Greetings!
I write to you from Quebec City. Although they are quite soon, there are a few upcoming performances that I’d like to promote!
For the past eight days, I’ve been on tour with New Hermitage. It has been wildly fun to play for unfamiliar audiences, catch up with old friends, and sell tapes to fuel the Prius. Our dear harpist, Ellen Gibling, is in Ireland finishing her master’s, but Andrew, Ross, and I still feel her spiritual presence in our sounds and occasionally call each other Ellen. It’s delightful to hear people’s impressions of our music— we’ve been told that it is sound-story-telling, illustrative, mythical, desolate, but also warm. Here are details for our remaining two shows:
May 23 – Saint John, NB – Visitors w/ Wrote, doors at 8pm (FB event)
May 24 – Halifax – Art Bar + Projects w/ Soft Power, doors at 8pm (FB event)
Swiftly following this tour, Vaso String Quartet will be the young artist fellowship ensemble in residence at the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is the festival’s 40th year, and I feel honoured to be programmed alongside world class guest artists. This year’s festival is bound to be stellar and I’m really looking forward to it! Here’s a list of performances I’ll be a part of:
May 28, 5pm – Paul O’Regan Hall – Vaso presents a free concert info
May 31, 7:30pm – Sir James Dunn Theatre – Henriëtte Bosmans Quartet for Strings info
June 6, 12pm – The Peggy Corkum Music Room – Chausson’s Chanson Perpétuelle with Pascal Beaudin and Simon Docking info
June 7, 7:30pm – Sir James Dunn Theatre – Young Artist Concert info
June 9, 2pm – Sir James Dunn Theatre – Orchestral Gala info
The past several months have been dense with activity—at McGill, I performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble, McGill Symphony Orchestra, and in chamber music recitals. It was also delight to work with Sean Mativetsky and the McGill Tabla Ensemble. One evening in April, the cello students of Matt Haimovitz presented a concert of music by the Korean composer Isang Yun at Café Résonance in Montréal. It was fascinating to get inside the unique language of this composer through both my own artistic voice and those of thirteen other cellists.
Vaso String Quartet performed concerts in Toronto and Cleveland, and for me the most interesting part was unearthing a seldomly performed string quartet by Imogen Holst. Imogen was the daughter of the famed Gustav Holst, but it took a bit of searching to discover her, and even more to find scores of her work. With so many double stops, the piece could have been written as a sextet, and the parts were written in one of the more scrawling notational cursives I’ve seen, but it has a beautiful impressionist energy that I think deserves more performances.
I also had some fun studio sessions in the past couple of months— highlights include recording for jazz singer Sarah Rossy’s upcoming album, and also for the pop-folk band Reuben and the Dark. After performing a final solo recital at McGill, I have officially completed my master’s. I’m so grateful for all of the people who have helped me come this far, and also to the Nova Scotia Talent Trust for supporting my education! Later this summer I will be an emerging artist fellow in residence at the Green Lake Festival in Wisconsin and then the Garth Newel Music Centre in Virginia. I’m looking forward to a busy summer of musicking.
That’s all for this update. Thanks for reading!
Wishing you well.
India
India Gailey 