I peppered her with questions. I read Inuit stories, finding them…

Tuning My Rocks The small group of musicians and others involved in the northern tour (a couple of orchestral staff members, and a small documentary film crew) were to head out for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s first tour of Nunavik to Inukjuak, Kangiqsujuaq, and Kuujjuaq in a small twin engine plane. As the composer of…

Would I write a piece for two Inuit throat singers and ensemble for the Montreal Symphony’s first tour of Nunavik, Northern Arctic Quebec? When I got that call saying that Kent Nagano would be pleased if I accepted, my heart skipped a beat, but I was frozen – yes, frozen with fear. I thought through…