CYCLES

MAR 3, 2024 · Peggy Corkum Music Room · Halifax, Nova Scotia

CYCLES explored patterns of repetition, return, and transformation through six works of contemporary chamber music. The concert centred on the three winning works from Alkali Collective’s 2023/24 Call for Scores, featuring composers Luke Blackmore, Nicola Miller, and Kristiana Tavityan. Together with works by Emilie LeBel, Gala Flagello, and Nico Muhly, the program traced cycles through the natural world, musical structures, and the ways we experience change over time.

The program took its title from the cycles that emerged across its repertoire: the twelve constellations of the Zodiac in Blackmore’s Astral Organisms, the movement of ducks through the waters of Chester Basin in Miller’s Buffleheads, and the progression of a storm from calm to its peak and back again in Tavityan’s Into the Storm. These works were paired with music by Emilie LeBel, Gala Flagello, and Nico Muhly, with themes of shifting textures, climate, repetition, and recurring musical material.

Call for Scores Finalist: Luke Blackmore

Luke Blackmore is a Canadian composer, sound artist, and saxophonist from St. John’s whose practice explores acoustic and electronic spaces and the boundaries between them. At the time of CYCLES, he was pursuing doctoral studies in composition at the University of Toronto.

Astral Organisms consists of twelve short vignettes based on the constellations of the Zodiac, with their order determined by the performers.

Call for Scores Finalist: Nicola Miller

Nicola Miller is an experimental saxophonist and composer based on Nova Scotia’s South Shore whose work moves between improvisation, avant-garde practice, lyricism, and the natural world.

Buffleheads was inspired by observations of the birds in Chester Basin, translating their collective movement, diving, and shifting relationships between leader and follower into musical form.

Call for Scores Finalist: Kristiana Tavityan

Kristiana Tavityan is a Bulgarian-Canadian composer and clarinetist who grew up in Halifax and studied composition at Dalhousie University before beginning graduate studies at the University of Ottawa.

Into the Storm depicts a Vancouver storm from the perspective of someone safely indoors, moving through the calm before the storm, wind and rain, a climax, and the return to calm.

From the Artistic Directors

Thank you for joining us for CYCLES, the third concert of this season. This evening’s performance highlights works by both established and early-career Canadian composers, featuring the three winning pieces from our 2023 Call for Scores program.

Last Fall, Alkali Collective launched its third annual Call for Scores program, inviting composers connected to the Atlantic Canadian provinces to submit compositions for three or more of the ensemble’s instrumentation. It garnered a multitude of responses, and after a difficult selection process, our three winners were chosen. We are thrilled to be presenting works from Luke Blackmore, Nicola Miller, and Kristiana Tavityan.

While programming this concert, a central theme of “cycles” emerged. From the cycle of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, weather patterns as they ebb and flow, or a flock of ducks circling the water in Chester Basin, each of these selected works will captivate their listeners with their strong subject matter and evocative imagery.

To pair with these works, we’ve selected Emilie LeBel’s “sometimes in the mornings their commute aligned, briefly”, a trio that conveys this imagery through its delicate scoring. Gala Flagello’s “Graphic Climate” illustrates not only the climate crisis but the ways in which we discuss and engage with it. As well, Nico Muhly’s sextet “Doublespeak” uses motivic repetition and cycles its themes throughout the ensemble.

We are so grateful to be bringing new music and ideas to our audiences for our fourth concert season. We sincerely thank you for your support, and look forward to presenting this exciting program of contemporary music.

– Megan Thibeault & Shauna DeGruchy