Finally, a concert.

After an appalling number of difficulties scheduling rehearsals, Ansae has finally put together a concert of the works we feel we can best represent.

MAY 31, 2011
8 PM
The Music Room
FREE / PWYC (donations excitedly received to help cover our costs)

1 – New Canadian Chamber Ensemble

5 – musicians, graduates of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Contemporary Music program

8 – WORLD PREMIERES by international composers

30 – the age under which all of these composers were required to be to have their submitted works considered for performance

“Fayv” – Alexandra Fol (Bulgaria/Canada)
“Tales of the Forest” – Catherine Downton (UK)
“Broken Etudes for Consort” – Tom Coult (UK)
“4 Games for 5 Players” – Otto Muller (USA)
“Nicht Zart: Hommage a Cage” – Anthony Green (USA)
“Pebble Skipping” – Richard Greene (USA)
“Ketman Cayt” – William Greenhalgh (UK)
“pppppppppppppppp [3]” – Matthew Hough (USA)

ANSAE

Ansae: (′an·sē)  (astronomy) The ends of the rings of Saturn, as seen from the earth. Opposing extension or knots of a celestial object, such as a planetary nebula or lenticular galaxy.

The new Canadian chamber group Ansae features the unusual combination of Amanda Lowry on flute (doubling piccolo), Esther Wheaton on oboe, saxophonist Sarah Gates, pianist Andrew Mellanby, and the mysterious Narim Kim playing alternative keyboards (electronic keyboard, melodica, toy piano, or combination of the above).
The quintet, made up of senior students and alumni of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Composition and Improvisation programs, are all experienced performers of new music and avid improvisers. They have worked collectively with Charity Chan, Linda Catlin Smith, Glenn Buhr, Kathryn Ladano and others; this is their fourth year performing together in various formations. Their first performance as an exclusive ensemble was in April 2010, performing pianist Andrew Mellanby’s “Resonances” on a recital of his compositions and improvisations.

Listen to Ansae:

Resonances
by Andrew Mellanby, April 2010
Ansae is made up of five musicians – senior students and alumni of Wilfrid Laurier University’s fantastic Contemporary Music program. They are:

Amanda Lowry, flute/piccolo

Amanda Lowry is entering her fourth year in the B.Mus. program at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she is majoring in Orchestral Performance and Composition/Improvisation. She has studied flute with Amy Hamilton and Doug Stewart, composition with Peter Hatch and Linda Catlin Smith, and Improvisation with Linda Smith and Glenn Buhr. Her ensemble experiences include the WLU Symphony Orchestra, the Improvisation Concert Ensemble, the Free Improvisation Renegade Ensemble, and the woodwind quartet Adamandafendolyn. She has premiered many new works, a number of which were written specifically for her or for her quartet. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, winning first place in the 2007 Ontario Provincials at the Woodwinds Diploma level, and was named runner-up in the 2009 WLUSO Concerto Competition. She is also the founder and current president of the Composers’ and Improvisers’ Association at WLU.

Narim Kim, melodica/toy piano/keyboards

A composer and improviser, Narim Kim, was born in Republic of Korea and was raised in Italy by the parents who are both singers and choral conductors. He eventually started to follow his parents’ footsteps when he went to Canada and began playing piano and learn music theory and harmony as a late teenager. Ever since, he has pursued his interest with music composition and is currently finishing his third year as music composition student in Wilfrid Laurier University located in Waterloo, Canada. After a year and a half of studying music composition, his pieces were already selected to be read by prominent musical ensembles such as Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and The Penderecki String Quartet, among others. He was the only undergraduate student to be selected to present his pieces to Philippe Leroux in Young Composer Workshop 2009 at Music Gallery in Toronto. He also has been chosen to perform or/and present his pieces in various masterclasses by Marilyn Nonken, Riccardo Piacentini, Gilbert Kalish, Peter Wiegold and George Crumb. As a composer, he has been under the tutelage of Larysa Kuzmenko, Glenn Buhr, and Linda Catlin Smith; as a pianist, he studied with Wolfram Linnebach, Anya Alexeyev, and Heather Dawn Taves. He is also devoted in various activities in church music and in researching the relationship between the film narratives and their film scores.

