Blackwood
Blackwood is the new duo of Peter-Anthony Togni on piano and Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet. For videos and info on Blackwood go here.
Blog
Responsio wins NS Masterworks award
RESPONSIO, by Peter-Anthony Togni wins the $25,000.00 2014 Masterwork Award.
Congratulations to Peter for this incredible acknowledgement of what is truly an extensive and beautiful masterwork combining the ancient and the new. Responsio is a contemporary response to Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame and it features:
Jeff Reilly – bass clarinet
Suzie Leblanc – soprano
Andrea Ludwig – mezzo soprano
Charles Daniels – tenor
John Potter – tenor
Responsio will be released in the fall of 2015.
For more info, and to watch and listen to Responsio go here.
Concert Calendar
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.
Some great CBC videos I produced with Tom Allen for CBC music
Over the past year I have had the chance to produce two videos with CBC Radio 2’s Tom Allen. Have a look at these two projects. The first is a look at the origins of the Star Trek theme, and its surprising origins in musical history:
The second, this one here, which is trending really well out there, shows us the history of the song of death…. yes, death has a theme song. Check it out:
We’ll be producing more of these in the months to come for CBC music. I’ll keep posting them here.
Great visit to the Sound Symposium 2014
The Sound Symposium is one of Canada’s best kept secrets. Over a week of exploratory, innovative, experimental and truly audacious music performed by musicians with reputations ranging from the extremely local to the completely international. You can brush with fame and real discovery in the same concert, I love it. Steven Naylor and I had a great experience at this year’s symposium playing as a duo. One of the nicest things anyone has said about anything I have done was said by Michelle Bush in a blog review of this set, she said: “I am a bit at a loss for words with this one. It was just beautiful, perfect and such a great contrast to the slapstick nature of the improv musical (that proceeded us). These two know how to listen, to bring about the quiet moments, the slow, the smallest sounds, to make an audience listen to and get so wrapped up in these without even thinking about it.”
You can read the complete review here.
Jeff Reilly and Steven Naylor at the 2014 St. John’s Sound Symposium
Victoriaville 2013
In May of 2013, the 21 piece Upstream Orchestra got on a bus in Halifax and headed straight to Victoriaville, Quebec to perform in the International Festival de Musique Actuel in Victoriaville, Quebec. It’s one of the most prominent international festivals devoted to improvised music. It was a pleasure, an honour, and a thrill to conduct this group. Here’s a section from Paul Cram’s piece The Magic Order.
Here’s a great review from the concert: “Another real treat was the set by Upstream Orchestra, 18 pieces from the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada – not a place one usually thinks of as a hot bed of avant-garde music. But this year was an improvising orchestra with real depth and very strong conduction by Jeff Reilly, they started off with a great run-through of Barry Guy’s Witch Gong Game* and followed it with two pieces by their musical director, Paul Cram. Big chunks of Mingus, George Russell, the ICP and much else assembled itself into a squawk-swept landscape of brilliant playing. They don’t seem to have any recordings available, but hopefully they will soon.” The Wire (UK)*
Performance at the 2014 Sound Symposium
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.
Waterloo Chamber Players concert
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.
Sanctuary’s “Concert of 100 Candles” on 12 12 12
Wednesday, Dec. 12th, 2012
Fort Massey United Church
5303 Tobin Street, Halifax (at Tobin and Queen)
8:00 pm 15/10
Tickets available at the door.
Doors open 7:00 pm
Info: 902-233-5585
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.
