Ofdune
So very happy to launch this little video out into the world: my performance of Ofdune for solo violin, by the amazing Icelandic composer Veronique Vaka.
"Ofdune" is a late Old English word: "in a descending direction, from a higher to a lower place, degree, or condition;" its even older linguistic roots have the flavour of literally rolling "off the dune."
This piece is one of my favourite things to play, and I hope you'll like these rustling, falling, chirping, sighing snippets of wonder as much as I do.
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Special thanks to Veronique for her brilliant composition and for listening to this work in my early stages of preparation, and to Veronica Chih Ming Frank for her behind-the-scenes artistic direction and tech wrangling for the video.
Recorded at Artscape Bayside, Toronto, Canada on May 20, 2023.
Veronique Vaka OFDUNE for solo violin used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, Canadian and U.S. agent for Universal Edition Vienna.
On Bacewicz
My new EP album, “Grazyna Bacewicz: Sonata for Solo Violin (1941),” is now available on all major streaming services.
Bacewicz was a remarkable violinist and composer. Amid the incredible suffering of Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1941, she coordinated clandestine concerts of banned music. She premiered this Sonata at just such a a concert.
While this is a brilliant, moving, and impactful piece at any time, it felt especially poignant to be recording it in the opening days of Russia’s assault on Ukraine. The album’s cover photo of the destroyed Filharmonia Warszawska feels eerily similar to the images of destruction coming out of Ukraine’s great cities; against the backdrop of this grim repetition of history, Bacewicz’s fierce artistic resistance is a rallying cry and a comfort.
Now streaming at the service of your choice.
Sounds from a Shoebox
As the pandemic locked down the city of Toronto, I watched from the tiny artist’s live/work space I call home.
Unaccompanied violin has always been at the heart of my artistic practice; now it was a lifeline.
I found solace in strange and wonderful new pieces - and in old works whose edges have been smoothed by years of attention.
Sounds from a Shoebox is a coda to the lockdown; a florescence of creative cabin fever; a monument to days that might otherwise fade.
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This project was made possible by funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Many thanks to artistic consultant Veronica Frank, and to my patient title-screen cat Pomelo, who hates violin above all else.
