Take Note

We sat down for a chat with composer Andrew Balfour. Balfour is an innovative composer/conductor/singer/sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works, including Take the Indian (a vocal reflection on missing children), Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Bawajigaywin (Vision Quest) and Manitou Sky, an orchestral tone poem. 

We sat down with Les Dala and singers Robyn Driedger-Klassen and Leah Giselle Field. Dala is currently the conductor of the Vancouver Opera, which Field has also performed with. Driedger-Klassen is a soprano who works with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

We sat down for a discussion with composer Jared Miller. Jared's music has been featured and recognized in the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial (2014), the ISCM World Music Days (2017 & 2019), Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival (2010, 2015 & 2019) and the Vancouver and Victoria Symphony’s New Music Festivals (2015-2019.)

Join us for a discussion with the Echéa Quartet. The Echéa Quartet was formed in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Music, London. They are recent winners of the ‘Tremplin' at the Philharmonie de Paris's String Quartet Biennale (2020) and prizewinners of the International Anton Rubinstein Competition (2017). 

We were joined on our podcast by pianist Larry Weng.  Winner of the 2019 NYCA Worldwide Debut Audition and a laureate of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition, Larry Weng is world renowned concert pianist.

We were joined on our podcast by the founding members of the Tangram Collective.  Tangram is a new music movement catalysing transnational imagination and celebrating the vitality of Chinese cultures.

The Rolston String Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity's Chamber Music Residency. They take  their name from Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and long-time director of the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre.

We chat with Nicolas Namoradze, Prize Laureate of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, about his activities during the pandemic and how life has changed since Honens.

We discuss a range of topics with pianist Luke Welch including diversity in classical music, his recently released Piano Practice Guides, his latest performance, and more!

For this episode of Take Note, we welcomed the fantastic icarus Quartet!  They're a two-piano, two-percussion ensemble that met at the School of  Music, while studying at Yale University.