Elizabeth Reid McQuillan is fundraising
Help Fund Liz's First Solo Album!
I am recording my first album, and I need your help!
Story:
Seven years ago, l took a leap of faith and contacted via Facebook a composer to learn how to play a viola and electronics work of his, Favour.
Audio Recording Here:
FAVOUR
This composer is David Jaeger. Since that fateful Facebook message in August 2014, he and I started an excellent composer-performer collaboration which continues to this day.
AND NOW, this will be an album!
Introducing:
Conjuring: the Viola Music of David Jaeger
This album will showcase Jaeger's significant contribution to the Canadian viola repertoire: spanning forty-one years and illustrating a wide range of influences and a conversational, virtuosic, and lyrical style. Each piece on this album showcases a different facet of the viola as a solo instrument, juxtaposing colourful virtuosity and technical flair with vocally poignant slow sections. The thrilling combination of melodic viola and piano with the "space-age" effects of the viola and electronics pieces will have a striking auditory impact on this recording's listeners.
The recording sessions will take place next week January 26-28, 2022 at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Ontario.
David Jaeger has also agreed to act as producer on the project, providing his experienced artistic oversight and deep experience as a multiple Juno-winning producer and host of the CBC Two New Hours. His involvement as both composer and producer during this work process significantly contributes to what I hope to be a definitive recording of his viola repertoire, serving as a document for future generations.
Other collaborators include pianist Alison Bruce Cerutti, recording engineer Dennis Patterson, CBC Glenn Gould Studio, and CMC Centrediscs.
List of pieces here:
Viola and Electronics:
Favour for viola and two analog delays (1980)
Sarabande for viola and playback (1994)
Constable and the Spirit of the Clouds for viola and electronics (2021)
Unaccompanied Viola:
Six Miniatures (2020)
White Moon Legend (2015)
Viola and piano:
Tristan and Isolde Sonatina (1992)
Sonata for Viola and Piano (2018)
Solo Song no. 1 by David Jaeger, Vimeo Link here:
https://vimeo.com/534031575
I have been awarded a Canada Council grant which will cover the recording session at CBC Glenn Gould Studio, the sound engineer, and the artist fees portion of the recording process for Conjuring.
However, l need your help to bring this album to final distribution.
How can you help?
Your donations will help cover mixing, mastering, post-production costs, licensing, and artwork for this album. Your donation will also help with higher travel costs due to the pandemic.
Your gift in any amount will make this album come to life
-to bring this music to life!
I appreciate your support.
About my fiscal sponsor:
I am pleased also to announce that the Monteverdi School of Music has agreed to be the fiscal sponsor for this project.
Their mission statement is as follows:
"Our mission is to provide excellent music instruction and performance opportunities for all ages and abilities; to encourage musical growth and development; and to foster musical enjoyment and awareness in the community.
We are dedicated to building the music community of Central Vermont and to bringing family and friends together through music - for life!"
Any donation to this album will benefit them as well!
Collaborators:
Alison Bruce Cerutti
The pianist for this recording project is Allison Bruce Cerutti. We have performed over forty performances together as a viola/piano duo in Canada and the United States, including performing many contemporary music premieres. Cerutti and I collaborated on the sonatina Tristan, Isolde, and the Sonata (2018). We gave the world premiere in Toronto, and the online US premiere on Facebook Live on March 21, 2020 (over 1500 views). Cerutti's extensive experience as a sensitive and dynamic collaborative pianist makes her the ideal collaborator and essential contributor to this project.
David Jaeger
David Jaeger, C.M. is a Toronto-based music producer, composer and broadcaster, who was a
member of the CBC Radio Music department from 1973 to 2013. In 1978 he created "Two New
Hours", which was heard on the national CBC Radio Two network until spring, 2007. From 1974
to 2002 he served as the CBC Radio coordinator of the CBC/Radio-Canada National Radio
Competition for Young Composers. Since leaving CBC, he has remained active as an
independent music producer, an author on musical topics, and has been much more active as a
composer. In the early 1970s, Jaeger established a digital sound synthesis facility at the University
of Toronto, one of the first in Canada. In 1971 he founded the Canadian Electronic Ensemble,
together with David Grimes, Larry Lake and Jim Montgomery. Many of Jaeger's compositions
combine acoustic instruments with electronic music media, but he also composes for standard
instrumental forces. He has written several works for the viola. In 2002 David Jaeger was elected
President of the International Rostrum of Composers, the only non-European ever to be named
to this post. He served as President through 2008. In 2018 David Jaeger was named as a member
of the Order of Canada.
About me, Elizabeth Reid (third person):
Violist Elizabeth Reid is known to audiences and critics alike for both her spirited performances and as "a passionate, even fierce champion of contemporary music" (Times Argus). Originally a violinist, Reid began her obsession with the viola at age 10, just one week after hearing its mellow sonorities for the first time. Now a veteran solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, her performances spark that same childlike awe of viola repertoire within her listeners. Of equal focus to Reid is living an artistic legacy that champions new music: Reid's performance résumé includes the work of over 50 living composers in concerts spanning both coasts of North America, including world premieres from composers Erik Nielsen, Jorge Martin, David Jaeger, Danielle O'Halissey, Jacob Morton-Black, and Lydia Busler-Blais, among others.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Reid deeply enjoys performing as the core violist with the Burlington-based and "truly unique" (Times Argus) new music ensemble TURNmusic-including performances at the New Music Gathering Shelburne Farms, Northern Vermont University. In addition to TURNmusic, Ms. Reid performs across Vermont as a member of the viola-mezzo-piano trio ARIOSO, the Cerutti-Reid Duo, and part of the Northern Third Piano Quartet.
This fundraiser will close on April 15, 2022.
Credits:
Favour: Bennett Shapiro, audio
Video of Solo Song no. 1: Calvin Lane, video; and Tim Woos, audio
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