September 14, 2023
Excerpts from Show Room* (2023)

Rodney Sharman, composer

* world premiere performance

September 28, 2023

Barcarolle* (2023)

Nathan Friedman, composer

* world premiere performance

October 12, 2023

The Beehive* (2023)

Jacob Eaton, Teen Composer Award Recipient

* world premiere performance

November 22, 2023

Spore Wind* (2023)

Bekah Simms, composer

Dan Tapper, technical director

* world premiere performance

December 7, 2023 

Enne eau enne* (2023)

Gabo Champagne, composer

* world premiere performance

February 14, 2024

Ambiguity* (2023)

Ethan Hill, composer

* world premiere performance

February 21, 2024

Red Ensign (2015)

Jason Doell, composer

March 20, 2024

Al di là del bianco (2009)

Clara Iannotta, composer

April 17, 2024

Improvisation by chik white

May 1, 2024

mirror of four unknowns (2019)

Christina Volpini, composer

May 15, 2024

All I Need From U Is Shanti (2018)

Rohan Chander, composer

June 12, 2024

The Journey of the Horizontal People (2016)
Raven Chacon, composer

Premiered: October 16, 2020 – 8pm

On June 5th, 2020, we were to premiere SHOW ROOM an opera by composer Rodney Sharman and librettist Atom Egoyan that was 5 years in the making and now postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Join us for a conversation with Rodney and Atom alongside a world premiere piano reduction of an aria from the opera featuring mezzo soprano Andrea Ludwig and pianist Gregory Oh – and some fun!

SHOW ROOM excerpt: for Madelaine* (2020)

The Pronoun Symphony (2018)

All works composed by Rodney Sharman

*world premiere Rodney Sharman’s commission of SHOW ROOM was made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Deux Milles Foundation.

Premiered: October 28, 2020 – 8pm

If you saw our HATCH watch parties at the end of August, you already know you’re in for a treat. Some of our participants this year went above and beyond the call and recorded secondary works for your enjoyment after months of mentorship with our core ensemble members. We catch up with these extraordinary up-and-coming artists in conversation and listen to their incredible performances for the first time.

1) Roxanne Sicard, violin, performs Soliloque No. 2 (1994) by Serge Arcuri (CA)

2) Madison Freed, clarinet, performs Vocalise #1 (1989) by Murray Adaskin (CA)

3) Jackie Leung, piano, performs Improvisation: Reflecting on the poem ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou

Premiered: November 12, 2020 – 8pm

South African composer Dr. Bongani Ndodana-Breen joins in conversation about his work Imbila performed by Rhoma Spencer (storyteller) and Nikki Joshi (percussion).

Little Imbila, the rock dassie, lays in the sun all day while his friends go to fetch their tails from Mamlambo, the river spirit:

The warmth of the African sun felt so good to Imbila as he stood up to stretch and yawn. “Ah, they don’t know how fine it feels to relax in the sun, rather than march all day”, he thought…

Join the family together for this clever warning about procrastination with an introduction from Bongani Ndodana-Breen; many of whom you’ll recall as the progenitor of the groundbreaking Ensemble Noir in the early 2000s in Toronto along with current members of Continuum.

Premiered: November 26, 2020 – 8pm

Based in Truro, Nova Scotia, Amy Brandon is an incredible composer who specializes in new technologies in music. Amy first worked with Continuum at PIVOT 2019 and she has recently made a splash on the international scene featured at the famed Gaudeamus Festival in Utrecht and received a new commission from the JACK Quartet in NYC. In a co-curated concert soon-to-come, Continuum will explore wearable, augmented reality and generative composition technologies with Amy. For this episode of Press Play, we discuss this exciting programming with many examples of the very newest ideas in technology and music, and explore her new app Boundary; an interactive augmented reality sound sculpture created as part of Screen Dive for the Gaudeamus Festival 2020.

Download the app HERE and play along with us at home!

