Led by Professor Tomer Lev of Tel Aviv, this group of world-class virtuoso pianists will play classic works by Mozart, Poulenc, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Rossini, Levanon and Bach-Vivaldi which have been reimagined for a performance by many hands.

This is a unique opportunity to experience an exceptional multiple-hand piano repertoire by some of Israel’s most accomplished and distinguished young musicians in ever-changing combinations using one and two pianos with four, six and eight hands.

The concert will be held on the closing day of the first-ever Power of the Arts conference presented by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Michaëlle JeanFoundation.

Carleton University is proud to co-present this concert in collaboration with the Vered Israel Cultural and Educational program, the Embassy of Israel in Canada, Ottawa Pianos, and the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation.

The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music is a division of Tel-Aviv University that is run in collaboration with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music is named after its patron, Zubin Mehta, the great Israeli conductor. Tel Aviv University is widely regarded as Israel’s most renowned institute for music study.

Multi-Piano Extravaganza: works for two pianos (4, 6 and 8 hands)
Professor Tomer Lev and pianists from Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music
Works by Mozart, Poulenc, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Rossini, Levanon and Bach-Vivaldi
Sunday, September 29, 5:30 pm, Kailash Mital Theatre
General Admission: $30
Power of the Arts conference delegates: $20 (at the door)
Students: $15

The Patrick Cardy Tribute Concert in support of the Patrick Cardy Fund for Studio A will be held at the Carleton University Art Gallery on June 3, 2013. This event is presented by Carleton’s Department of Music and is sponsored by the Carleton University Alumni Association.  All proceeds will go to the Patrick Cardy Fund to support the refurbishment of Studio A in the Department of Music.

During his 30 years at Carleton, Cardy spent countless hours teaching in Loeb A900, a teaching and performance space better known to Carleton music students and faculty as Studio A. According to his family, closest friends and colleagues, nothing would have pleased Cardy more than to know that funds donated in his memory would be used to support music students by restoring and refurbishing Studio A.

The event will feature performers including:

• Julie Nesrallah (mezzo-soprano)
• Roddy Elias (guitar)
• Cathy Baerg (flute)
• Elaine Keillor (piano)
• The Cosmos Saxophone Quartet (Mike Tremblay, Vince Rimbach, René Lavoie and Ian Babb)
• Suren Barry (piano)
• The Lisgar Collegiate String Ensemble (Trudy Bradley, conductor)
• Maghan McPhee (soprano)
• James Wright (piano)

Where: Carleton University Art Gallery
When: Monday, June 3, 2013
7:30 p.m. concert
9:00 p.m. reception
Cost: Tickets are $35 per person (includes concert and light reception with cash bar).
Registration and Program: http://forms.carleton.ca/advancement/patrick-cardy-tribute/

Parking: Pay and Display parking available in Lot 6.  See the campus map.
Online Donations: http://futurefunder.carleton.ca/projects/renovate-music-studio-a-in-tribute-to-patrick-cardy/

The cost to renovate Studio A is $50,000 to 60,000. The Department of Music is a priority for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the dean has already pledged $30,000 towards renovations. Together with some other available funds, this pledge brings the department more than halfway to its goal.

The department is calling on friends, family and former students of Cardy to help close the gap. They are aiming to raise approximately $20,000 to fully renovate the studio in Cardy’s honour.

For more information, email cu_proud@carleton.ca, or call 1-866-287-7683.

Roddy Ellias

If you play the guitar or if you’re simply a guitar aficionado, you will not want to miss Guitar Now.  Okay, I’ll tell you exactly what Guitar Now is right after I tell you that it doesn’t matter what style of music you play or like, nor does it matter how good you are on the instrument, all that matters is that you love the guitar, the greatest of all instruments, and that you want to enjoy, learn, absorb, and be inspired by some the finest guitarists playing music today.  And no, you don’t have to go to New York, LA, Brazil or Europe.  It’s all tight here in Ottawa this spring!

Okay, the details…Guitar Now is a three-day guitar festival that kicks off its first year right here in Ottawa, at Carleton University, from May 3 to 5, 2013.  World class guitarists from a wide variety of styles, including country and finger-style, classical, jazz, and everything in between (and I might add, world-class friendly people) will be offering helpful and insightful workshops and performances.

