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Still Image

February 26, 2012 | 8:00 PM
$25 Adults (includes CD) | $40 for Two Adults (includes one CD) | $10 Students

Studio T

THE SFU CONTEMPORARY ARTS FACULTY SERIES PRESENTS:

Music by Owen Underhill for String Quartet

CD Launch Concert with Bozzini Quartet

Jeremy Berkman - trombone
François Houle - clarinet

The 'Still Image' concert features four major inter-related works spanning the period 1998 – 2011. The Bozzini Quartet of Montreal, Canada's foremost interpreters of contemporary string quartet music, are joined by two of Vancouver's most versatile and brilliant musicians, clarinetist François Houle and trombonist Jeremy Berkman. The String Quartet #3: The Alynne and String Quartet #4: The Night are works of intimate expression and sharp contrast. The Trombone Quintet and clarinet quintet pieces were especially composed for Berkman and Houle, exploring not only special techniques of the instruments but also some of the rare musical qualities of each performer.

"one of the most thoughtful and effective of West Coast composers" - Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail

Owen Underhill lives in Vancouver where he is active as a composer, conductor, artistic director and faculty member in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.

As a composer, Underhill writes for diverse combinations including orchestra, voice and choir, and a wide variety of chamber music ranging from traditional ensembles to groupings of unusual instrumentation. He has a special interest in large-scale interdisciplinary collaborations, having composed a number of works for dance as well as his 1994 opera The Star Catalogues. Among his most recent compositions are String Quartet #4: The Night (2011) commissioned by the Quatuor Bozzini, Three Sitka Songs (2010) commissioned by the Vancouver Bach Choir with poetry of Robert Davis Hoffmann, Slender Gold (2011) for an ensemble comprising Chinese and western instruments and Imprint (2010), a large-scale interdisciplinary work created with choreographer Henry Daniel. His Canzone di Petra (2004), a piece for flute and harp commissioned by Heidi Krutzen and Lorna McGhee, was the winner of the 2007 Western Canadian Music Outstanding Composition Award. His orchestral work Lines of Memory won first prize in the 1994 du Maurier Canadian Composers’ Competition and his Love Songs was nominated for a Juno in 2002. His music has many different expressions and has been described as dense and interesting, colourful, lyrical in inspiration, exuberant and witty, subtle, and thoughtful.

His compositions have been performed by leading music organizations in Canada including Arraymusic, Quatuor Bozzini, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Esprit Orchestra, Vancouver Cantata Singers, musica intima, the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver Bach Choir and the Turning Point Ensemble. Recent international performances have included the premiere of two new chamber works by the CrossSound Festival in Alaska, a Boston premiere by the King’s Chapel Choir and Arcadian Winds, and a performance of his One Page Sonata in Bratislava, Slovakia. His music has been included on several recordings including his disc Celestial Machine on the Artifact Music label.

Still Image will be released on the Centrediscs label.