Sarah Gates, saxophones

Sarah has spent most of her life in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. She began playing the saxophone at the age of 12 at Courtland Senior Public school in Kitchener. She then continued on to high school education at Eastwood Collegiate Institute where she was involved in the Integrated Arts Program as a Music and Visual Arts major. She graduated in 2006 from ECI as a music major in the Integrated Arts Package and decided to continue to study music at the university level. Sarah is currently completing her Honours Bachelor of Music Degree at Wilfrid Laurier University as an Orchestral Performance and Contemporary Composition and Improvisation major. She has been a part of many types of ensembles ranging from classical orchestras and wind ensembles, to free improvisation groups, big bands and smaller jazz ensembles. Sarah plans to continue with graduate studies as a performance major, but would also like to continue to study composition, improvisation and theory during her studies.

Andrew Mellanby, piano

Andrew is a composer/improviser/pianist based out of Waterloo, Ontario. He recently completed his fourth and final year at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Hon. BMus program. He specialized in composition and improvisation at Laurier, and has studied under Linda Catlin Smith, Glenn Buhr, and Heather Taves. Andrew is influenced by a variety of musical styles, including jazz, new music, and rock; as well as a variety of artists including Radiohead, Jean Sibelius, The Beatles, and John Cage. Through his studies at WLU, Andrew has had works read by the Kitchener – Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Penderecki String Quartet, as well as many performances in the school’s New Music Concert Series. He was also instrumental in the creation of the improvisation ensemble FIRE.

Esther Wheaton, oboe

Esther Wheaton graduated with her Honours Bachelor of Music in Composition from Wilfrid Laurier University. There she studied composition with Linda Catlin Smith and Peter Hatch, oboe with Richard Dorsey, took as much theory and english as she could fit into her schedule, improvised with the Improvisation Concert Ensemble (ICE) and was among the founding members of the Free Improvisation Renegade Ensemble (FIRE). She has had works read by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Penderecki String Quartet and performed by the Schweigen Trio, the Wilfrid Laurier University Symphony Orchestra, and by many of her colleagues and friends in concerts and recitals.
Esther is primarily an acoustic composer, and draws influences from traditional, classical, and popular sources. In this vein, she composed and recorded an album in nine songs for chamber orchestra and soloists as her graduation work. She has performed new music by many composers in-concert and improvised at multiple venues in Kitchener and Waterloo.

*****

The Ansae Ensemble is pleased to announce a
CALL FOR SCORES

The new Canadian chamber group Ansae is programming a concert of compositions for their particular ensemble in the fall of 2010. These works must be scored for the quintet’s unusual combination of flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, saxophone (sop/alto/tenor/bari), piano, and alt. keyboard (electronic keyboard, melodica, toy piano, or combination of the above). Structured improvisation and extended techniques are permitted and encouraged.

The quintet, made up of senior students and alumni of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Composition and Improvisation programs, are all experienced performers of new music and avid improvisers. They have worked collectively with Charity Chan, Linda Catlin Smith, Glenn Buhr, Kathryn Ladano and others; this will be their third year performing together. Their first performance as an exclusive ensemble was in April 2010, performing pianist Andrew Mellanby’s “Resonances” on a recital of his compositions and improvisations.

Every work will be read and recorded and sent to the composers. As many new works as possible will be performed live in-concert in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Eligibility:
Applicants must be aged 30 or under on the date of submission.
The work should be no longer than 20 minutes in duration.

Please Include:
1) a legible score of the work
2) transposed parts
3) a separate document giving your name, a brief biography, contact information, and any program notes
4) a self-addressed, stamped envelope should you wish your scores to be returned

Application Deadline: September 30th, 2010

Applications are now closed. To date we have received scores from the following eligible composers:

Alexandra Fol
Catherine Downton
Sam Decter
Tom Coult
Otto Muller
William Greenhalgh
Jakub Polaczyk
Anthony Green
Richard Greene
Matthew Hough
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