Who, you ask?  Well, Don Ross, one of the world’s finest finger-pickers, Steve Piticco, and amazing country picker, Ben Monder, one of the world’s leading contemporary improvising and jazz guitarists, and the brilliant Basillian classical guitarists Guilherme Vincens to name a few!  PEI’s own Amy Brandon will also be hosting an afternoon performance by rising local and regional guitarists that you won’t want to miss.

The festival has been organized by Carleton University music faculty members James Wright Wayne Eagles, and me, Roddy Ellias.  If you are interested in going, and I strongly urge anyone who has been kind enough to read this far, please check out the website and register now!

See you in May

-Roddy Ellias

In the fall of 2012, Austin Lui peddled his way from Kitchener-Waterloo to Ottawa spreading a message of global consciousness.  As part of the Otesha Project, Phenomenal Food Tour, Lui and 6 other volunteers made stops in a number of communities and schools to perform plays and facilitate workshops as a way of creating a dialogue with students and community members on the importance of understanding the impact of our actions on the world around us.

Throughout the two month bike tour, the 7 member team did all they could to better educate themselves and others on how food systems function in Ontario. The group would often sleep on farms and visit local food initiatives to volunteer their labour while learning about how food is grown and distributed in Ontario.

Having just graduated the previous spring from Carleton University with a Master’s Degree in Music and Culture under supervisors Jesse Stewart and James Deaville, Lui wanted to make the most of his new found, more autonomous schedule.  He has always held a profound passion and interest in social justice, and now that he possessed the tools to go out into the world and make a genuine difference, Lui decided he would dedicate the next step of his life to helping to empower others.

“My MA at Carleton helped me to hone my critical skills.  I learned lots of transferable skills including how to engage in dialogue.  While traveling with Otesha, these skills and this mindset allowed me to engage in discussions with the audience rather than simply presenting to them.  I’m very passionate about helping people start their own initiatives, and I think I have the ability to do so effectively.”

During his tenure at Carleton, Lui was an active member of the Music Department.  He acted as President of the Music and Culture Society, and helped organize important events such as a symposium on Music and Social Justice.  With the support of his supervisors (Deaville and Stewart), and Music professor James Wright, Lui was quite successful in making the most of his time in the Music Department.

Superficially, and for those who might not be knowledgeable of the program, an MA in Music and Culture may seem to hold little correlation with the field of social justice.  Lui’s experience disproves this, as his education proved entirely relevant and applicable to his first post-graduation venture into social activism.  He always knew he wanted to help others in some capacity in his professional career, so Lui wrote his thesis on an innovative, internationally respected and emulated program which focuses on improving the lives of the less fortunate through an education in classical music.

“My thesis was on a community music program for underprivileged kids called “El Sistema”- a hugely successful publicly financed, voluntary sector music education program which commenced in Venezuela and has since acted as the template for similar NGO’s worldwide – and “The Leading Note Foundation” here in Ottawa,” explains Lui.  “My additional passion for cycling, environmental sustainability, community living and food justice made this tour a perfect fit for me.  Many of the skills I acquired at Carleton were totally relatable to my work on the Otesha Project”

Beyond implementing the research, organization and critical skills from his MA in Music and Culture on his adventure, as a musician, Lui was also able to exploit his creative abilities to fortify the Otesha message.  Realizing the power of music and art as an agent of social development, Lui and his group would put on social theater plays, workshops and mini concerts which were equal parts entertaining and enlightening.

“With a ukulele strapped to my bike, the tour allowed me to put my skills and interests into practice.”

The weekend of November 10, 2012 was rather significant for Lui.  Not only did he receive his Master’s Degree at Carleton’s Fall Convocation; he was also informed that Otesha had hired him as a full time Program Coordinator for ChangeLink.

Lui’s success operates as a great reminder of how students and graduates can parlay an exceptional volunteer opportunity into a dream profession.

“I’d recommended Otesha to any anyone.  It was truly a powerful opportunity that I learnt so much from!  Many members of our team didn’t even own a bike before this trip, so don’t let a lack of confidence in your cycling ability hold you back.”

New projects for the Otesha Project include:

Food Sustainability, Aboriginal Issues, and Urban Farming

To learn more about the 2013 Otesha Project bike tours, please visit: http://www.otesha.ca/content/2012-bike-tours

Poster

Featuring Carleton University Music Department’s West African Rhythm Ensemble and the Baobab Youth Performers, both under the direction of Kathy Armstrong.  This performance is the culmination of an artist residency program featuring the vibrant and magnetic performance of Ghanaian musician and dancer Nani Agbeli.

