Duo Concertante launches new CD
Duo Concertante proudly introduce Wild Bird, a new CD featuring all-Canadian music. Billed as “brilliant, saucy and soulful” and hailed as “the next generation of classical music stars”, violinist Nancy Dahn & pianist Timothy Steeves launched Wild Bird with a special performance on October 2 as part of the Colours of Music Festival in Barrie, ON. Wild Bird is being released on Centrediscs, the recording label of the Canadian Music Centre; it is available at classical music retailers and at www.musiccentre.ca.
Some of Newfoundland’s foremost musical ambassadors, Dahn and Steeves have consistently revealed their passion for new music, commissioning numerous new works for violin and piano from many of Canada’s leading composers. Wild Bird is Duo Concertante’s fifth album. It includes Duo for Violin and Piano, especially written for them by R. Murray Schafer, and of course Wild Bird (also by Schafer), which gives the album its title. The piece celebrates the violin’s versatility and its ability to create highly contrasted sonorities that range from the savage and dramatic to the quietest of whispers. With Schafer’s permission, Timothy Steeves has created a new violin & piano arrangement of the work, which was originally written for violin and harp. The CD also comprises the enigmatic Supernatural Love (also written for Duo Concertante) by Kati Agócs, a young composer who has been praised for “the soulful directness” of her music. Moreover, the album features the poignant Late In a Slow Time, which explores the relationship between words and music. The poetry of Governor-General award-winning Maritime poet Carole Langille, narrated by Barbara Budd (of CBC Radio fame), is set to music by Chan Ka Nin.
Known for the passion, subtlety, and brilliance of their performances, Duo Concertante have worked together since 1997, developing the exceptionally unified voice that has repeatedly impressed audiences worldwide. Violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves— "two packages of musical dynamite" (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)—have received the Touring Performers Award (Contact East) as well as Memorial University’s prestigious President’s Award for Outstanding Research, and were named NLAC Artist of the Year in May 2010. Based at Memorial University in St. John’s, Dahn and Steeves are energetic, experienced and dedicated teachers. In 2000, they founded the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, of which they are Artistic Directors. The pair maintains a busy touring schedule, with frequent performances across North America, as well as in Europe and China.
