Thanks to the initiative of the Canadian Music Center and Musica Reflecta, I will be writing a short quartet for four distinguished performers from the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, a celebrated ensemble which has been hailed as one of the “top baroque orchestras in the world” (Gramaphone Magazine). This program is part of the “Opus Testing” series at the Canadian Music Center, and is a scheme that allows emerging composers to test drive ideas in a workshop-like environment. For the program, I am joined by several composers from the new music community in Toronto, who will all be writing a short work to be performed in a Public workshop on March 26th, 2017.
The program is possible because of the work of many enthusiastic individuals such as Matthew Fava of the CMC, Will Crouch of Musica Reflecta, and the individual musicians who have taken time in their schedule to sit down with us composers to talk about writing for Baroque instruments. The musicians are Patricia Ahern (violin), Marco Cera (oboe), Allen Whear (cello), and Christopher Bagan (harpsichord). We’ve just had a workshop on Feb 8th and I have already learned so much about these four instruments and the way they work compared to their modern counterparts. I look forward to sharing more about the work in progress, and if you have the chance, drop by the performance in March to hear the pieces yourself!
Roydon Tse 