Nani Agbeli is an engaging and talented drummer and dancer from the Volta Region of Ghana.  He is the son of the late master drummer Godwin Agbeli, who trained him in his art form from a young age. Nani led many performances and workshops in Ghana before moving to the USA. He currently lives in Boston where he teaches and performs at Berklee College of Music and Tufts University.

“Great dancers and drummers are not great because of their technique,” explains Agbeli. “They are great because of their passion. Music and dance: food of my soul.”

The performance will involve over 50 drummers and dancers who will combine forces for the feature pieces Tokwoe and Gahu, both rich textures of sounds and sights, and a reflection on the power of community.

This artist in residence program is a joint educational project between Baobab Community and Carleton University, with a generous donation by recent Carleton Music Graduate, Julia Walmsley.

Kathy Armstrong describes the importance of a project like this:

“Relationship is everything in this music. Between the different elements of dance, song and drumming and the interaction of all those involved. This multi-age project involves elements of mentoring, the donation of seed money from a recent Carleton music graduate, and the pursuit of artistic excellence through intercultural learning.  This is what education is all about.”

Watch a short video segment of the Carleton West African Ensemble
(Videographer Chris Thompson)

For more information or to purchase tickets please contact:

Baobab Community          Carleton University Dept. of Music
www.baobabtree.org         www.carleton.ca/music
(613)729-0987                      (613)520-5770

NDP Leader Jack Layton holds a press conference at First Avenue Studio in Burnaby during the 2011 federal election. April 30, 2011. (Copyright (c) 2011 Stephen Hui. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

Music Professor James Wright has composed a piece of music to commemorate Jack Layton’s final letter to Canadians.  Wright was asked by The Leading Note Foundation to write a piece for an event being held on the afternoon of September 29, 2012, honouring Layton.  At the event, the Honourable Olivia Chow will receive a posthumous Peace Award for her late husband, Jack Layton.  Wright’s composition is entitled “To Young Canadians” – a tribute to the portion of Layton’s letter where he addresses Canada’s generation of up and comers. Olivia Chow has said that she is “truly thrilled that Dr. Wright will be composing something special in honour of Jack.”   

Written for two-part Youth Choir and soprano soloist accompanied by piano and string orchestra, the piece will be performed for the first time at the event by the young soprano soloist Jenna Glatt together with instrumentalists and choristers from The Leading Note Foundation’s OrKidstra program, directed by Margaret Tobolowska and Jeannie Hunter, and members of the Cantiamo and Ottawa Childrens Choirs, directed by Jackie Hawley.

The text of the piece is adapted from the letter Layton penned just two days prior to his death on August 22, 2011.  Well aware of the outpouring of emotion that followed Layton’s death, Wright hopes to have engineered a tribute that conveys the essential optimism of his final message to Canada.

“Layton’s letter is a richly textured and profoundly inspiring text for a composer,” said Wright.  “Moods and sentiments such as serenity, courage, optimism and conviction are among those that composers can readily convey with the expressive palette of musical language.  These feelings underlie almost every word in Layton’s letter, and as soon as I rolled up my sleeves to begin to work with his text, it became apparent to me that I would simply need to identify its emotional core, and strive to give it musical expression.  I also wanted the melodies to be memorable, a pleasure to sing, and as clear and accessible for the listener as Layton’s message was for all Canadians.”

Wright’s Composition

While writing “To Young Canadians,” it was also Wright’s intention to capture and embody Jack Layton’s enthusiasm and devotion to his public role, as well as the unabashed sentiment he held for his country.

James Wright (Copyright (c) 2012 James Park)

“Layton’s Letter to Canadians expresses a profound love of country, passionate conviction concerning the major issues of the day, eternal optimism, and a belief that if Canada’s youth engage their hearts and minds, they will build a better Canada and a better world.  I wrote “To Young Canadians” as a tribute to a great Canadian, whose message it aims to spread through the universal language of music.  While Layton’s words may seem sufficient in themselves, I hope that my musical setting will add resonance to his message.  I am thrilled that young Canadians have played such a significant role in this project. Their presence will be both hugely symbolic and immediately evident at the first performance, since the piece will be sung by 120 young voices, string players from the Leading Note Foundation’s OrKidstra, and the extraordinary young soloist Jenna Glatt.”

Wright explains that contributing to a meaningful event such as this has been both a challenging and validating venture.

