Selected ECCS Reviews

…on Feb. 27, five Edmonton composers (Carl Derfler, Ron Hannah, Gordon Nicholson, Blyth Nuttall, and Helve Sastok)… presented a program of their own new and recent works, and the music was very good indeed… Judging by what was presented, I’d say Edmonton composers share two traits: clear and logical form, and the creation and manipulation of attractive melody. If this sounds like a prescription for immediately enjoyable music, it is.

Bob Weber, THE EDMONTON BULLET, April 1985

…this season’s tripartite series from the fledgling Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society (ECCS), which had its first concert in the Chinook last week, is further evidence of a theme I have to harp on… The music written in Our Town today is accessible, surprisingly so to some, and anything but mysterious. The ECCS invited several city composers to submit works for any combination of piano, violin, cello, and soprano, and turned up some gems from the last two decades.

Barnaby Page, THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, November 2, 1985

A friend of mine likes to take slow movements from symphonies, and other laid back music, and put them together on what he calls “mellow tapes.” Some of the best pieces at last night Series X concert at Chinook Theatre would fit just fine on such a tape. The second of three recitals by the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society, it featured chamber music by six Edmonton composers.

John Charles, THE EDMONTON SUN, February 19, 1986

(The) concept of the ECCS is beautifully realised by the talent-laden performances of this growing society. (…) Perhaps the greatest compliment of all would be to acknowledge that the compositions performed for the first time during this concert flowed beautifully with those that transcended the boundaries of their time… delightful…

THE GATEWAY, January 1991

New Music Festival (was) a celebration of innovation…

Roger Levesque, THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, May 19, 1992

…last year’s festival was a large success, so much so that the performers and composers from all over North America have expressed interest in becoming involved.

Rodney Gitzel, SOLSTICE, May 4, 1993

Edmonton’s new music composers offered a more challenging and experimental range of work in one of the best, and certainly most memorable, concerts of the festival. “Composers Forum II” reflected the depth, artistry and vitality of the city’s new music scene…

Pamela Anthony, CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE, September 1993

New music fest focuses on quality… the festival has picked up some valuable national attention – and more importantly, support.

D. T. Baker, THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, April 30, 1994

It seemed that blue jeans were allowed at the New Music Festival, which took place in Edmonton over a balmy week in May, under the auspices of the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society (ECCS)… Inside the auditorium were children…, adding the feeling of a community hall rather than a stiff-backed conservatory. Never was a highbrow musical event so casual.

Stephen Humphrey, MUSICWORKS, Spring 1994

Most of the contributors (to the “Northern Arch/Arc du Nord”) make great use of aural space such that the instruments are able to “breathe” in an atmosphere unhampered by any asphyxiating presence of majesty.

J. W. Booth, SEE MAGAZINE, July 13-26, 1994

It’s quite surprising that in a community where new music has not been a priority, Edmonton suddenly has this amazing group of composers and musicians. They’re young, they’re very committed, they love music. They are a little pocket of activism who simply want to see innovative things happening in their community.

RADIO GUIDE, September 1994

This production (“Northern Arch/Arc du Nord”) by the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society offers a fine sample of Alberta music-making, reportedly the first recording devoted exclusively to music by composers from that province… the package is, overall, most attractive and the recording… is top notch.

Rick MacMillan, CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE, November 1994

When I first came to Edmonton in 1988, I had yet to hear a composition by an Edmonton artist. Until the first New Music Festival in 1992, the only Edmontonian programmed was Violet Archer, leading me to believe that she was the only composer in the area creating credible works. In May of 1992, I came to realize the extent of my oversight. Four festivals later, I not only recognize the competence of my Edmonton peers, but the abundance of talent from the rest of Alberta and Canada as well… As usual, the ECCS managed to bring in some of the best international groups around.

Scott Godin, MUSICWORKS, Summer 1995

It may seem surprising to find an exquisite festival for contemporary music in Edmonton… The variety and commitment of the 4th annual New Music Festival were amazing… Edmonton can count itself among the few places in North America that help to establish a rightful place for all of contemporary music.

Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG, Aug./Sept. 1995

…Edmonton is on the way to establish itself far beyond Canada as one of the most important and open-minded centres for contemporary music in North America. If one keeps in mind that cultural interests there are deemed of significantly lesser value than in Europe and financially almost exclusively dependent on personal initiatives and private sponsors, then the compositional variety and level of interpretation of the 4th Edmonton New Music Festival border on miraculous… this, in every aspect refreshing festival (…) must be recommended as a fruitful encounter.

Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, NEUE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR MUSIK, 1995/3

…this new (CD) is more reflective of the range of activity in the area of concert music composition. On “soundland alberta,” the program bumps up to ten pieces…, divided between alternating instrumental and electro-acoustic works, a varied, surprising and exciting listen.

Tony Dillon-Davis, CULTURE SHOCK, May 1996

This year, the society planned its most ambitious program and promoted it smartly with attractive posters and brochures. The first three concerts (of the 5th Edmonton New Music Festival) were filled with exciting stuff and we mean really new.

John Charles, THE EDMONTON SUN, November 4, 1996

Thanks to the inclusion of a variety of contemporary styles, as well as a short reading of new political poems by Edmonton’s Anna Mioduchowska, the concert (by Kathleen Supové) satisfied many varying appetites for modern creative works.

Berenice Gargus, SEE MAGAZINE, November 7 – 13, 1996

(Edmonton New Music festival) is an event that you definitely don’t want to miss.

