Sunday, July 19, 2009

Parisiennes & the Brummies to be visited by the Bay of Fundy!

One of my great joys (other than exploring the Bay of Fundy) is checking my Bay of Fundy email...no, seriously, I just never know who I'm going to hear from. Sometimes it's folks who live in other parts of our Bay, sometimes it's visitors reporting in about their Fundy holidays, and sometimes it's someone who has done something 'Fundy-themed', such as a poem, or play reading in Texas, or even a Fundy-inspired musical composition.

Such was the case a couple weeks ago when I heard from composer Bev Lewis, who has an excited Fundy-themed music project launching in Paris & Birmingham, England (hence, the Brummies)....

Hi Terri, I was born and grew up in New Brunswick, mainly around the greater Saint john area, and I studied music at Mount Allison University. I now live in Toronto and am, among other things, a music composer. I recently received a commission to compose a piece for English Horn and Piano from Western Kentucky University.

My piece will be premiered on July 22 at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Birmingham, UK, and will be performed on July 26 in Paris, France. The performers will be Michele Fiala (English horn) and Donald Speer (Piano).


The title of my piece is "Fundy Temperaments" and it is a programmatic work about the Bay of Fundy, based on my childhood experiences as well as on research I have been doing. Within the piece, there are musical effects which represent such things as rippling waves, fog horns, crashing waves, a drinking party complete with sea shanties, a sinking ship, a requiem, etc.

The piece is supposed to represent the fast-changing, unpredictable moods (weather conditions) of the Bay of Fundy.


I thought it might be of interest to some of your readers that a music conposition about the Bay of Fundy, composed by a native New Brunswicker, is going to be performed in Britain and France this coming July.

Congrats to Bev, on this, her opening week!!

1 comment:

Jamie said...

I found your blog through the magazine Faces. I put the article on the Fundy Tides up on the database I work for. Too cool that you live there! Your blog is very insightful, I look forward to reading more of your posts!