“It was deeply humbling – if also a bit daunting – to be asked to write a “tribute” piece of this kind.  I felt a sense of responsibility to pay musical homage to Jack Layton, without letting my music get in the way of his message.  It will mean a great deal to me if, on September 29, the young singers sing their hearts out during the performance, and will remember and reflect on Layton’s inspiring message as a result.”

For more details on the event here

Leading Note Foundation OrKidstra and KidSingers

Hone your skills with some of the finest Jazz educators in the country

Carleton University is proud to present its third annual Jazz Camp from Tuesday August 7 to Saturday, August 11, 2012.

Students will participate in a variety of activities:

• Big band ensembles
• Jazz combos
• Choir
• Small vocal ensembles
• Guitar ensembles
• Jazz theory classes
• Ear training sessions
• Improvising classes
• Jam sessions
• . . . and masterclasses.

Each evening students will be treated to free concerts put on by faculty and invited guests. Ticket packages will also be available to the general public. Concerts start at 7:30pm at the Kailash Mital Theatre.

There will be a final student concert on Friday August 11th at 7 p.m. Each ensemble from the camp will get a chance to perform for family, friends and the general public.

The Carleton University Jazz Camp offers instruction
on the following instruments:

• Trumpet
• Saxophone
• Trombone
• Flute
• Bass
• Guitar
• Drums
• Piano
• Voice

For registration and more information, please visit the CU Jazz Camp’s Official Website: http://cujazzcamp.ca/

Wright and Nesrallah

As Beethoven lay in his bed in waning health on July 6^th and 7^th, 1812, the great composer authored three passionate love letters to a woman unknown.  Discovered in Beethoven’s bedside table shortly after his death in 1827, these intimate and now infamous letters addressed to “meine unsterbliche Geliebte” – “my immortal beloved” – have been a source of speculation for the past two centuries and have simultaneously shed light on who Beethoven was as a man, and cast mystery over his personal relationships when he was at the height of his creative powers.

Two hundred years later, almost to the day, Music Professor, James Wright has become the first composer to set the words of Beethoven’s love letters to music.

Wright composed a chamber art song cycle, titled “Letters to the Immortal Beloved,” at the Banff Centre for Arts over the winter months of 2012. 

He has specifically written this work to be performed by Carleton Music Alumnus and CBC personality, mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah and the Juno Award winning Gryphon Trio.  Nesrallah and the Trio will give the work’s premiere performance at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival on Friday, July 27 at 7:00 pm, Dominion-Chalmers.   At 5:30 pm, just prior to the concert, Wright will discuss the Immortal Beloved story in a 45-minute Chamber Chat.  More details

Buy Tickets

Immortal Beloved – Wright’s Essay
Beethoven’s Letters to the Immortal Beloved (in German original and English translation)
Wright discusses Immortal Beloved on CBC’s All In A Day (July 27, 2012)

James Wright and Julie Nesrallah both took time out of their demanding schedules to discuss their shared interest in Beethoven, music, and collaborating with one another.

James Wright
Professor of Music and composer of Letters to Immortal Beloved

What inspired you to score Immortal Beloved?

I have long been fascinated by the ways in which historical composers have tried – often unsuccessfully, sadly – to balance their creative and personal lives.   In the end, their single-minded devotion to their art often won out and made domestic happiness almost unimaginable.  Beethoven and Brahms are classic examples.  Both sought relationships with women who, for a variety of reasons – including age, marital and/or social status – were essentially unattainable.  Yet their passionate devotion to the women they loved, often expressed more in correspondence than in a genuine personal or physical relationship,  inspired so many of the great musical masterpieces that they left to posterity.

The three passionate love letters that were found in a box in Beethoven’s bedside table after his death in 1827 really captured my imagination.  The letters are especially fascinating because we do not know the identity of the intended recipient, a woman Beethoven addresses as “meine unsterbliche Geliebte” (“my immortal beloved”).  You may have seen the 1990s film, with the same title, starring Gary Oldman as Beethoven, and Isabella Rossellini as one of the women he loved.

More than a dozen “Immortal Beloved” candidates have been proposed by musicologists.  Based on my own reading and research, my guess is that Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved” was the Countess Josephine von Brunswick, a beautiful young Hungarian aristocrat who the composer first met in 1799, shortly before her marriage to Count von Deym.  After the Count died in 1804, the Countess’s relationship with Beethoven increasingly intensified over the next several years.  Beethoven’s mysterious and passionate “Letters to the Immortal Beloved” were penned in the summer of 1812, exactly 200 years ago.  Sadly, it seems that the Countess’s social status and parental obligations prevented her from marrying Beethoven, a suitor deemed unsuitable by her family (her hovering and matriarchal mother, in particular).