Rob Morin, THE GATEWAY, November 7, 1996

The Stringtime CD is an excellent one all-around, with top-notch performances by all involved. In medias res by David Wall is a piece that is full of energy, occasionally a bit raucous, but thoroughly engaging. Linda C. Smith’s As You Pass a Reflective Surface is simply beautiful, especially the closing section, prominently featuring a mesmerizing, repeating motif. In Darkness by Alfred J. Fisher is melancholy, though quite accessible and quite virtuosic. Keith Hamel’s Each Life Converges to Some Centre… is a very traditional-sounding work that is nonetheless full of many interesting, vivid moments and is a very solid piece overall. Alice Ho’s Caprice accomplishes much over the course of its short duration, and is a real treasure. Ron Hannah’s String Quartet is a slow-moving yet never disengaging quartet with slight atonal and dissonant leanings that is very pleasing to listen to. Piotr Grella-Mozejko’s Strumienie snu produces from the standard medium of the string quartet sounds that are not immediately thought of as being possible from such a combination, and is surely one of the most original compositions that I have heard composed for string quartet in the last decade. This disc is superb, and not just because the pieces are superb. The performers themselves are of great quality, and the recording sound is as good as it gets.

Dan Albertson, THE LIVING COMPOSERS’ PROJECT, March 2001

Stringtime is more than another technically skilled CD – it’s sonically lovely, the performances are energetic and accomplished, and the compositions are beautifully balanced in time and style.

KALVOS & DAMIAN’S NEW MUSIC BAZAAR on WGDR 91.1 FM, February 2001

This [Stringtime] is a beautiful CD, overflowing with creative new Canadian chamber music for – for the most part – strings in small settings, but adding piano on one track. The sound quality is technically as well as artistically top notch, and the works themselves are all interesting and beautiful in their own way.

Ingvar Nordin, SONOLOCO (Sweden), March 2001

As the portentous titles suggest, much of this material is inward and contemplative. (…) Perhaps the most accessible music here [Stringtime] is Ron Hannah’s String Quartet, a three-movement work featuring an elegant design and sincere expressive qualities. The opening piece by David Wall is bristling and animated (…), and Alice Ho adds considerable energy to the solo-cello format in her brief piece, as opposed to Fisher’s bleaker viewpoint. (…) The iconoclast of the bunch is Polish-born Piotr Grella-Mozejko’s Strumienie snu (Streams of a Dream). By far the least conventional music on the CD, his work consists of odd, quiet splashes of string noises, pure sound experiments that resonate like a quiet mirror of the howling world of Penderecki.

Peter Burwasser, FANFARE, January/February 2001

In the recent Eclectra release “Stringtime,” a sampler of Canadian chamber works, composition is coming apart at the seams. Rather than aim for cohesion, the seven featured composers pit their instruments against one another. To their credit, the Penderecki String Quartet and Edmonton musicians Tania Prochazka, Jennifer Bustin and Roger Admiral emerge triumphant from the battle.

Brian McMillan, WHOLENOTE, Nov. 1 – Dec. 7, 2001

This one [Acclamations - Canadian Organ Music] makes my head swim in the most delightful of ways. Each of the composers is either Canadian born or ended up there from elsewhere. The oldest piece, Meditation sur un thème gregorien by Canadian-born Vernon Murgatroyd was composed in 1966. The newest, completed in 2002, are provided by Chicago-transplant George Andrix (Three Pieces for Organ), and Polish-born Piotr Grella-Mozejko (Lachrymae — in memory of September 11, 2001). The one thing all these composers have in common is that there really is no commonality and, paradoxically, all the commonality in the world. They are all players in our now well-documented musical continuum, and they have all made fine, though quite contrasted contributions to its continuance. . . Organist Stillman Matheson performs on a fairly new instrument, a tracker-action organ built by Gabriel Kney Ltd, (opus 91) in 1979, and located at the Robertson Wesley United Church in Edmonton. The instrument is a sweet one, persuasive in all registers, and commanded by a technically impeccable and enthusiastic player.

William Zagorski, FANFARE, March/April 2004

[The Weather Inside - New Music for Clarinet] Here are 10, count ‘em, 10 new works for clarinet, from a mainly Canadian crew of musicians and composers. Actually, there is surprisingly little variation in mood and style, with most of the music adhering to the intrinsic qualities of the instrument, in particular, lyricism and a certain melancholia… The longest piece on the program, Rob Morin’s delicately constructed Twilight No. 1 for clarinet and vibraphone, throws out a sweet, bluesy aroma. There are other interesting combinations of instrumental timbres and dynamics, such as Stanislaw Moryto’s piece for bass clarinet and marimba, and Piotr Grella-Mozejko’s Numen for bass clarinet and organ… Ross and his colleagues are skilled and earnest musicians, and those interested in the idea of new music for clarinet may well find something of value here.

Peter Burwasser, FANFARE, March/April 2006

[The Weather Inside - New Music for Clarinet] As a completely uncertified, steadfastly unscientific, and from time to time probably wrong-headed musicologist with a penchant for nailing shingles to the fog, I divide composers into two categories-those of a conservative bent who satisfy themselves, and often us, with their variations on the musical past, and those of a more fundamentalist nature (they can be found in all musicological periods), who rethink the basic elements of music and create new sound worlds. The composers on this release are of the latter category. Lest I be misunderstood, there are good, bad, and indifferent composers in each of these philosophical realms. These folks, however, deserve our attention, and study… The result is a 66-minute odyssey into musical possibility provided by highly capable and simpatico musicians, handsomely recorded.

William Zagorski, FANFARE, March/April 2006

[The Weather Inside - New Music for Clarinet] Through years of experience as an enthusiastic teacher and in performances with a number of local ensembles, Don Ross has shown there is much, much more to the clarinet. Now, he has released a solid, satisfying disc… {A]n entertaining and encouraging disc courtesy of Ross and many of Edmonton’s finest new composers.

Prosper Prodaniuk SEE Magazine, Jan. 26 – Feb. 1, 2006