Duo Concertante receives two East Coast Music Award nominations
The School of Music is proud to announce that faculty members Nancy Dahn (violin) and Timothy Steeves (piano) have received nominations of their two recent recordings for the annual East Coast Music Awards. Together, Dr. Dahn and Dr. Steeves are the Duo Concertante. Artist and industry award nominations were announced today at the Confederation Centre of the Arts for East Coast Music Week 2011 to be held April 13-17 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Duo Concertante is pleased to have its recordings considered in two separate categories.
Nominated for Classical Recording of the Year, Duo Concertante’s fourth CD, It Takes Two (Marquis Classics/EMI Canada (www.marquisclassics.com)) is a collection of original encore arrangements which was recently described as “spectacular” by American Record Guide. Dahn and Steeves wanted to create an album of encore pieces and approached Canadian composer Clifford Crawley for help. The collaboration was mutually rewarding and inspiring. “We wanted encore pieces which featured both instruments equally,” explain Nancy and Timothy. “When we approached Clifford about arranging some materials, we suggested some of our favourite opera arias, jazz tunes, and orchestral pieces. He had great ideas and for the next year created the 14 arrangements that comprise this disc. We are indebted to his great skill, enthusiasm, and generous spirit. The title of the disc should really be ‘It Takes Three.’” It Takes Two was launched with a live performance/interview in the lobby studio of Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM and with a performance in the Canadian Opera Company’s Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre of the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto.
Duo Concertante’s newest recording, Wild Bird, has also received a nomination - in the Instrumental Recording of the Year category. This CD is the second Duo Concertante recording to feature new Canadian works written especially for the Duo. The disc includes two works by one of Canada’s greatest living composers, R. Murray Schafer, including his only violin and piano work, Duo for Violin and Piano. Also featured is 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 award-winning composer Chan Ka Nin. The disc is rounded out by the enigmatic Supernatural Love by Kati Agócs. Released on Centrediscs, the recording label of the Canadian Music Centre, the disc is available at classical music retailers and at www.musiccentre.ca.
Duo Concertante were winners of the NL Arts Council’s Artist of the Year (May 2010) in recognition of a career of international touring, critically acclaimed recordings and a major contribution to the violin/piano repertoire in the form of multiple commissions from Canada’s top composers. Known for the passion, subtlety, and brilliance of their performances, Duo Concertante have worked together since 1997, developing the exceptionally unified voice that has earned them the Touring Performers Award (Contact East) as well as Memorial University’s prestigious President’s Award for Outstanding Research.
Based at Memorial University in St. John’s, Dahn and Steeves are passionate teachers, who in 2000 founded the annual Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival to bring together young chamber music performers with world-class artists and ensembles for an intensive two weeks of learning and performance. As Artistic Directors of the Festival, they continue to present and collaborate with international artists such as the Shanghai Quartet, the Lafayette String Quartet, André Laplante, Mark Fewer, the Borromeo String Quartet, the Miro Quartet, Suzie Leblanc, and Louis Lortie.