It is even possible that this relationship produced a “love child”!  In June of 1812, exactly one month before Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved” letters were written, Josephine was left by her second husband, the Baron Christoph von Stackelberg, whom she had married in 1810. On 9 April 1813, exactly nine months after Beethoven’s letters were written, Josephine gave birth to a daughter, Minona.  It is therefore quite possible that Minona – who resembled Beethoven and who would go on to become a fine musician – was Beethoven’s illegitimate child.  Curiously, her name, spelled backward, is“Anonim, which is Hungarian for “anonymous” (or, perhaps in this case, “the child whose true name cannot be uttered publicly”).

You can see why this relationship, and Beethoven’s passionate letters of 1812, have been a real source of fascination for me.  To my knowledge, no one has ever used Beethoven’s own words as poetic texts for a vocal work, as I have in this chamber song cycle.  I am particularly excited that it is being premiered at Chamberfest during the summer of 2012, exactly 200 years after the letters were written.

What was the process in completing this project?

I wrote Briefe an die unsterbliche Geliebte (“Letters to the Immortal Beloved”) in January and February of 2012, in a Leighton Colony studio for composers in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. The name of the studio – the “Valentine” (after its architect, Frederic Valentine) – only added inspiration to the serene beauty of the natural setting in which I wrote this work.  Each day in my cottage studio I would look out the window only to find a deer, an elk, a marten or one of the Banff National Park’s beautiful birds looking back.  For a composer seeking a creative getaway, it was truly a dream setting!

When writing vocal music, I always look to the poetic text to show me the way forward in terms of compositional issues such as mood, character, form, melodic and phrase shape, musical imagery, word-painting, etc.  Beethoven’s letters provided me with passionate and richly textured poetic texts to work with.  Their musicality, rhythmic nuance, sonorous quality and evocative imagery of were a joy to work with.  I suppose that I should not have been surprised to find that Beethoven’s spoken and written language was somewhat “musical.”

The three movements of Briefe an die unsterbliche Geliebte are organized in a roughly ternary design (A-B-A’), with strongly contrasting material in the middle movement, and a recapitulation of material from the first movement appearing in the last.  My first set of decisions involved the selection of poetic excerpts from Beethoven’s three letters.  Once I had chosen my texts, I then made some important musical decisions about form and primary thematic materials.  At that point, using Beethoven’s words as my guide, I found that the first and third movements essentially “wrote themselves.”  The second movement (“Mein Engel”), which provides the most brooding and passionate moments in the cycle, was harder to complete.  In order to help me with the process, I decided to adopt a “cipher” system that would allow me to embed musical references to the four “principal characters” involved in the “Immortal Beloved” mystery.  After I created a rudimentary system for converting alphabetical letters to musical pitches, “Ludwig” became B-G#-C-A#-(G#)-F#, “Pepi” (Josephine’s endearing nickname) became D#-E-(D#)-G#, “Giulietta” (another of Beethoven’s flames) became F#-G#-(G#)-B-(G#)-(F#)-E-G-(G)-C and  “Antonie” (considered an “Immortal Beloved” candidate by some) became C-C#-G-D-(C#)-G#-E.  These musical “characters” take on a significant thematic role in the second and third movements, and they interact and intertwine in a variety of ways.

In the third movement (“Meine unsterbliche Geliebte”), toward the end, I decided to quote the lyrical opening theme of Beethoven’s “Andante Grazioso in F Major” for piano solo  (catalogued as WoO 57, and popularly known as the “Andante Favori”), a piece that Beethoven secretly dedicated to Josephine von Brunswick in the spring of 1805, shortly after the death of her husband.  The theme I quote in my last movement is therefore sometimes known as “Josephine’s Theme.”

What does it mean to you to have Julie Nesrallah and The Gryphon Trio performing Letters to the Immortal Beloved at Chamberfest?

I have dedicated this work to Julie Nesrallah and the Gryphon Trio (violinist Annalee Patipatanikoon, pianist Jamie Parker and cellist Roman Borys), because their inspiration, friendship, example and consummate musicianship were always in mind during its conception and composition.  I am absolutely thrilled that Julie and the Trio will give the premiere performance of Briefe an die unsterbliche Geliebte on 27 July 2012, at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival (“Chamberfest”).

