Blackwood plays Miles Davis’ Blue in Green
One of my favourite pieces performed with my favourite musical partner.
One of my favourite pieces performed with my favourite musical partner.
With:
Jeff Reilly, Bass Clarinet
Suzie LeBlanc – soprano
Andrea Ludwig – mezzo soprano
Charles Daniels – tenor
John Potter – tenor
Nominated for a Juno Award in 2016 as well as the winner of the 2014 Lieutenant Governor’s Masterworks Award, RESPONSIO is Peter-Anthony Togni`s breathtakingly beautiful meditation on Guillaume de Machat’s medieval masterpiece the Messe de Nostre Dame. Featuring a bass clarinet (Jeff Reilly) that soars over the timeless sonorities of a world class vocal quartet, RESPONSIO is a deep reflection on over 1,000 years of spiritual music making.
This is a one night only event, a rare opportunity to experience this work with the original world class performers.
RESPONSIO was released internationally in September of 2015 on the Montreal based ATMA classique label. CDs will be available for purchase at the concert.
RESPONSIO will also be performed in April and May as follows:
Montreal on April 20th please go here.
Calgary on May 7th with Luminous Voices
On October 6th and 7th, 2015 Tickets can be purchased here
The long awaited release by the Halifax based trio Sanctuary is here. ESTUARY was released internationally on Friday, September 25th. The third CD from this truly unique trio of pipe organ, cello and bass clarinet reflects 17 years of refinement and development.
Ranging from the full, suspended sound of Peter-Anthony Togni’s “Nuer Prayer”, through the austere beauty of Jeff Reilly’s “Creatures of Infinite Grace” to the driving rhythms of Christoph Both’s “Sonora”, ESTUARY is a deep-listening dive into the musical minds of these three highly experienced musicians.
Recorded by Rod Sneddon, produced by Jeff Reilly and mastered by Britain’s renowned mastering engineer Simon Heyworth, ESTUARY presents a pristine sound with incredible depth and resonance.
For a free track download please go here. The trio will perform tracks from ESTUARY in 2 concerts, one in Halifax and the other in Wolfville, NS on October 6th and 7th:
Tuesday, October 6th at 7:30 pm
Fort Massey United Church
5303 Tobin St. Halifax, NS
Wednesday, October 7th at 7:30 pm
Wolfville Baptist Church
487 Main St. Wolfville, NS
Tickets are 15/10 at the door and also can be purchased on-line for a reduced rate here.
Lots of wonderful things happening in this coming year and beyond, what follows are some of the highlights. Please get in touch at jeffreilly@eastlink.ca for more info
March 2017
11 Performing with Peter Togni and Stealth Duo at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. as part of their NUMUS concert series.
June 2017
9 Performing with the young musicians of the Halifax Schools Symphony Orchestra doing a brand new concerto for bass clarinet and orchestra by the brilliant Peter-Anthony Togni. So great to be around young people falling in love with music again! More info here.
16 Performing with the 13 Strings Chamber Orchestra in their concert Illuminations. I am playing two concertos: Extreme Unction by Christos Hatzis and Illuminations by Peter-Anthony Togni. Of special note is that Extreme Unction will be recorded for release on my upcoming CD “To Dream of Silence” in the fall of 2017.
August 2017
14 Performing with Blackwood (Peter Togni and I) as part of the Music Mondays concert series at Holy Trinity church in Toronto
September 2017
15 CD release! Look for more info here as we roll out the release of my solo project To Dream of Silence
21 Performing with Blackwood (Peter Togni and I) and the great Andrew Sneddon at Fort Massey church in Halifax
30 Sanctuary is back! The Sanctuary Trio performs in Annapolis Royal at the Kings Theatre at 7:30!
October 2017
22-24 Blackwood (Peter Togni and I) head in to the studio (Trinity St Stephen’s church in Amherst) with the great Rod Sneddon to record our first duo record. Look for a release in early 2018.
December 2017
15-23 Blackwood (Peter Togni and I) tour Nova Scotia with our very special Christmas concert program. Stops in Halifax, Truro, Lunenburg and more. Keep an eye out here for more details.
Jan 2018
9 I am conducting the Upstream Orchestra in performance at the 2018 Open Waters Festival in Halifax, NS. This will feature a new 7 movement composition of mine “To Dream of Silence”.