Premiered: December 11, 2020 – 8pm

Leslie Newman is not only one of the most celebrated and internationally renowned flutists in Canada, she is a musician’s musician held in the highest regard by her many colleagues. As an accomplished solo, chamber and orchestral flutist, Leslie is also a new music specialist and core member of Continuum’s ensemble. This Press Play episode features Leslie in a recital of extraordinary new solo works and foreshadows a concert soon-to-come featuring Leslie as soloist with the Continuum ensemble. In that future concert and this episode we feature world premieres by Anna Höstman and other works by Elena Firsova and Iman Habibi.

Premiered: January 14, 2021 – 7pm

NoaNoa is a groundbreaking work written in collaboration with flutist Camilla Hoitenga, with electronics under the supervision of Jean-Baptiste Barriėre and programmed by Xavier Chabot. According to flutist Leslie Newman, “despite her desire to write a piece for solo flute, and with Camilla Hoitenga already in mind, Kaija Saariaho found the single line potential of the flute a frustration. So she found a way to make it an extraordinary, polyphonic instrument by employing singing, speaking and multiphonics. The voice is used to speak fragments of Paul Gauguin’s text – sometimes whispering, sometimes screaming, sometimes uttering a stream of percussive consonants – while at the same time playing the flute. Additionally, there are 63 pedal points written into the music with precise specificity. The pedal is used to start and end resonance, as well as to trigger pre-recorded sounds. In NoaNoa, Kaija Saariaho’s preoccupation with colour and texture distills into an exotic and sensual soundscape.”

Premiered: April 1, 2021 – 7pm

As Jackie Leung (piano) wrote to composer Alvin Singleton: “To me— In My Own Skin, seems to reflect your strong experiences with piano, jazz, and European classical training and your stance on how categorization defines oneself narrowly — instead In My Own Skin, seems to me like the music that just breathes within your own skin — as a result of your experiences with music.” – As you will hear in the episode, Mr. Singleton joins us in conversation and strongly agreed with this observation. more information HERE

Premiered: April 29, 2021 – 7pm

Paul Widner has been a core member of Continuum’s ensemble since its creation in 1985, and here by his own request and introduced by composer Linda Catlin Smith, he performs Ricercar (originally written for baroque cello) on the modern cello.

“I love the sound of the Baroque cello, so I was very excited to write a piece for Elinor Frey, (commissioned by Daniel Cooper). I think of this piece as a melody in search of its harmony. The first part of the work explores a dance-like line; later the melody is lost into a place of utter spareness and stillness “almost like coming to terms with one’s innermost qualities“ and later again there is the appearance of a melodic chain of rich chords. My thanks go to Elinor Frey for suggesting the title (the word Ricercar means to search out), and for her beautiful interpretation of my music.” – Linda C. Smith

Premiered: May 6, 2021 – 7pm

Greed Machine is a short one movement piece featuring Jackie Leung (piano) and Ryan Scott (vibraphone) which explores the sustaining power and color of both instruments. The piece is based primarily upon large blocks of sustained sound with periodic interjections of running figures. The work explores the resonance of the vibraphone and piano, and as we learn directly from Mr. Singleton, is inspired by the aesthetic of the Modern Jazz Quartet featuring Milt Jackson on vibes and John Lewis on piano. Also featured in this episode is Mr. Singleton’s delightful short piano solo, written for students, Changing Faces.

Premiered: May 20, 2021 – 7pm

In this episode of PRESS PLAY, we feature Malfunctionlieder by Nicole Lizée. This truly captivating work pairs a duo of soprano Maeve Palmer and pianist Joy Lee with video. As you will see the result is an incredibly virtuosic work fully saturated in new technologies based in borrowed ideas. We welcome Toronto composer Bekah Simms to co-curate this episode of Press Play, with an introduction to Nicky’s work, and fascinating insight into the idea of borrowed material in contemporary music.

Premiered: May 27, 2021 – 7pm

In this episode of Press Play, we feature Cinque, a piano solo in five movements by American composer Alvin Singleton, performed by Jackie Leung. Although this extraordinary work premiered in 1969, this is the first time the work has been recorded. Jackie Leung and Alvin Singleton introduce this fascinating work.