I have known Julie for a number of years, and we have collaborated in a variety of ways over the years.  In addition to being an extraordinarily gifted and dedicated artist, Julie is quite simply a very special person.  Her energy, talent and generosity are unequalled in this community.  Julie knows how to lift a text off the score page and convey it to the audience better than any vocalist I have ever seen, and my “Letters to the Immortal Beloved” was written with her voice in mind.  Annalee, Roman and Jamie are also among the finest classical music performers Canada has produced.  They have been hugely supportive of this project from the outset, and they have been incredibly generous with their time.  To say that it has been a privilege to collaborate with Julie and the Trio is to understate my appreciation for having the opportunity to work with them on Briefe an die unsterbliche Geliebte.

What do you hope the audience takes away from your Score/the performance?

Julie and I have had some great chats about this.  In both the popular and scholarly imagination, the name of Beethoven has become almost synonymous with a post-19^th-century cultic concept of the divinely gifted creative “genius.”  But while Beethoven may have been a prodigiously gifted human being, and he lived his life with a singular dedication to his art, he wanted above all to love and be loved, just like the rest of us.  And just as we often think of Beethoven’s music as having a certain universal appeal that transcends time, place and culture, his letters also seem to express universal truths.  In their emphasis on the ineffable, unattainable, eternal and divine nature of the love expressed, Beethoven’s letters might even be seen as a 19^th-century manifestation of the courtly love-lyric tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages. Like Beethoven’s letters, the early “Minnesingers” sang of a love that was illicit yet morally elevating, passionate yet disciplined, humiliating yet exalting, human and yet transcendent.

In the end, of course, I also hope that my music, itself, will inspire the hearts and minds of the listeners at the premiere performance on July 27.

Anything you’d like to add?

My deepest thanks are due to John Osborne, my Dean, without whose encouragement and support my winter creative residency at the Banff Centre – and therefore the creation of these pieces – would not have been possible.

Julie Nesrallah
Carleton Alumnus, Host of CBC Radio 2′s flagship classical music program, Tempo. Letters to the Immortal Beloved performer

Can you describe your experience in working with Professor James Wright? 

Working with Professor James Wright is always a tremendously positive and illuminating experience. He is a superb colleague, always open and accommodating, always striving for excellence. James Wright helps you to bring out the best in yourself, as a musician and as a collaborator.

You have a noted interest in Beethoven.  Was it this interest that principally attracted you and the Gryphon Trio to perform Immortal Beloved?   

James and I are kindred spirits. We both share the same passion for Beethoven as a composer and for the person Beethoven was. Last fall, I mentioned to James that no one had ever written any music based on Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved letters. James lit up and said that he would love to write a set of songs for me using the Immortal Beloved letters as the text. Naturally, I was thrilled and totally excited!

Beethoven’s love letters are some of the most passionate, soulful and tender documents on the planet. To have a friend like Jim compose music around those letters with my voice and temperament in mind, is an extraordinary act of friendship. Further to that, when James mentioned that he was thinking of composing these pieces with the Gryphon Trio also in his musical mind, this completed the inspiration to perfection.

As Professor Wright was conceiving and composing this work, he always had you and the Gryphon Trio in mind as the performers. How do you plan to interpret, and convey the text to your audience? Can you describe your process leading up to the Chamberfest performance?

I can only hope to convey the depth of intimacy, genuine affection and honesty that Beethoven meant to impart to his Immortal Beloved. These letters – as is Beethoven’s music – are supreme examples of the soul turned outward. And that vulnerability and affection needs to be conveyed through these songs. James has written the pieces in a way that showcases all of these aspects.

Every time he finished writing a snippet, James sent it to me and asked me to sing through it. I, in turn, looked for ease of melodic line, whether the text was comfortably set with the accents on the right musical syllables (the songs are in German). As a testament to James’ consummate musicianship, there were only very few – and very minor - tweaks. James and I had a preliminary run through before the first rehearsal with the Gryphon Trio, and it was such a wonderful experience! He was thrilled, I was completely honoured. And together, we lifted James’ songs and Beethoven’s words off the page for the very first time.

 Anything you’d like to add?

When someone writes a piece of music with you in mind, it is an honour. And when someone who is a dear friend like Jim writes music for you, based on your musical hero, then you know it’s going to be a very special event. To have a world-class ensemble like the Gryphon Trio bring these letters to life is an outstanding opportunity and such a privilege.