Ars Universalis presents Ballade of the North: Music of Canadian Women Composers, a concert and CD promotion presented under the patronage of The Honourable Peter Milliken in collaboration with the Embassies of Bulgaria and Serbia.
On this recording are works by Canadian women composers written over a time span of almost a century. The violin remains an important instrument for Canadian women, both in performance and as a vehicle for new musical creations. Notable Canadian women violinists of the past include Bertha Drechsler Adamson who was concertmistress of Welsman’s Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1906 to 1918, and Calgarian, Kathleen Parlow, who was the first foreign student to be admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After studies with Leopold Auer, she spent years touring as a virtuoso before returning to Canada to teach and perform chamber music.
Jean Coulthard (1908-2000) wrote Ballade of the North while she was on sabbatical from the University of British Columbia in 1966. Most of that year she spent in London, England, so perhaps this piece indicates a bit of longing for Canada. Her early teacher, Arthur Benjamin, recognized in the sound of her works the feeling of the British Columbia coast. Coulthard herself stated: “If one has been born in this land where earliest memories of life are walks in the woods, picnics in the bays and coves of its waters —summer vacations in the interior among the lakes and mountains —how could one (if at all sensitive to nature) fail to catch the atmosphere of this country?” Indeed, the violin and piano combine in the Ballade to capture sonic descriptions of various water and wind movements in a spacious texture.
Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté (1899-1974) was born in Moscow, and became a Canadian resident in 1953. By the age of 11, she already had established a career as a virtuoso performer on violin and piano. Based in Berlin by 1912, she wrote the Souvenir II: Duo for violin and piano probably before 1920. This piece reflects various influences including Roma-like violin playing, late Romantic chromatic harmonies and shifting rhythmic patterns.
Elizabeth Raum, born in New Hampshire, 1945, moved to Canada in 1968 to play oboe in the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Since 1975 she has been based in Regina where she performs as oboist and fulfills many commissions as a composer. Freya (2003) appeared to honour the Bat Mitzvah of her granddaughter. Her daughter, Erika, is a fine violinist and the inspiration for many works involving the violin. Les Ombres (1989, rev. 1995) is one of those works. [note in score about inspiration to add]
Ann Sokolovic, born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1968, came to Canada in the early 1990s to study at the University of Montreal. She has won many composition awards and is busy fulfilling numerous commissions. Her music is infused with elements of the varied music cultures familiar to her in the land of her birth, but clothed in her own unique voice. Chant (2003) was the imposed work for violinists to play with orchestra in the International Violin competition of Jeunesses Musicales, Montreal. The composer made this version of the ternary constructed work, slow-fast-slow, for violin and piano.
Although born 1964 in Italy to a Canadian military family, Kelly-Marie Murphy obtained her first two musical degrees in Calgary. In Postcards from Home, commissioned by Music Canada 2000 for James Campbell, clarinetist, and the Festival of the Sound’s Millenium tour, each of the three movements have inspiration from the province of Alberta. The first movement, “Alberta Clipper,” refers to the term used by Albertans for the fast-moving winter storm that does not drop much snow. However, there is usually behind it a surge of frigid Arctic air making for blizzard conditions. The second movement, “Horizon at Dawn,” describes the breath-taking beauty of the sky formations to be found in the prairies. The third movement, “Hoe-down,” invokes a lively night of dancing with the fiddler(s) keeping participants on their feet.
Ballade of the North features ONMC members Elaine Keillor and Ralitsa Tcholakova.
Ralitsa Tcholakova has performed as a soloist with orchestras and at chamber music series and Festivals in Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, USA and Uruguay. Her concerts have been recorded for broadcast for CBC and other radio stations in Canada, as well as for Bulgarian and Argentinean National radio and television. She is the recipient of numerous bursaries, scholarships, awards and grants such as Svetoslav Obretenov Bulgarian National Competition, Sarasota Kiwanis Club, Baden – Baden Lion’s Club, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Austrian Ministry of Culture, FACTOR, Europe 2000, Ottawa City Arts Funding, Canada Arts Council and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.
Elaine Keillor, Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Carleton University, remains the youngest Associate graduate ever of the Royal Conservatory of Music. She has performed solo recitals and concertos with orchestras throughout North America and Europe. Highly praised for her programming and performance, Keillor appears on eighteen CDs to date. The first doctoral musicologist from the University of Toronto, she has produced numerous publications including John Weinzweig and His Music (1994), Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity (2006). She led the teams that produced the educational websites, www.native-drums,ca, www.native-dance.ca, and www.pathoftheelders.com. In 2009 Keillor received an Honorary Life Membership from the Canadian University Music Society and became one of 50 Ambassadors named by the Canadian Music Centre.
This post ⓒ Elaine Keillor