Premiered: June 10, 2021 – 7pm

Composer Linda Catlin Smith joins in conversation about her work Light and Water featuring Paul Widner (cello) and Ryan Scott (vibraphone)

Light and Water (2010) was written for Andy Smith (cello) and Rick Sacks (vibraphone) as a gift for my mother’s 75th birthday. She lived at the very end of Long Island, NY, where the light and water are always changing. – Linda C. Smith

Premiered: August 19, 2021 – 7pm

In this first Press Play episode of our 37th season, we present Tom Johnson’s Narayana’s Cows in a co-presentation with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada featuring the incredible narration of Rhoma Spencer, and the percussion and piano sections of the NYOC.

In the late 1980s, British composer Tom Johnson was fascinated by a mathematical query attributed to Narayana, an Indian mathematician in the 14th century: 

“A cow produces one calf every year. Beginning in its fourth year, each calf produces one calf at the beginning of each year. How many cows and calves are there altogether after 20 years?

Premiered: September 23, 2021 – 7pm

American composer Dr. Tyshawn Sorey joins in conversation about his work In Memoriam: Muhal Richard Abrams performed by Carol Fujino (violin) and Joyce To (glockenspiel)

Muhal Richard Abrams was one of Tyshawn Sorey’s mentors and the founding president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Abrams’ legacy is at once musical, spiritual, and communal. “It is a hard connection to put into words,” says Sorey, “but there was a kinship with Muhal that I hadn’t yet experienced with anyone else. The time that I spent with him on and offstage has proven invaluable beyond measure.”

Premiered: October 14, 2021 – 7pm

A Cry from an Indian Wife was first premiered in Toronto January 2017 and is a setting of E. Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) who is of Mohawk descent. The poem was published in 1885 and was one of the first about colonial injustices written from an Indigenous perspective for a white Canadian audience. Here, Johnson complicates notions of Nationalism and Indigenous identity. Writing about the Red River and Northwest Resistance from the viewpoint of an Indigenous woman whose husband goes to fight white Canadian forces, Johnson explores the conflicted psychology of a person attempting to sympathize with the enemy.The text is based on the events of the battle of Cut Knife Creek during the Riel Rebellion. First published by Charles G.D. Roberts in the Toronto magazine, The Week, in 1885.

Premiered: November 4, 2021 – 7pm

Argentinian composer Mauro Zannoli joins for a conversation about his work Comodidad del Aturdido, performed by Anthony Thompson (clarinet).

Of the work, Mauro writes, “Comodidad del Aturdido (Stunned’s Comfort), composed in 2018 for Bass Clarinet and multichannel Live Electronics, is a reaction, a scream, and a metaphor for excess information and the overload of stimuli we are immersed in. The piece is composed around a saturation process in both the instrument and electronics. A palette of saturated sounds from the Clarinet (noisy multiphonics, voice singing and shouting into the instrument, and harmonics played frenetically) feeds the electronic device, adding another noisy layer by different distortions, granulation, and feedback processes. I composed this piece in close collaboration with Martin Moore, a fantastic clarinet player with whom I have explored the timbrical possibilities of the Bass Clarinet.”

Premiered: December 2, 2021 – 7pm

Japanese composer Keiko Harada joins Joyce To in conversation about her work The 5th Season performed by Rob MacDonald (guitar) and Matti Pulkki (accordion).

Keiko writes “The 5th Season indicates something that did not exist before, something that is out of the ordinary, and I have endeavoured to incorporate the new and unusual into the fabric of the work. However, following the catastrophic events on March 11, 2011, Japan has actually started to experience a “fifth season” that had not previously existed. It is a situation in which everyday life has itself become a condition that never existed before, and this has forced me as a composer to rethink the meaning of the previously nonexistent and the unusual in the domain of creativity. Far from offering any answers to the problems that the emergence of the fifth season poses, this piece itself can be likened to a large question mark.”