Looking forward in 2018 to the performance and recording of Peter-Anthony Togni’s concerto for bass clarinet and orchestra with the Ottawa based 13 Strings ensemble conducted by Kevin Mallon, plus a feature performance of the Lamentations of Jeremiah with the Calgary based professional choir Luminous Voices as part of the Easter 2018 Holy Week.
I will be performing a special duo concert with pianist Steven Naylor at the 2014 Sound Symposium in St John’s, Newfoundland. It runs July 4th to the 12th and I will be performing on the 8th.
The Sound Symposium is an astonishingly diverse music festival: where you can hear everything from the harbour symphony (a series of works for ship’s horns that uses the entire St John’s harbour as its stage) to music for kitchen appliances. The spirit of the festival is open, embracing and adventurous. I’m looking forward to this!
Since 1983, Sound Symposium has gathered some of the top innovative musicians and artists from across Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and around the world. They congregate in St. John’s to soak up the environment, interact, explore, share and collaborate.
I am looking forward to performing with the Waterloo Chamber Players on March 23rd, 2013. I have had the pleasure of performing with their wonderful cellist and conductor Ben Bolt-Martin on a number of occasions and now I will be performing 2 concertos written by my dear friend Peter Togni with his group. I am really looking forward to this.
This particular pairing of pieces reflects some of the most beautiful work that Peter Togni has created for me over the past ten years. The first piece, Illuminations was written back in 2002 as the first movement of a string orchestra concerto called Mysteries of Light. It shows Peter’s ability to create profound and beautiful textures out of pure and basic musical materials. The second piece, Silentio was originally created as the third movement of the choral piece the Lamentations of Jeremiah and Peter has created a very effective movement for solo bass clarinet and string orchestra.
The concert is rounded off with a performance of Aaron Copeland’s Quiet City. Normally this work features an English Horn solo, but in this concert I will be playing that role on the bass clarinet.
Slow music for a fast time of year
Find Sanctuary at the “end of the world” 12/12/12!!!!
Join us as we delve into the positive power of this auspicious date in this special season – in an atmosphere of depth, reflection, lyricism and the celebration of intense beauty.
The Christmas season is often the busiest time of year. Preparations can often be so intense that we sometimes miss out on the chance to “step away” and find time for deep reflection. Sanctuary’s annual “Concert of 100 Candles” celebrates reflective music. Music that boldly shifts down into the heart of space, openness, and contemplation and for a little over an hour, gives you a chance to go slow in a fast time.
Please feel free to lie back, relax and let the sounds wash over you!
This year, you can expect a full selection of annual Christmas favourites, although some of them will be in a slow form that you haven’t heard before. You will also hear a collection of new works the trio has prepared especially for this Christmas season.
In a time where the musical world has become saturated with unoriginal imitations, Sanctuary’s work is more than just a breath of fresh air. In terms of both concept and execution it is almost entirely unprecedented.
A Spider’s Logic – Thursday 8 November 2012 8:00 pm
I am honoured and delighted to join the ranks of John Harle and Evan Parker and perform as a guest at Club Inegales in London on Nov. 1st, 2012.
Club Inegales is a nightclub in central London dedicated to performing contemporary, improvised music at the highest possible level. It’s the “club we’ve always wanted but never dared imagine”.
Led by artistic director Peter Weigold, who combines guest artists with a house band of some of Britain’s top musicians, it is a bold and daring exploration of new music presented in an entirely unique context. Here is a video about the club and their first guest this season, John Harle.
I’m nervous about this one – so come out if you can!!! 180 North Gower Street, near Euston Station Bar opens at 7:00, music starts at 8:00.
I am pleased to say that I am performing in a number of concerts at this year’s Scotia Festival of Music (May 27 to June 8th 2012) One of the most interesting will be Frederic Rzewski’s Attica and Coming Together, probably one of the most influential early minimalist compositions of the 1960’s. It’s with a wonderful collection of musicians and the Terrain dance company from New York. Really an incredible group of inspiring dancers. Coming Together and Attica are two works that Frederic Rzewsk wrote as a powerful response to the 1971 Attica prison riots. Performed in the round with an ensemble of us ten musicians, this is a brilliant opportunity to witness live dance and music in a pretty powerful combination. Here is an example of the piece being performed by the Artefects ensemble:
For tickets go to the Live Art Dance site.