Voice of Hope was originally for soprano and string orchestra, and this is now available with piano accompaniment.
The text of this piece was taken from the writings of a young girl who survived the Ukrainian Holodomor, the starvation/genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Stalin regime in 1932. The setting of this text by composer Larysa Kuzmenko, who had a number of family members die in that genocide, is very powerful, moving and gripping.
The Rings for flute and harp was commissioned by harpist Erica Goodman and flutist Suzanne Shulman to celebrate two 50th anniversaries, one for the two of them, as they have played together as a duo for 50 years. The other is to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Suzanne Shulman to her husband, Peter Rosenbaum. They asked their good friend and composer Eric Robertson to create a work for these occasions. Eric asked another good friend and long-time collaborator, poet Gary Michael Dault, to create 8 poems on the subject of marriage, to serve as inspiration for each movement. The end results has been recorded by the duo on their album Being Golden.
After the success of the two volume Soprano edition of our Canadian Opera Anthology, we are now pleased to release the next instalment, volume 1 and 2 for baritone and bass. These new additions to the series follow the style of the soprano edition, set up by Stephanie Nakagawa, P.h.D., on whose doctoral thesis this series is based. This Baritone/Bass edition features 28 arias from Canadian operas, arranged chronologically, from 1946 to 2021. Fully 19 of the 28 arias are from 21st century operas, with a wide range of subjects. From Harry Somers – Louis Riel, Healey Willan’s Deirdre and Jean Couthard’s The Return of the Native, to operas by James Rolfe, Rodney Sharman, Leslie Uyeda, Alice Ping Ye Ho, Victor Davies, Peter-Anthony Togni and Chan Ka Nin. We have included more arias from Quebec composers such as Jacques Hetu, Julien Bilodeau. We have included arias from two operas dealing the the subject of Gay relationships (Les feluettes by Kevin March and librettist Michel-Marc Bouchard and When the suns comes out by Leslie Uyeda and librettist Rachel Rose). Explore these operas and buy these scores through these links, where you can see the contents and see score excerpts:
We are pleased to include this recent string quartet by Ottawa composer James K. Wright, Ellen At Scattergood, to our catalogue:
Notes from the composer:
Lac Scattergood lies in the Outaouais region of southwestern Québec, situated close to Lac McGregor and the nearby town of Val-des-Monts, less than a one-hour drive across the Ottawa River from the city of Ottawa, Canada’s national capital. Written for Ellen Cray who with her husband, own a cottage at Lac Scattergood, it is ultimately programmatic in inspiration, it is otherwise largely “absolute music” in the traditional sense. The majority of its basic thematic ideas and their development are therefore purely musical in nature, without extra-musical associations. However the emotional character, texture, tempi, and rhythmic animation of each movement are inspired by Lac Scattergood and my understanding of the many moods and textures of David and Ellen’s life at their cottage.
Listen movement 1
Listen movement 3
Golden Harvest is an oratorio for mixed chorus, solo soprano and baritone, and orchestra, or piano reduction. Written for the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada. Canadian-Ukrainian composer Larysa Kuzmenko wrote this work to the libretto of another Canadian-Ukrainian, Talia (Natalia) Zajac. This was premiered by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and a mixed choir of local groups, on March 17, 2016. It went on to be performed by a number of other groups, Saskatoon Symphony, McGill Chamber Orchestra and Regina Symphony. With current events bringing all things Ukrainian to general notice, this work deserves to be performed again. The Centre for Opera Studies and Appreciation in Toronto, will be performing this twice June 7 & 8, 2022 under the direction of Darryl Edwards at Humbercrest United Church and Lansing United Church, both in Toronto. Buy vocal score.
At last the promised second volume of the Soprano edition of our Canadian Opera Anthology has been released and is ready for you to order. Check out this link which gives you the list of contents with excerpt pages from each aria. It is being offered at an introductory sale price for a limited time. Get your copy soon. Soprano volume 2
Gary Kulesha’s Sonata for horn, tuba and piano was created for the composer performing on piano, J. Scott Irvine on tuba and Gary Pattison on horn, premiered in 1975 at a recital given by them at Walter Hall at the University of Toronto. This piece has gone on to be his most performed work, and best selling work. We finally decided that it really needed to be given a nice cover and be commercially printed. The music and insides are the same as we have been selling for a number of years, it just looks “prettier” now.
Kelly-Marie Murphy’s orchestral work – And so be changed from lightning in the end (2004)
Listen on our YouTube channel here
Buy a full score, see a score excerpt at this link
We are very pleased to announce the launch of the first book in a series of arias from a wide range of Canadian Operas. Arrange by voice, the first and second volumes are for soprano. Volume 1 is available. Volume 2 will debut early in the new year. For a limited time, volume 1 is on sale for $34. Soprano Volume 1-details-buy