Premiered: December 16, 2021 – 7pm

Canadian composer Anna Höstman speaks with Joyce To about her new work Varied Thrush, performed by Wesley Shen (harpsichord). This broadcast of this recording is the premiere of the work.

Anna and Wesley have an extensive composer/performer relationship. Anna writes, “Varied Thrush was composed in the summer of 2021. It is a reverie on the tangles of forest undergrowth. My warmest thanks to Wesley Shen for his beautiful performances, and to Ryan Scott and Continuum Ensemble for the generous support in recording and presenting these pieces.”

Premiered: January 6, 2022 – 7pm

Pianist Gregory Oh discusses and performs The Battle of Manassas (1863) by American composer Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins.

The Battle of Manassas was Wiggins’ most popular piece, written when he was just 14 years old. It is a programmatic depiction of the Battle of Manassas which took place on July 21, 1861 during the American Civil War. Wiggins employs extended techniques on the piano, including tone clusters, predating techniques used in 20th Century composition by nearly 100 years.

Premiered: January 27, 2022 – 7pm

Press Play Host Joyce To speaks with Canadian composer Anna Höstman about Vines and Shadows, the first of three works that she wrote expressly for pianist and harpsichordist Wesley Shen. Anna writes, “When first composing for harpsichord, I was really taken by how visceral and percussive the release mechanism of the harpsichord could sound. I became interested in how letting go of pitches in an emphasized way sounded like tearing little holes in a sonority, leaving behind traces and patterns like ghosts and shadows.”

Premiered: February 10, 2022 – 7pm

Canadian composer Dorothy Chang speaks with Joyce To about her work Shelter, performed by Sanya Eng (harp). The work reflects on the slowed pace of life during 2020 and the strengthened bonds of parents with their children through the additional time spent together at home. Written for Janelle Nadeau of Turning Point Ensemble, Shelter references Eva Cassidy’s cover of “Songbird”, a song that Janelle sang to her children during the pandemic.

Premiered: April 7, 2022 – 7pm

In time for the arrival of spring, Canadian composer Anna Höstman speaks with Press Play host Joyce To about her work Small Meadows in Spring, the final of three works that we present this season written for pianist and harpsichordist Wesley Shen. The work was inspired by an 1881 Alfred Sisley painting of the same title depicting a pathway winding along a river. Anna composed this piece after returning to Victoria, BC after living in Toronto for nine years.

Premiered: April 21, 2022 – 7pm

Press Play host Joyce To speaks with Canadian composer Ian Cusson about his work The Garden of Earthly Delights. Performed by violinist Carol Fujino and pianist Gregory Oh, this work is the first in a cycle of works by Ian based on paintings of Hieronymous Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights is a reflection on the cycle of life and death in the natural world.

Premiered: May 19, 2022 – 7pm

Canadian composer Martin Arnold joins Press Play host Joyce To in a conversation about his work Contact Organum, performed by percussionist Tyler Cunningham. Martin writes, “Contact Organum is largely a piece of 2 or 3 or 4-part organum: a melody coloured harmonically and texturally by lines created around loose sets of rules (“organum”: Latin for “tool”; a tool to “organize”—also the name for the earliest European music notated that involves some kind of harmony).”

Premiered: June 2, 2022 – 7pm

In this episode co-curated and hosted by Joyce To, Australian composer Kate Moore speaks about Velvet, performed in this episode by cellist Allison Rich and pianist Jackie Leung. This piece is inspired by the depiction of cloth in Renaissance paintings. Moore writes “movement, vitality and earthiness are captured and distilled within the frame and stillness of the painting.”

Premiered: June 23, 2022 – 7pm

Australian composer Connor D’Netto speaks with host and episode co-curator Joyce To about his work Susurrus, performed by violinist Aysel Taghi-Zada. Connor discusses the origin of the work and his exploration of the versatile timbral possibilities of the violin.

