Dear friends,

 

HCArts presents:

choreographer Robert Glumbek,
artist Vessna Perunovich
composer Christos Hatzis
DISPLACEMENT

 November 18-21 2009 at the Fleck Dance Theatre
(Part of Harbourfront Centre’s prestigious NextSteps Dance Series)
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
Featuring Dancers: Robert Glumbek, Johanna Bergfeldt, Tyler Gledhill,
Ryan Lee, Rena Narumi, Anisa Tajpar and Brendan Wyatt
and live performances of Christos Hatzis' string quartets by
the Pendercki String Quartet
Tickets: $35 / $30 Student / Senior / Next Steps Package Price
Box Office: (416) 973-4000 or online at www.HCArts.cs

 PRESS RELEASE

 

 

DISPLACEMENT premiered at the Art Gallery of Hamilton two years ago and it was a great success. The Hamilton Spectator wrote: "If you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket to Displacement, the visceral multi-disciplinary experience from HCA Dance Company and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, for goodness sake do. This multi-disciplinary production is art in the purest sense of the word. It tears a strip off the senses, it assaults comfortable notions of what dance, art and music ought to be." This time around, Displacement will feature live performances of my string quartets by the amazing Penderecki String Quartet. Recently I had the fortune of collaborating with this stellar chamber music ensemble at Toronto Summer music and they have now embraced my string quartets and have performed them since in Toronto, Ottawa and on November 15 at Chamber Music Hamilton.

 

 

On November 11 at 9:00 AM percussionist Beverley Johnston will perform my work Fertility Rites for marimba and audio playback as part of the Focus Day, PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference) at the Indiana Convention Centre; Indianapolis, Indiana. PASIC is the most important international gathering of percussionists in the world and she had presented the same work on the PASIC main stage a couple of years ago. Bev has been championing lately my most recent marimba work, In the Fire of Conflict, featuring the pre-recorded voice of Michigan-based rap artist Bugsy H. She performed the solo marimba version at the Nebojsa Zivkovic Academy in Germany where she was the guest artist last year; at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival in Wisconsin last summer and last month at the "Girls Just Want to Play Drums" festival in Montreal. My publisher, Promethean Editions, just issued a printed edition of the marimba version of In the Fire of Conflict which will be released at PASIC at the Steve Weiss store.

 

 (This is a photo of Bev in our back yard in Uxbridge, Ontario where she is experimenting with organically grown marimba mallets -:)

Speaking of releases, keep an eye out for a new CD release by Joseph Petric who has recorded again my Orbiting Garden on a new CD of electroacoustic compositions. More on this later.

Other events in November include the French premiere of my oboe concerto Telluric Dances on November 27 and 29 by oboist Gilles Loulier and the Orchestre National de Montpellier under the direction of Lawrence Foster at Le Corum, Esplanade Charles de Gaulle; Montpellier, France, and a performance by the Gryphon Trio of my Old Photographs at the 50^th Anniversary Concert of the Canadian Music Centre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (the Gryphon Trio has performed this work hundreds of times already). For these and other performances, please check www.hatzis.com

The first week of November will find me in Halifax, Nova Scotia working with bass clarinet virtuoso Jeff Reilly on Extreme Unction, a piece for bass clarinet and string orchestra. Our creative process will be documented by daily reports to Dalhausie University composition students who will be witnessing our development process in a series of composition workshops. It is all very exciting and somewhat frightening…composing in public like this.

Report on the October events

October has been a very busy month with a total of 18 reported performances of my music—the most in a single month that I can remember. Many thanks to those who attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir concert at the ROM on October 8. I was thrilled with the performances of my pieces by the orchestra, choir and amazing soloists, and with hearing The Song of Songs program curated by Alison Mackay.

The premiereand tour of Redemption: Book 1 for string quartet and chamber orchestra by the Pacifica String Quartet and CityMusic Cleveland was an amazing experience. Both ensembles, under the capable hands of maestro David Alan Miler were stellar. The Pacifica Quartet has been riding from peak to peak this year. First was the 2009 Grammy Award, then the Ensemble of the Year Award by Musical America and the most recent landmark was their appointment as quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, replacing the legendary Quarneri Quartet who held that post for 43 years. During the last day of our tour the New York Times had a whole page write-up dedicated to the Pacifica Quartet. CityMusic Cleveland, a young symphony orhcestra was just as amazing as the last time I heard them live and conductor David Alan Miller (Music Director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and former Associate Conductor of Los Angeles Philharmonic) managed to coax dynamic and powerful performances out of this magnificent pool of talent. I am very much looking forward to future collaborations with all these artists, as my Redemption cycle of works is gradually being developed with the dream of turning it into a full-day event with orchestral performances throughout the day, audio-visual installations, thematically designed meals, etc. I will keep you abreast with developments on this front as projects and opportunities materialize.

 Good bye for now and all my best wishes.

Christos