Latest News
Album of Old Photographs
August 11, 2010
...is now available from C. Alan Publications. It's a set of seven short pieces for marimba and piano (medium difficulty). Titles are: Prelude, Portrait of a Little Girl, At the Fair, Pleasant Evening on the Beach, Young Man in Uniform, A Path through the Trees, and Postlude.
Bass-Time Beginners
July 25, 2010
My newest collection of pedagogical pieces, Bass-Time Beginners, is now available from Recital Music. It's a set of six pieces for elementary-level double bass with piano accompaniment. Titles are The Ogre's Dance, Evening Star, Masquerade Ball, Romance, A Summer Day, and Serenade. You can find score samples on the publisher's site.
Tonic Tutor!
July 19, 2010
I'm delighted to announce the launch of my latest venture (and adventure): it's called Tonic Tutor. It's an online program for music teachers and students that is designed to supplement and complement private music instruction. It features educational games that can be tailored by the teacher to suit the needs of individual students. The games focus on skills such as ear training, note reading, and music theory, and can be used for everyone from complete beginners to advanced students. Based on what I know about the many different methods of teaching music, I designed the games and game settings, and artist and web developer William Ratke turned it all into a very exciting website that I think music teachers will love. Please check it out!
Orpheus
June 12, 2010
Orpheus with his lute (for SATB with piano) has been awarded third prize in the Freudig Singers of Western New York's international composition competition. First and second prizes were won by Brian Holmes and Mark Dal Porto, and several other composers were awarded Honorable Mentions. The winning compositions will be performed by the choir during the 2010-2011 season.
More Mags
June 5, 2010
Magnificat will be performed tomorrow at St. John's United Church in Moncton, NB, and again on June 27th in Montreal, QC. Both concerts will be performed by the Chorale du Gesù (directed by Patricia Abbott) and the Choeur Beauséjour (directed by Monique Richard).
UPDATE - Speaking of the Mag, I've just discovered that it has been recorded by Concerto Della Donna - you can find the CD here. Here's an excerpt from the liner notes, penned by director Iwan Edwards: "We had opened our Christmas program in December 2008 with a 'stunning' setting of the Magnificat by Canadian composer Christine Donkin, and I decided to open our tour program with this same composition. Audiences loved it! The work is centered around a plainsong-like melody sung by a soloist, accompanied by ten other singers positioned around the hall, who choose notes and vowels, seemingly at random, from the melodic line. This remarkable effect created a 'presence' which some listeners likened to a host of angels hovering around Mary as she sang her words."
I think that Concerto Della Donna also included Magnificat on their recent tour of Serbia and Croatia.
I also found a review by John Lambert of the recent performance in North Carolina, by Women's Voices Chorus (directed by Allan Friedman): "There followed an astonishingly beautiful "Magnificat" (with its familiar text from Luke) by Christine Donkin. . .that, in retrospect, may have been the evening's artistic high-water mark. This short a cappella number featured mezzo-soprano soloist Erica Dunkle's clean articulation of the words while the ten-part(!) choir intoned, mostly pianissimo, pitches and vowels (per the program note by Friedman himself) drawn from the solo part. (The work was edited by WVC founding director Mary Lycan.) The result was somewhat akin to what someone might imagine at evening prayer with the nuns in their own remote cloisters - a remarkable and haunting effect, to be sure."
Candles
May 1, 2010
I'm pleased to report that my new choral piece, Candles (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB chorus), was awarded an Honourable Mention in the DaCapo Chamber Choir's NewWorks composition competition. The winner was Don Macdonald and another Honourable Mention was given to Jeff Enns.
This evening there was a performance of the Magnificat by Women's Voices Chorus in Durham, NC.
Performances, publications, and projects
March 7, 2010
Since the last update, I have heard about the following upcoming performances:
1. Nocturnes will be performed by Cameron MacLaine at a solo piano recital on April 17th in Regina, SK.
2. Magnificat will be performed at the Seattle 2010 Women's Choir Festival (by a massed choir of 80 singers from British Columbia, Alaska, Arizona, and Washington) on April 24th.
3. Over in Grande Prairie, the Aspen Grove choir (directed by Leah Mayer) will be performing Repeat the Beat at the Music Festival in early May. This piece was commissioned by the Grande Prairie Music Educators' Association a few years ago; its text was constructed from excerpts of children's poetry about music.
