The buzz for VIOLINISSIMO is building! Check out these wonderful previews for our November 27th concert in La Scena Musicale, The WholeNote magazine and Ludwig Van Toronto- click on each image to read the full article!  Ludwig Van Toronto                                 …

Check out Esprit’s brand new podcast interview series- this first episode features Christopher Goddard & Alison Yun Fei Jiang!     One of my favourite pieces in the piano repertoire is Johannes Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, op. 24, better known as the Handel Variations. In his writings, Brahms describes the…

    “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…