Premiered: September 22, 2022 – 7pm

Mezzo soprano Marion Newman joins the Continuum ensemble for a performance of Brush Line by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith. This is a live recording from the concert Brush Line on March 25, 2022 at The Music Gallery. This episode begins with a brief interview with Linda about the work, a Continuum commission written in 2004.

Premiered: September 29, 2022 – 7pm

The Continuum Ensemble gives the premiere performance of Liquid Sunshine, a work by 21-22 Teen Composer Award Winner Britney Dawn Do. This is a live recording from the concert Brush Line on March 25, 2022 at The Music Gallery.

Premiered: October 13, 2022 – 7pm

The Continuum Ensemble kicks off it’s concert Brush Line with this performance of Commedia della Musica by Canadian composer Jimmie LeBlanc. This is a live recording from the concert Brush Line on March 25, 2022 at The Music Gallery. Attending the concert from Montreal, Jimmie opens the episode with a brief discussion about the piece.

Premiered: November 3, 2022 – 7pm

The Continuum ensemble performers cold mountains, one belt, heart-break green by American composer Carolyn Chen. This work draws inspiration from the poetry of Li Bai, as well the guqin and xiao, relatives of the harp and bass flute. This is a live recording from the concert Brush Line on March 25, 2022 at The Music Gallery.

Premiered: November 24, 2022 – 7pm

Continuum joins forces with Jumblies Theatre for this premiere performance of some people might be good by American composer Robert Fleitz. The basis of the work is a quote from Auschwitz survivor Reinhard Frank’s interview with the USC Shoah Foundation. This is a live recording from the Grounds for Goodness event on February 26, 2022 at the Small Arms Inspection Building. Robert discusses the process of composing the work with Christina Volpini, who also composed a piece for the Grounds for Goodness suite of works.

Premiered: December 8, 2022 – 7pm

The Continuum ensemble, Gather Round Singers, and Jumblies Theatre artists come together for the premiere performance of so here I am by Canadian composer Christina Volpini. The material for the piece is drawn from interviews from members of the Gather Round Singers during Zoom choir rehearsals over the pandemic. This is a live recording from the Grounds for Goodness event on February 26, 2022 at the Small Arms Inspection Building. Christina discusses the process of composing the work with Robert Fleitz, who also composed a piece for the Grounds for Goodness suite of works.

Premiered: January 26, 2023 – 7pm

The HATCH 2022 ensemble premieres Yon Chekhanvoich’s at the fissures, composed while working with HATCH composer mentors Linda Catlin Smith and Anthony Tan. This is a live recording from the HATCH ensemble’s performance at Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022 at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins Hall. The episode opens with Yon offering a brief overview of the work.

Premiered: February 16, 2023 – 7pm

The HATCH 2022 ensemble premieres Paolo Griffin‘s An Idea of Togetherness, composed over the summer of 2022 while working with HATCH composer mentors Linda Catlin Smith and Anthony Tan. This is a live recording from the HATCH ensemble’s performance at Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022 at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins Hall. The episode opens with Paolo offering a brief overview of the work.

Premiered: April 6, 2023 – 7pm

The HATCH 2022 ensemble premieres Carly Splett‘s феніксcycle (feniks cycle), composed over the summer of 2022 while working with HATCH composer mentors Linda Catlin Smith and Anthony Tan. This is a live recording from the HATCH ensemble’s performance at Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022 at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins Hall. The episode opens with Carly offering a brief overview of the work.

Premiered: April 20, 2023 – 7pm

The HATCH 2022 ensemble presents Anthony Tan‘s On the Sensations of Tone #1. This is a live recording from the HATCH ensemble’s performance at Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022 at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins Hall. Anthony acted as composer mentor for the HATCH program in 2022.

Premiered: May 11, 2023 – 7pm

We close this season of Press Play episodes with the HATCH 2022 ensemble‘s performance of Linda Catlin Smith‘s Morning Glory. This is a live recording from the HATCH ensemble’s performance at Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022 at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins Hall. Linda acted as composer mentor for the HATCH program in 2022, and she opens this episode with a brief discussion of this work.