4. At around the same time, and again in Grande Prairie, three new piano quartets (The Clock Shop - late elementary; Coloured Leaves - advanced; and Flipbook Animation - advanced) will be premiered by piano students of Carmen Bartel.
I am now a member of Red Leaf Pianoworks, along with fellow composers Martha Hill Duncan, Beverly Porter, Susan Griesdale, Rebekah Maxner, and Janet Gieck. My contributions to the catalogue will soon include some piano quartets and Peace Country, and I've already added a couple of little activity books for students: Rhythm Recipes and Jokes & Riddles. Look for them at the Red Leaf Booth at upcoming conferences and trade shows.
A company in the U.K. by the name of Recital Music is creating a series of graded repertoire for double bass (with piano accompaniment) entitled Basslines. Several of my compositions will be included.
A new, as yet untitled album of early elementary piano pieces will be available from the Frederick Harris Music Company later this year.
A little of everything
January 20, 2010
First of all, there are a few performances coming up - details are a bit sketchy, but here's what I know:
1) On February 22nd, a vocal/instrumental piece called "Sparrow with a Broken Wing" (with text by librettist Royce Vavrek, who comes from the same part of the world as I do) will be premiered in New York City.
2) On March 24th, Peace Country will be performed at the Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
3) On April 10th, the Grande Prairie College Choir (directed by John Murray) will premiere a piece that the ensemble commissioned, entitled Orpheus with his lute for SATB chorus with piano. The text is from Shakespeare's Henry VIII.
I recently learned that I was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Classical Marimba League's international composition competition. The piece I submitted was Album of Old Photographs for marimba and piano (not to be confused with Photo Album for violin and piano, which I mentioned a while back - similar titles, but completely different pieces). I also just received a publishing contract from C. Alan Publications regarding the same piece - completely unexpected, but it made me happy.
And, finally, I got some professional photographs taken. You'll see one of them in the bio section of this site; others are poised to replace some of the not-so-great pictures that have been lurking on other websites. These new ones were taken by John W. MacDonald, whose work I like quite a lot.
'Tis the Season...
December 7, 2009
...for Magnificat performances and broadcasts (these are in addition to the ones I've already mentioned):
1) November 28th, Edmonton AB: Ariose Women's Choir, directed by Marilyn Kerley
2) November 29th: CBC broadcast of Concerto Della Donna, directed by Iwan Edwards
3) December 6th, Thunder Bay, ON: Dulcisono Women's Choir, directed by Susan Marrier
4) December 12th and 13th, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, CA: Orange County Women's Chorus, directed by Eliza Rubenstein (a quote from their website: "A new Magnificat setting by Christine Donkin puts a different spin on the mystical elements of the text - you'll have to experience this one in person!")
5) December 12th in Dobbs Ferry, NY and December 20th at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, Manhattan: Angelica women's choral ensemble, directed by Marie Caruso.
6) December 13th, Ober-Eschbach, Germany: the women's choir of the Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Ober-Eschbach - the director's name was not listed on the site from which I got this information. Also, interestingly, I'm listed as an American composer.
7) December 13th, Sudbury, ON: Ariadne Women's Chamber Choir, directed by David Buley
I'm also pleased to announce that over in my home town (Grande Prairie, AB), the GPRC Conservatory Choir (directed by Ellyn Otterson) will be premiering my unaccompanied 2-part arrangement of I saw three ships at the Carol Festival on December 8th.
Silver in Saskatchewan, Gold in Greece
November 23, 2009
I received a phone call the other day from Dr. Alain Perron at the University of Regina, to tell me that I was the second place winner in the Living Music Under Living Skies emerging composers' competition. The piece I submitted was a set of Nocturnes for solo piano.
Also, I am a winner in the International Prizes for Excellence in Composition, which was held in Thessaloniki, Greece. The competition called for pedagogical music, so I submitted a set of seven elementary-level pieces for violin with piano accompaniment, entitled Photo Album. Apparently some of my pieces were performed at a Gala Concert on November 21st at the Public Theatre of Sykies in Thessaloniki. I'm pretty sure that marks my Greek debut. I've uploaded scores and audio samples for anyone who's interested - they're in the “Music for Students†section.
Lastly, I'll report another Magnificat performance: it was on November 12th, by Les Choristes, conducted by Jennifer Moir, at the University of Western Ontario - an excellent performance according to the audience member who wrote to tell me about it.